The inconvenient truth that white liberals refuse to acknowledge or even discuss. The crime and murder rates in black communities is not only a criminal justice issue, but public health issue as well. There is indeed a crisis in the black community, resulting in an entire generation being lost.
Kudos to President Trump for trying to stop the death and destruction. Admittedly, those living in SB are CLUELESS about violent crime and the terror which those unfortunate enough to live in urban cities must suffer with on a daily basis.
Thank you for the commentary. It is good to hear firsthand account of the going on in our nation‘s capital better yet. It’s great to hear that. The president‘s efforts are having such a positive effect. You certainly wouldn’t know it from listening to media reports other than Fox.
Absolutely true. And then we all stare young and can make poor choices for a variety of reasons. So lighter consequences can be useful. But then again….. over and over? That why the old “3 strikes” guidelines were brillant. Even though inclined to act rashly and step outside the lines, knew those and checked themselves. That’s what we want
I like the images of national guard tending the roses and cleaning up the trash. The crime is in black communities so put the NG in those communities and actually address the claimed issue that they were deployed for. It is not happeneing because this is a PR exercise, nothing more.
Military trained personel have minimal training on the law of the land and traditionally have been poor at policing. This was never about crime. It was about attacking the blue. Crime rates are worse in many red cities. It is adversarial and ultimately non productive , worse it will be counter productive and destructive for the country. Should we mention create noise in the media to deflect from the Epstien saga too.
Typical smug and stupid liberal response. How many more victims will need to die? In Chicago alone over the past Labor Day weekend, there were over 70 shot with multiple deaths. I thought Black Lives Matter to you folks? Oh, that’s right as long as it’s a police related shooting, otherwise you look the other way.
Make America Safe Again! Bring in the troops, get rid of the homeless encampments, remove criminals and allow our inner cities to thrive again and prosper! Yes, the white liberal left is more than happy pointing the finger and doing NOTHING! The deployment of the National Guard in DC has resulted in NO murders in weeks and car jacking is down over 80%, not bc the NG is making service calls but bc of their overwhelming presence.
Chicago, St. Louis , New Orleans, Memphis and Jackson are next to be liberated!
Let me guess, you’re offended by our military being used to go after terrorist drug cartels as well?
Murder rates dramatically dropped. Pretty good for just a "publicity stunt". This will be a years long project, not just a made for TV sound bite. The length and depth of DC crimes stretches back to the last century and farther; not just New York minutes old that you claim a Trump magic wand should have already solved. Hang in there and have his back for the long haul. Even Mayor Bowser is happy Trump is lending a hand.
Thanks Peggy for the update. For comparison, in the 1990's when I spent time in a carriage house in D.C., walking around Georgetown or downtown D.C. was no problem day or night. Of course that was before Obama-Biden stacked the courts.
Interesting memory you have. Crime was at its peak in the early 1990s in DC. You know, crack and all? 482 homicides in 1991. Or maybe we feel more secure when we're younger? I did.
Thanks for your interest. when I first started taking the train to D.C. in the 1970's Union Station was a pit and the crime was so high that Gulf Oil had given up trying to manage two service stations on Martin Luther King Blvd. However, my comments were based on my travels in 1994-95 which was after Union Station had been renovated and the crime rate had dropped considerably since 1991. Of course in a city run by Democrats there are always places it is better to avoid.
Thanks for your on the spot report, triggering lots of memories for me. The city has obviously changed a lot since I lived in DC in the mid-1970's - the Watergate years - when we lived also in the North West (NW) section of this geographically-divided four part city - in the Palisades - just beyond Foggy Bottom and Georgetown.
It was intense living back then, before the DC Metro, taking a two hour bus commute each way to reach downtown business locations, even from our close-in NW district residence. I remember my California gasp when driving past the Watergate Hotel complex for the first time - national news (obsession at that time) had become very, very real at that moment. There was the infamous Watergate Hotel -the scene of the alleged Nixon team burglary.
And as residents we watched the downfall of a presidency while glued to this new 24/hour breaking news phenomena now happening in our own front yard, not something 3000 miles away. Step out for a moment to go grocery shopping and come back to learn suddenly half of Nixon's key people had resigned.
