Compromise sounds nice. Everybody gets something and nobody gets everything. I get a thrill down my leg just thinking about it. Compromising with fools yields foolish results and compromises good ideas. The closure of State Street was foolish from the start. As a response to the Covid scam, nobody ever could explain how preventing cars could prevent the spread of Covid. In fact, encouraging pedestrian traffic could well exascerbate disease spread. Businesses have suffered and now if I walk down State Street I enjoy the smell of urine emanating from the landscape that the homeless hobos use for toilets. State needs to return to exactly what it was before the foolish closure. State needs to return to what has worked for 100 years. I appreciate the owners of Opal sharing their ideas on how to compromise with fools but I suggest you should concentrate on making good food and support returning State to what it was, to what has and will work into the future.
Excellent! Well said. Compromising with fools. Seems to be an American epidemic these past 10years. They're usual fix for everything, spend millions more. And here we are, looking like the new L.A. and San Francisco.
Spending is the metric upon which Democrats measure their success. I am reminded of the Biden administration response to an open border of their own invention. They needed to pass a 118B bill to realize border security. That money would naturally disappear to NGO’s engaged in border “stuff”, the borders would remain open and Democrats would be enriched. State is another example of creating a problem requiring government spending to cure. Why anyone could vote for these clowns is beyond comprehension.
Compromise reminds me of using "averages" as the Golden Mean. The old joke about sticking your head in an oven and your feet in the refrigerator gives you an "average" body temperature.
Or installing meandering paved foot path because they please the eye on a diagram, but are quickly riddled with dirt path short cuts, because that is how people operate organically in real time.
Total disgrace! Recently attempted to enjoy a few hours downtown shopping. Filthy nauseating walk. I felt like I was in a seedy part of Oakland. Bands singing LOUD in Spanish infront of a shut down business. Homeless huddling throughout. Dark scary entrances to bars and dead resteraunts. Who can stomach eating next to the street in such a deteriorating city? It seems the people on the council are totally clueless. Like 5 yr olds or they have to read out of a book how to run a city because they clearly are and have been failing for years. The whole of Santa Barbara is in disrepair. Cracked sidewalks and streets. Weeds everywhere! Dead fire risk debris left on 60yo palm trees. This is not a desired tourist location. We do want to keep our heritage and culture. We do not want to turn into Skid Row. Seems Democrat run L.A. is ALSO failing.
I have shared your experience of disgusting State Street. Every time Democrats try to engineer society the results are disastrous. Anything short of returning State to exactly as it was before these asinine inventions of our progressive city council is to compromise with fools.
Thank you for speaking up to save Santa Barbara. Nobody likes Rhinos. We have possibly one last chance to save all our historic cities, our children's futures and protect our wildlands from over development. Please stop voting for more failed Democrat ideologies. Sincerely advocating for this election people stop voting for more funding on the propositions. We are billions in debt. We must put people back in place to resume sound business. That means voting for those who understand the importance of conservative governance. Thank you for clearly stating where we could do better to save Santa Barbara.
Agreed, all we need is the donkeys painted like zebras. We already have the street taco stands! Welcome to little Jalisco folks, home to lefty, DSA fruits and nuts.
Admittedly as a long term resident of Goleta, I am OVER hearing about the issue of closing State Street to cars. After all, we have our own set of issues in the Good Land with the disastrous decisions made by our own, tone deaf City Council over the Old Town debacle. Hopefully, the upcoming election will provide us with the new leadership which can look at the outrageous “Project Connect” (maybe Project Disconnect is more appropriate) with a new set of eyes.
It would seem Yates and Takaya are on to something. Full disclosure, I have enjoyed the fine dining at their restaurant many times. The idea of opening up State to one way traffic seems doable and it won’t cost the taxpayers of SB a $100 million to implement!
In the end, closing State Street was, and continues to be, a STUPID idea! Besides, what “industry” is there in SB besides tourism?…. nothing! I fully get that the DSA renters on the SB CC can’t bring themselves to think of anyone but themselves, but why not let the voters decide once and for all?
