Ventura County, Conejo Valley Area Movie Theaters Announcing Reopening Plans Started October 9th (Ended November 18th)

VENTURA COUNTY WAS MOVED BACK TO THE “PURPLE TIER” EFFECTIVE NOVEMBER 18TH, EFFECTIVELY ELIMINATING OPERATION OF INDOOR MOVIES

Local area theaters that are reopening soon (current Red Tier guideline is the lesser of 25% capacity or 100 people per theater screening) include AMC Thousand Oaks this Friday, 10/9 (thanks Dawn for the heads up via the CVG Instagram page), Cinepolis Westlake Village 10/12, Regency Paseo Camarillo 10/9, Century Riverpark in Oxnard 10/9 and Roxy Stadium 11 in Camarillo 10/16.

Studio Movie Grill Simi Valley is back open.

Regal theaters announced the opposite the other day...that all theaters are "suspending" operations as of 10/9. Regal theaters in the local area include Janss Marketplace, Simi Valley Civic Center, Edwards Camarillo and Edwards Calabasas. Regal indicates this is temporary. "Any rewards and credits that expire while Regal theatres are closed will be extended when we reopen."

Links to various local Ventura County area movie theater websites at THIS LINK.

CSU Channels Islands President Erika D. Beck Appointed President of CSU Northridge

The California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees has appointed Erika D. Beck, Ph.D., to serve as president of California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Beck currently serves as president of California State University Channel Islands (CSUCI).

“From the robust academic programs to inspirational athletic competition to the expansive opportunities for arts and culture, I am inspired by the impact that CSUN has in shaping the face of the San Fernando Valley and beyond,” said Beck. “While it is bittersweet to leave CSU Channel Islands where working together with faculty, staff, students and community we have made significant progress, I am thankful for this opportunity to join the talented CSUN faculty, staff and students to ensure that all Matadors rise.”

While president of CSUCI, Beck championed the campus’ vision to become a national leader in providing equitable, affordable and transformative education. CSUCI placed at the top of many recent national rankings including those issued by U.S. News & World Report, Money and Washington Monthly. The campus’ four-year graduation rate for first-year students has also reached an all-time high and last year was recognized as one of nine institutions in the nation with the prestigious Seal of Excelencia for its accomplishments in facilitating LatinX student success. Beck was appointed to the CSUCI presidency in 2016.

“In a short period of time, Dr. Beck has quickly steered CSUCI to unprecedented heights,” said CSU Trustee Debra Farar, chair of the CSUN search committee. “Her extensive knowledge of the CSU and California ensures that she will build on the successful work of outgoing CSUN President Dianne Harrison.”

Prior to her time at CSUCI, Beck served as the provost and executive vice president of Nevada State College (NSC) in Henderson, Nevada. Before her tenure as provost and executive vice president, she served as the dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, a faculty member in the psychology department, and chair of the Faculty Senate. Prior to her service at NSC, she served as a faculty fellow at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and a research associate at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Beck earned a bachelor’s in psychology and a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of California, San Diego. She is also “made in the CSU,” having earned her master’s in psychology from San Diego State University.

Beck will assume her new role at CSUN on January 11, 2021.

Following consultation with stakeholders at CSUCI and with board chair Lillian Kimbell, CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White will soon announce an interim appointment who will serve as campus president beginning early next year. The Board of Trustees anticipates launching a national search in the new year for Beck's successor at CSUCI.​

Beck has served as president of CSUCI since March 2016.

About the California State University

The California State University is the largest system of four-year higher education in the country, with 23 campuses, 53,000 faculty and staff and 486,000 students. Half of the CSU's students transfer from California community colleges. Created in 1960, the mission of the CSU is to provide high-quality, affordable education to meet the ever-changing needs of California. With its commitment to quality, opportunity, and student success, the CSU is renowned for superb teaching, innovative research and for producing job-ready graduates. Each year, the CSU awards nearly than 129,000 degrees. One in every 20 Americans holding a college degree is a graduate of the CSU and our alumni are 3.8 million strong. Connect with and learn more about the CSU in the CSU NewsCenter.

