We have incompetent leadership whose priorities are not us.
This what happens when the people stop caring about their own community.
It’s inevitable I guess. I watched the same thing happen to my own hometown I grew up in. Part of the reason I chose Santa Barbara decades ago was because it reminded me of my sleepy little home town.
Now some 40 years later both are unrecognizable soulless urban centers indistinguishable from each other. The people who live here and there have lost all connection to each other and pride in their town.
When I came in the mid 1970's, the across the board political engagement of this city was exhilarating. Everyone was engaged in important causes that genuinely benefited the entire city. It was non-partisan at the city council level, with a healthy balance of viewpoints. Then around the year 2000, everything changed.
That was the start of the Democrat "election reform" movement (aka takeover by SEIU and the teachers unions to protect their pensions). The city became balkanized, dysfunctional and now rapaciously negligent.
Choice has been structurally taken out of our local voter hands, which was the entire intent of that 2000 era series of Democrat "election reform". And the size of city government and its costs thrust on taxpayers, now and in the future, grew exponentially.
We have lost control of this monster now within out midst - our Democrat party protected "local government".
I thought when Randy was elected we would see a bit of business acumen on the council.
Where’s the dashboard on the web that shows us daily how many people showed up for work, what the full cost was for them: how many were off, and the cost? What about permits processed, permits outstanding, fees charged on a daily basis? These are not impossible things. Randy knows this, I know it. In the resturant business we would get a total in the register tape before the noon rush hour, and after, then before evening rush, and after, then at closing. We would know food and labor cost daily, and map that against income daily. Every employee has a cell phone or access to computer to log and account for activities throughout the day. Discipline and financial management is sorely needed. It’s not the council’s dime, it’s tax paying citizens. Accountability is needed for all the city folks and the council… daily. It’s business- act like it!
Randy has only one vote. Put the onus on three other city council members required to make things happen on this seven member city council, to create a new functional majority.
Which ones share the real blame for the failure of our city government? (1) Sneddon, (2)Harmon, (3)Jordan, (4) Gutierrez and/or (5) Santa Maria. Here is your city council majority; not the sole vote of Mayor Randy Rowse.
What part did you play electing these five horsemen of the current city apocalypse?
Mike: Explain the math to me - Rowse has only one vote on a seven person council. Rowse is the only person elected at large by the entire city.
The rest of the city council votes come from petty district satraps, who have zero interest rowing together for the city at large. While they curry the few localized voters on niche issues that are required to ensure their own re-election.
Eg: rent control; bike paths; climate change claptrap; expanding government employment; handing the property tax base over to non-property tax paying non-profits for "affordable housing"; and ensuring more employee union dues paying memberships and expanding city employee benefits. Do you see the common theme among this current city council majority?
Why did you hide under your desk when five other city council member got elected to permanently out-vote anything that Rowse tried to do?
Yes, Rowse only has one-vote; but he has the Bully Pulpit as Mayor. He should be sounding off weekly to get State Street open--the silent majority of the electorate wants this to happen. A real leader would find a way to make it so.
Great article, Bonnie ... as always. Instead of using the term "attractive nuisance," I'd prefer the term "hodgepodge." There's nothing attractive with the appearance of State Street and all the street paraphernalia. A motorcycle can be considered in legal terms an "attractive nuisance" which can, for example, attract a kid and in turn the presence of the motorcycle can somehow create an accident. Although the hodgepodge of "walking transitions" certainly can create an accident! Who maintains these "walking transition" devices. Are these foot traffic transitions engineered or someone just skillfully nailing something together. Will these "things" handle a 400-pound person? Will kids or animals get stuck in the crevices of these devices. Something to slip on in the rain? Will rats make nests under these things? Of course, the city has thought all about this stuff and the cost of potential lawsuits as a result of someone's creativity. It seems it's OK for your home, maybe, but used in the public ... I don't think so. I like the use of cost per minute of things.
I copied the picture of State Street and have studied it. Wouldn't it be a first to create a roundabout for walkers. Simply get rid of those corner traffic lights and use yield signs <g>. If someone stops on an addon street platform and turns their back to the street to talk to someone; and then backs up and doesn't think about the drop from the platform to the street surface, a cracked head or death of a SB resident could occur. Maybe the city government wants to kill its residents. The SB resident death results is a former homeowner's house going up for sale and the city gains by collecting ten times the property taxes. Don't laugh too hard. Our $400K home sold for $4M when the neighbors, city and FBI ousted us from our SB residence!
The only good thing about the street hodgepodge is the safety of not being noticed if you want to pee in a plant. You'd think all the plastic, orange "safety" posts would negate any "beautification" attempts. Next to the pee pots there's an unprotected drop-off at the sidewalk and where the platform ends. You got to be careful navigating this street "clutter." I'm almost convinced the SB government wants to kill their citizens or at least injure citizens so they can't make their house payments.
Perfect. The addition of French pissoirs would fit into the current city council overly romanticized vision of historic European small town squares, for our one very long, linear State Street.
