Who is Driving State Street?
by Charles Plumes de Cheval
To breathe life into Santa Barbara’s State St – as the State Street Advisory Committee, (SSAC), chants at their meetings – State St must have it “all,” including transportation, except for personal cars. This is of course if one adheres to the idea that it must be torn down in order to “build it back better.”
You don’t ask children when they want to go to bed. You don’t ask college students if they want to take final exams. Informed grown-ups have always set the ground rules in successful societies in any time-honored endeavor. However, in recent history, policies are being set by those with naïve ideologies and with no skin in the game. The kids are calling the shots. Not only that, it’s also the restaurants who want to keep a stronghold on the public right-of-way.
During one of the SSAC workshops, a speaker opined it was an equity issue to get to State St. We don’t understand the angle on that one.
How?
Because of what?
Not enough parking? Don’t own a bike? Too old, too young, or not agile enough or just don’t care to ride a bike? Not safe enough? People learn to ride bikes at five years old. And plenty of people ride their bikes like they are still five: middle of the road, in and out, running red lights and ignoring Stop signs. All free and easy. And on electric bikes that go 45 mph, unlicensed, even 11-year-olds.
SSAC team members say that the California State mandates will bring housing to State St and that they envision the housing, and this reimagined rebuilding, to be all-electric, tied to a microgrid and to be a more resilient use of power using solar panels, etc.
Cars would be de-coupled from housing (that is they will charge separately for both; no longer treated as a given, but an added amenity). And even – imagine – it would become possible to track the carbon footprint used in the construction materials and eventually achieve a carbon footprint of Net Zero. But, has anyone factored in the disposal of expired EV batteries? Or what happens to the zero-carbon footprint if the deconstruction of Paseo Nuevo happens, crushed, and tossed aside for housing?
LEEDing the Way
It is a known fact that repurposed buildings are more eco-friendly than new buildings. Ask the Brooklyn Zoo for their numbers. They repurposed their buildings to achieve LEED status. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council.
Certainly, King Charles has saved many historic buildings in London, as did Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in NYC, thank her for Grand Central Station, among many others.
That idea of getting to Net Zero carbon footprint is unachievable in most endeavors. Human beings make a big footprint. When one considers the Panama Canal, railroads, the steamship, bridges, dams, clean waterways, the list goes on, but none of that comes without some unintended consequences.
During a recent SSAC meeting public speakers promoted no wheels, neither bikes nor cars, should be on State St and cite Pearl St in Boulder and Third St in Santa Monica as shining successful examples. Yet the jury is out on that viewpoint, especially being that those experiments are only three blocks long and are not fiscally sound.
Still, the question remains, why is our city railroading a one-mile project with tenacles that seep further into town? Now that State St is closed for the Promenade, it appears the city plans also to further commandeer the side streets of Anacapa and Chapala. In fact, the Grand Paseo was presented as encompassing Chapala to Santa Barbara St and Carrillo to Ortega, essentially the downtown central corridor, - it appears doubtful cars will be allowed in that core.
A speaker suggested Class 1 Bike Paths for Anacapa and Chapala so pedestrians and bikers would not have to be endangered by co-mingling. Neither bikers nor pedestrians like the other ambling into their respective lanes. A lot of the vocal attendees of these presentations seem to abhor cars, except for when they need to call an ambulance, or the FD or their mom for a ride, or get an uber for their parents.
Shopping by Bicycle and Other Strange Habits
One woman quipped that she could do most of her shopping on State St on a bike. So, that would be… Farmers Market, CVS, Marshall’s, the Apple Store, World Market, and some restaurants; it may be possible, if one’s needs are limited. Of course, this rules out people who need a car to pick up dry cleaning, 50 lbs. bags of water softener, transporting children to school or soccer practice.
What is the plan for traveling from the east side to the west side easily? Obviously from the blocked streets downtown, eastside and westside, easy is not the intention.