City of Thousand Oaks Launches "12 Acts of Kindness" Campaign In Memory of the Borderline 12

In memory of those taken on November 7, 2018, and in honor of those that survived, the City of Thousand Oaks has launched a campaign designed to encourage the community to perform 12 Acts of Kindness. An act of kindness can be simple and performed on behalf of those closest to you, a stranger, an organization, or for some, an act of kindness for themselves.

Examples of acts of kindness: make a donation, pay it forward, volunteer, pick up trash, call a friend, support a local business, say hello to someone, send a card, etc.

Some additional ideas and printables:

Take What You Need

This tear-away sheet can be printed, snipped along the green lines, and placed in a public space, such as a neighborhood bulletin board, light pole, or other visible place where people can have a surprise encounter with the material. There is a pre-filled version and a blank version where you can write what they’d like to share with others. PRE-FILLED VERSION (PDF) BLANK VERSION (PDF)

Act of Kindness Cards

These cards can be printed and cut to hand out with some acts of kindness as noted on the sheet. By handwriting a name, it creates a personalized, impactful way to share the message.

ACTS OF KINDNESS (FIRST RESPONDERS) ACTS OF KINDNESS (BLANK)

Art Heals

This sheet is a platform for the creation of art by all ages and abilities. People are encouraged to make art on the sheet in any way they are able, with whatever they have around. This could be painting, drawing, gluing leaves and other found objects, etc. This is a real opportunity for beautiful creativity!

ART HEALS SHEET (PDF)

The 12 Acts of Kindness Campaign runs from November 1 to November 30, 2020.

Local Conejo Valley Students Launch "The Bookworm Projekt" to Distribute Books to Kids in Need

Three local kids - Alex (16), Charlotte (15) and Max (12) - who live in the Conejo Valley, have founded The Bookworm Projekt to deliver books to K-12 children across the country who do not have access to books, particularly during the pandemic.

Alex, Charlotte and Max, students at Agoura High School and Lindero Canyon Middle School, are raising funds and soliciting book donations to help get books to these at-risk kids in need.

Learn more about this very worthy project at www.bookwormprojekt.com.

Review of California Blueprint for a Safer Economy for Moving to Lower Risk Tiers

As mentioned in a previous post, the state of California has implemented a four-tier system for counties to move towards loosening restrictions on activities. The four tiers are shown in the image below.

Source: covid19.ca.gov/safer-economy

Every county in California is assigned to a tier based on its test positivity and adjusted case rate. At a minimum, counties must remain in a tier for at least 3 weeks before moving forward. Data is reviewed weekly and tiers are updated on Tuesdays. To move forward, a county must meet the next tier’s criteria for two consecutive weeks. If a county’s metrics worsen for two consecutive weeks, it will be assigned a more restrictive tier.

Put a different way, a county will stay in each tier for 5 weeks at a minimum to move into a less restrictive tier.

As of Tuesday, September 22, 2020:

• The state overall is at 6.4 new cases per day per 100K (over a 7-day average) and a 3.6% positivity rate (percentage of positive tests over a 7-day average).

• Ventura County is at 7.4 new cases (unadjusted) per day per 100K and a 3.8% positivity rate. The positivity rate falls into the “moderate” (orange) category but the cases per day rate is in the “widespread” (purple) category.

Ventura County has a population of 856,287. Our current case rate of 7.4 new cases per 100K over a 7-day average equates to about 63 new cases on average per day, or over 440 cases in a week.

To get to “normal” again, there needs to be less than 1 new case per day per 100,000 people. That means we must average, on a rolling 7-day average, less than 8.5 new cases per day, or 60 new cases per week, for at least 5 weeks.

Looking at the historical statistics going back to the beginning of the pandemic, that puts us back at levels of new cases seen back in April 2020.

Updates on where Ventura County stands is at www.venturacountyrecovers.org in detail and at covid19.ca.gov/safer-economy at a summary level.

2020 Halloween Guidance Issued by Ventura County Public Health

UPDATE 9/16: There's been an update to VC Public Health's "Interim Halloween Guidance" available at vcrecovers.com in the News and Updates section. Door to door trick or treating and "trunk or treating" are now "not recommended" rather than "not permitted."