Georgetown was indeed prime back then too, WaPo writers ruled the media, Ben Bradlee and new "hot blond" wife Sally Quinn were the local media darlings still ruling the Georgetown Set, and Lady Bird Johnson's prior beautification program had newly framed much of the beauty this city has to offer. The NW sector of town had the advantage of being physically divided from the rest of the city by the large swath of Rock Creek Park allowing one to "live in the city" but not be part of the crime-riddled mess that often marked the rest of the city back then.
California relatives were horrified we were "living in the city" and suggested getting locks for all the doors and windows as housewarming gifts. We laughed because this NW part of town was quite lovely and serene. At that time abandoned and neglected neighborhoods were getting reclaimed: Capitol Hill and Logan Circle, as larger residential buildings were getting sold off as smaller unit condominiums, though Kalorama was very much off-limits, derelict with abandoned, but with gorgeous former diplomatic residences which unfortunately were on the "wrong" side of Rock Creek Park at that time. No more.
SE had just undergone extensive urban renewal, but had yet to earn any success reputation at that time. It was the place for social experimentation as a large-scale planned community. NE was dicey and a rank embarrassment, when taking the airport commuter bus from the Baltimore/Wash DC airport entry back into the city itself.
One quickly learned taking the wrong turn off the confusing gridwork of streets could instantly put you in a "wrong neighborhood" where you made sure your car doors were locked and running red lights when safe was the safer option that sitting even for a moment at a traffic signal stop in some parts of town. One kept asking even back then, how could our nation's Capitol stand for the very worst of urban life in this country. And we were doing nothing about this.
Friends who chose to live in these newly transitional neighborhoods, accepted living with crime and knowing they could come back finding their entire apartments had been stripped clean. Housing costs, which were very high back then, were the reason they were willing to take these chances accepting crime was a fact of live living on the edges in these newly gentrifying parts of town. Yet they were only a stone's throw away from the Halls of Congress and the US Supreme Court.
It was a time of the "home rule" transition when the DC schools were abject failures because the elected schools boards became a substitute for local politicos like coke addict Marion Barry to thrash out local political matters while ignoring local DC schools issues totally. Congress who was in charge of managing this federal district neglected their duties, so the call for "home rule" was valid. But that also turned out to be just another brand of neglect and civic malaise that we still find today.
I do support Trump's strong medicine to bring this critically important city and symbol to stand for what is right about American life, and not the confused mixed message for too long it has also portrayed. The best of times and the worst of times, all within its four part federal district called Washington DC.
Isn't an analysis of crime in Georgetown just a look at the most affluent part of DC, where the elite have their townhouses? As if taking the crime statistics of Montecito tells anything about the overall picture of our Eastside vs Westside, or the Goleta gangs. One break-in at a famous person's estate in the Upper Village makes the news, while stabbings overdoses and murders in the underbelly of the "encampments" and crowded neighborhoods is business as usual. Lots of poor people at risk for pressure from cartels and whose children are in the 50% who cannot read at grade level.... the pretty little town has an underbelly of seething resentment by those for whom the American Dream is failing.
Nothing like having the truth that had become so common place that it was to be ignored.
The author states looking around and noticing everyone around her locked everything ... did not notice that. Hummmmmmm
How about Santa Barbara where years of council lack of caring has produced shooting, stabbings, increased gang activity, bodies in the streets, dangerous bicycle, e-motorcycle middle finger, a failed vision less vision zero, 10's of millions spent on failed street destruction, the idiotic walk in streets regardless of how safe it is, and then glare at the guy driving to get groceries. Isn't that a great run-on sentence? (Sorry Mr. Mount)
Think the tourists that used to drive up from LA don't notice? Think the working poor and middle class don't notice these growing social and criminal failures?
When the Mayor of DC states - gee looks like it is working. When the Governor of the late not so great state of Calif. deploys the Highway Patrol - ala Donald Trump - to quell out of control cities (Trump stated that and was damn'd for saying it) you know the majority party has failed not just in Santa Barbara.
The current elected majority in south county have become so numbed to social and political failure it is the forest for the trees. The manifesto is more important then outcomes.
TOT down, retail sales tax down. The mother's milk of city employee paychecks, perks and pensions. Taking bets. How quickly will they blame Trump, instead of their own decades ignoring the obvious.
Fyi, one can never be too vigilant! I lock my car doors the first thing I do once I shut the door wherever I am, I never leave my purse unattended in the grocery cart, my purse always has zipper closures. I’ve lived in Paris with roaming gypsies, NYC with pickpockets too. Since my return to SB I’ve not let my guard down and keep up the same habits.
