All I want for Christmas is a jack hammer, and an Army tank! It’s not too late to save Santa Barbara! Staff bureaucrats control Santa Barbara decisions: they ignore the purpose and maintenance of public streets and they’ve destroyed downtown. Replace “do more” Council Reps who waste tax money, raid Measure C Funds, and are close to depleting emergency reserves — with proven successful turnaround business executives in open seats D4,5,and 6. Voters: Take back control. Consider expanding Council to elect 1 or 2 City at-large reps to ensure consideration of the entire City in decision making. Excellent summation Scott! Appreciate the crisis reminder. Santa Monica’s rent control has also failed. Imagine my Aunt who pays $650/mo while neighbors pay up to $9400/mo for their 2-bed ocean view apartment to subsidize hers and others.
Why don’t voters think 2-steps ahead about unintended consequences? Why are tax payers tolerant of such high incompetence of elected reps?
Truth! Everywhere one looks across the Democrat run blue cities and states we see the living definition of Einstein‘s definition of insanity. Socialism has not worked in Russia, nor Venezuela, and it is not going to work in New York or Santa Barbara. For people to stand by and watch this happen and just say la la la la la is truly tragic.
When I moved to SM in the mid-90s, thought I had died and gone to heaven. 3rd St Promenade was jumping back then, including numerous clubs, eateries and three clusters of movie theaters. My buddy and another surfer shared a solid Craftsman house on Euclid built in the 1920’s. We all (gladly) busted our tails to make the high monthly rent.
I would run into slackers living in nice rent controlled pads near the beach paying a pittance for as long as they wished to remain. I wondered how the hell is that going to work? It didn’t…
Ventura may beat both Santa Monica and Santa Barbara to the business bankruptcy finish line. Couple that to the extremely narrow traffic corridor through which Ventura's shuttered Main Street runs. Most of this mess in Vta is being pushed via a shadowy NGO run by someone with a couple dozen online identities who has grifted other regions prior. Nothing says freedom and vitality like destroying a town's connection to it's history by jamming a round peg into a square hole.
David Puu- we need a voter guide that rates elected officials; informs of organized activist NGOs and NPOs which names their donors and Board Directors. It’s time to know who is who in every community.
I hear Ventura County is about to get a comprehensive score card of its BOS officials
LT - “suppose to” vs “does”. SB Chapter LWV is partisan, totally biased, showing blatant favoritism. Eastside & Westside are historical “no-go” zones of no interest. Apparently not wealthy enough to justify their time. At the last D1, 2,3 Forum, it was so obvious to be embarrassing. LWV to be avoid if fairness, neutrality are the objectives.
A very good trip down memory lane, Scott. Thank you. I also remember those days with Fred Vega before the Blum-Schneider-Murillo trio moved the needle permanently in this city to a one-party, one ideology rule. When compared to the prior non-partisan city councils and locally focused mayorships of Sheila Lodge, Hal Conklin (truncated) and Harriet Miller.
I also remember my few visits to the Santa Monica 3rd Street Mall which left me with very mixed feelings about this urban planning device. A 15 minute stroll from top to bottom revealed a ghost town of failed or failing businesses in the upper stretches. While the lower few blocks felt artificially frenetic with very loud amplified "music" and linked directly to an enclosed large shopping mall with its ubiquitous high rise parking garage for these Third Street Mall visitors.
Using data from Transparent California a few years back also, I compared staffing numbers for various similarly sized California coastal cities with a similar mix of tourism, business, educational and residential amenities. Only Santa Monica, Berkeley and Santa Barbara required city staffing nearly twice as large as any other similar municipalities. Note these three cities, Santa Monica, Berkeley and now Santa Barbara are often nick-named the People's Republic of .......
Yes, there was a turning point for our city and with the local DSA* already fielding candidates for all open 2026 city council seats, in our extremely flawed "district elections", thing can still get so much worse.
*DSA - Democrat Socialists of America working hand in glove with SEIU -government employee unions. District elections have hobbled any semblance of fair representation for this city at large. There must be a movement to switch back at least a hybrid model of various city district residential requirements, but all candidates still being voted for at large by all city residents.
A pending SCOTUS ruling however may finally eliminate as unconstitutional our current California Voting Rights Act population-based district election model requiring the creation of two special racially (Hispanic-speaking linguistically)- protected voting districts.
Good question. Years ago the city twice had an outside management specialist do a study on this city's staffing. Both concluded they had twice the numbers as any other equivalent city.
That is what led me to check the data for other similar 90,000 or so coastal cities which indeed did underscore these two independent management consultant studies.
Reducing city staff is never pretty, and the howls from all city employee unions are far louder than any Elon Musk Vandenberg rocket launch and far-longer lasting. How does that answer your question -a matter of both political will and political expediency.
That is where voters cast their own voices to either withstand the howls and get a grip on fiscal realities, or continue to drive this city off the fiscal cliff. This is playing out all across this country now .The harvest of an entire teacher union -indoctrinated "woke" generation heading into unknown future consequences. On paper it looks 100% unsustainable. But maybe there is a black swan we cannot yet see on the horizon.
That will now be Gen Z's job to come up with it. Print more money; tax the rich; confiscate all private property and means of production. There are only a very few finite options. NYC will certainly be our first hot house experiment exploring these "new" options.