The massive hysteria brought on by liberal zealots over COVID was self inflicting, why continue to double down on failure? Time to open up State to business and commerce, fill City coffers and get on with moving our community forward.
Richard Yates and Tina Takaya present refreshing ideas for restoring vibrancy to our historic downtown corridor. In about 3 weeks we'll be electing a new mayor and 3 councilmembers. Current Councilmember and mayoral candidate, Eric Friedman, has consistently proposed motions to re-open State Street above De La Guerra. He understands the plight facing businesses and restaurants along the upper corridor. They cannot afford another six years. Please consider that when you cast your vote.
Government has always operated in finding a compromise along the lines of what you suggest. Unfortunately, 4 members of the current City Council (Sneddon, Santa Maria, Gutierrez and Harmon) have chosen to ignore that and continue the "all or nothing" approach. Two of them will leave their current roles after the upcoming election, so perhaps the new council will be more open to finding a solution. I know I will, if elected.
The referendum will force action, since it appears they will get the required number of signatures to put it to a vote (if you haven't signed, please do ASAP). If they can't find a working compromise to defuse the referendum, it goes to a vote, and once completed, the City Council can't change it. At that point, we must live with the results. Let's hope we can find a workable solution for all parties.
Where are those who backed former Mayor Lodge and her position to return State St.????
Why is this question important? The Mayor of Santa Barbara bought the original narrowing plan by MIG (San Francisco) and backed by Dave Davis -city planning. Mayor Lodge stated repeatedly that she wished she had never backed the narrowing of State St. (Planning Commission, HLC, and more). Please note that the City of Santa Barbara promised (not maybe) if the plan did not work it would retro fit State St.)
Working on State St. part time (1970's) and then full time (1980's) I was able to see the first 3 blocks of narrowing. Witnessing the not so slow hammering of long term businesses who left or moved because of this plan was painful.
Ms. Pujo who penned the Traffic Circulation Plan for the City she stated that those businesses that depended on auto travel customers will either move or go out of business. It was and is an arrogant one sided view, but she was right. She and her husband an architect were devoted anti car people.
I'll use one example our of dozens of businesses that were crushed by narrowing. Pelch & Sons Sporting goods store was a successful and long term business on State. My parents took me there to get my first baseball glove and more. They asked the City to live up to the promise - if the plan did not work it would retro fit State St.
What was Mr. Davis response? It has to be bigger to work. The City continued to crush State St. and businesses all the way to Haley. Commerce continued to fail. Then came the long term failure of Paseo Nuevo. I could go on, as a native son about NGO's promising success and failures. So I'll leave you with my personal experience with a former Paid Director of the now defunct Down Town Organization.
She held the same position with the City of Pasadena. She witnessed the same economic collapse there. She convinced Pasadena to start opening its core streets back up. Business revived.
How do I know? I sat down with her for a discussion that was supposed to be a 5 minute thank you for coming. It lasted for over a 1/2 hour. She gave example after example of retrofit success. When faced with an intransigent planning department and a Council that would not listen or more to the point would not listen to fact (does it sound like the council of today?) she quit and left town.
The failure of Santa Barbara planning since the 1980's is clear. This is not a "food fight" it is about reality. Want to hear the long version? Arrange to come to a meeting of the group I belong to, Cars Are Basic.
Good comment Scott. I never understood the authoritarian influence of the Pujo's on the Santa Barbara planning process. History has not been kind.
I spend time in both Ashland, Oregon, Coeur d'alene, Idaho as well as Park City Utah. All are tourist destinations and have successful, vibrant downtowns. None have barricaded their downtown main corridors. Ashland has a partial one-way Main Street while the other two have two-ways. It would be instructive to factor in what traffic direction plays...if any.
For what it is worth, except for Coeur d'Alene, the other two have Left leaning city councils (much more so in Ashland). However, all three clearly understand the importance of pragmatism over ideology when it comes to ringing the register for the city coffers. All three allow parking along their main downtown shopping corridors where people can "run into" a store without making it an event or fear an aggressive "meter maid" writing yet another egregiously expensive ticket. It would be great to see that same aggressive approach to speeding on surface streets or bikes running stop signs.