🍒🍒🍒
On a happy note the Chef, Roth from Stella Mare is now at The Harbor Restaurant serving up some delicious plates.
As long as this branched into foodie talk, let me also give a shout out to Jill's Place (Shalhoob) on Santa Barbara Street, often mentioned by regulars here - our first visit last night -just honest, basic food at far less than nose-bleed Santa Barbara prices with a very happy local "Cheers" sort of vibe.
Cannot beat their early bird dinner specials until 6:30 weekdays for $25, (including sirloin), and do choose the homemade split pea soup instead of the salad for some down home comfort food. Or go for broke and get both for a small surcharge. Yes, we are coming back to try the meatloaf.
Show me one business in town that was not a mask-nazi, during the alleged "covid emergency". In a town with a highly coordinated Karen Patrol, ready to report even the slightest infraction.
During a large jury duty call during the Covid Hysteria, several sheriffs strong-armed a guy who refused to mask up while proclaiming masks were a joke ( later proven correct). The gathered jury duty crowd cheered as he was escorted out the door. Lest we forget - we were being policed for masks from within and from without. Yes, Joe did that too.
I bumped into a friend who moved from Montecito to Chicago number of years ago. Included in our chat was my question about how safe she felt living there based on the "news" regarding crime in that city. She responded that it "wasn't bad"...in part because she adapted to "not going out at night". A very nice person...and a classic liberal.
Too afraid to take the trash out.
It’s like they unlocked all the cages at the zoo.
The inconvenient truth that white liberals refuse to acknowledge or even discuss. The crime and murder rates in black communities is not only a criminal justice issue, but public health issue as well. There is indeed a crisis in the black community, resulting in an entire generation being lost.
Kudos to President Trump for trying to stop the death and destruction. Admittedly, those living in SB are CLUELESS about violent crime and the terror which those unfortunate enough to live in urban cities must suffer with on a daily basis.
https://giffords.org/lawcenter/report/gun-violence-in-black-communities/
Giffords.org has a lot of interesting info - thanks.
Thank you for the commentary. It is good to hear firsthand account of the going on in our nation‘s capital better yet. It’s great to hear that. The president‘s efforts are having such a positive effect. You certainly wouldn’t know it from listening to media reports other than Fox.
It is amazing what happens when there are consequences for negative behavior. It’s so fundamental: feedback shapes behavior.
Absolutely true. And then we all stare young and can make poor choices for a variety of reasons. So lighter consequences can be useful. But then again….. over and over? That why the old “3 strikes” guidelines were brillant. Even though inclined to act rashly and step outside the lines, knew those and checked themselves. That’s what we want
I like the images of national guard tending the roses and cleaning up the trash. The crime is in black communities so put the NG in those communities and actually address the claimed issue that they were deployed for. It is not happeneing because this is a PR exercise, nothing more.
Military trained personel have minimal training on the law of the land and traditionally have been poor at policing. This was never about crime. It was about attacking the blue. Crime rates are worse in many red cities. It is adversarial and ultimately non productive , worse it will be counter productive and destructive for the country. Should we mention create noise in the media to deflect from the Epstien saga too.
Typical smug and stupid liberal response. How many more victims will need to die? In Chicago alone over the past Labor Day weekend, there were over 70 shot with multiple deaths. I thought Black Lives Matter to you folks? Oh, that’s right as long as it’s a police related shooting, otherwise you look the other way.
Make America Safe Again! Bring in the troops, get rid of the homeless encampments, remove criminals and allow our inner cities to thrive again and prosper! Yes, the white liberal left is more than happy pointing the finger and doing NOTHING! The deployment of the National Guard in DC has resulted in NO murders in weeks and car jacking is down over 80%, not bc the NG is making service calls but bc of their overwhelming presence.
Chicago, St. Louis , New Orleans, Memphis and Jackson are next to be liberated!
Let me guess, you’re offended by our military being used to go after terrorist drug cartels as well?
https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/dayton-murder-rate-among-nations-highest-as-trump-sends-troops-to-high-crime-cities/PQKTEB57P5DJXO7SG7EVLJOAEE/
Murder rates dramatically dropped. Pretty good for just a "publicity stunt". This will be a years long project, not just a made for TV sound bite. The length and depth of DC crimes stretches back to the last century and farther; not just New York minutes old that you claim a Trump magic wand should have already solved. Hang in there and have his back for the long haul. Even Mayor Bowser is happy Trump is lending a hand.