TikTok apparently is where this new message from the mount will come flowing down to the rest of us. We all need Plan B's.
Wow, what a contrast. Great find, LT. My approach was far more tedious several years ago with scratch paper and looking up each city individually., But with AI we can now be asking these important questions.
Before we are required ask the really important one - how do we get from point A to point B? Two prior city management studies pointing out excessive city staffing did get ignored. What forces came in to play that allowed that to happen. Siri, Siri any answers?
Wait, there’s more! If I’m reading the data correctly and according to this site, which is very granular, it costs less to build a city than it does to fund chronic homelessness for 8 months in California!
Buying up every for sale home in Trona, including repairing the as-is fixer uppers is way cheaper than converting a downtown motel for 34 "homeless".
We have a nationwide misallocation of already available housing resources far more than we have a "homeless" problem, let alone "crisis" in our premium demand coastal city. This has been obvious ever since they started selling perfectly good middle class homes in Detroit for one dollar.
Let’s hope the SCOTUS ruling eliminates racial, ethic groupings; and for 2020 Census to count non-citizens separate from citizens for creation of voting districts.
And may I remember this from your post elce: “Only Santa Monica, Berkeley and Santa Barbara required city staffing nearly twice as large as any other similar municipalities. Note these three cities, Santa Monica, Berkeley and now Santa Barbara are often nick-named the People's Republic of .......”
It would be good to update those numbers today: I looked for California coastal cities with similar mission of around 90,000 populations. There may be different picture today. But good old Transparent California at least puts this basic data at our fingertips.
Problem is now that government costs per capita have long been published on Transparent California, this may well have trigged a demand for inflation pressures from the lower ratio cities, so more cities today may now look more like the People's Republic of ........XYZ. Monkey see, monkey do. Unions gonna union.
I remember as a kid, my Dad taking me to “Pacific Ocean Park” back in the early 60’s, then headed over to “Marine Land,” for a great family outing. Those days are clearly over now, instead tripping over junkies and the mentally ill, taking your chances on being assaulted, or worse!
Should we fill sorry or pity for Santa Monica and Venice, or is this on them? My son’s friend lives in SM off of Wilshire, where the family owns a large apartment building. We parked my son’s car there and headed over to LAX to catch a flight. The parking structure is on total lockdown so as to keep vandals and thieves at bay. Surrounded by despair, all in the middle of the Wilshire business district, not a cop in sight anywhere.
I just saw the news blurb, Karen Bass is being challenged in her next election, by wait for it…a Democrat- Socialist, and “Community Activist,” Rae Huang! It would appear Bass isn’t even wacky liberal and incompetent enough for the DSP!
As for Santa Barbara, voters have a clear choice next go round, failure, despair and mayhem versus sanity and prosperity. Living in Goleta, I really don’t have a horse in this race, if stupid people want the former over the later, so be it. Unfortunately, the “Goodland” seems to follow SB politically and affected by the same failed, liberal mentality.
Time is running out for us, good, fearless people need to come forward, otherwise the DSP takeover will be complete.
SLO, Ventura, and Santa Barbara DSA chapters invite you to spend a day on the beach with other socialists! Potluck style. Games are welcome. Contact contact@dsasb.org for more information.
DSA - Santa Barbara Chapter is thriving, not just surviving. It’s well funded. Local membership includes respected community leaders, educators, and major donors. https://dsasb.org/
What "community leaders and educators" are not already thoroughly corrupted by the power of the government employee unions? Which "major donors" do not secretly want these problems in someone else's back yards, and not their own?
I contend is no daylight between government employee unions and Democrat Socialists of America. Though I suspect in the future their disparate missions will clash, but currently both require unending streams of OPM.
LT, unlike you, who BTW I appreciate, too few locals care to be informed or to research anything. I get a half a dozen requests a day for me to do what those contacting me can easily do themself. Are they lazy or elitist or what?
Liberal attorneys are losing Santa Barbara County Millions each year from our General Fund. With a budget of over 1.6 BILLION DOLLARS why should this matter to us? The Uber-rich bail out the wokeness! WHY is PUBLIC POLICY supporting delusional constructs???
If SBCC stopped paying Attorney Craig Price, Griffith & Thornburgh, there’d be plenty of money for construction of a 4-story parking garage, facility upgrades, modernized classrooms, essential labs, computers, and more!
Current Trustees are all in on it; former trustees with integrity who monitored money, waste, abuse are devalued, and even threatened with harm by locals!!
I long suspected there was a sinister quid pro quo between Silicon Valley oligarchs who do fund the majority of state tax revenues and the wacko Democrat fringe which mainly supports growing the vast numbers of government employees, along with many suspect NGO fronts.
Here is my suspected bargain with the devils: Silicon Valley says we will continue to support your wacko Democrat candidates and causes, but in return keep your G.D. unions out of Silicon Valley. And thus, for the most part this has come to pass.
Isn't odd Democrats who want to micromanage everything and make every job a union job, have left Silicon Valley employees pretty much alone?
Right you are elce. Or how about how Cottage Health System has managed to keep the Unions out? Both SV and CHS, lefty favorites for donations, but manage to keep their entities as closed shops!