I prefer the "old days" in SB...1960's...park on State...run into Otts, Whitehouse, JC Penney, Woolworths, etc.....and out again. Shazam!
Well written! Although there is not a perfect approach to automobile access , the plan can involve to provide variations for access based on day of the week , time of day and special events. The most important functional issue is providing for convenient and smooth access on the 2 streets adjacent to State street, and options for parking. Easy access for pedestrians State Street from the side streets should be a priority. As well the plan allows for temporary modifications suggested in the article- perhaps during days of lower pedestrian traffic. Again, polite, civilized conversation is refreshing.
If you think a Plan that is unfriendly to the disabled, vote for the State Street master Plan;
If you think a Plan that is unfriendly to seniors, then vote for the State Street Master Plan;
If you think teenagers buzzing up and down State Street on electric bikes is a good idea, then vote for the State Street master plan;
If you think it’s a good idea for a City to spend $100 million dollars when it is already broke then vote for the State Street Master Plan;
If you think a plan based on the World Economic Forum war on fossil fuels is a good idea, then vote for the master plan.
At the moment , four city council members control the fate of State Street . So far their record dealing with the problem has been dismal. I hear there is a petition circulating to get something on the ballot to stop the stupidity emanating from City Hall. I will be happy to add my John Hancock to it .
Richard and Tina, thank you for the insights on State street. I have to agree with every point that you have made. One of the more important ones is the Master Plan for State street basically, as you state, restricts visitors as well as local form easily accessing the 1300 as well as other blocks of State easily from the waterfront. It seems that a compromise would be in order. That "compromise" would be to allow one way traffic from the beach all the way up State. The adamant opposition to anyone proposing a compoirmise to the seemingly approved plan leads me to wonder if some of that opposition is economically driven. As the plan is currently presented coming from the beach with the blocks above 500 closed makes for a great economic benefit for those in 300, 400 and 500 blocks. Maybe I'm being too cynical. Thank you for your article . Cheers
The Etruscans, 700 centuries BCE before the Romans, developed the urban grid pattern as the safest, most efficient response to traffic management and public safety ready responses.
How on earth does some egregiously composed political "committee" in Santa Barbara presume they know better than the long-standing grid traffic patterns proven over time to be enduringly responsive to evolving modes of transportation and public safety demands.
Answer: they don't. Dump this ludicrous and expensive attempt to re-write urban planning that has failed virtually everywhere. Put State Street back the way that it was. And just say no when Democrats try to exploit another made up "crisis" for political gain during an election year.
The current State Street Plan (waiting to find $100 million dollars and then later finding unforeseen conditions once the first shovel hits the ground) will make the Gavin Newsom Train to No Where look like a government construction project on steroids.
Yes! A one way traffic pattern will be the best compromise! This will allow for Resturants to have outdoor options and the best open pedestrian traffic!!
The authors of this piece have presumably reaped a boosted financial benefit from the increased seating that the State Street closure provided to Opal. All at the expense of a dying downtown. If not, I would encourage them to open their books and illustrate otherwise. Before the COVID closure they had a modest number of tables on the sidewalk, which allowed pedestrians to stroll and cars to drive down State - which benefitted retailers (not just restaurants) further down the street. They ran a successful business prior to the shut down and can return to that when State Street is re-opened, but they might not have such a large profit margin.
funny how this business owners solution to the inequities caused by the closure of the street is fixated on participating in the inequity? first, take it away from everyone else, then re-establish it later INCLUDING having his own parklet back...one that already has been proven by first responders as a circulation hazard that could cause major safety issues if maintained as closed. not to mention the physical detriment that monstrosity posed to the historical Arlington Theater (home to one of our city's largest economic drivers btw, having the elegance of a red carpet event overshadowed by a cheesy plywood structure) seems the only thing these two business owners care about is their own economic gain, not what’s best for the downtown or for the city. Looking back over all of their contributions in writing to the city and in print the theme has been the same...me me me me me. diabolically selfish to say the least
Compromise sounds nice. Everybody gets something and nobody gets everything. I get a thrill down my leg just thinking about it. Compromising with fools yields foolish results and compromises good ideas. The closure of State Street was foolish from the start. As a response to the Covid scam, nobody ever could explain how preventing cars could prevent the spread of Covid. In fact, encouraging pedestrian traffic could well exascerbate disease spread. Businesses have suffered and now if I walk down State Street I enjoy the smell of urine emanating from the landscape that the homeless hobos use for toilets. State needs to return to exactly what it was before the foolish closure. State needs to return to what has worked for 100 years. I appreciate the owners of Opal sharing their ideas on how to compromise with fools but I suggest you should concentrate on making good food and support returning State to what it was, to what has and will work into the future.
