Bill's Bus is a privately owned commercial bus service that runs from Isla Vista, California to Goleta and Santa Barbara bars, picking up and dropping off college students. As an effort to prevent drunk driving, rides have sometimes been sponsored by local bars and UC Santa Barbara's Associated Students. [1] [2] It is popular among students, with multiple buses running on Thursdays and other busy nights. [3]
William J. Singer founded Bill's Bus in 1991, when he was 19 years old. [4] In 2002 the service was briefly suspended, and in a related news article, Singer said "There’s no money in it...I’m trying to do something that will make a difference." [5] The business faced financial trouble in 2003, [4] and in 2004 Singer sold it to Craig Jenkins, [6] owner of the Velvet Jones bar in downtown Santa Barbara. [7]
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the service stopped operating in March 2020. [8] Faced with an increase to their insurance premiums, the company organized a GoFundMe to stay in operation. [8]
Singer started a separate, short-lived service in San Diego called Bill's Bus, which went between Pacific Beach and downtown. [9] That service is no longer in operation as of 2009.
Goleta is a city in southern Santa Barbara County, California, United States. It was incorporated as a city in 2002, after a long period as the largest unincorporated populated area in the county. As of the 2000 census, the census-designated place had a total population of 55,204; however, a significant portion of the census territory of 2000 did not incorporate into the new city. The population of Goleta was 29,888 at the 2010 census. It is known for being near the University of California, Santa Barbara, campus.
Isla Vista is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Barbara County, California in the United States. As of 2018, the community had a population of 27,690. The majority of residents are college students at nearby University of California, Santa Barbara or at Santa Barbara City College. The beachside community of Isla Vista lies on a flat plateau about 30 feet (9 m) in elevation, separated from the beach by a bluff.
Santa Barbara is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Santa Barbara's climate is often described as Mediterranean, and the city has been promoted as the "American Riviera". The official 2020 population was 88,665.
The University of California, Santa Barbara is a public land-grant research university in Isla Vista, California. It is part of the University of California system. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers' college, UCSB joined the University of California system in 1944, and is the third-oldest undergraduate campus in the system, after UC Berkeley and UCLA.
The College of Creative Studies is the smallest of the three undergraduate colleges at the University of California, Santa Barbara, unique within the University of California system in terms of structure and philosophy. Its small size, student privileges, and grading system are designed to encourage self-motivated students with strong interests in a field to accomplish original work as undergraduates. A former student has called it a “graduate school for undergraduates”. The college has roughly 350 students in eight majors and approximately 60 professors and lecturers. There is an additional application process to the standard UCSB admission for prospective CCS students, and CCS accepts applications for admissions throughout the year.
The Daily Nexus is a campus newspaper at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
The Goleta Slough is an area of estuary, tidal creeks, tidal marsh, and wetlands near Goleta, California, United States. It primarily consists of the filled and unfilled remnants of the historic inner Goleta Bay about 8 miles (13 km) west of Santa Barbara. The slough empties into the Pacific Ocean through an intermittently closed mouth at Goleta Beach County Park just east of the UCSB campus and Isla Vista. The slough drains the Goleta Valley and watershed, and receives the water of all of the major creeks in the Goleta area including the southern face of the Santa Ynez Mountains.
Storke Tower is a landmark campanile located on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara in the United States. Dedicated for use on September 28, 1969, the 61-bell carillon tower stands 175 ft (53 m) tall. It was designed by the San Francisco architecture firm Clark and Morgan.
Goleta Beach is a region of coastline located near Goleta, California, just east of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) campus. A portion of the shore of Goleta Bay is managed by the County of Santa Barbara, as the Goleta Beach County Park (GBCP). The beach itself is partly man-made as sand was spread onto an existing sandspit in 1945. The beach is a seasonal habitat for migrating shorebirds, including the snowy plover, an endangered species, and is occasionally closed due to nourishment efforts.
Thor Nis Christiansen was a Danish-American serial killer from Solvang, California. He committed his first three murders in late 1976 and early 1977, killing young women of similar appearance from nearby Isla Vista. His crimes motivated large demonstrations opposed to violence against women, and in favor of better transportation for the young people residing in Isla Vista. In 1979, he killed a young woman from Los Angeles. A fifth intended victim escaped with a bullet in her head, and later identified him in a Los Angeles bar.
The Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District (MTD) is a public transit agency providing bus service in the southern portion of Santa Barbara County, California. It serves the cities of Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, and Goleta as well as the unincorporated areas of Montecito, Summerland, and Isla Vista.
Extravaganza is an annual campus music festival held at the University of California, Santa Barbara that began in 1979 and has been held every year since 1989. Named as the #1 event on the "Top 10 University Festivals to Crash" by College Magazine in 2013, it takes place towards the end of spring quarter and is funded by a student lock-in fee. The event is planned, promoted, and run by the Associated Students Program Board, part of the Associated Students of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Ken Ota and Miye Ota are a married couple known for teaching martial arts, ballroom dancing, and social graces at their "cultural school" located in Goleta, California.
The Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) is a research center under the Office of Research at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) whose mission is to preserve regional biodiversity and restore ecosystems on campus lands. CCBER has three main functions: curation and preservation of natural history collections, native coastal ecosystem and habitat restoration on campus lands, and education and outreach for both UCSB students and local community schools.
Deltopia, originally known as Floatopia, is a social event started in 2004 which takes place annually in Isla Vista, California. Deltopia was originated by University of California, Santa Barbara students and occurs at the start of UCSB's spring quarter around Del Playa Drive. Participants consist primarily of college students. In early years, attendance was estimated at a few hundred participants with later years seeing an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 attendees.
Isla Vista Arts is an organization at the University of California, Santa Barbara with the goal of promoting art and culture in the small, neighboring community of Isla Vista, California. It is affiliated with the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center and Associated Students. Isla Vista Arts provides free and low-cost entertainment to college students and community members.
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) traces its roots back to the 19th century, when it emerged from the Santa Barbara School District, which was formed in 1866 and celebrated its 145th anniversary in 2011. UCSB's earliest predecessor was the Anna S. C. Blake Manual Training School, named after Anna S. C. Blake, a sloyd-school which was established in 1891. From there, the school underwent several transformations, most notably its takeover by the University of California system in 1944.
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) campus is located around 10 miles west of downtown Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara County, California.
Ryland King is the founder and executive director of Sprout Up, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with the mission to bring supplementary youth-to-youth environmental education programs to the public school system completely free of charge, building more sustainable communities from the youngest members of society up.
Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust is a Christian American anti-abortion group based in California, founded by Jeff White. The group is best known for displaying graphic images of aborted fetuses in public locations. Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust has attracted nationwide and international attention, regarding the use of graphic abortion imagery, and the debate over the protection of the use of such imagery, by freedom of speech.