Love the mention of Fred Vega!! Class act. He was every bit your description and more. He had a unique and gentle demeanor while taking on difficult local and national topics while providing a forum for both sides. Illegal immigration was a topic from which he did not avoid....especially during the era of Prop 187. While he caught the ire of the open borders crowd, particularly because of his ethnicity, he was a person of principle, i.e., Cesar Chavez.
We could use a similar forum today where citizens from all perspectives could communicate in an environment not limited to three minutes in front of disinterested, yawning "officials" who have already made up their union backed minds.
I have lived here for only 4 years and only go to the down town zone if absolutely necessary. Take a look at Palm Desert if you want to see a thriving city center.
I enjoyed living in Palm Desert off of County Club Drive back in the 80’s. The company I worked for at the time helped start the open heart surgical program at Desert Hospital. The politics in Palm Springs is very similar to Santa Barbara, old money that wants a stable, orderly, clean community. Except, PS has a much larger gay community and the 120 degree weather keeps the homeless population in check.
Can anyone imagine Palm Canyon Drive being closed to cars?
When living in Ventura County, I loved visiting Santa Barbara. Not the same city now. Currently living in the desert city of La Quinta, I see how smart planning all around each desert city has made it a great and thriving area. Just ask the thousands who vacation and winter here!
There are so many examples of failed downtown main streets when closed to cars throughout the USA. Many of those have reopened. Thank you, Scott, for your common sense approach and keeping this topic at the forefront of discussion.
Let's hope that Santa Barbara will come to its senses about reopening State Street and those folks who think people that want it reopened is because of their disdain for kids on e-bikes have their heads in the sand. I would venture that most who want it to stay closed are either recent implants to Santa Barbara and are unaware of what it once was or have a financial stake in the process of turning Santa Barbara into a 15 minute city.
The paralel between these two cities is striking. When you prioritize ideology over practicl outcomes, this is what happens. Streets exist for a reason and the evidence from Santa Monica should have been a clear warning sign. The irony is that the 15-minute city concept actualy requires functional infrastructure, not the dismantling of it. Businesses need customers to arrive somehow.
Did any of you happen to spend time on State Street this weekend? The streets, despite the rain, were lined with hundreds of pedestrians. Satellite, where I work, was packed all night long as were the places in the lower State. Are cars driving up State Street really going to impact how people shop at brick and mortar stores? I hear a lot of banter but even if we brought back cars, they are still going to have to park off State and people are still going to walk in to shop, dine and play.
Regarding the comments about proper parking per unit, what is proper these days when many are chosing to not own cars and utilize ride/car share options when needed?
BTW... good job at getting the " openly radical Socialist Council" statement into the conversation... such statements confirm what a bang up job our Republican and Democratic leaders/media are doing at keeping us divided, hate filled and justified in our loathing for differing points of view.
I won't answer you directly, rather I think you will find the You Tube page, 'Santa Barbara Talks" helpful. Yesterday the guest on the show was Jim Knell. Jim has more of a vested interest in the success of State street than any person commenting here. I don't agree with everything he says but his opinion carry's a lot of weight. Not as much as the "River Nile," that was State street Saturday night.
And you people want to turn it into a promenade? How about paying for some engineering studies in flood control from Victoria to Gutierrez streets? Oh shoot, I'm starting to answer you. . . bye.
Just talking about pedestrian traffic in the Lower State Street bar zone is not a sign of non-weekend overall city downtown economic health.
Maybe we need to just carve out those few blocks of the bar zone, and leave the rest of the street alone in order to move back to its original design and intent - a major city transportation corridor with a collection of one-stop commercial activities that serves the community; not just the tourism sector.
Do we have any numbers on the costs to the city for having this Lower State Street active bar zone - does it require enhanced police support, clean up costs, what city revenues does it in fact generate. should these few blocks create its own special enterprise zone? Last time I entered into it a few months ago, it was filthy.
I think Randy gets more flak than he deserves. The title 'mayor' in this town is really just another vote and figurehead position. As TVW mentions below, he's often the sole or one of a few voting against the majority. And as 'mayor,' that vote is all he has besides scissors for ribbon-cutting events.
Gads JT! The Mayor position is full time pay, for FT work. The position is what you make it. It’s our City’s Top Job! Your ribbon cutting expectations have been met so you are satisfied: ‘job well done’.
At the same time, you choose to ignore deficit spending, raiding of both Measure C earmarked funding, the housing trust fund, and emergency reserves. The Mayor, any Mayor, is expected to lead, to message, to be a force for results needed to keep SB thriving not barely surviving.
Please — with all due respect to differences of opinion — rethink your expectations and associated taxpayer cost of the Mayor position.
The mayor is not our city's top job. That would be the person who actually captains the ship - the city administrator. And that person makes what 3x 4x the mayor? And I'm not saying anyone is or is not meeting my expectations, I'm just saying I think Randy gets more grief from the public that thinks he's in charge and has more power than he does.
I might be wrong here, but I also didn't think that the mayor, or any of the council, was considered a full-time job. The money they make a year aside.....
