Bonnie, you raised an interesting question about city project decisions being made with other more hidden goals in mind. Let me add my own curiosity about the very welcome city dog park on Upper State Street, near the De la Vina intersection which replaced a very unsavory public drinking hangout. However, this new dog park was also located right next to a large and attractive motel complex.
I always thought that was a very odd that a potentially noisy city project to put directly next to a location where a motel customers might expect some degree of peace and quiet; not to be next to this new concentration of barking dogs. Then a year or so later without much review by the surrounding neighborhood, that very same motel is now being converted into Section 8 housing. I now wonder if that Section 8 conversion was part of the dog park grand plan plan all along.
Trip back in time to the 1950's and the nationwide Don't be a Litterbug campaign. It worked. It was everywhere. We had become a throwaway nation back in the 1950's too, once the austerity of WWII was over. Part of the nationwide Keep America Beautiful campaign, and furthered by First Lady Lady Bird Johnson's beautification campaign too.
With these nationwide public service campaigns, for a time we came to share common goals. Don't be a Litterbug. Back when we had only a few sources for shared communication: AM radio, three TV channels, and official public signage.
There are two types of people when it comes to trash. Some toss it out the window to the side of the road, or pile it up anywhere they can. Others pick it up, and refuse to allow their environs to look like a trash dump. If the former group vastly outnumbers the latter, we all suffer. Trash and graffiti are the precursors to further social decline, evidenced by public defecation and tolerance of mentally ill and drug addicted people taking over public parks. The solution is personal responsibility and intolerance of trashing our environment. There are a lot of things we should not tolerate, and trash at the beach is just one. It symbolizes much deeper malaise in society.
As a member of a group that cleans up a mile of CA-166, and a beach goer who always bring a trash bag, I can tell you with confidence that the "trashers" do not outnumber us. Watch the cars as they pass on the highway - 200-300 cars will drive by before you see a "trasher" discarding their empty containers and fast food packaging. As for trash on the beach, much of it is run-off from recent storms and crap that has broken free from the Texas-sized floating trash pile that currents have accumulated in the Pacific Ocean. Plastic bags and plastic "one-way" "no deposit - no return" bottles were a bad idea when first introduced and remain a major threat to the environment today. Pepsico and Coca-Cola cashed in on the trend and left us with the garbage. Thank you for taking the time to pick up some of their mess. As to the mentally ill in our parks, where were they supposed to go after the mental hospitals were closed in the 1980's? My wife's ancestor donated land for the Pacific Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (now the Los Angeles VA Hospital and National Cemetery). The large empty barracks that once housed thousands of "homeless veterans" were also closed in the 1980's. Following a lawsuit by descendants to use the land donation as intended, or give the land back, the VA has once again begun to create housing for homeless vets. The "deeper malaise in society" is how much we have turned our backs on the homeless, helpless, and working poor.
Easy to keep saying we "have turned out backs", but we have so many helping organizations and government services available. Indeed the VA has an entire program for "homeless vets": https://www.va.gov/homeless/for_homeless_veterans.asp
Good article Bonnie. I've never understood the mindset of people who toss trash out of their cars. As an independent Contractor I often had to eat on the go. I throw empty cups and wrapping paper on the truck floor, and throw it in the trash when I got home. So easy! I've hiked up to many of the Alpine lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains over the past 40 years and was astounded by the number beer and soda cans tossed off the side of the trails. They were able to hike up a trail with heavy beer cans, but can't squish them and then carry the very light cans back?
I worked at the Santa Barbara News-Press as a contracted security guard from 1994-2004 and that neighborhood was a mess. The stench of urine would waft through the parking lot, with people using various parts of the property to relieve themselves. The beer cans, the trash, etc.. here's the catch: the offenders were almost never the homeless, but instead, the spoiled, entitled college kids with their paid tuitions who came from out-of-town who would come downtown to cruise the plethora of bars for the purpose of getting drunk and "hooking up". I know how easy it is to bash the homeless and the new mantra is "mentally ill", but guess what?...when a person loses everything because (drum roll) housing is too expensive (and it's happening all over the country) eventually one cracks up and engages in the anti-social behavior we are seeing with increasing regularity. As the letter says: the benches are gone, but the homeless remain, and I assure you, with more seniors losing their homes, it will start hitting closer than many of you imagine.
Meanwhile Sodom And Gomorrah cum The Roman Empire still suffers from empty storefronts, and panders to out-of-town drunks.
I appreciate worrying about getting run into by a speeding bike, but think of all the times pedestrians (or even bicycles themselves) risk being plowed into by a speeding car. As much as there is a risk of injury from a bicycle accident, getting hit by a car can easily result in death.
I worry about the death of State Street caused by even one encounter with the terrorist bike riders, who intentionally loved scaring those walking in this allegedly safe pedestrian thoroughfare. I can't shake my own one encounter, which was now over a year ago.
And that is a totally legitimate concern. We need to stop assuming that pedestrians and bicycles can share the same infrastructure, in the same way that bikes and cars can't share the same infrastructure. I would note, however, that Santa Barbara's own report shows that there were several severe injuries and even deaths (https://www.independent.com/2023/01/23/cyclists-and-pedestrians-are-safer-on-the-promenade/) to people walking and on bicycles before State Street was pedestrianized.
Nice going, Bonnie. Way to keep up with what's going down in Santa Barbara. American Fiction sounds good too; okay for what age group?
