••• “The Santa Barbara City Council voted 7-0 Tuesday to halt vehicular traffic on the 500 and 1200 blocks of State Street [i.e., between Haley and Cota, and Victoria and Anapamu]. The closure will allow restaurants on those blocks to place tables and chairs on the sidewalk in front of their businesses. […] The city staff will consider in the next few days expanding the closures to other streets, in consultation with restaurant owners block-by-block. The State Street closures are designed to be temporary. […] The council [also] agreed to let restaurants place tables on the sidewalks, in their back parking lots and on curbside parking spots, known as ‘parklets.’ The changes would apply to all restaurants citywide.” —Noozhawk UPDATE 5/22: Now Noozhawk says that more than two blocks of State Street will be affected: “The city plans to open a State Street promenade, closed to cars, from Sola to Haley streets beginning at 4 p.m. Friday.”
••• Former Santa Barbara mayor Sheila Lodge “has combined her personal experience and involvement in the city’s never-ending, alway-passionate community conversation and controversy about architectural and development issues with original archival research to complete An Uncommonplace American Town: Urban Planning History in Santa Barbara – A Personal View. The 50-page monograph, illustrated with historic and contemporary photos and maps, with original source footnotes, is to be published next month in Noticias, the journal of the Santa Barbara Historical Museum.” —Newsmakers
••• “A roundabout, traffic signal or four-way stop at Highway 154 and Roblar Avenue along with unique pedestrian crossings in one city could be coming to the Santa Ynez Valley as a result of a study looking at traffic safety improvements.” —Noozhawk
••• “Santa Barbara’s most famous penguin has died. Lucky, who was born in 2010 and known for his custom footwear, was humanely euthanized according to zoo officials. Born with a degenerative foot condition, Lucky became one of the zoo’s most well-known residents thanks to a special shoe developed by Teva, one of the Deckers shoe brands headquartered in Goleta.” —KEYT
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