Excellent! Well said. Compromising with fools. Seems to be an American epidemic these past 10years. They're usual fix for everything, spend millions more. And here we are, looking like the new L.A. and San Francisco.
Spending is the metric upon which Democrats measure their success. I am reminded of the Biden administration response to an open border of their own invention. They needed to pass a 118B bill to realize border security. That money would naturally disappear to NGO’s engaged in border “stuff”, the borders would remain open and Democrats would be enriched. State is another example of creating a problem requiring government spending to cure. Why anyone could vote for these clowns is beyond comprehension.
Compromise reminds me of using "averages" as the Golden Mean. The old joke about sticking your head in an oven and your feet in the refrigerator gives you an "average" body temperature.
Or installing meandering paved foot path because they please the eye on a diagram, but are quickly riddled with dirt path short cuts, because that is how people operate organically in real time.
Total disgrace! Recently attempted to enjoy a few hours downtown shopping. Filthy nauseating walk. I felt like I was in a seedy part of Oakland. Bands singing LOUD in Spanish infront of a shut down business. Homeless huddling throughout. Dark scary entrances to bars and dead resteraunts. Who can stomach eating next to the street in such a deteriorating city? It seems the people on the council are totally clueless. Like 5 yr olds or they have to read out of a book how to run a city because they clearly are and have been failing for years. The whole of Santa Barbara is in disrepair. Cracked sidewalks and streets. Weeds everywhere! Dead fire risk debris left on 60yo palm trees. This is not a desired tourist location. We do want to keep our heritage and culture. We do not want to turn into Skid Row. Seems Democrat run L.A. is ALSO failing.
I have shared your experience of disgusting State Street. Every time Democrats try to engineer society the results are disastrous. Anything short of returning State to exactly as it was before these asinine inventions of our progressive city council is to compromise with fools.
Thank you for speaking up to save Santa Barbara. Nobody likes Rhinos. We have possibly one last chance to save all our historic cities, our children's futures and protect our wildlands from over development. Please stop voting for more failed Democrat ideologies. Sincerely advocating for this election people stop voting for more funding on the propositions. We are billions in debt. We must put people back in place to resume sound business. That means voting for those who understand the importance of conservative governance. Thank you for clearly stating where we could do better to save Santa Barbara.
Street corner vendors all over town including Sate Street reminds me of Third World Tijuana....appropriate there...not here.
Agreed, all we need is the donkeys painted like zebras. We already have the street taco stands! Welcome to little Jalisco folks, home to lefty, DSA fruits and nuts.
Admittedly as a long term resident of Goleta, I am OVER hearing about the issue of closing State Street to cars. After all, we have our own set of issues in the Good Land with the disastrous decisions made by our own, tone deaf City Council over the Old Town debacle. Hopefully, the upcoming election will provide us with the new leadership which can look at the outrageous “Project Connect” (maybe Project Disconnect is more appropriate) with a new set of eyes.
It would seem Yates and Takaya are on to something. Full disclosure, I have enjoyed the fine dining at their restaurant many times. The idea of opening up State to one way traffic seems doable and it won’t cost the taxpayers of SB a $100 million to implement!
In the end, closing State Street was, and continues to be, a STUPID idea! Besides, what “industry” is there in SB besides tourism?…. nothing! I fully get that the DSA renters on the SB CC can’t bring themselves to think of anyone but themselves, but why not let the voters decide once and for all?
