Open the street. It’s a Main Street of what was a charming town. New restaurants will fill vacant spots. Look at Carp it has open street, great restaurants, no urine smell. Same with Montecito. New development. SB is a tragic story while all other towns are booming.
The Daisy is a well-loved restaurant that is finally a different option than all the other Italian and Mexican spots that line State. The city needs to step up and stop playing favorites. Other restaurants are afforded huge parklet and sidewalk spaces (Chase, Mizza, Satellite), come on!!
The Mayor has made it eminently clear that he would rather have cars on State than outdoor dining. Not very business-friendly of him.
The city and the old guard have their favorites and promote and help “their own.” Anyone from out of town, like the Daisy owner, will not get equal or special treatment. It seems like they purposely try to harm and destroy as a cruel hobby. I’ve been unfairly deleted, forgotten, or ignored as well, even though my venture brings in a steady stream of tourists and out of town guests. It’s hard enough to make it in this town but to have active forces against you is disheartening and unfair.
It’s a brilliant idea to take out the crappy vegetation and replace with dining. Dining brings energy and fun out onto the sidewalks. There is plenty of room. Mayor Rouse- you were a restaurant owner- cut these guys some slack!!
Thank you for sharing Dominic Schiach’s letter. This is why we can’t have nice things.
The city of Santa Barbara should focus on actively supporting small business not continuing to talk about a “better” state street.
Outdoor dining brings life and joy to Santa Barbara. A community blessed with beauty should have more spaces to enjoy it. Yet, the city would rather create a desolate wasteland that is increasingly in hospitable to residence and visitors a like.
How, pray tell, do moves like this, increase the value of Santa Barbara? How to they attract visitors? How do they attract business? How does it support residence?
It’s shameful that this restaurant now has harder economics is an already hard business. It’s sad that a family can no longer share a meal in the sun.
It’s small things that make us. It’s small things that break us.
We have to remember we live in a community.
Exactly. It was never a promenade no matter how many times people kept calling it that. Just an ugly closed down street
The problem with all of these comments is that they use common sense. And the City is allergic to common sense. So we have an allergy problem that needs to be treated. :/
And yes, by all means, open the street back to cars until a new plan is adopted. Heck, it will make the street safer.
You nailed! Open it back up and then come up with a plan. I've emailed our entire council and mayor twice regarding this.
You are spot on!!! Why those making the decisions can't figure this out is very very concerning.
He doesn't get paid by way of a lien put on the property?
That's been going on in Montecito for generations
I agree with much of what you said. In a nutshell, decision-making seems to be a challenge. On the surface, it appears that “avoidance” is the name of the game these days and the concepts of responsibility and accountability are no longer valued. Now, what should we do about it?
I’m a bit concerned that change will only happen when an extreme point of view will step in and swing us into a whole new set of concerns (similar to what we see at the national level).
Always overlooked in the presented concepts is that State St. is the storm water channel for downtown. Any proposal that shows the street and sidewalk at the same level means a very large storm water drainage pipe (i.e. 5-10' in diameter) would need to be buried beneath it, a very expensive and disruptive endeavor.
I've watched every live meeting of the SSAC this year, except the June meeting since it was plagued by technical difficulties. A few days later I watched most of it on You Tube. What struck me the most about this current meeting was Roger Durling stating the obvious. Peter Lewis followed him with similar comments, while later on my favorite SSAC member, Ed Lenvik pretty much dropped the hammer. These 17 well intentioned people should be thanked for their service and the committee should be dissolved. The list of straw votes they took this week could have been done months ago, or years ago. Also, sorry Kristen Sneddon but the Fred Sweeny drawings are only his ideas. There are nine members of the Historic Landmarks Committee and those folks are the ones that I want to hear from. (Cass Ensberg)
One of the proposals calls for something called, "Flat & Flexible." I've been in enough rain storms on State street to know that eliminating the curbs is a huge mistake. Most of State is an incline, downstream, and water speeds up as it flows down. Another popular opinion is for more trees. I can visualize a downpour that sends leaves and branches down the street, the drains get clogged and the front doors of the businesses get flooded. I watched this happen some months ago one street over at La Paloma Cafe. There was a huge storm, the drains on Anacapa got clogged and water backed up to the front door of the bar. And there aren't that many trees on Anacapa!
Oh, and you can look at the Funk Zone as an example of the dangers of "Flat & Flexible." The FZ floods in every storm of significance. Instead of the SSAC adopting Flat & Flexible, they should rename it, Flat & Flooded.
Maybe a slightly offset series of banners along the centerline?
Interesting about Caltrans position. Might not need to be that long.
I totally agree. I want to say something more vulgar but instead I'll say, "fish, or cut bait." State Street looks like utter crap in its current incarnation. Shabby, stinky, random. Unfinished feeling. Choose a direction and commit to it. At this point we're going to waste more tax dollars paying endless consultants for 52 years to perpetually kick the proverbial can versus just committing to something and getting it done.