Details at vcportal.ventura.org/CEO/VCNC/2020-09-16_VCPH_InterimHalloweenGuidance.pdf

Ventura County Public Health has issued Halloween Guidance to reduce the spread of COVID-19 that includes the following:

Not Permitted Under Current Health Orders:

1. Halloween gatherings or events with non-household members, both indoors and outdoors.

2. Carnivals, festivals, live entertainment and haunted house attractions.

3. Door to door trick or treating.*

4. "Trunk or treating"*

* Due to difficulty in maintaining social distancing, riskiness of sharing food/candy, etc.

Permitted and Recommended:

1. Online parties/contests

2. Pumpkin picking at pumpkin patches

3. Car parades

4. Halloween movie nights at drive-in theaters

5. Halloween themed meals at outdoor eateries

6. Dressing up homes/yards with Halloween decor

More details at THIS LINK.

Labor Day Weekend Cooling Centers in Ventura County

With the brutal heat anticipated for this weekend, a number of cities in Ventura County will be opening cooling centers for residents. Here’s a summary:

Thousand Oaks

Conejo Community Center, 1175 Hendrix Avenue - Saturday, Sept 5 to Monday, Sept 7 from 10am to 5pm

Simi Valley

Simi Valley Senior Center, 3900 Avenida Simi - Sept 4 to Sept 8 from 9am to 7pm

Camarillo

Camarillo Police Department Community Room, 3701 East Las Posas Road - Sept 5-6 10am to 6pm

Moorpark

Moorpark Community Center, 799 Moorpark Avenue - Sept 5-6 11am to 7pm

Ventura

River Community Church, 859 E. Santa Clara Street - Sept 5-7 9am to 5pm

Oxnard

Wilson Senior Center, 350 North C Street - Sept 5-6 10am to 5pm

South Oxnard Center, 200 E. Bard Road - Sept 5-6 10am to 5pm

Ojai

Boyd Center, 510 Park Road - Sept 5-7 11am to 5pm

Social distancing and masks will be required. If you have a fever, do not go.

State of California Unveils "Blueprint for a Safer Economy" Plan for Reopening with COVID-19

Blueprint recognizes that COVID-19 will be with us for a long time and that we all need to adapt and live differently to get through this

New plan imposes risk-based restrictions on sectors across state; expands time between changes

On Friday, August 28, Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, a statewide, stringent and slow plan for living with COVID-19 for the long haul. The plan imposes risk-based criteria on tightening and loosening COVID-19 allowable activities and expands the length of time between changes to assess how any movement affects the trajectory of the disease.

This new framework makes a number of changes to the state’s previous resilience roadmap.

Californians can go to covid19.ca.gov to find out where their county falls and what activities are allowable in each county.

The Blueprint builds on lessons learned from the first six months of the disease – and the new scientific understanding that has been collected – to create a new system for regulating movement and COVID-19 transmissions. It includes:

• At least 21 days to expand activities beyond the initial tier to liimit the spread of the virus;

• Mandatory metrics – case rates and test positivity – to measure how widespread COVID-19 is in each county and guide what is allowed;

• A uniform state framework, with four categories instead of 58 different sets of rules;

• A more nuanced way of allowing activity: Instead of open vs. closed, sectors can be partially opened and progressively add to their operations as disease transmission decreases; and

• A new process for tightening back up again quickly when conditions worsen.

Based on recent data, each county will fall into one of four colored tiers – Purple (Widespread), Red (Substantial), Orange (Moderate) and Yellow (Minimal) – based on how prevalent COVID-19 is in each county and the extent of community spread. That color will indicate how sectors can operate.

For example, in the Purple tier where the disease is widespread, restaurants can only operate outdoors. But once a county has achieved a lower level of disease transmission and moved into the Red (Substantial) tier, restaurants can operate with 25 percent capacity indoors or 100 patrons, whichever is fewer.

It relies on two leading health metrics: number of cases per 100,000 residents and percentage of COVID-19 tests that come back positive. In addition, counties will also be required to show they are targeting resources and making the greatest efforts to prevent and fight COVID in communities and with individuals with the highest risk, and demonstrate improvements in outcomes.

Counties must remain in every tier but purple for a minimum of 21 days before being eligible to move into the next tier. Each Tuesday, California will update each county’s data for the previous week and make corresponding changes to tiers. In order to move into a less restrictive tier, a county must meet that tier’s criteria for two straight weeks.

