YOUR COMMUNITY IN YOUR HANDS
Volume 9
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Issue 16
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January 26 - February 8, 2017
SLOCityNews.com
See Inside and Online
Activism Comes Home Page 4
Halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo drew one of the largest local crowds on record for the SLO Women’s March on January 21. See story below and on page 8 for more information. Photo by Kristin Steer.
Turn Out Double Expected For SLO March
100 and Going Strong
S
nitial estimates for the Women’s March around Downtown San Luis Obispo on Jan. 21 were for 5,000 participants, and organizers, City staff and law enforcement agencies from all over the County made plans accordingly. As the date of President Donald J. Trump’s inauguration approached, interest in the Women’s March on Washington, and the more than 600-partner events worldwide, grew. The list of would be marchers in SLO climbed from 7,000 people, the number used in official City estimates, to 8,000 signed up the morning of, and many more taking part without registration. The SLO Women’s March was roughly equivalent too, if not 1,000 people larger than, the nearest similar event in Santa Barbara. For reference the 2013 census populations of those cities are 46,337 and 90, 412 respectively. Although local organizers repeatedly told local media in the lead up that the Saturday march was nonpartisan, and not a direct protest against President Trump, meaning that marchers were free to pick topics to rally around, many held signs that simply read, “Impeach Trump Now.” Other signs read: “Tacos Not Trump,” “Not My Rascist Grandpa,” “A Woman’s Place is in the House, Senate and Oval Office,” and several pictured the late actress Carrie Fisher with the caption, “A Woman’s Place is in the Rebellion / Resistance.”
See SLO March, page 8
See Birthday, page 32
I
Page 11
By Camas Frank an Luis Obispo resident Carol Judd celebrated her 100th birthday Dec. 25, 2016. Around 120 friends and family gathered a few days earlier for her Birthday Bash at the Madonna Inn. Judd is painfully aware of just how long that sounds to other people. That’s why when she turned 99, last year, she flipped the numbers and became 69 again. “I don’t know is everyone so hung up on 100,” she said recently to a young reporter stopping in for a visit. Of course by that time she’d been talking with folks about the topic off and on for about a month. Living in the same wellkept suburban home she’s had for nearly 60 years, she makes a point of offering some homemade dried persimmons to her guest. It was a favorite snack for her late husband, William “Boyd” Judd. It was Boyd’s acceptance to a position in Cal Poly’s Math Department in the 1950s that brought the family to SLO, and anchored them in the community ever since. While neighbors, and until recently, SLO Transit drivers, recognize Judd on her strolls through the neighborhood, her influence is spread across the City as a volunteer at French Hospital Medical Center, a legacy of involvement with the Cal Poly Women’s Club, where she used to write their newsletter, and as a musician with the San Luis Obispo United Methodist Church choir. Recently she learned the autoharp, although she also used to play the bells until a storage fire claimed some of the Church’s instruments.
Story and Photos By Camas Frank
History Liner
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