Correct TVW: Mayor Rowse favors opening State St. However, likeable, nice guy Rowse has been a weak leader unable or unwilling to message to voters to make them aware, to build a coalition that’s required to get results. In the meantime business owners scream, and now property owners are in the process of suing City for lost values. Santa Barbara needs executive-class leaders!
DSASB will likely fill open seats D4,5,6. Endorsed allies already fill D1-Eastside (SantaMaria) and D-3 Westside (Gutierrez).
Since this is a company town, government employee unions will continue to call all the shots.
They finally need to connect their own paychecks, perks and pensions require an economically thriving city, not a declining mess they have created over their own past few decades of government employee union-dominated strangulation. Explode the expenses and destroy the revenues is not a good working , business model.
Not sure why this is not obvious to their own selfish interests, but so far they still seem drunk on some magical source of unending OPM. "They'll find the money" is their one-note response to any actuarial alarms shoved directly in their faces.
Mike: Randy Rowse is not a failed mayor. Voters failed to give him a city council majority to get anything done. The recent conversion to district elections with now two entire city council seats representing two protected, extremely low-voter turnout "majority-minority" districts has not helped this unsustainable political equation.
We do not have the will of the voters running this city today; we have the will of the super-majority Democrat state legislature running this city. (Monique Limon and Gregg Hart, that is your failure factory. Take a bow.)
Respectfully, he's weak and ineffective--and in no way charismatic--which would permit him to be more persuasive! I pass him on the street or in the park and he looks down-he's the mayor! That said, I have voted for him every time he has run since, he represents the closest we will ever get to a moderate! He has not attempted to educate (sway) the general electorate on the failed programs and ideas of the endless progressive council members he has served with. Write an instructive opinion piece every week organize forums and throw up more roadblocks on the Dais, and hammer home to the citizens how we are losing this city and more importantly why they must help change course.
Agree Mike! Randy hasn’t been an effective mayor. He will be opposed by Kristen Sneddon, who announced her bid yesterday — early to locking donors and endorsements. Kristen has been mentored by no growth former Mayor Sheila Lodge, supports rent control to appear supportive of struggling residents while knowing it’s the back door to no growth. Sneddon has raided designated Measure C and Housing Trust Funds, supports aliens, and is politically ambitious. Combined with her husband taxpayers compensate them about $750,000 annually.
D5 Rep Eric Friedman who is also termed out and expected to run. Other candidates expected to announce this Spring.
Slightly different take, if Rowse is not a “failed” Mayor, he’s certainly compromised. Put it this way, he was a better restaurateur! Yes, the “Balkanization” of SB by virtue of district elections, concocted in order to get more “brown people” into elected office, has been a monumental failure to the community!
The voters continually vote the same socialists into power. I have lived here ten years and every year I ask the same a question. Where is the California Republican party? When and where do they prioritize their efforts to influence voters to see the damage caused by elected officials and and seek a better way?
Spot on Derek: We need a local party that represents moderates, taxpayers, fiscal conservatives (NPPs, Republicans, and moderate Democrats) all ignored by current elected progressive Democrats and DSASB. Republicans have been asleep. NPPs have no party organizing them.
By 2027, I bet Council will be majority DSASB ‘ally endorsed’. They’ve got 2-seated now. Three open seats await their candidates getting into ready position.
Relative newcomer to SB Gabe Escobedo is expected to be DSA ‘ally endorsed’ and 15-Minute City supported. Gabe then moves from Pres of SBUSD School Board to representing D6 Downtown unless … Downtown voters aggressively support and fund the announced D6 opponent NPP Nick Sebastian.
While it’s early to pull papers, Nick Sebastian saw what’s coming in the lineup. He immediately replied to Kristen Sneddon’s announcement yesterday.
———-
The Progressive/ Socialist Bench is full, candidates prepared, trained, supported.
DSASB Candidates for Elected Office
Santa Barbara City Council:
District 1: Wendy Santamaria – chapter endorsed
District 3: Oscar Gutierrez – chapter endorsed
Goleta City Council:
Mayor: Paula Perotte
District 3: Jennifer Smith
District 4: Stuart Kasdin
Carpinteria City Council:
District 2: Natalia Alarcon
Santa Barbara County Board of Education:
Nadra Erhman
Katya Armistead
Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Trustees:
All I want for Christmas is a jack hammer, and an Army tank! It’s not too late to save Santa Barbara! Staff bureaucrats control Santa Barbara decisions: they ignore the purpose and maintenance of public streets and they’ve destroyed downtown. Replace “do more” Council Reps who waste tax money, raid Measure C Funds, and are close to depleting emergency reserves — with proven successful turnaround business executives in open seats D4,5,and 6. Voters: Take back control. Consider expanding Council to elect 1 or 2 City at-large reps to ensure consideration of the entire City in decision making. Excellent summation Scott! Appreciate the crisis reminder. Santa Monica’s rent control has also failed. Imagine my Aunt who pays $650/mo while neighbors pay up to $9400/mo for their 2-bed ocean view apartment to subsidize hers and others.
Why don’t voters think 2-steps ahead about unintended consequences? Why are tax payers tolerant of such high incompetence of elected reps?
Sing along: “We don’t need no stinkin’ pedlets….”