Conversely, counties that fail to meet the metrics for their current tier for two consecutive weeks must move to the next most restrictive tier. The plan also includes an “emergency brake” where the state can intervene more immediately for concerning factors like hospitalizations.

Purple (Widespread) is substituted for the previous County Data Monitoring List (which has equivalent criteria to Purple). Schools in the (Purple) Widespread tier aren’t permitted to reopen for in-person instruction, unless they receive a waiver from their local health department for TK-6 grades. Schools can reopen for in-person instruction once their county has been in the Red (Substantial) tier for at least two weeks.

The plan also emphasizes that no matter what restrictions the state puts in place, COVID-19 will get the upper hand if Californians don’t adapt their behaviors for the duration of the pandemic.

That means, until an effective vaccine is distributed, Californians must wear a mask every time they’re with people outside their household. Residents must take activities outside and maintain distance even with loved ones who do not live with them. Californians must realize that the safest place to be is still at home. And the elderly and those with medical conditions should still stay away from others as much as possible.

The Governor today also announced new PSAs highlighting the dangers of social gatherings during the pandemic and partnerships with Yelp, Facebook, Google and OpenTable, which will now encourage businesses to share COVID-19 safety precautions through new features so that customers can make informed decisions to protect their health and safety.

Conejo Valley Guide Facebook Followers Chime In On Favorite Items at Urbane Cafe

Today, the Conejo Valley Guide Facebook Page hosted its 36th day in a row of daily gift card drawings at local eateries. We’ve been raising funds from local residents and businesses and using these funds to purchase gift cards and gift certificates. In turn, we’ve been giving free publicity in the form of a drawing each day, rewarding one lucky participant the gift card. It’s been a lot of fun and we plan to continue these drawings as long as we continue to receive donations.

Donations can be made via credit card at bit.ly/CVGFund or via PayPal at paypal.me/ConejoValleyGuide.

(We’ve covered quite a number of eateries so far, including Country Harvest, Grabbagreen, Little Calf Creamery, Prawn and Basil, Parma Pizza, P&L Burger, El Sancho Loco, Hatch Cafe, Coaches Ice Cream, Tifa Chocolate & Gelato, Made in Italy, Pedals & Pints, Toppers Pizza, The Latigo Kid, Vegan Thyme, Thousand Oaks Fish & Chips, Five 07 Coffee Bar, Mouthful Eatery, Los Agaves, Side Street Cafe, Twisted Oak Tavern, Joi Cafe, Cafe Sapientia, Jack’s Donuts, Tabu Shabu, Holdren’s Steak House, Chocolatine, Q Sushi, Newberry Candy, Snapper Jacks, Novo Cafe, D’Amore’s Pizza, Pacific Fresh Grill, Bandits BBQ, Carrara Pastries, Historia Bakery, Boney Mountain Pizza Co., Los Dos Amigos and Urbane Cafe.)

Tom Holt opened the first Urbane Cafe in 2003 in Ventura and this popular fast casual eatery has since grown to 19 locations. Urbane Cafe Thousand Oaks opened in April 2015. There are also local locations in Agoura Hills, Camarillo, Simi Valley and Oxnard. Their menu includes freshly made, sandwiches, salads, bowls and soups. Their freshly-baked focaccia bread is a standout! Learn more at urbanecafe.com.

Here the Urbane Cafe menu items that received the most attention from CVG fans:

• Cranberry Brie Sandwich received quite a bit of love!

• Lots of support for the Farmers Market Salad

• Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwich sounded good to many

• Meat lovers would like to sink their teeth into the Chimchurri Steak Sandwich

• Pesto and Sundried Tomato sandwich is loved by many

• The Santa Maria BBQ Sandwich has a lot of supporters

• The So Cal Sandwich is quite popular

• The Californian Sandwich - very popular with our vegetarian friends

• Other items receiving mentions include Cilantro Chicken Salad, Cilantro Torta, UC Banh Mi, Turkey Club Sandwich, the Ahi Salad (a favorite of mine, along with the Cranberry Brie), Bella Portobello Sandwich, Protein Salad, Fiesta Bowl and others.

Jessica remarked “GET THE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES! Your life will never be the same.” Others echoed her sentiment. Keep that in mind as you perhaps go on a run to pre-burn some calories!