As a native born Santa Barbarian I have seen, obviously, many changes in our town throughout the years. I try to be realistic in the fact that changes are a part of the natural evolution of life. Having said that, one has to be a complete moron not to see that the "changes" in our once unique town are absolutely insane. I think we all have, pretty much, the same opinion of downtown State Street. Shopping in Santa Barbara is a no-go as well and as far as Old Town Goleta one can only shake their head. I have met no one that thinks either Santa Barbara or Goleta have improved in any way and one has to wonder if the only ones that might like the improvements have been making money hand over fist from these changes. A well done article, Scott.
Good synopsis. I tried last year in Goleta (ran for city council to bring common sense) but like any addict, our small town has not hit rock bottom yet. Our little seaside town of 30K residents still spending state money like it’s a big city of 1M+
It’s funny you mention “Back To The Future”. I wrote an entire piece countering the insane bicycle lobby entitled “Back to the Future”. But the “Independent” refused to publish it (probably because it was a rebuttal to multiple articles they published promoting Thousands of unaffordable high density housing projects, $50M bike paths, $5M library remodel, $5M restripe project, $25M Homeless shelter, and $25M train station projects…among others…all in a town of just 30K)
They are too far gone. They have to hit rock bottom 1st. By then it will be too late. This was the plan all along.
Goleta Old Town used to be a traversable thoroughfare, with welcoming glimpses of shops to explore offering easy access for a later return. You knew what was there, even if your present trip did not require a stop. Now it feels like a tangle of conflicting signs and street markings making access to this entire small business district unwelcoming, and even threatening. A place to now avoid; not explore. Just like downtown Santa Barbara: a place to avoid, not explore..
Great synopsis Scott and congratulations for telling it like it is. Yes, unfortunately SB and Goleta have been plagued by failure in leadership for years, which unfortunately has become more and more radical. Let’s see, virtually making transportation more difficult and related shopping supporting local businesses a thing of the past, directly leading to a reduction of sales tax to local city coffers. This at a time of increasing costs, budget deficits, raising sales tax, decreasing levels of service and crushing debt. Meanwhile, supporting low income housing in place of shopping centers. Add on to this a local government bowing down to the special interest of the bike lobby which continues to get a free ride by tax supported bike lanes and infrastructure rather than roads and streets.
The social experiment of the nanny green state has been a colossal failure, perpetuated by radical socialists and “comunistas” who occupy our respective city councils. What a mess. The taxpaying public struggles to even buy a loaf of bread and the political class and their high paid minions continue to push their iterations of equity, climate, race and gender orthodoxy, as our infrastructure, schools and tax base continues to crumble.
Yes, these people have even succeeded in screwing up paradise!
At some point, elected Democrat officials and government employees along with their own underfunded pension promises, need to realize they need a healthy functioning economy to support their own futures. They can no longer take perverse pride that California is the among the most business unfriendly states in America.
Right now Democrats continue to exist on tax the rich fumes, ever-increasing tax extortion threats, misguided class envy, anti-capitalism fantasies, and the very last shreds of disgorged OPM. Someday sooner not later, they will realize capitalism needs to be encouraged and supported in a new partnership, for the sake of their very own personal agendas and pensions.
Trending as we speak, the reality California voters are ready to elect more Republicans.
Always trying to change shit. Just put it back how you found it. Old town is just a hot mess! Just like State St. Real locals hate it, like me. I miss the way it WAS!!
Musical chairs: Blum, Murillo, Schneider have all been replaced with Santamaria, Gutierrez, Sneddon, Perotte, Kyriaco and Capps. These failed “leaders” need to be (using the “green” vernacular) recycled!
Great article. Thanks for telling it like it is! As a senior citizen, I rely on my automobile, not a bicycle to do my shopping and dining out. I avoid downtown Santa Barbara as much as possible and when I’m driving through Goleta, I find ways to avoid Hollister Avenue. I’m very much concerned for businesses that I used to patronize regularly. And I have to admit I’ve ended up ordering more things online than I ever thought I would. I’m saddened even by my own behavior. I urge local decision makers to listen to local residents before what has always made Santa Barbara beautiful becomes an ancient memory!
Bravo, Scott. The Leftist idiots running and ruining Goleta and downtown Santa Barbara have the “if we build it they will come” delusion. What that saccharine Hollywood movie line really means is “if we build more bike lanes like we did in Old Town Goleta, the people who used to come here in their cars will drive elsewhere.’ I've talked to many people about it and NO ONE likes it - except the bicycle lobby.
I love cities like New York and Berlin where pedestrian and bicycle traffic is a vital part of how people live there. But these cities evolved over time this way. They didn't suddenly build these cities to be 15-minute Green Dreams.
