After the circus, Santa Maria OK

Someone famous once said that everyone is entitled to his or her 15 minutes of fame. We wonder if he included Central Coast, middle-sized farming communities on his list of "everyone"?

The Michael Jackson trial is finally over. It started the last day of January and ran just short of half a year. In between there was high drama, low comedy and probably more lurid, graphic, uncomfortable testimony about sex than a family-oriented city like Santa Maria needed.

Actually, the circus wasn't as big - or as bad - as many people predicted it would be. Sure, a few thousand journalists and their tons of equipment showed up at the start, along with a middling throng of fans and critics of the aging pop star, but the show thinned out after a few weeks. Much of the media remained, hoping perhaps for just one more juicy tid-bit to titillate viewers and readers, but for the most part the action was confined to a few square blocks around the courthouse in downtown Santa Maria.

And if folks living in that neighborhood were thrilled with the prospect of being at ground zero when the trial started, most of them soon changed their minds. Fans showing up before dawn and shouting "Michael's innocent!" in your front yard would wipe the smile off just about any Santa Marian's face.

But there was some good coming the city's way from this legal extravaganza.

Some local businesses did quite well, especially hotels and restaurants that normally struggle to turn a profit in the non-tourist winter months, when occupancy rates are usually as low as the night-time temperatures. A coffee shop with wireless Internet connectivity near the courthouse set all kinds of sales records.

City officials, who were worried that maintaining a net of protection around the courthouse would cost taxpayers a bundle, were pleasantly surprised to find out that the media was eager to rent city property for the duration of the trial, thus defraying some of the public expense. And crowd control did not prove to be nearly the problem that was first anticipated.

But perhaps best of all was the way Santa Maria and its citizens conducted themselves during the trial. Trial watchers worldwide got a daily glimpse of the peace and beauty that is Santa Maria. And once you ventured beyond the few blocks radiating out from the courthouse, you probably wouldn't have guessed that the celebrity trial of the moment was taking place nearby.

All things considered, the Michael Jackson trial happened and Santa Maria easily retained its All-American City status. But it is nice to get back to normal, isn't it?

June 14, 2005