It is obvious to any reasonable person our City wastes money, actually they put money into their buddies pockets. Perhaps not our Mayors buddies directly, but the Democratic Party line buddies.
Thee are plenty of examples, but a blatant one was with SBUSD when they hired “Coffee with a Black Guy” at $1,800/hour with no competing bids.
The gentleman hired had zero counseling experience or qualifications.
His qualifications were a personal relationship with a then sitting board member.
That board member now sits on the BOS.
Our local government is and has been corrupt.
For decades they’ve been driving businesses away, putting up road blocks to new businesses.
They fought development, fought turning Paseo and other empty commercial spaces into mixed use (residential up top, businesses on street level)
They’ve been “fighting the State” about new housing, denying, prolonging, making it extremely expensive for private landowners from building single family residences as well as putting off local developers want g to build units, like Capitol Hardware on Milpas and Cantwells on State.
Now they bend over for the State. Show me the bribes.
Guess it’s better than our government burning down SB like they did to Lahaina.
There’s money being handed out and our local government puppets are following orders.
Talk to your Democratic voting spouses friends, neighbors, kids. Ask them about what’s going on. Chances are their heads are buried and they have no idea.
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”
People will soon discover the repercussions from the wussification of America. If you think things are bad now, give it another 5 minutes. Things will get significantly worse before they get better.
Eventually we will return to good times, and it won’t be because of capitulation and appeasement from hand wringers and pearl clutchers bowing to their government overlords.
Well said as usual, Bonnie. Keep up the good work and strong reporting of the facts. People need to know what’s actually going on because most cannot attend all those meetings as you do. Your work is much appreciated!
Common sense is being upended by special interests and the gatekeepers are too easily swayed. The ability to think beyond just today, plan for the long-term future and remember the past seems sadly, to have disappeared from our City Leaders’ agendas. After 30 years of watching my commercial property in the 900 block of State Street being negatively impacted by poor decisions, coupled with the State of California’s ongoing, crazy new laws and taxes, I sold this property last week and moved my money to Texas, where common sense and a pro business attitude are rapidly attracting great numbers of California’s best producing families (including my son and his family) and leaving a void to be filled by undocumented immigrants with few resources and limited business acumen. It saddens me to no longer be able to be with my son, daughter in law and beautiful young grandkids, all born in Santa Barbara, as they grow and achieve so far away.
I was traveling between California and Texas for the past several years, more so since my son’s family moved here during the lockdown. My son couldn’t tolerate his small children in masks, “sheltering in place”. My son was 4th generation Santa Ynez but like your son, he sold his house and moved to Texas. I’m proud that he is doing what is best for his family.
I’m a native Californian, as were my parents. I can trace my roots back to the post Civil War ‘Orphan Trains’ which brought my great grandfather to San Francisco. My husband’s roots go back to pre-historic Chumash. It is very difficult to leave, but I am in Texas Hill Country full time now. It feels like America here. Texans are pro-liberty. They care about family, God and Country. I also left half of my family behind, and that is the hardest part. We talk every day but it is not the same as holding my precious Santa Barbara born granddaughters. They are visiting for the first time in over a year this weekend and I am over the moon.
Cheers for the Montecito Board of Architectural Review or whoever forced our City Council to return Coast Village Road to its pre-pandemic status. The unsightly parakeets are gone, the road is attractive and business is flourishing.
Jeers for our City Council for failing to return State Street to its pre-pandemic status leaving us with a an unattractive street filled with empty store fronts and little to show for some $800,000 in waisted monies.
Thank you for your summary of maybe good/ maybe not developments in our town. I hope you do more of this, because as thorough as you were there are do’s many more plans in the pipeline. Whenever I read of the Council paying consultants I have to wonder why we’re also paying City planners to supposedly be responsible for the same work! Currently, with the “te-imagined” State Street project we have a Planning Depr, an outside Consultant, and a volunteer committee of local architects all charged with developing a proposal. Sheesh. Cut the cord and our losses with the Consultant, and have the committee work with the City Planners. This shouldn’t be so hard nor take so long.
Reminder: The "state" is nothing more the collective voices of those we elect to serve this function.
Both state Senator Monique Limon(D) and state Assemblyman Gregg Hart(D) recently won re-election by wide margins. Clearly the majority of voters have spoken, so in fact we are doing this to ourselves.
Why would a majority of local voters support their own destruction? The better question is why is local voter turn-out remaining so low (40%?). What sapped the energies of the local electorate to passively become victims of "the state" - aka Monique Limon(D) and Gregg Hart(D) who continue to make ruinous Sacramento decisions in our names.