If there was ever an example of our city failing, it’s with these headlines. They have completely forgotten their duty is to serve the citizens of SB. Not themselves.
State St and the demise of Fiesta carnival are two awful examples of SB city employees and officials showing they're totally incapable of the most basic managerial duties and responsibilities. There is no reason that we should keep any of these people in office, let alone their support staff and the underlings. The entire city government needs a complete and total refresh.
This council and their puppeteers / benefactors (the city employees) are incapable of making decisions. They are incapable of managing their duties. Incapable of meeting a budget. Incapable of doing anything other than kicking the can and padding their own bank accounts. Unbelievable incompetence.
They killed off one of the best parts of Fiesta! Why? Because the city itself cannot manage their own internal issues or people, they cannot balance their budget and certainly cannot make hard choices. Like firing people to reduce costs. So we lose out on the carnival while the inept get their paychecks, their pensions, their guaranteed pay increases and their 4 day, 30 hour work weeks...
The entire SB city government needs to be replaced and rebuilt from the ground up. Remember, the city has over a billion dollar pension liability (that’s debt for those who dont know), and no plan on paying it down, let alone dealing with the current budget shortfall that they claim requires a giant tax increase. A regressive tax on top of it all. Gee how Progressive!
Folks, we’ve been fleeced. Our city is failing and the very people who are responsible are stealing your kids piggy bank and future in broad daylight, while they slide into a cushy retirement and receive a pension unavailable to 99% of citizens and tax payers.
Viva la Fiesta? Not any longer. Today it's "Viva La Ciudad de Santa Barbara employees" the rest of you can eat sand.
I’ve said this before: it’s not a promenade, it’s a street. The now-closed street is hardly used by pedestrians and almost exclusively used by bicycles. Despite this, it’s not quite the “bicycle thoroughfare” that some might imagine.
Instead, it appears to be a hodgepodge of temporary seating and dining areas intermingled with inconsistent bicycle lanes and unattractive street markings.
If we want a true promenade, that’s fine. Develop a plan, secure funding, and execute the plan. Until then, let’s stop pretending that the street is an enjoyable place for people to stroll on a leisurely walk. I move to reopen the street until the formal plan is made, approved, and budgeted.
If we want to make room for restaurants to provide additional seating on the sidewalk, do what the rest of the world does and use the sidewalk. Not enough room? Reduce some of the planters and other features that are taking up space.
I’m really struggling to understand why this is so difficult.
Who on earth knows about a blue star memorial? This is why we have parks. I saw the blue stripe and was wondering why it was there. It is just distracted me from my driving. Honor a Veteran? How about a straight line of blue stars. Drivers could see the stars and not be distracted by a wavy line. Better yet, how about a straight line of red, white and blue stars. So many things better than an distracting blue line that says or remotely indicates a veteran of any sort. And falling leaves? First of all what do those represent and second of all I did not even notice them because of the very distracting wavy blue line. Whoever voted for this should have thought more about the impact it would have to drivers and Veterans. But hey, art is art and maybe that is all the artist wanted is to have people talk about it.
Did she ever say why? I hear that outline of the story, but feel like part of it is still missing?
It's an extremely rare event for me, but there have been times when the work I've hired someone to do comes in way above the quote and I've paid the amount I was told it would be. I've always reached out, created a dialogue to explain my upset, but I guess I'm wondering what Ellen's part of this tale is?
Was she unhappy with the work or what?
I have a hard time believing people can just be "disgusting" or wicked for no reason. AND, she does have a fair amount of bad press haunting her these days, that's true.
Really? I drive both almost every day and cars still rule over bikes. BTW, Haley has a bike lane just like Bath street, and it's mostly devoid of riders, just like Bath street.
I’ve believed for the longest time that Santa Barbara needs a good Basque restaurant. Look to Benjis and Woolgrowers in Bakersfield for models. Conceptually, it should be a massive hit! Do not exclude garlic chicken or french fries from the menu.
Other than operating a motorized vehicle that can hit speeds of 35 mph without a license, often without safety equipment that is a legal requirement for their ICE counterparts, and often without regard for traffic laws… There’s nothing wrong with e-bikes. I grew up in a bicycle town (our city symbol was an old-timey bicycle), and from a young age - probably 10 years old - was taught the rules of the road. And then I was held accountable, periodically pulled over by local police for failing to abide by those rules. My point: I’m an advocate for cycling, but riding rampant is also what I observe frequently around town.
IMO Haley and Gutierrez should be reduced to a single lane of car traffic with a dedicated bike lane like on Bath and De La Vina. Class II buffered lanes are so much more pleasant to cycle on.
Ebikes ride rampant? Bikes are allowed to use the roads just like cars are. Why the need to cast a negative light on people who chose to avoid contributing to the noise, pollution and congestion that cars produce.
While I can recognize not all bikes are responsible, most of my experiences riding on Hailey are less than ideal because cars won't give bikers the space they are legally allowed.