Thanks Peggy for the update. For comparison, in the 1990's when I spent time in a carriage house in D.C., walking around Georgetown or downtown D.C. was no problem day or night. Of course that was before Obama-Biden stacked the courts.
Interesting memory you have. Crime was at its peak in the early 1990s in DC. You know, crack and all? 482 homicides in 1991. Or maybe we feel more secure when we're younger? I did.
Thanks for your interest. when I first started taking the train to D.C. in the 1970's Union Station was a pit and the crime was so high that Gulf Oil had given up trying to manage two service stations on Martin Luther King Blvd. However, my comments were based on my travels in 1994-95 which was after Union Station had been renovated and the crime rate had dropped considerably since 1991. Of course in a city run by Democrats there are always places it is better to avoid.
Thanks for your on the spot report, triggering lots of memories for me. The city has obviously changed a lot since I lived in DC in the mid-1970's - the Watergate years - when we lived also in the North West (NW) section of this geographically-divided four part city - in the Palisades - just beyond Foggy Bottom and Georgetown.
It was intense living back then, before the DC Metro, taking a two hour bus commute each way to reach downtown business locations, even from our close-in NW district residence. I remember my California gasp when driving past the Watergate Hotel complex for the first time - national news (obsession at that time) had become very, very real at that moment. There was the infamous Watergate Hotel -the scene of the alleged Nixon team burglary.
And as residents we watched the downfall of a presidency while glued to this new 24/hour breaking news phenomena now happening in our own front yard, not something 3000 miles away. Step out for a moment to go grocery shopping and come back to learn suddenly half of Nixon's key people had resigned.
Georgetown was indeed prime back then too, WaPo writers ruled the media, Ben Bradlee and new "hot blond" wife Sally Quinn were the local media darlings still ruling the Georgetown Set, and Lady Bird Johnson's prior beautification program had newly framed much of the beauty this city has to offer. The NW sector of town had the advantage of being physically divided from the rest of the city by the large swath of Rock Creek Park allowing one to "live in the city" but not be part of the crime-riddled mess that often marked the rest of the city back then.
California relatives were horrified we were "living in the city" and suggested getting locks for all the doors and windows as housewarming gifts. We laughed because this NW part of town was quite lovely and serene. At that time abandoned and neglected neighborhoods were getting reclaimed: Capitol Hill and Logan Circle, as larger residential buildings were getting sold off as smaller unit condominiums, though Kalorama was very much off-limits, derelict with abandoned, but with gorgeous former diplomatic residences which unfortunately were on the "wrong" side of Rock Creek Park at that time. No more.
SE had just undergone extensive urban renewal, but had yet to earn any success reputation at that time. It was the place for social experimentation as a large-scale planned community. NE was dicey and a rank embarrassment, when taking the airport commuter bus from the Baltimore/Wash DC airport entry back into the city itself.
One quickly learned taking the wrong turn off the confusing gridwork of streets could instantly put you in a "wrong neighborhood" where you made sure your car doors were locked and running red lights when safe was the safer option that sitting even for a moment at a traffic signal stop in some parts of town. One kept asking even back then, how could our nation's Capitol stand for the very worst of urban life in this country. And we were doing nothing about this.
Friends who chose to live in these newly transitional neighborhoods, accepted living with crime and knowing they could come back finding their entire apartments had been stripped clean. Housing costs, which were very high back then, were the reason they were willing to take these chances accepting crime was a fact of live living on the edges in these newly gentrifying parts of town. Yet they were only a stone's throw away from the Halls of Congress and the US Supreme Court.
It was a time of the "home rule" transition when the DC schools were abject failures because the elected schools boards became a substitute for local politicos like coke addict Marion Barry to thrash out local political matters while ignoring local DC schools issues totally. Congress who was in charge of managing this federal district neglected their duties, so the call for "home rule" was valid. But that also turned out to be just another brand of neglect and civic malaise that we still find today.
I do support Trump's strong medicine to bring this critically important city and symbol to stand for what is right about American life, and not the confused mixed message for too long it has also portrayed. The best of times and the worst of times, all within its four part federal district called Washington DC.