Someone in the City needs to grow a pair and tell the State to shove it. A nice lawsuit might be required. Additionally, isn’t CA losing residents?? Why the hell do WE have to house more people? And who are these people? CC students? UCSB students? Or the Hispanic labor force, currently shacked up 12 to an apartment, who will STILL not be able to afford a place of their own? It’s ridiculous what our city leaders are putting up with. I remember when BLM extorted $30,000 annually from Mayor Murillo. God only knows for what purpose? I doubt BLM does anything for anybody besides themselves. There has to be some way to battle these housing laws…
Huntington Beach is taking this route. Follow what they are doing and what consequences they have chosen to undertake. Electing a critical mass of new legislators and elected officials will change this overnight. Something we can all work on.
We don't need to change everyone's mind; just add to the large minority voting block that already exists and draw in the larger majority of voters who don't even show up to vote. Let's watch what Huntington Beach does.
ok, so i googled it. seems Huntington beach is losing. But I have a question about these new laws...one of which forces cities to 'make a plan' for more housing. Does it also legislate implementing said plan? How about making a plan, then stone-walling the f outta every attempt to do anything.... kinda like the city used to do with developers.
Anne, I watched Newsmakers with Jerry Roberts on You Tube yesterday, he was joined by Josh Molina for an interview with Roy Lee. At about 17:00 Roy shows that he's got the pair you're talking about. Among other things he said maybe it's time we push back at the State.
My uncle's name was Dan Seibert. Seibert is my mom's maiden name...and based on what's gone on in Huntington Beach, seems like suing the State will just result in them suing us back. I say give them their damn plan, just make sure it is never enacted. That will take a lot of people with balls in a lot of different positions, ESPECIALLy the planning department, which seems to be populated with 30-something liberal women who like making developers happy for some reason. maybe $$....
Regarding the laws in CA about housing. I think a good tactic at this point to fight the State is it is currently bleeding residents, not adding them. There can be no need to new housing if the population is in decline.
Almost ALL of the local people who have been here for years want State St. reopened to cars. We want our main drag back. We want thriving local small business and access to State St. We are not Santa Monica, and this promenade idea has never worked here. NO fountains in the middle of State Street, this is NOT Spain. California is a car driven state. Most of our tourism is in-state tourism and people drive up from the South and down from the North every day to visit. Listen to the locals, open State St. back up and restore it to its former glory. Emergency vehicles do need access.
As for your BLM comments, NO, they are NOT zealots, they just think that black lives matter as much as white lives. And I am so glad there is a watchdog police group to see to it.
No. Burn Loot Murder are zealots. And they don't give a #2 for the lives of victims who happen to be black. All they care about is pocketing the grift while promoting more death and destruction in black communities.
The average US commute time is 52 minutes. Jobs anywhere include commutes. Demanding all workers are paid enough to live only within Santa Barbara city limits in this premium market is a non-starter. Living and working within the greater Santa Barbara area remains a desirable option, when compared to commuting realities anywhere else in the US.
Try website Rome to Rio searches to see commute times to desirable suburbs from major metropolitan areas. For most it is closer to the one-way commute times.
Where does an approx 50 minute one-way commute drive take you from the main employment sites in Santa Barbara county, let alone city of Santa Barbara. UCSB and Goleta business parks along with the two main Cottage Hospitals are the primary employment worksite concentrations.
Demanding a right not to commute is a non-starter. Work up from there. How did it become the city of Santa Barbara's duty to provide housing, when so many major workplaces are not even within their boundaries.
Who is demanding a right not to commute? But saying the average commute is just under an hour per work day is OK - is like saying that the US obesity rate of over 40% is OK. Neither are a great number to use as a base line - or a goal.
Accepting the realities of a commute, means there is no requirement to "pack and stack" habitation units where they ruin the quality of life for everyone, when being asked to rely upon the oft-mention planning goal of eliminating "commutes".
Commutes can be buffered down time, the transition between work and home, time to listen to music or even favorite AM radio programming, particularly along our scenic coastal routes. Having done many of them in my own past - they were often a welcome zone of quiet, and time for reflection and reorganization.
Commutes are not necessarily the waste of time or unwanted stressors, as developers make them out to be. Question their authority when commutes are put on the table as a 100% negative that must be eliminated in toto.
Flexible work scheduling can mitigate commute times, which are the better option to "stack and packs" which ruin life-styles for everyone.
Be at your next Board of Supervisors and with all this information the people of Santa Barbara Want a complete audit of the city finances due to they are elected officials for the people and have violated their oath of Office.
Thank you for the summary.
It is obvious to any reasonable person our City wastes money, actually they put money into their buddies pockets. Perhaps not our Mayors buddies directly, but the Democratic Party line buddies.
Thee are plenty of examples, but a blatant one was with SBUSD when they hired “Coffee with a Black Guy” at $1,800/hour with no competing bids.
The gentleman hired had zero counseling experience or qualifications.
His qualifications were a personal relationship with a then sitting board member.
