Can you run for City Council??! Great comment and so true. All of our kids who are in college and graduating, leave SB because they can't afford it. And, all this housing to be built rarely has a large number of affordable homes! My dad used to say that the "fish rots from the head"...and the head here is the City Council/Mayor, etc...
Is it in front of Joe’s Cafe?
Agreed! Tourism is a wrecking ball to a town’s character.
Right on!
Thank you for asking that question S,
I’m a business owner downtown and asked the same question at a meeting and got the most ridiculous answer….Occasionally someone will lose their ticket and there needs to be someone there in the kiosk to help them., otherwise a long line will form… Doesn’t quite explain it to me.
I'm well aware that downtown is not a mall (even though there's a mostly failing one inside of it) - the point I was making is that you'll often do more walking at a mall than you will going downtown, and that no one is suggesting that the solution to the death of malls that people be able to drive through the pedestrian spaces of those malls. From the recent economic summit:
https://www.edhat.com/news/the-state-of-state-what-would-it-take-to-rescue-santa-barbaras-state-street/
"With a 14.86% vacancy rate from Gutierrez to Sola streets, a rate unchanged since 2019, State Street will have to evolve in order to recapture some of its former glory. It’s part of the ebb and flow of retail in Santa Barbara’s downtown."
So the vacancy rate is literally unchanged from before portions of State Street were closed. So, opening up the remaining 6 blocks to vehicular traffic is going to accomplish what exactly? With the cross streets open, you're literally never more than half a block away by car from the places you're going. There's never been in recent decades an abundance of parking on State Street - it's literally the last place you'd look for parking. So if I was going downtown and the rest of State was open, the way that I'd access State Street would literally be unchanged - I'd go to the same parking lots and garages that I currently go to when I go downtown, as I suspect is the case for the vast majority of the population. I just don't see how allowing vehicle traffic on the rest of State Street changes ANYTHING about the current decline of retail, but hey I'm all ears.
But State street isn't a mall, it's a downtown retail corridor. And I guess you never, ever, ever vote for me for mayor.
There is only one path to fixing downtown Santa Barbara.
Growth.
Cars on State St are not the answer. Low income housing packed into downtown is not the answer. More hotels and restaurants are not the answer. Low wage, low skilled jobs are not, nor are they ever the answer. In fact, their abundance is a main cause of State Street’s and Santa Barbara’s current mess.
The answer is to attract and foster high value businesses that employ high valued employees who are able to afford to build a life and a future in Santa Barbara. We need to take advantage of our gifts. In this case:
The fact that we have one of the best engineering schools in the world in our backyard minting highly motivated and educated people every single year. People who DO NOT want to leave, but have no choice if they want to build a career and a future.
Instead of fostering, supporting and aiding startups and working to attract highly skilled, highly paid companies and jobs, our public employees and officials continue to give tax breaks to out of town hotel owners and property developers for short term boosts in revenue but no long term viability.
Tourism is a cancer and a race to the bottom. Nowhere on earth does tourism increase quality of life. It’s a necessary part of our areas economy, but should be a small part of our future. Not the entirety of our city’s hedge.
Build our way out of this mess with the resources and assets we have. They’re abundant and cheap and harnessing them will create a healthy, stable community that supports all.
Random question regarding parking.
Why are there still city parking lot attendants when we have the license plane scanners?
Seems like either the attendants shouldn’t be there or the “automated” parking lot system should be removed if it is not working consistently enough to warrant attendants.
I'm with AFC - the only thing that will change if we re-open the rest of State Street to vehicle traffic is that we'll be able to walk and/or drive by failing retail businesses, rather than only being able to walk by them - as they fail. There's several things at play here - not just the changing nature of retail that's been happening on the national/global scale for the past few decades but also more local forces as well. State Street, as it currently exists, simply has too much square footage for the size of this town to fill it all with retail and restaurants. The center of gravity for night life has also shifted to other areas of town - most notably the Funk Zone. This is a zero sum game - there's a finite number of shopping/dining dollars, and so the shifting of the center of gravity towards the Funk Zone will not be magically made up by vehicle traffic on State Street. There's also - SO MUCH PARKING in downtown - if you just know where to look for it. If you go to any semi-functional/non-dying mall, chances are you'll do more walking at that mall than you will to visit a shop or restaurant on State Street. And yes - lots of malls are dying - but I have yet to see someone propose with a straight face that the solution to that is to allow people to drive through the pedestrian spaces of those malls. As a SB resident and voter, I will never, ever vote for any local politician who votes to reopen the rest of State Street. Never. Ever.
That is indeed a huge bump up from the number of current launches — which is already a big increase from just a few years ago. Aside from concerns about the impact on air quality and other important environmental factors, I have questions about how the noise and vibrations from these seemingly back-to-back launches are affecting buildings in the area. Is that crack on my back patio growing because that’s just what happens over time, or is it from the deep rumbling of every launch? ????????♀️
120 launches a year is a huge change from current state. We need to know that air quality in Santa Barbara won’t be affected by that many launches. Like the article states, these are not for defense, but primarily for SpaceX’s private Starlink product.
Also sad news about Trattoria Vittoria.
“In our very temperate climate”. We need an edit button! ????
Respectfully, State st and lots of retail were failing long before Covid. I used to go to Wendy foster and Nordstrom on canon perdido and it wasn’t like I was parking on state. Foot traffic there is mainly tourists and having 6 blocks closed off for strolling is a good idea and is popular all over the country. Parklets were great for getting more outside seating is out very temperate climate.
The link to your story about the rattlesnake in your kitchen almost made me pee my pants! Andy the Wildlife Trapper is legend.
Erik: Thanks for the rattlesnake story and the detailed photos: I probably won't sleep for a week. On a serious note--important information.
Thank you for posting the survey. Agreed, something like Option 1. The house is, let’s be direct, ugly. The view is incredible.
Of course, the best choice would have been to spend (a lot less than) the $1 million already spent on consultants on a city attorney finding a way to get out of the deed and sell the property to pay for things people use. On a recent Sunday at 4 pm, there were a total of 5 people there- three were teens smoking weed and tossing their joints in the dry brush. Down the hill at the Mission and Shoreline Park, each had hundreds of people there. It’s clear where we should be spending our money.
Sad the iconic Wendy Foster store is another victim of the State st demise. One of the many 'go to' shopping experiences on State has suffered yet another blow by the city council who won't listen to the public outcry to OPEN STATE ST to automobiles and get rid of the 'parklets' that served their purpose over two years ago!!
We need new leaders who will listen to the local people!!
Redoing the Biltmore for years just to put a Nobu in is so unbearably cringe
The new Enoteca bar place is quite gawdy. I walked by it the other day on the way to the post office, peeked inside, looks like it was decorated by my grandmother with all the fake flowers.
Nevermind I see the post about it in the next section. : )
Will the Biltmore still be managed by the Four Seasons?
This clip is EVERYTHING ????
Any timeline related to Ty Warner is essentially useless as he is not really a rational person and being a billionaire he doesn't have to play by the usual rules.
Yes, you are wrong, Dan O. Seibert. The Habers are long-time locals and wonderful people and Michael is a great, inspired artist who brings beauty not hate to our neighborhood. I say this as a casual acquaintance, only.