What's most pathetic is they hire consultants to instruct them on the damage they're doing. They pay our tax money to consultants who don't live here - and then they refuse to listen to those of us who do live here and pay taxes which pay their salaries.
One simply cannot translate European high-rise cities with pedestrian street traffic and their necessary public transit, to low-rise Santa Barbara that has always accommodated both horse (with barns) and the auto.
Bikes proliferate in many densely populated European cities because their historic evolution from narrow pathway market towns into high-rise population centers provided virtually zero street parking when personal automobiles were introduced centuries later.
Also confined to much smaller high-rise and often studio-sized apartments in Europe, does force more people out on to the streets for their daily shopping needs and their downtown "living room" for entertainment. The post WWII sprawl out into the surrounding suburbs in Europe today, finds the same car dependent lives as we know in Santa Barbara.
City planning decisions should not be left in the hands of those who took a summer college vacation in Europe and never lived with the year round reality of their youthful summer fantasies.
Also, New York and Berlin have great transit systems. Our MTD is minimal. And we have yet to see the DT trolley return to State Street. It's a damn shame what a majority vote of 4 can do to this beautiful city.
Working Americans need freedom to move economically and independently. Non-working (not retired workers) don’t need this freedom as they gave it up to be bums of the government.
Too many bad government solutions by the Elite crime syndicate pulling strings of liberal politicians and judges made this disaster.
I’m not against people’s choice of transportation just keep politics out our choice. Stop dictating
Great Article...telling it like it really is! I am a resident of SB County for over 50 years that use to spend a lot of money in downtown SB. Since this crazy "bike and no cars" idea was first hatched I quit shopping, going to the theater or having dinner in downtown. People just need to talk with their money ...as every action causes a re-action. Who voted these people in office??
City employee union members are very active political agents impacting all our elections. This has long allowed them to sit on both sides of the bargaining tables, making decisions and allocating city revenues for their own agenda.
I read this excellent follow-on and repeated theme titled "Back to the Future… in an Automobile
by Scott Wenz" and I quote from same below>
"It is time to stop decades of failure. It is time for a massive 180-degree turn-around. But that would take mature adults. Cars Are Basic, Inc. does not believe the City of Santa Barbara has those adults." AND "Repeated failure is directly at the feet of Mayors Marty Blum, Helene Schneider, Kathy Murillo and their feckless councils and now the current Council."
New Title "You Are Not Safe In Santa Barbara" and I would recommend that all SB Currentor's
go back to my Post Yesterday and carefully read it. Few here have any idea the depths of the ENTIRE FAILURE and UTTER CONCEALEMENT of the Santa Barbara Government is. I challenge
those SB Currentor Dedicated Individuals to engage forensic Accountants and DIG DOWN DEEP
into the SB County and City's Finances ............ALTHOUGH THEY MUST SHOW YOU THE BOOKS
I WILL BET THAT WILL BE A REAL CHALLENGE!
Howard Walther, Member of a Military Family
SP1 - Any US Government Money Being SIPHONED by So-Called SB Dem Leaders Like In Minnesoto - see weblink below>
"A frustrated MDE official, however, tipped the FBI to her suspicions in April 2021. FBI forensic accountant Pauline Roase followed up in the ensuing months by collecting relevant bank records. FBI special agents Jared Kary and Travis Wilmer investigated in the field."
Get Busy Folks PLENTY OF ECONOMIC FRAUD IN SB & CALI!
Well Said! (Or written) we moved to Montecito 16 years ago and went down town at least three times a week to do all those silly tourist things like shop, have lunch or dinner, go to special events, etc. Now we haven’t been down town in more than three weeks, and go there rarely. I can’t even begin to lament the many and frequent stores, shops, restaurants and other attractions that have closed in the last 16 years. Thank you for noticing, we certainly have.
It would be interesting to see facts and figures for Sales Tax Revenue of 1) Downtown State Street, 2) Milpas Street, 3) Coast Village Road, 4) Cliff Drive on the Mesa, and 5) Outer State Street.
These five commercial streets roughly correspond to the five districts in the City of SB which are represented by our City Council 'public servants'.
Plus facts about the return to the city for taxes on online purchases - which districts generate the most taxes from online sales. Equally, how are city tax revenues spent in the various districts. Do some districts get more city attention than others? Facts, please.
This has been going on for decades. The people with no money , no investment, and little interest in a positive outcome for business have taken over . Voters year after year keep voting them in and then complain.
Now the city wants to hike rates just to hide their nonsense.
As a native born Santa Barbarian I have seen, obviously, many changes in our town throughout the years. I try to be realistic in the fact that changes are a part of the natural evolution of life. Having said that, one has to be a complete moron not to see that the "changes" in our once unique town are absolutely insane. I think we all have, pretty much, the same opinion of downtown State Street. Shopping in Santa Barbara is a no-go as well and as far as Old Town Goleta one can only shake their head. I have met no one that thinks either Santa Barbara or Goleta have improved in any way and one has to wonder if the only ones that might like the improvements have been making money hand over fist from these changes. A well done article, Scott.