That board member now sits on the BOS.
Our local government is and has been corrupt.
For decades they’ve been driving businesses away, putting up road blocks to new businesses.
They fought development, fought turning Paseo and other empty commercial spaces into mixed use (residential up top, businesses on street level)
They’ve been “fighting the State” about new housing, denying, prolonging, making it extremely expensive for private landowners from building single family residences as well as putting off local developers want g to build units, like Capitol Hardware on Milpas and Cantwells on State.
Now they bend over for the State. Show me the bribes.
Guess it’s better than our government burning down SB like they did to Lahaina.
There’s money being handed out and our local government puppets are following orders.
Talk to your Democratic voting spouses friends, neighbors, kids. Ask them about what’s going on. Chances are their heads are buried and they have no idea.
good job city council
you wrote the book on how to destroy a once beautiful city
bravo
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”
People will soon discover the repercussions from the wussification of America. If you think things are bad now, give it another 5 minutes. Things will get significantly worse before they get better.
Eventually we will return to good times, and it won’t be because of capitulation and appeasement from hand wringers and pearl clutchers bowing to their government overlords.
As early as 1587 Dr, John Bridges said "A fool and his money are soon parted." Unfortunately the update is "A fool and our money are soon parted."
Well said as usual, Bonnie. Keep up the good work and strong reporting of the facts. People need to know what’s actually going on because most cannot attend all those meetings as you do. Your work is much appreciated!
And heaven knows the local media has a pro-city government bias. Who buys all their advertising? Politicians and government agencies.
Common sense is being upended by special interests and the gatekeepers are too easily swayed. The ability to think beyond just today, plan for the long-term future and remember the past seems sadly, to have disappeared from our City Leaders’ agendas. After 30 years of watching my commercial property in the 900 block of State Street being negatively impacted by poor decisions, coupled with the State of California’s ongoing, crazy new laws and taxes, I sold this property last week and moved my money to Texas, where common sense and a pro business attitude are rapidly attracting great numbers of California’s best producing families (including my son and his family) and leaving a void to be filled by undocumented immigrants with few resources and limited business acumen. It saddens me to no longer be able to be with my son, daughter in law and beautiful young grandkids, all born in Santa Barbara, as they grow and achieve so far away.
I was traveling between California and Texas for the past several years, more so since my son’s family moved here during the lockdown. My son couldn’t tolerate his small children in masks, “sheltering in place”. My son was 4th generation Santa Ynez but like your son, he sold his house and moved to Texas. I’m proud that he is doing what is best for his family.
I’m a native Californian, as were my parents. I can trace my roots back to the post Civil War ‘Orphan Trains’ which brought my great grandfather to San Francisco. My husband’s roots go back to pre-historic Chumash. It is very difficult to leave, but I am in Texas Hill Country full time now. It feels like America here. Texans are pro-liberty. They care about family, God and Country. I also left half of my family behind, and that is the hardest part. We talk every day but it is not the same as holding my precious Santa Barbara born granddaughters. They are visiting for the first time in over a year this weekend and I am over the moon.
Sorry you had to leave but we totally understand. I wish you the best. I’m staying here, begins enemy lines. For now.
Cheers for the Montecito Board of Architectural Review or whoever forced our City Council to return Coast Village Road to its pre-pandemic status. The unsightly parakeets are gone, the road is attractive and business is flourishing.
Jeers for our City Council for failing to return State Street to its pre-pandemic status leaving us with a an unattractive street filled with empty store fronts and little to show for some $800,000 in waisted monies.
Thank you for your summary of maybe good/ maybe not developments in our town. I hope you do more of this, because as thorough as you were there are do’s many more plans in the pipeline. Whenever I read of the Council paying consultants I have to wonder why we’re also paying City planners to supposedly be responsible for the same work! Currently, with the “te-imagined” State Street project we have a Planning Depr, an outside Consultant, and a volunteer committee of local architects all charged with developing a proposal. Sheesh. Cut the cord and our losses with the Consultant, and have the committee work with the City Planners. This shouldn’t be so hard nor take so long.
Reminder: The "state" is nothing more the collective voices of those we elect to serve this function.
Both state Senator Monique Limon(D) and state Assemblyman Gregg Hart(D) recently won re-election by wide margins. Clearly the majority of voters have spoken, so in fact we are doing this to ourselves.