While it is laudable that local architects volunteer many hours to repurpose and/or redesign the ideas proposed by MIG, who btw, failed miserably in their own city, the SF firm has already received half of their $878,000 for plans, the latest version appears to be roughly the same as previously shown, divided into different zones or neighborhoods. One suggestion was colorful foldable tents for markets, like in Paris (Marches aux Puces?) Not bad, but Paris’s views are of the beautiful man-made architecture, not the natural beauty that is our iconic backdrop in Santa Barbara.
Changing Lives One Bicycle at a Time
With no decision made on the final design of State St, with or without cars, where to dot paseos etc., a project for start date is early 2025.
At the SSAC meeting, a business owner declared that bed tax is down $6 million, with 41 vacant store fronts; and with most tourists coming from cruise ships – yet silence from the attending crowd. However, the bike militia clapped thunderously when speakers insisted “no cars on State Street!”
In fact, one of the bike militias championing no cars on State St, effused that “so many people’s lives have changed since State St became carless.”
Seriously?
Looks like the people want to keep cars off State St think they have the winning hand at this point. And they will have without adequate pushback from those who think otherwise.
This present situation is mostly a result of the crowd of those who showed up and spoke at Public Comment during the June 26 meeting are those against automobiles on the now closed portions of State St.
It’s amazing, isn’t it?
Give ‘em a lane and they want the whole street.
Give ‘em a street and they want the whole town. Now they insist that the promenade and car-free Zone should include the 400 and 1300 block of State St. That makes Gutierrez useless as a crosstown thoroughfare, at least to circle back to the eastside, and they have already captured Sola St east and west.
•••
P.S.: One shopkeeper, aka stakeholder, pleaded for pedestrians to have access close to the storefronts, to beckon those strolling to become customers. (In other words, when ambling down the middle of State St, they miss the storefronts.) Remember window shopping, and window dressing?
It is not too late to speak up. Otherwise, the vocal contingency of restaurants and bicyclists could have their way.
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I assume the "old State Street" was a source of revenues for the city government - retail sales taxes, property taxes, special district taxes on businesses, etc. What was that previous dollar amount. How much did it fluctuate or was it in permanent decline and no longer of any concern for the city budget.
How much did the "old State Street" riddled with vagrants, vandalism, bar zone fights, gang turf wars, shoplifting crimes, and required clean ups cost the city in increased law enforcement demands? What was the real net of the "old downtown" for the city.
How will any of the "new plans" provide equivalent income streams or even enhanced net income streams? Who is monitoring this feature of State Street planning and measuring the offered alternatives for their projected city revenue producing potentials? Have downtown property owners had their properties reassessed and applied for reduced property taxes due to the considerable loss of their original inherent value? Or are they assessed at much lower property tax rates anyway due to no ownership turnover.
If there is no enhanced revenue-producing value to the city budget, what is the point of the city even getting involved in any of these State Street plans. Just leave it to the property owners to make their own prudent best business decisions for themselves. Strip joints, neon entertainment allies, check cashing storefronts, e-bike drag races using pedestrians as human bowling pins?
Let the animal spirits of the marketplace decide the fate of State Street. Like every other failed "pedestrian mall" that has been tried elsewhere. Instead of spending any more millions on "consultants", send each committee members to visit various small town downtowns and observe first hand what makes them work or fail. Then apply what they learned to the peculiar nature of our own 10 block long former downtown.
But first disabuse any committee member of their romantic exposures to town plazas during any prior short-term European vacation. We want a working downtown - a one stop center for local residents; not a one time visit for armies of tourists.
On a side note a good friend who lived in SB first almost 30 but moved back to Italy 5 years ago came to visit I told her walk up State street. Her assessment. “It looks like crao. Smells like piss even inside some of the store. The bikes were dangerous.” She was very disappointed. She also told me that her Italian dentist came to CA and told him to visit Santa Barbara, which she raved about. He did and was grossly disappointed, not understanding why she was so excited about it.