Yes, there is a Statewide ballot initiative which needs more folks to sign on and support.
OurNeighborhoodVoices.com
Check it out.
NO to development. NO to housing and NO to traffic! When is enough enough? Do you all want to destroy the beauty and spirit of where we live? You want more density, more shopping, then move to a city of your choice but leave our local towns alone! .
Yes. A statewide group known as Our Neighborhood Voices has been working on this for more than a year. Try Googling them. I don't have specific info so best to go to the source. After this week's horrendous vote on the budget and the last-minute trailers, the public needs to get very involved to save CEQA.
Brazilians pronounce a J as a soft G. It is not a Y sound. Think like Zsa zsa Gabor - zsa-caa-randa. The ca would be a hard K. You would not roll the r in randa.
I am disappointed that you never mentioned the Santa Barbara Lavender Festival. I sent the email with details that was required.
This is so great. I was the one who painted the top piano with the creatures on it with the stump. It was such a great opportunity to paint with several artists and even better to have them all out on State Street and being played.!!! I hope I can do it again sometime!!!
In my mind, a flip has always been any sale involving a quick turnaround, regardless of whether the seller is trying to make a profit. But then an agent got shirty with me about using the term "flip" for a listing that wasn't going to make money, so a reader came up with floops to describe the situation of someone trying to get out as whole as possible. In the case of 4045 Lago, the mistake-implying "oops" part of the word may be less than perfectly apt, but I think the listing still qualifies as a floops (especially in the absence of any better word, and without getting into the circumstances), albeit a sad one.
And as a general rule, I don't get into why people are selling because there's no way of knowing whether anything I'm being told is true.
On 4045 LAGO DRIVE, I'pretty sure that was wife that lost her husband shortly after they bought the house and started fixing it up. She didn't want to live there without him. Seems like a quick jump to "flop" (and I think it should really be singular when you refer to one home project) is slightly insensitive. Be better please.
This message is for BobT.
This is not the correct place for such a message to city employees. I think you should write them directly or better yet go by their office and talk to them in person .
R.
Tom wins. Again.
Does anyone know if there has been any effort--anywhere in the state--to launch a petition to put a proposition on the ballot to repeal the "Builder's Remedy"? It seems consistently used as a cudgel to force unwanted development and/or "negotiate down " ridiculously oversized and inappropriate projects. There appears to be no appetite in state government to remove it, but would the electorate at large want it gone?
You can't blame the state or builder's remedy if you helped to stop a proposal that included 20 acres of open space. Instead of only opposing the hotel, the community should have fundraised and partnered with a conservation group to preserve the land (like Wilcox/Douglas, San Marcos, etc). Find a rich person who want a park in their name. You can't just say "no" and not work towards an alternative. Even if this is stopped, the proposals will keep coming.
Totally agree - adding more permanent residents (as opposed to tourists) will help create a more dynamic and vibrant downtown that many locals would love to see.
I don't think there'd be enough room for outdoor dining, protected bike lanes, increased pedestrian space, and cars. And of that group, I view cars as the outlier that doesn't mix and decreases safety. In general, I am bullish on building more dedicated/protected bike infrastructure to encourage riding as an alternative to driving. Nearly every other street/freeway has been optimized and subsidized for cars already. The popularity of e-bikes should be viewed as a good thing, but let's make it safer for everyone. Specific to State Street, I think that means better separation of lanes from pedestrian areas, better enforcement against unsafe riding, and keeping it closed to cars.
I’m back in my home state of Minnesota for a visit. Frozen pizza is a much bigger thing here than in CA. I dislike most in CA, some are okay from Bristol Farms. Pizza Parlano from Trader Joe’s is not great but serviceable. For REAL frozen pizza, you need to be in MN or WI. Heggies, Pizza Corner, Lotsa Mozza …
Check into KEYT morning show, their reporters are who I turn to for the proper pronunciation on words native flair is “needed”…who decides which words are chosen? Ibiza? Qatar? Jacaranda? Salsipuedes?
Hi Holly, rents on lower State have been trending down over the past several years while upper State, Mesa, Milpas, and the waterfront have increased. Areas of the funk zone and Coast Village are 3-4x what State Street is - it's not the rents that destroyed the small town feel of Santa Barbara. I'm not sure where you get the sense that development is out of control, development in Santa Barbara occurs at a very anemic pace.
City Council makes the policies, not the city manager. While City Council talks a lot about affordable housing, many of their legislative actions discourages the creation of new housing units, makes the construction of housing more expensive, or increases the cost of living in Santa Barbara.
Yes, I was only reinforcing your point. Opposing everything to the bitter end, ends with a bitter ending.
I think it was a compliment. Alice and David would be very happy if they could see this…
200 units on about 28 acres is not high density, but low to moderate density. More housing downtown is desirable, but would require rezoning with much higher height limits than the two-story limits now in place, since we can't build down, or out, or in, only up.
Why would that seem strange? I'd love to see more cafés, shops, and even housing downtown.
That was actually the point I was trying to make. If people want to reflexively oppose everything, then they may end up looking at something that looks like the 505 E. Los Olivos Street proposal, and saying "hey you know, that hotel they proposed was pretty nice."
NIMBYism at its worst. This is why housing is so expensive here and elsewhere in California. Everyone wants housing built somewhere else.
Change is inevitable, but you can shape what that change looks like. You can't if you simply fight to stop it. Working with the developer would be beneficial to all.