Isn't an analysis of crime in Georgetown just a look at the most affluent part of DC, where the elite have their townhouses? As if taking the crime statistics of Montecito tells anything about the overall picture of our Eastside vs Westside, or the Goleta gangs. One break-in at a famous person's estate in the Upper Village makes the news, while stabbings overdoses and murders in the underbelly of the "encampments" and crowded neighborhoods is business as usual. Lots of poor people at risk for pressure from cartels and whose children are in the 50% who cannot read at grade level.... the pretty little town has an underbelly of seething resentment by those for whom the American Dream is failing.
Nothing like having the truth that had become so common place that it was to be ignored.
The author states looking around and noticing everyone around her locked everything ... did not notice that. Hummmmmmm
How about Santa Barbara where years of council lack of caring has produced shooting, stabbings, increased gang activity, bodies in the streets, dangerous bicycle, e-motorcycle middle finger, a failed vision less vision zero, 10's of millions spent on failed street destruction, the idiotic walk in streets regardless of how safe it is, and then glare at the guy driving to get groceries. Isn't that a great run-on sentence? (Sorry Mr. Mount)
Think the tourists that used to drive up from LA don't notice? Think the working poor and middle class don't notice these growing social and criminal failures?
When the Mayor of DC states - gee looks like it is working. When the Governor of the late not so great state of Calif. deploys the Highway Patrol - ala Donald Trump - to quell out of control cities (Trump stated that and was damn'd for saying it) you know the majority party has failed not just in Santa Barbara.
The current elected majority in south county have become so numbed to social and political failure it is the forest for the trees. The manifesto is more important then outcomes.
Thanks for the awakening article.
TOT down, retail sales tax down. The mother's milk of city employee paychecks, perks and pensions. Taking bets. How quickly will they blame Trump, instead of their own decades ignoring the obvious.
Thank you so much for sharing this first hand account with us on the west coast. It’s good to have a reality check.
Fyi, one can never be too vigilant! I lock my car doors the first thing I do once I shut the door wherever I am, I never leave my purse unattended in the grocery cart, my purse always has zipper closures. I’ve lived in Paris with roaming gypsies, NYC with pickpockets too. Since my return to SB I’ve not let my guard down and keep up the same habits.
🍒🍒🍒
On a happy note the Chef, Roth from Stella Mare is now at The Harbor Restaurant serving up some delicious plates.
As long as this branched into foodie talk, let me also give a shout out to Jill's Place (Shalhoob) on Santa Barbara Street, often mentioned by regulars here - our first visit last night -just honest, basic food at far less than nose-bleed Santa Barbara prices with a very happy local "Cheers" sort of vibe.
Cannot beat their early bird dinner specials until 6:30 weekdays for $25, (including sirloin), and do choose the homemade split pea soup instead of the salad for some down home comfort food. Or go for broke and get both for a small surcharge. Yes, we are coming back to try the meatloaf.
They were covid mask jerks. Will never patronize Jill’s.
Show me one business in town that was not a mask-nazi, during the alleged "covid emergency". In a town with a highly coordinated Karen Patrol, ready to report even the slightest infraction.
During a large jury duty call during the Covid Hysteria, several sheriffs strong-armed a guy who refused to mask up while proclaiming masks were a joke ( later proven correct). The gathered jury duty crowd cheered as he was escorted out the door. Lest we forget - we were being policed for masks from within and from without. Yes, Joe did that too.
I just recall Jill's place to be the most severe. It was the only place I felt were taking it too far.
Maybe they had been hit with prior infractions?
Maybe they are just jerks
Who killed Seth Rich in DC? Botched robbery where they forgot to steal? Or assassination of the person who leaked the DNC emails?
I bumped into a friend who moved from Montecito to Chicago number of years ago. Included in our chat was my question about how safe she felt living there based on the "news" regarding crime in that city. She responded that it "wasn't bad"...in part because she adapted to "not going out at night". A very nice person...and a classic liberal.
Why is there an article on SB Independent speaking of a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood written by Jim Buckley?
"Balancing the Books
Annual Book Sale Aims to
Help Refund Planned Parenthood
By Jim Buckley | Photos by Ingrid Bostrom
September 4, 2025" - anyone care to explain?
Same great name, completely different person. https://www.independent.com/2025/09/03/jim-covers-all-the-bases-for-planned-parenthood/