Bonnie, you raised an interesting question about city project decisions being made with other more hidden goals in mind. Let me add my own curiosity about the very welcome city dog park on Upper State Street, near the De la Vina intersection which replaced a very unsavory public drinking hangout. However, this new dog park was also located right next to a large and attractive motel complex.
I always thought that was a very odd that a potentially noisy city project to put directly next to a location where a motel customers might expect some degree of peace and quiet; not to be next to this new concentration of barking dogs. Then a year or so later without much review by the surrounding neighborhood, that very same motel is now being converted into Section 8 housing. I now wonder if that Section 8 conversion was part of the dog park grand plan plan all along.
Trip back in time to the 1950's and the nationwide Don't be a Litterbug campaign. It worked. It was everywhere. We had become a throwaway nation back in the 1950's too, once the austerity of WWII was over. Part of the nationwide Keep America Beautiful campaign, and furthered by First Lady Lady Bird Johnson's beautification campaign too.
With these nationwide public service campaigns, for a time we came to share common goals. Don't be a Litterbug. Back when we had only a few sources for shared communication: AM radio, three TV channels, and official public signage.
There are two types of people when it comes to trash. Some toss it out the window to the side of the road, or pile it up anywhere they can. Others pick it up, and refuse to allow their environs to look like a trash dump. If the former group vastly outnumbers the latter, we all suffer. Trash and graffiti are the precursors to further social decline, evidenced by public defecation and tolerance of mentally ill and drug addicted people taking over public parks. The solution is personal responsibility and intolerance of trashing our environment. There are a lot of things we should not tolerate, and trash at the beach is just one. It symbolizes much deeper malaise in society.
As a member of a group that cleans up a mile of CA-166, and a beach goer who always bring a trash bag, I can tell you with confidence that the "trashers" do not outnumber us. Watch the cars as they pass on the highway - 200-300 cars will drive by before you see a "trasher" discarding their empty containers and fast food packaging. As for trash on the beach, much of it is run-off from recent storms and crap that has broken free from the Texas-sized floating trash pile that currents have accumulated in the Pacific Ocean. Plastic bags and plastic "one-way" "no deposit - no return" bottles were a bad idea when first introduced and remain a major threat to the environment today. Pepsico and Coca-Cola cashed in on the trend and left us with the garbage. Thank you for taking the time to pick up some of their mess. As to the mentally ill in our parks, where were they supposed to go after the mental hospitals were closed in the 1980's? My wife's ancestor donated land for the Pacific Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (now the Los Angeles VA Hospital and National Cemetery). The large empty barracks that once housed thousands of "homeless veterans" were also closed in the 1980's. Following a lawsuit by descendants to use the land donation as intended, or give the land back, the VA has once again begun to create housing for homeless vets. The "deeper malaise in society" is how much we have turned our backs on the homeless, helpless, and working poor.
Easy to keep saying we "have turned out backs", but we have so many helping organizations and government services available. Indeed the VA has an entire program for "homeless vets": https://www.va.gov/homeless/for_homeless_veterans.asp
Bonnie - excellent post - you're a great writer!
Good article Bonnie. I've never understood the mindset of people who toss trash out of their cars. As an independent Contractor I often had to eat on the go. I throw empty cups and wrapping paper on the truck floor, and throw it in the trash when I got home. So easy! I've hiked up to many of the Alpine lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains over the past 40 years and was astounded by the number beer and soda cans tossed off the side of the trails. They were able to hike up a trail with heavy beer cans, but can't squish them and then carry the very light cans back?
I worked at the Santa Barbara News-Press as a contracted security guard from 1994-2004 and that neighborhood was a mess. The stench of urine would waft through the parking lot, with people using various parts of the property to relieve themselves. The beer cans, the trash, etc.. here's the catch: the offenders were almost never the homeless, but instead, the spoiled, entitled college kids with their paid tuitions who came from out-of-town who would come downtown to cruise the plethora of bars for the purpose of getting drunk and "hooking up". I know how easy it is to bash the homeless and the new mantra is "mentally ill", but guess what?...when a person loses everything because (drum roll) housing is too expensive (and it's happening all over the country) eventually one cracks up and engages in the anti-social behavior we are seeing with increasing regularity. As the letter says: the benches are gone, but the homeless remain, and I assure you, with more seniors losing their homes, it will start hitting closer than many of you imagine.
Meanwhile Sodom And Gomorrah cum The Roman Empire still suffers from empty storefronts, and panders to out-of-town drunks.
I appreciate worrying about getting run into by a speeding bike, but think of all the times pedestrians (or even bicycles themselves) risk being plowed into by a speeding car. As much as there is a risk of injury from a bicycle accident, getting hit by a car can easily result in death.
I worry about the death of State Street caused by even one encounter with the terrorist bike riders, who intentionally loved scaring those walking in this allegedly safe pedestrian thoroughfare. I can't shake my own one encounter, which was now over a year ago.
And that is a totally legitimate concern. We need to stop assuming that pedestrians and bicycles can share the same infrastructure, in the same way that bikes and cars can't share the same infrastructure. I would note, however, that Santa Barbara's own report shows that there were several severe injuries and even deaths (https://www.independent.com/2023/01/23/cyclists-and-pedestrians-are-safer-on-the-promenade/) to people walking and on bicycles before State Street was pedestrianized.