SanLuisNewspaper.com is a brand new concept for the Central Coast.  Right now there are only a few writers expressing their editorial views, and a small group trying to gather as much local information that they can to help those who are new to our community get a sense of what our local lifestyle is like.

The Domain SanLuisNewspaper.com was Created on: 31-May-09.  In three short months we have climbed to the number two position when visitors or potential home buyers do a yahoo search for a SAN LUIS newspaper.  That is number TWO out of  almost ten million listings. (1 – 10 of 9,920,000 for SAN LUIS newspaper ) …

We are the third domain listed under the same google search and in the sixth listing….  (Results 1 – 100 of about 2,070,000)  that is out of over two million listings

Now, Lauren Rabaino recently did a decent appraisal of our weaknesses. The main reason that the search engine information information is mentioned above is because Lauren overlooked it. Two Years from now the search engine will be more important than anything.

Hopefully before those two years are up we can convince talented local writers like Lauren Rabaino to contribute an article or two here. We are still working out some of the programming bugs that will allow “good” people to contribute without allowing BAD people access to the inner workings of the website. Website security is no small matter.

I was born in San Luis Obispo and raised reading the TT. I grew up in Cambria, and knew and respected “Scoop” Morgan. His wife was my fifth grade teacher and a wonderful person. Scoop knew everyone. In fact, Scoop knew everything about everything that went on in Cambria. I am quite sure that there were things that he could have printed and didn’t. He was a decent man and this was loooong before the days of “Jerry Springer” Style Journalism.

The reason that I mention Scoop is because we are a long way from the days of personal journalism.  While the AP and UPI provided news feeds during the earlier days of the newspaper business we now have an unlimited source of information to place upon the front page.  What we have very FEW of are local reporters.

Our goal here is to change the way in which a newspaper exists.  We want to create a community newspaper where the community itself creates and reports upon the news.

Coaches from local schools can simply email scores and game results.

Gardeners can share their gardening tips.

AND- iPhone users can snap shots of the news as it is happening and upload their photos directly to the front page.

We recently featured some of the first shots of the La Brea fire using exactly this concept.

But I have strayed from our main point which was to simply say thanks to Lauren Rabaino for noticing us.  I am sure that she has a bright journalistic (i dont care if its a word or not) future ahead of her.  We also invite her to stop by anytime and help us with our spelling if she feels so inclined.

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db west

Dan DeVaul of San Luis Obispo and Cars of Cadillac Ranch

Why didn’t Mr. DeVaul do the same with his cars? For one, it would have brought up even more zoning violations and problems (pure speculation here, of course).

Is Dan DeVaul alone in having junk cars on his ranch? Absolutely not. In fact having a rusty old truck or a non operating “city car” on a ranch is almost a given through out the entire country.

The Flickr.com website has thousands of photographs of rusty cars and trucks on farms and ranches all across America.

Dan DeVaul is not alone

photo by Sean McGrath

A New Jersey Farm Car

Photo by JoiseyShowaa

Why? Again, as speculation on our American culture, the farmers and ranchers that managed to survive and hold onto their land thru the Great Depression all had one thing in common, they wasted nothing. Instead of hauling cars off to a junkyard and then going to a junkyard and buying parts the cars were simply parked and eventually stripped for parts.   This thrifty attitude was passed down for generations.  If Dan DeVaul is guilty of anything he is guilty of being part of a dying breed of American culture that helped to make this country great.

This same thrifty lifestyle was one of sharing and helping your neighbor.  During the Great Depression one of the things that farmland still provided was food.  Barns often provided shelter for the homeless who would lend a helping hand just to get a meal.  In our modern society we are faced with a multitude of regulations that will not allow you to be charitable and let someone sleep in your barn even if they are willing to work or even if  you are just offering them shelter to get out of the rain.

Sacramento, the capitol of this great state, has had its fair share of homeless in recent years.  Minusman captured this photo in the capitol of the great state of California. 

California Tent City

These are people that have lost their homes as the job market shrinks. Lodi photographer Dan Evans visited this tent city and did a compassionate photo essay and article.

The point is that we may not be very far away from another Great Depression. If this is in fact the case then instead of trying to shut down Sunny Acres we should ALL be trying to help it survive. It isn’t just a roof over the heads of the homeless that Dan DeVaul is trying to provide. He is trying to help some people get a second chance at life. Ironically Dan DeVaul talks describes himself as a common man that attended college for a year and then went on in life as a working man. He describes some of his problems that he has over come here. It is ironic that Mr. DuVaul doesn’t have a Phd in the social sciences because the concept of rehabilitation thru agriculture is one that is at the leading edge in both Russia and Japan. Sunny Acres has interactive programs that are simple yet parallel to the sophisticated programs that are being developed around the World to help people recover from their problems by getting back in touch with nature and having a sense of self-worth and pride.

The founders of this county also shared the concept of “Hard work will eventually pay off”. It was pioneers that built this country and Dan DeVaul is a pioneer in his own way as well. While some of us may give our change to the downtown homeless (so that they can buy a beer or two) how many of us have shared our home, or garage, or yard with the homeless when it was raining? Dan DeVaul has. He has also started an agriculture related rehab program that rebuilds self esteem. He has done the best that he could on the limited funds that he has available to make a difference in the lives of people that truly need a helping hand.

The economy in this country is in turmoil. We spend billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out high level executives’ jobs while we leave the common man sleeping under a bridges. If you are an executive have no fear but if you are just an ordinary person try not to be too critical of Mr. DeVauls efforts as you might find yourself knocking on his door looking for shelter sooner than you think.