Truth! Everywhere one looks across the Democrat run blue cities and states we see the living definition of Einstein‘s definition of insanity. Socialism has not worked in Russia, nor Venezuela, and it is not going to work in New York or Santa Barbara. For people to stand by and watch this happen and just say la la la la la is truly tragic.
When I moved to SM in the mid-90s, thought I had died and gone to heaven. 3rd St Promenade was jumping back then, including numerous clubs, eateries and three clusters of movie theaters. My buddy and another surfer shared a solid Craftsman house on Euclid built in the 1920’s. We all (gladly) busted our tails to make the high monthly rent.
I would run into slackers living in nice rent controlled pads near the beach paying a pittance for as long as they wished to remain. I wondered how the hell is that going to work? It didn’t…
Ventura may beat both Santa Monica and Santa Barbara to the business bankruptcy finish line. Couple that to the extremely narrow traffic corridor through which Ventura's shuttered Main Street runs. Most of this mess in Vta is being pushed via a shadowy NGO run by someone with a couple dozen online identities who has grifted other regions prior. Nothing says freedom and vitality like destroying a town's connection to it's history by jamming a round peg into a square hole.
David Puu- we need a voter guide that rates elected officials; informs of organized activist NGOs and NPOs which names their donors and Board Directors. It’s time to know who is who in every community.
I hear Ventura County is about to get a comprehensive score card of its BOS officials
Isn’t that what the supposed “non-partisan” League of Women Voters is supposed to do under their charter for which they enjoy tax exempt status?
LT - “suppose to” vs “does”. SB Chapter LWV is partisan, totally biased, showing blatant favoritism. Eastside & Westside are historical “no-go” zones of no interest. Apparently not wealthy enough to justify their time. At the last D1, 2,3 Forum, it was so obvious to be embarrassing. LWV to be avoid if fairness, neutrality are the objectives.
A very good trip down memory lane, Scott. Thank you. I also remember those days with Fred Vega before the Blum-Schneider-Murillo trio moved the needle permanently in this city to a one-party, one ideology rule. When compared to the prior non-partisan city councils and locally focused mayorships of Sheila Lodge, Hal Conklin (truncated) and Harriet Miller.
I also remember my few visits to the Santa Monica 3rd Street Mall which left me with very mixed feelings about this urban planning device. A 15 minute stroll from top to bottom revealed a ghost town of failed or failing businesses in the upper stretches. While the lower few blocks felt artificially frenetic with very loud amplified "music" and linked directly to an enclosed large shopping mall with its ubiquitous high rise parking garage for these Third Street Mall visitors.
Using data from Transparent California a few years back also, I compared staffing numbers for various similarly sized California coastal cities with a similar mix of tourism, business, educational and residential amenities. Only Santa Monica, Berkeley and Santa Barbara required city staffing nearly twice as large as any other similar municipalities. Note these three cities, Santa Monica, Berkeley and now Santa Barbara are often nick-named the People's Republic of .......
Yes, there was a turning point for our city and with the local DSA* already fielding candidates for all open 2026 city council seats, in our extremely flawed "district elections", thing can still get so much worse.
*DSA - Democrat Socialists of America working hand in glove with SEIU -government employee unions. District elections have hobbled any semblance of fair representation for this city at large. There must be a movement to switch back at least a hybrid model of various city district residential requirements, but all candidates still being voted for at large by all city residents.
A pending SCOTUS ruling however may finally eliminate as unconstitutional our current California Voting Rights Act population-based district election model requiring the creation of two special racially (Hispanic-speaking linguistically)- protected voting districts.
Curious, what are ideal population to staff ratios? Goleta appears to be top heavy?
Good question. Years ago the city twice had an outside management specialist do a study on this city's staffing. Both concluded they had twice the numbers as any other equivalent city.
That is what led me to check the data for other similar 90,000 or so coastal cities which indeed did underscore these two independent management consultant studies.
Reducing city staff is never pretty, and the howls from all city employee unions are far louder than any Elon Musk Vandenberg rocket launch and far-longer lasting. How does that answer your question -a matter of both political will and political expediency.
That is where voters cast their own voices to either withstand the howls and get a grip on fiscal realities, or continue to drive this city off the fiscal cliff. This is playing out all across this country now .The harvest of an entire teacher union -indoctrinated "woke" generation heading into unknown future consequences. On paper it looks 100% unsustainable. But maybe there is a black swan we cannot yet see on the horizon.
That will now be Gen Z's job to come up with it. Print more money; tax the rich; confiscate all private property and means of production. There are only a very few finite options. NYC will certainly be our first hot house experiment exploring these "new" options.
TikTok apparently is where this new message from the mount will come flowing down to the rest of us. We all need Plan B's.
https://www.citizensagain.com/estimates/staff/
Shocking data, San Francisco County has a public employee for every 21 citizens. No wonder we’re going broke!
Wow, what a contrast. Great find, LT. My approach was far more tedious several years ago with scratch paper and looking up each city individually., But with AI we can now be asking these important questions.
Before we are required ask the really important one - how do we get from point A to point B? Two prior city management studies pointing out excessive city staffing did get ignored. What forces came in to play that allowed that to happen. Siri, Siri any answers?