Good synopsis. I tried last year in Goleta (ran for city council to bring common sense) but like any addict, our small town has not hit rock bottom yet. Our little seaside town of 30K residents still spending state money like it’s a big city of 1M+
It’s funny you mention “Back To The Future”. I wrote an entire piece countering the insane bicycle lobby entitled “Back to the Future”. But the “Independent” refused to publish it (probably because it was a rebuttal to multiple articles they published promoting Thousands of unaffordable high density housing projects, $50M bike paths, $5M library remodel, $5M restripe project, $25M Homeless shelter, and $25M train station projects…among others…all in a town of just 30K)
They are too far gone. They have to hit rock bottom 1st. By then it will be too late. This was the plan all along.
Goleta Old Town used to be a traversable thoroughfare, with welcoming glimpses of shops to explore offering easy access for a later return. You knew what was there, even if your present trip did not require a stop. Now it feels like a tangle of conflicting signs and street markings making access to this entire small business district unwelcoming, and even threatening. A place to now avoid; not explore. Just like downtown Santa Barbara: a place to avoid, not explore..
Great synopsis Scott and congratulations for telling it like it is. Yes, unfortunately SB and Goleta have been plagued by failure in leadership for years, which unfortunately has become more and more radical. Let’s see, virtually making transportation more difficult and related shopping supporting local businesses a thing of the past, directly leading to a reduction of sales tax to local city coffers. This at a time of increasing costs, budget deficits, raising sales tax, decreasing levels of service and crushing debt. Meanwhile, supporting low income housing in place of shopping centers. Add on to this a local government bowing down to the special interest of the bike lobby which continues to get a free ride by tax supported bike lanes and infrastructure rather than roads and streets.
The social experiment of the nanny green state has been a colossal failure, perpetuated by radical socialists and “comunistas” who occupy our respective city councils. What a mess. The taxpaying public struggles to even buy a loaf of bread and the political class and their high paid minions continue to push their iterations of equity, climate, race and gender orthodoxy, as our infrastructure, schools and tax base continues to crumble.
Yes, these people have even succeeded in screwing up paradise!
They’re designing(destroying) not only our, already constrained, roads. They are systematically destroying our historic town.
It’s called social engineering to make us behave as they want us to.
Tyranny!
At some point, elected Democrat officials and government employees along with their own underfunded pension promises, need to realize they need a healthy functioning economy to support their own futures. They can no longer take perverse pride that California is the among the most business unfriendly states in America.
Right now Democrats continue to exist on tax the rich fumes, ever-increasing tax extortion threats, misguided class envy, anti-capitalism fantasies, and the very last shreds of disgorged OPM. Someday sooner not later, they will realize capitalism needs to be encouraged and supported in a new partnership, for the sake of their very own personal agendas and pensions.
Trending as we speak, the reality California voters are ready to elect more Republicans.
Always trying to change shit. Just put it back how you found it. Old town is just a hot mess! Just like State St. Real locals hate it, like me. I miss the way it WAS!!
City governments are supposed to solve indentifiable problems; not create them.
Brilliant 🙏
You are so right - if it works and people like it , _leave siht alone_!
Musical chairs: Blum, Murillo, Schneider have all been replaced with Santamaria, Gutierrez, Sneddon, Perotte, Kyriaco and Capps. These failed “leaders” need to be (using the “green” vernacular) recycled!
Great article. Thanks for telling it like it is! As a senior citizen, I rely on my automobile, not a bicycle to do my shopping and dining out. I avoid downtown Santa Barbara as much as possible and when I’m driving through Goleta, I find ways to avoid Hollister Avenue. I’m very much concerned for businesses that I used to patronize regularly. And I have to admit I’ve ended up ordering more things online than I ever thought I would. I’m saddened even by my own behavior. I urge local decision makers to listen to local residents before what has always made Santa Barbara beautiful becomes an ancient memory!
Bravo, Scott. The Leftist idiots running and ruining Goleta and downtown Santa Barbara have the “if we build it they will come” delusion. What that saccharine Hollywood movie line really means is “if we build more bike lanes like we did in Old Town Goleta, the people who used to come here in their cars will drive elsewhere.’ I've talked to many people about it and NO ONE likes it - except the bicycle lobby.
I love cities like New York and Berlin where pedestrian and bicycle traffic is a vital part of how people live there. But these cities evolved over time this way. They didn't suddenly build these cities to be 15-minute Green Dreams.