The massive hysteria brought on by liberal zealots over COVID was self inflicting, why continue to double down on failure? Time to open up State to business and commerce, fill City coffers and get on with moving our community forward.
Richard Yates and Tina Takaya present refreshing ideas for restoring vibrancy to our historic downtown corridor. In about 3 weeks we'll be electing a new mayor and 3 councilmembers. Current Councilmember and mayoral candidate, Eric Friedman, has consistently proposed motions to re-open State Street above De La Guerra. He understands the plight facing businesses and restaurants along the upper corridor. They cannot afford another six years. Please consider that when you cast your vote.
Government has always operated in finding a compromise along the lines of what you suggest. Unfortunately, 4 members of the current City Council (Sneddon, Santa Maria, Gutierrez and Harmon) have chosen to ignore that and continue the "all or nothing" approach. Two of them will leave their current roles after the upcoming election, so perhaps the new council will be more open to finding a solution. I know I will, if elected.
The referendum will force action, since it appears they will get the required number of signatures to put it to a vote (if you haven't signed, please do ASAP). If they can't find a working compromise to defuse the referendum, it goes to a vote, and once completed, the City Council can't change it. At that point, we must live with the results. Let's hope we can find a workable solution for all parties.
Where are those who backed former Mayor Lodge and her position to return State St.????
Why is this question important? The Mayor of Santa Barbara bought the original narrowing plan by MIG (San Francisco) and backed by Dave Davis -city planning. Mayor Lodge stated repeatedly that she wished she had never backed the narrowing of State St. (Planning Commission, HLC, and more). Please note that the City of Santa Barbara promised (not maybe) if the plan did not work it would retro fit State St.)
Working on State St. part time (1970's) and then full time (1980's) I was able to see the first 3 blocks of narrowing. Witnessing the not so slow hammering of long term businesses who left or moved because of this plan was painful.
Ms. Pujo who penned the Traffic Circulation Plan for the City she stated that those businesses that depended on auto travel customers will either move or go out of business. It was and is an arrogant one sided view, but she was right. She and her husband an architect were devoted anti car people.
I'll use one example our of dozens of businesses that were crushed by narrowing. Pelch & Sons Sporting goods store was a successful and long term business on State. My parents took me there to get my first baseball glove and more. They asked the City to live up to the promise - if the plan did not work it would retro fit State St.
What was Mr. Davis response? It has to be bigger to work. The City continued to crush State St. and businesses all the way to Haley. Commerce continued to fail. Then came the long term failure of Paseo Nuevo. I could go on, as a native son about NGO's promising success and failures. So I'll leave you with my personal experience with a former Paid Director of the now defunct Down Town Organization.
She held the same position with the City of Pasadena. She witnessed the same economic collapse there. She convinced Pasadena to start opening its core streets back up. Business revived.
How do I know? I sat down with her for a discussion that was supposed to be a 5 minute thank you for coming. It lasted for over a 1/2 hour. She gave example after example of retrofit success. When faced with an intransigent planning department and a Council that would not listen or more to the point would not listen to fact (does it sound like the council of today?) she quit and left town.
The failure of Santa Barbara planning since the 1980's is clear. This is not a "food fight" it is about reality. Want to hear the long version? Arrange to come to a meeting of the group I belong to, Cars Are Basic.
Scott Wenz - multi generation Santa Barbarian
Good comment Scott. I never understood the authoritarian influence of the Pujo's on the Santa Barbara planning process. History has not been kind.
I spend time in both Ashland, Oregon, Coeur d'alene, Idaho as well as Park City Utah. All are tourist destinations and have successful, vibrant downtowns. None have barricaded their downtown main corridors. Ashland has a partial one-way Main Street while the other two have two-ways. It would be instructive to factor in what traffic direction plays...if any.
For what it is worth, except for Coeur d'Alene, the other two have Left leaning city councils (much more so in Ashland). However, all three clearly understand the importance of pragmatism over ideology when it comes to ringing the register for the city coffers. All three allow parking along their main downtown shopping corridors where people can "run into" a store without making it an event or fear an aggressive "meter maid" writing yet another egregiously expensive ticket. It would be great to see that same aggressive approach to speeding on surface streets or bikes running stop signs.