Wait, there’s more! If I’m reading the data correctly and according to this site, which is very granular, it costs less to build a city than it does to fund chronic homelessness for 8 months in California!
Buying up every for sale home in Trona, including repairing the as-is fixer uppers is way cheaper than converting a downtown motel for 34 "homeless".
We have a nationwide misallocation of already available housing resources far more than we have a "homeless" problem, let alone "crisis" in our premium demand coastal city. This has been obvious ever since they started selling perfectly good middle class homes in Detroit for one dollar.
Let’s hope the SCOTUS ruling eliminates racial, ethic groupings; and for 2020 Census to count non-citizens separate from citizens for creation of voting districts.
And may I remember this from your post elce: “Only Santa Monica, Berkeley and Santa Barbara required city staffing nearly twice as large as any other similar municipalities. Note these three cities, Santa Monica, Berkeley and now Santa Barbara are often nick-named the People's Republic of .......”
It would be good to update those numbers today: I looked for California coastal cities with similar mission of around 90,000 populations. There may be different picture today. But good old Transparent California at least puts this basic data at our fingertips.
Problem is now that government costs per capita have long been published on Transparent California, this may well have trigged a demand for inflation pressures from the lower ratio cities, so more cities today may now look more like the People's Republic of ........XYZ. Monkey see, monkey do. Unions gonna union.
I remember as a kid, my Dad taking me to “Pacific Ocean Park” back in the early 60’s, then headed over to “Marine Land,” for a great family outing. Those days are clearly over now, instead tripping over junkies and the mentally ill, taking your chances on being assaulted, or worse!
Should we fill sorry or pity for Santa Monica and Venice, or is this on them? My son’s friend lives in SM off of Wilshire, where the family owns a large apartment building. We parked my son’s car there and headed over to LAX to catch a flight. The parking structure is on total lockdown so as to keep vandals and thieves at bay. Surrounded by despair, all in the middle of the Wilshire business district, not a cop in sight anywhere.
I just saw the news blurb, Karen Bass is being challenged in her next election, by wait for it…a Democrat- Socialist, and “Community Activist,” Rae Huang! It would appear Bass isn’t even wacky liberal and incompetent enough for the DSP!
As for Santa Barbara, voters have a clear choice next go round, failure, despair and mayhem versus sanity and prosperity. Living in Goleta, I really don’t have a horse in this race, if stupid people want the former over the later, so be it. Unfortunately, the “Goodland” seems to follow SB politically and affected by the same failed, liberal mentality.
Time is running out for us, good, fearless people need to come forward, otherwise the DSP takeover will be complete.
Loved your take. What is DSP
DSA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Socialists_of_America - https://dsasb.org/. DSA Potluck by the Beach; November 22, 2025 11:00 am - 4:00 pm; Leadbetter Beach, C832+3MG, 801 Shoreline Dr, Santa Barbara, CA 93109, USA
SLO, Ventura, and Santa Barbara DSA chapters invite you to spend a day on the beach with other socialists! Potluck style. Games are welcome. Contact contact@dsasb.org for more information.
“Democratic Socialist Party,” AKA Batshit crazy liberals!
LT: You might consider using official title DSA: Democratic Socialists of America to enable readers to research policies and endorsed candidates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Socialists_of_America
DSA - Santa Barbara Chapter is thriving, not just surviving. It’s well funded. Local membership includes respected community leaders, educators, and major donors. https://dsasb.org/
What "community leaders and educators" are not already thoroughly corrupted by the power of the government employee unions? Which "major donors" do not secretly want these problems in someone else's back yards, and not their own?
I contend is no daylight between government employee unions and Democrat Socialists of America. Though I suspect in the future their disparate missions will clash, but currently both require unending streams of OPM.
BTW Monte, I went on DSA-SB website that you provided and will sign up for the newsletter! This is unbelievable, and right under our noses!
Very concerning that my Council member and Mayor in Goleta are endorsed!
LT, unlike you, who BTW I appreciate, too few locals care to be informed or to research anything. I get a half a dozen requests a day for me to do what those contacting me can easily do themself. Are they lazy or elitist or what?
Umm, I would say white, elitist apathy, which has doomed our society!
Whatever the term, it is used interchangeably in different countries. All predicated on a Neo-Marxist agenda!
“Respected community members?” Do tell!
https://www.dsp-rsp.org/topic/democratic-socialist-party
Liberal attorneys are losing Santa Barbara County Millions each year from our General Fund. With a budget of over 1.6 BILLION DOLLARS why should this matter to us? The Uber-rich bail out the wokeness! WHY is PUBLIC POLICY supporting delusional constructs???
If SBCC stopped paying Attorney Craig Price, Griffith & Thornburgh, there’d be plenty of money for construction of a 4-story parking garage, facility upgrades, modernized classrooms, essential labs, computers, and more!
Current Trustees are all in on it; former trustees with integrity who monitored money, waste, abuse are devalued, and even threatened with harm by locals!!
I long suspected there was a sinister quid pro quo between Silicon Valley oligarchs who do fund the majority of state tax revenues and the wacko Democrat fringe which mainly supports growing the vast numbers of government employees, along with many suspect NGO fronts.