What's most pathetic is they hire consultants to instruct them on the damage they're doing. They pay our tax money to consultants who don't live here - and then they refuse to listen to those of us who do live here and pay taxes which pay their salaries.
One simply cannot translate European high-rise cities with pedestrian street traffic and their necessary public transit, to low-rise Santa Barbara that has always accommodated both horse (with barns) and the auto.
Bikes proliferate in many densely populated European cities because their historic evolution from narrow pathway market towns into high-rise population centers provided virtually zero street parking when personal automobiles were introduced centuries later.
Also confined to much smaller high-rise and often studio-sized apartments in Europe, does force more people out on to the streets for their daily shopping needs and their downtown "living room" for entertainment. The post WWII sprawl out into the surrounding suburbs in Europe today, finds the same car dependent lives as we know in Santa Barbara.
City planning decisions should not be left in the hands of those who took a summer college vacation in Europe and never lived with the year round reality of their youthful summer fantasies.
Also, New York and Berlin have great transit systems. Our MTD is minimal. And we have yet to see the DT trolley return to State Street. It's a damn shame what a majority vote of 4 can do to this beautiful city.
Amen, Celeste.
NYC and others with good transit have high density residents in the millions.
That’s part of the driving factor to increase our population density.
Remaking SB is the goal
District elections promote division!
Thanks Scott.
Working Americans need freedom to move economically and independently. Non-working (not retired workers) don’t need this freedom as they gave it up to be bums of the government.
Too many bad government solutions by the Elite crime syndicate pulling strings of liberal politicians and judges made this disaster.
I’m not against people’s choice of transportation just keep politics out our choice. Stop dictating
Great Article...telling it like it really is! I am a resident of SB County for over 50 years that use to spend a lot of money in downtown SB. Since this crazy "bike and no cars" idea was first hatched I quit shopping, going to the theater or having dinner in downtown. People just need to talk with their money ...as every action causes a re-action. Who voted these people in office??
City employee union members are very active political agents impacting all our elections. This has long allowed them to sit on both sides of the bargaining tables, making decisions and allocating city revenues for their own agenda.
I read this excellent follow-on and repeated theme titled "Back to the Future… in an Automobile
by Scott Wenz" and I quote from same below>
"It is time to stop decades of failure. It is time for a massive 180-degree turn-around. But that would take mature adults. Cars Are Basic, Inc. does not believe the City of Santa Barbara has those adults." AND "Repeated failure is directly at the feet of Mayors Marty Blum, Helene Schneider, Kathy Murillo and their feckless councils and now the current Council."
New Title "You Are Not Safe In Santa Barbara" and I would recommend that all SB Currentor's
go back to my Post Yesterday and carefully read it. Few here have any idea the depths of the ENTIRE FAILURE and UTTER CONCEALEMENT of the Santa Barbara Government is. I challenge
those SB Currentor Dedicated Individuals to engage forensic Accountants and DIG DOWN DEEP
into the SB County and City's Finances ............ALTHOUGH THEY MUST SHOW YOU THE BOOKS
I WILL BET THAT WILL BE A REAL CHALLENGE!
Howard Walther, Member of a Military Family
SP1 - Any US Government Money Being SIPHONED by So-Called SB Dem Leaders Like In Minnesoto - see weblink below>
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/from-feeding-the-kids-to-fleecing-the-government-inside-the-countrys-largest-covid-fraud/
"A frustrated MDE official, however, tipped the FBI to her suspicions in April 2021. FBI forensic accountant Pauline Roase followed up in the ensuing months by collecting relevant bank records. FBI special agents Jared Kary and Travis Wilmer investigated in the field."
Get Busy Folks PLENTY OF ECONOMIC FRAUD IN SB & CALI!
HOW DOES A $20 Million Dollar Fraud Case Sound?
Well Said! (Or written) we moved to Montecito 16 years ago and went down town at least three times a week to do all those silly tourist things like shop, have lunch or dinner, go to special events, etc. Now we haven’t been down town in more than three weeks, and go there rarely. I can’t even begin to lament the many and frequent stores, shops, restaurants and other attractions that have closed in the last 16 years. Thank you for noticing, we certainly have.
It would be interesting to see facts and figures for Sales Tax Revenue of 1) Downtown State Street, 2) Milpas Street, 3) Coast Village Road, 4) Cliff Drive on the Mesa, and 5) Outer State Street.
These five commercial streets roughly correspond to the five districts in the City of SB which are represented by our City Council 'public servants'.
Plus facts about the return to the city for taxes on online purchases - which districts generate the most taxes from online sales. Equally, how are city tax revenues spent in the various districts. Do some districts get more city attention than others? Facts, please.
This has been going on for decades. The people with no money , no investment, and little interest in a positive outcome for business have taken over . Voters year after year keep voting them in and then complain.
Now the city wants to hike rates just to hide their nonsense.