I prefer the "old days" in SB...1960's...park on State...run into Otts, Whitehouse, JC Penney, Woolworths, etc.....and out again. Shazam!
Well written! Although there is not a perfect approach to automobile access , the plan can involve to provide variations for access based on day of the week , time of day and special events. The most important functional issue is providing for convenient and smooth access on the 2 streets adjacent to State street, and options for parking. Easy access for pedestrians State Street from the side streets should be a priority. As well the plan allows for temporary modifications suggested in the article- perhaps during days of lower pedestrian traffic. Again, polite, civilized conversation is refreshing.
If you think a Plan that is unfriendly to the disabled, vote for the State Street master Plan;
If you think a Plan that is unfriendly to seniors, then vote for the State Street Master Plan;
If you think teenagers buzzing up and down State Street on electric bikes is a good idea, then vote for the State Street master plan;
If you think it’s a good idea for a City to spend $100 million dollars when it is already broke then vote for the State Street Master Plan;
If you think a plan based on the World Economic Forum war on fossil fuels is a good idea, then vote for the master plan.
At the moment , four city council members control the fate of State Street . So far their record dealing with the problem has been dismal. I hear there is a petition circulating to get something on the ballot to stop the stupidity emanating from City Hall. I will be happy to add my John Hancock to it .
Richard and Tina, thank you for the insights on State street. I have to agree with every point that you have made. One of the more important ones is the Master Plan for State street basically, as you state, restricts visitors as well as local form easily accessing the 1300 as well as other blocks of State easily from the waterfront. It seems that a compromise would be in order. That "compromise" would be to allow one way traffic from the beach all the way up State. The adamant opposition to anyone proposing a compoirmise to the seemingly approved plan leads me to wonder if some of that opposition is economically driven. As the plan is currently presented coming from the beach with the blocks above 500 closed makes for a great economic benefit for those in 300, 400 and 500 blocks. Maybe I'm being too cynical. Thank you for your article . Cheers
The Etruscans, 700 centuries BCE before the Romans, developed the urban grid pattern as the safest, most efficient response to traffic management and public safety ready responses.
How on earth does some egregiously composed political "committee" in Santa Barbara presume they know better than the long-standing grid traffic patterns proven over time to be enduringly responsive to evolving modes of transportation and public safety demands.
Answer: they don't. Dump this ludicrous and expensive attempt to re-write urban planning that has failed virtually everywhere. Put State Street back the way that it was. And just say no when Democrats try to exploit another made up "crisis" for political gain during an election year.
The current State Street Plan (waiting to find $100 million dollars and then later finding unforeseen conditions once the first shovel hits the ground) will make the Gavin Newsom Train to No Where look like a government construction project on steroids.
Yes! A one way traffic pattern will be the best compromise! This will allow for Resturants to have outdoor options and the best open pedestrian traffic!!
The authors of this piece have presumably reaped a boosted financial benefit from the increased seating that the State Street closure provided to Opal. All at the expense of a dying downtown. If not, I would encourage them to open their books and illustrate otherwise. Before the COVID closure they had a modest number of tables on the sidewalk, which allowed pedestrians to stroll and cars to drive down State - which benefitted retailers (not just restaurants) further down the street. They ran a successful business prior to the shut down and can return to that when State Street is re-opened, but they might not have such a large profit margin.
funny how this business owners solution to the inequities caused by the closure of the street is fixated on participating in the inequity? first, take it away from everyone else, then re-establish it later INCLUDING having his own parklet back...one that already has been proven by first responders as a circulation hazard that could cause major safety issues if maintained as closed. not to mention the physical detriment that monstrosity posed to the historical Arlington Theater (home to one of our city's largest economic drivers btw, having the elegance of a red carpet event overshadowed by a cheesy plywood structure) seems the only thing these two business owners care about is their own economic gain, not what’s best for the downtown or for the city. Looking back over all of their contributions in writing to the city and in print the theme has been the same...me me me me me. diabolically selfish to say the least
"Evolve" not "Involve" :)