Here is my suspected bargain with the devils: Silicon Valley says we will continue to support your wacko Democrat candidates and causes, but in return keep your G.D. unions out of Silicon Valley. And thus, for the most part this has come to pass.
Isn't odd Democrats who want to micromanage everything and make every job a union job, have left Silicon Valley employees pretty much alone?
Right you are elce. Or how about how Cottage Health System has managed to keep the Unions out? Both SV and CHS, lefty favorites for donations, but manage to keep their entities as closed shops!
Why? Because they’re like a bunch of pigs eating from the same trough, all funded by the tax exempt NGO’s.
Love the mention of Fred Vega!! Class act. He was every bit your description and more. He had a unique and gentle demeanor while taking on difficult local and national topics while providing a forum for both sides. Illegal immigration was a topic from which he did not avoid....especially during the era of Prop 187. While he caught the ire of the open borders crowd, particularly because of his ethnicity, he was a person of principle, i.e., Cesar Chavez.
We could use a similar forum today where citizens from all perspectives could communicate in an environment not limited to three minutes in front of disinterested, yawning "officials" who have already made up their union backed minds.
I have lived here for only 4 years and only go to the down town zone if absolutely necessary. Take a look at Palm Desert if you want to see a thriving city center.
I enjoyed living in Palm Desert off of County Club Drive back in the 80’s. The company I worked for at the time helped start the open heart surgical program at Desert Hospital. The politics in Palm Springs is very similar to Santa Barbara, old money that wants a stable, orderly, clean community. Except, PS has a much larger gay community and the 120 degree weather keeps the homeless population in check.
Can anyone imagine Palm Canyon Drive being closed to cars?
And the clowns who run Goleta have learned nothing from these debacles, but instead have doubled down on the insanity!
When living in Ventura County, I loved visiting Santa Barbara. Not the same city now. Currently living in the desert city of La Quinta, I see how smart planning all around each desert city has made it a great and thriving area. Just ask the thousands who vacation and winter here!
There are so many examples of failed downtown main streets when closed to cars throughout the USA. Many of those have reopened. Thank you, Scott, for your common sense approach and keeping this topic at the forefront of discussion.
Let's hope that Santa Barbara will come to its senses about reopening State Street and those folks who think people that want it reopened is because of their disdain for kids on e-bikes have their heads in the sand. I would venture that most who want it to stay closed are either recent implants to Santa Barbara and are unaware of what it once was or have a financial stake in the process of turning Santa Barbara into a 15 minute city.
The paralel between these two cities is striking. When you prioritize ideology over practicl outcomes, this is what happens. Streets exist for a reason and the evidence from Santa Monica should have been a clear warning sign. The irony is that the 15-minute city concept actualy requires functional infrastructure, not the dismantling of it. Businesses need customers to arrive somehow.
Did any of you happen to spend time on State Street this weekend? The streets, despite the rain, were lined with hundreds of pedestrians. Satellite, where I work, was packed all night long as were the places in the lower State. Are cars driving up State Street really going to impact how people shop at brick and mortar stores? I hear a lot of banter but even if we brought back cars, they are still going to have to park off State and people are still going to walk in to shop, dine and play.
Regarding the comments about proper parking per unit, what is proper these days when many are chosing to not own cars and utilize ride/car share options when needed?
BTW... good job at getting the " openly radical Socialist Council" statement into the conversation... such statements confirm what a bang up job our Republican and Democratic leaders/media are doing at keeping us divided, hate filled and justified in our loathing for differing points of view.
I won't answer you directly, rather I think you will find the You Tube page, 'Santa Barbara Talks" helpful. Yesterday the guest on the show was Jim Knell. Jim has more of a vested interest in the success of State street than any person commenting here. I don't agree with everything he says but his opinion carry's a lot of weight. Not as much as the "River Nile," that was State street Saturday night.
And you people want to turn it into a promenade? How about paying for some engineering studies in flood control from Victoria to Gutierrez streets? Oh shoot, I'm starting to answer you. . . bye.
Just talking about pedestrian traffic in the Lower State Street bar zone is not a sign of non-weekend overall city downtown economic health.
Maybe we need to just carve out those few blocks of the bar zone, and leave the rest of the street alone in order to move back to its original design and intent - a major city transportation corridor with a collection of one-stop commercial activities that serves the community; not just the tourism sector.
Do we have any numbers on the costs to the city for having this Lower State Street active bar zone - does it require enhanced police support, clean up costs, what city revenues does it in fact generate. should these few blocks create its own special enterprise zone? Last time I entered into it a few months ago, it was filthy.
Scott-Thank you for the memory of Fred Vega's show! I would add Randy Rowse to the list of failed Mayors.
I think Randy gets more flak than he deserves. The title 'mayor' in this town is really just another vote and figurehead position. As TVW mentions below, he's often the sole or one of a few voting against the majority. And as 'mayor,' that vote is all he has besides scissors for ribbon-cutting events.
Gads JT! The Mayor position is full time pay, for FT work. The position is what you make it. It’s our City’s Top Job! Your ribbon cutting expectations have been met so you are satisfied: ‘job well done’.
At the same time, you choose to ignore deficit spending, raiding of both Measure C earmarked funding, the housing trust fund, and emergency reserves. The Mayor, any Mayor, is expected to lead, to message, to be a force for results needed to keep SB thriving not barely surviving.
