I’ve said before that Santa Barbara is a city of synchronicity, and I’ll say it again.
The other day I walked into the middle of a conversation at the UPS store on upper State. On my left, it turns out, was Gregory Hyman, owner of Cornerstone Landscapes. On my right, Michael Vilkin, whose house was destroyed in the 2009 Jesusita Fire. The subject: How to stabilize steep land after a fire. I was standing right between them as the topic volleyed back and forth. I’m not always the quickest to pick up clues from the cosmos, but this one was hard to ignore. “Hey!” it said. “Wake up! This is a column!”
Vilkin and husband Steven Wright live on Holly Road, off Tunnel, in a house they had finished rebuilding in 2008. They were out of town on May 5, 2009, when calls about the fire began coming in from friends and employees. The parents of both Vilkin and Wright had died recently and lots of treasures were inside to be salvaged. Also, Vilkin, a former contractor, is a fine-art painter who exhibits at Gallery Los Olivos. So, more treasures. The theme of the calls: Do you want us to break into your house? “I said yes to everyone, but the police had already closed Tunnel Road,” Vilkin said.