Why would a majority of local voters support their own destruction? The better question is why is local voter turn-out remaining so low (40%?). What sapped the energies of the local electorate to passively become victims of "the state" - aka Monique Limon(D) and Gregg Hart(D) who continue to make ruinous Sacramento decisions in our names.
well that only addresses two problems
ahh utopia
Good job Bonnie
Someone in the City needs to grow a pair and tell the State to shove it. A nice lawsuit might be required. Additionally, isn’t CA losing residents?? Why the hell do WE have to house more people? And who are these people? CC students? UCSB students? Or the Hispanic labor force, currently shacked up 12 to an apartment, who will STILL not be able to afford a place of their own? It’s ridiculous what our city leaders are putting up with. I remember when BLM extorted $30,000 annually from Mayor Murillo. God only knows for what purpose? I doubt BLM does anything for anybody besides themselves. There has to be some way to battle these housing laws…
Huntington Beach is taking this route. Follow what they are doing and what consequences they have chosen to undertake. Electing a critical mass of new legislators and elected officials will change this overnight. Something we can all work on.
We don't need to change everyone's mind; just add to the large minority voting block that already exists and draw in the larger majority of voters who don't even show up to vote. Let's watch what Huntington Beach does.
ok, so i googled it. seems Huntington beach is losing. But I have a question about these new laws...one of which forces cities to 'make a plan' for more housing. Does it also legislate implementing said plan? How about making a plan, then stone-walling the f outta every attempt to do anything.... kinda like the city used to do with developers.
what route? Suing?
Anne, I watched Newsmakers with Jerry Roberts on You Tube yesterday, he was joined by Josh Molina for an interview with Roy Lee. At about 17:00 Roy shows that he's got the pair you're talking about. Among other things he said maybe it's time we push back at the State.
My uncle's name was Dan Seibert. Seibert is my mom's maiden name...and based on what's gone on in Huntington Beach, seems like suing the State will just result in them suing us back. I say give them their damn plan, just make sure it is never enacted. That will take a lot of people with balls in a lot of different positions, ESPECIALLy the planning department, which seems to be populated with 30-something liberal women who like making developers happy for some reason. maybe $$....
Regarding the laws in CA about housing. I think a good tactic at this point to fight the State is it is currently bleeding residents, not adding them. There can be no need to new housing if the population is in decline.
Almost ALL of the local people who have been here for years want State St. reopened to cars. We want our main drag back. We want thriving local small business and access to State St. We are not Santa Monica, and this promenade idea has never worked here. NO fountains in the middle of State Street, this is NOT Spain. California is a car driven state. Most of our tourism is in-state tourism and people drive up from the South and down from the North every day to visit. Listen to the locals, open State St. back up and restore it to its former glory. Emergency vehicles do need access.
As for your BLM comments, NO, they are NOT zealots, they just think that black lives matter as much as white lives. And I am so glad there is a watchdog police group to see to it.
No. Burn Loot Murder are zealots. And they don't give a #2 for the lives of victims who happen to be black. All they care about is pocketing the grift while promoting more death and destruction in black communities.
Why can't we fill the current vacancies for the City Police? The pay is in the middle $100K. Do the math and see if you could afford a home here.
maybe it’s because they don’t enjoy arresting 70 something year old ladies
who are stating facts
The average US commute time is 52 minutes. Jobs anywhere include commutes. Demanding all workers are paid enough to live only within Santa Barbara city limits in this premium market is a non-starter. Living and working within the greater Santa Barbara area remains a desirable option, when compared to commuting realities anywhere else in the US.
So that's 27 minutes each way.
Try website Rome to Rio searches to see commute times to desirable suburbs from major metropolitan areas. For most it is closer to the one-way commute times.
Where does an approx 50 minute one-way commute drive take you from the main employment sites in Santa Barbara county, let alone city of Santa Barbara. UCSB and Goleta business parks along with the two main Cottage Hospitals are the primary employment worksite concentrations.
Demanding a right not to commute is a non-starter. Work up from there. How did it become the city of Santa Barbara's duty to provide housing, when so many major workplaces are not even within their boundaries.
Who is demanding a right not to commute? But saying the average commute is just under an hour per work day is OK - is like saying that the US obesity rate of over 40% is OK. Neither are a great number to use as a base line - or a goal.
Accepting the realities of a commute, means there is no requirement to "pack and stack" habitation units where they ruin the quality of life for everyone, when being asked to rely upon the oft-mention planning goal of eliminating "commutes".
Commutes can be buffered down time, the transition between work and home, time to listen to music or even favorite AM radio programming, particularly along our scenic coastal routes. Having done many of them in my own past - they were often a welcome zone of quiet, and time for reflection and reorganization.
Commutes are not necessarily the waste of time or unwanted stressors, as developers make them out to be. Question their authority when commutes are put on the table as a 100% negative that must be eliminated in toto.
Flexible work scheduling can mitigate commute times, which are the better option to "stack and packs" which ruin life-styles for everyone.
The fact that you use 'favorite AM radio programing' says so much.
The US Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land as written so eloquently by our Christian For-Fathers and Framers in the 6th Amendment.
Be at your next Board of Supervisors and with all this information the people of Santa Barbara Want a complete audit of the city finances due to they are elected officials for the people and have violated their oath of Office.