Please — with all due respect to differences of opinion — rethink your expectations and associated taxpayer cost of the Mayor position.
The mayor is not our city's top job. That would be the person who actually captains the ship - the city administrator. And that person makes what 3x 4x the mayor? And I'm not saying anyone is or is not meeting my expectations, I'm just saying I think Randy gets more grief from the public that thinks he's in charge and has more power than he does.
I might be wrong here, but I also didn't think that the mayor, or any of the council, was considered a full-time job. The money they make a year aside.....
Haha! The City Administrator works for City Council, for the Mayor. Read the City Charter. Civics 101.
Details?? Has not Randy supported opening State St.?..and often votes against the majority?
Correct TVW: Mayor Rowse favors opening State St. However, likeable, nice guy Rowse has been a weak leader unable or unwilling to message to voters to make them aware, to build a coalition that’s required to get results. In the meantime business owners scream, and now property owners are in the process of suing City for lost values. Santa Barbara needs executive-class leaders!
DSASB will likely fill open seats D4,5,6. Endorsed allies already fill D1-Eastside (SantaMaria) and D-3 Westside (Gutierrez).
Since this is a company town, government employee unions will continue to call all the shots.
They finally need to connect their own paychecks, perks and pensions require an economically thriving city, not a declining mess they have created over their own past few decades of government employee union-dominated strangulation. Explode the expenses and destroy the revenues is not a good working , business model.
Not sure why this is not obvious to their own selfish interests, but so far they still seem drunk on some magical source of unending OPM. "They'll find the money" is their one-note response to any actuarial alarms shoved directly in their faces.
Mike: Randy Rowse is not a failed mayor. Voters failed to give him a city council majority to get anything done. The recent conversion to district elections with now two entire city council seats representing two protected, extremely low-voter turnout "majority-minority" districts has not helped this unsustainable political equation.
We do not have the will of the voters running this city today; we have the will of the super-majority Democrat state legislature running this city. (Monique Limon and Gregg Hart, that is your failure factory. Take a bow.)
Respectfully, he's weak and ineffective--and in no way charismatic--which would permit him to be more persuasive! I pass him on the street or in the park and he looks down-he's the mayor! That said, I have voted for him every time he has run since, he represents the closest we will ever get to a moderate! He has not attempted to educate (sway) the general electorate on the failed programs and ideas of the endless progressive council members he has served with. Write an instructive opinion piece every week organize forums and throw up more roadblocks on the Dais, and hammer home to the citizens how we are losing this city and more importantly why they must help change course.
Agree Mike! Randy hasn’t been an effective mayor. He will be opposed by Kristen Sneddon, who announced her bid yesterday — early to locking donors and endorsements. Kristen has been mentored by no growth former Mayor Sheila Lodge, supports rent control to appear supportive of struggling residents while knowing it’s the back door to no growth. Sneddon has raided designated Measure C and Housing Trust Funds, supports aliens, and is politically ambitious. Combined with her husband taxpayers compensate them about $750,000 annually.
D5 Rep Eric Friedman who is also termed out and expected to run. Other candidates expected to announce this Spring.
Slightly different take, if Rowse is not a “failed” Mayor, he’s certainly compromised. Put it this way, he was a better restaurateur! Yes, the “Balkanization” of SB by virtue of district elections, concocted in order to get more “brown people” into elected office, has been a monumental failure to the community!
The voters continually vote the same socialists into power. I have lived here ten years and every year I ask the same a question. Where is the California Republican party? When and where do they prioritize their efforts to influence voters to see the damage caused by elected officials and and seek a better way?
Spot on Derek: We need a local party that represents moderates, taxpayers, fiscal conservatives (NPPs, Republicans, and moderate Democrats) all ignored by current elected progressive Democrats and DSASB. Republicans have been asleep. NPPs have no party organizing them.
By 2027, I bet Council will be majority DSASB ‘ally endorsed’. They’ve got 2-seated now. Three open seats await their candidates getting into ready position.
Relative newcomer to SB Gabe Escobedo is expected to be DSA ‘ally endorsed’ and 15-Minute City supported. Gabe then moves from Pres of SBUSD School Board to representing D6 Downtown unless … Downtown voters aggressively support and fund the announced D6 opponent NPP Nick Sebastian.
While it’s early to pull papers, Nick Sebastian saw what’s coming in the lineup. He immediately replied to Kristen Sneddon’s announcement yesterday.
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The Progressive/ Socialist Bench is full, candidates prepared, trained, supported.
DSASB Candidates for Elected Office
Santa Barbara City Council:
District 1: Wendy Santamaria – chapter endorsed
District 3: Oscar Gutierrez – chapter endorsed
Goleta City Council:
Mayor: Paula Perotte
District 3: Jennifer Smith
District 4: Stuart Kasdin
Carpinteria City Council:
District 2: Natalia Alarcon
Santa Barbara County Board of Education:
Nadra Erhman
Katya Armistead
Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Trustees:
Area 2: Sunita Beall
Area 5: Celeste Kafri
Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees:
Area 2: Kyle Richards
Area 3: Jett Black-Maertz
Goleta Water District:
Lauren Hanson