I'm thinking of a human roundabout needs a central island in the middle of the intersection. The pissoirs could be placed on this roundabout island along with a statue of a council person.
That offers a nice irreverent Monty Python touch to the act of reliving one's self, in the presence of a surrogate elected official. "Your mother is a hamster, your father smells of elderberry ......and I **** in your general direction."
Perfect, Polly. Just like Formula One racings cars at the Indianapolis 500, city council members should be required to wear prominent badges advertising their own primary election and re-election sponsors.
Since only Mayor Randy Rowse was listening to Council member Eric Friedman's presentation, that means Kristin Sneddon, Meghan Harmon, Oscar Gutierrez, Wendy Santa Maria and Mike Jordan were not.
Time to use the names of negligent council people, just like reminding voters "the state" is in fact our own state senator Monqiue Limon and state assemblyman Gregg Hart, who are doing these things to us.
Reminder: Oscar Gutierrez and Wendy Santa Maria represent "rotten borough" city voting districts that require earning only a few hundred votes total to win their seats, since these voting districts were artificially created by the California Voting Rights Act as carved out minority-majority voting districts who historically have extremely low voter turnouts.
The other non-attentive council persons (Sneddon, Harmon, Jordan) do require earning at least few thousand votes from their districts to win their voting seat on city council. Only one city council vote -that of Mayor Rowse - requires taking his case to all of the voters in this entire city of 90,000 inhabitants.
This city took a huge step backwards when "the state" forced it to go to district elections. Monique Limon and Gregg Hart, what do you have to say for yourselves? Other than, yes this is exactly what we wanted to happen - a 100% Democrat tax and spend majority, permanently controlling this entire city in perpetuity.
I read this article by the Bell Of Justice Titled "Dollars per minute"
By Bonnie Donovan and I have a supporting Title "Follow the
Public Corruption Money in Santa Barbara" I quote from the Bell of Justice>
"Unattractive, Confused, and Filthy AND Over $500,000 later for a city that is in the RED, Does anyone seriously like this utterly unattractive poorly thought-out condition??"
How about $7.0 Million embezzled in Santa Barbara in the form of alleged
"Legimate legal services" that leads to "Honest Service Fraud"
Follow the Money Folks as Director Kash Patel says >>
Bonnie, you are a force for change and improving the mess that has become State Street. Your passion for creating and maintaining an efficient and beautiful city is admirable. There are 87,290 fellow citizens of yours in Santa Barbara who should care as much as you do. Where are they?
This is not a party-political issue or should not be. However, the district voting system for such a small city, disenfranchises the majority of city residents, when only the mayor is elected at large.
There are only four priorities for this city council. The first is to keep being elected by their small constituencies. The second is keep firm control over private landlords. The third is to cram into the city boundaries as much high-density housing as they can. The fourth is to continue to find ways to impose sources for new taxes and fees as they can to pay for their profligate spending.
Where are members of the 87,290 city residents protesting in the streets against both the actions of the city council and the really serious money, they are paid in total, for part-time jobs they perform so badly? Why, also don't they call to account the full-time city executives who participate in the mismanagement of the city?
Perhaps, so many city taxpayers, in disgust, no longer visit state street that they don't care?
Bonnie, a question for you that perhaps you have mentioned before but I may have missed. Although we are all affected by what the City Council does as far as the running of State Street, etc., but have no vote because of not living with the city limits, do you know approximately how many voters are there that can actually vote for the City Council?
As the streets continue to fail businesses, and tourist as well as locals continue to avoid the core of the city it means only one thing. Failure.....
Did anyone see that San Diego is fighting a 8 story building demanded by builders remedy?
The fight against e-bikes, and the likes of b-cycle that are getting a free ride (get it?) is spreading .... just quote Forrest Gump and then ask why you elected them and are paying them.
We have incompetent leadership whose priorities are not us.
This what happens when the people stop caring about their own community.
It’s inevitable I guess. I watched the same thing happen to my own hometown I grew up in. Part of the reason I chose Santa Barbara decades ago was because it reminded me of my sleepy little home town.
Now some 40 years later both are unrecognizable soulless urban centers indistinguishable from each other. The people who live here and there have lost all connection to each other and pride in their town.
It’s sad but predictable.
When I came in the mid 1970's, the across the board political engagement of this city was exhilarating. Everyone was engaged in important causes that genuinely benefited the entire city. It was non-partisan at the city council level, with a healthy balance of viewpoints. Then around the year 2000, everything changed.
That was the start of the Democrat "election reform" movement (aka takeover by SEIU and the teachers unions to protect their pensions). The city became balkanized, dysfunctional and now rapaciously negligent.
Choice has been structurally taken out of our local voter hands, which was the entire intent of that 2000 era series of Democrat "election reform". And the size of city government and its costs thrust on taxpayers, now and in the future, grew exponentially.
We have lost control of this monster now within out midst - our Democrat party protected "local government".
I thought when Randy was elected we would see a bit of business acumen on the council.
Where’s the dashboard on the web that shows us daily how many people showed up for work, what the full cost was for them: how many were off, and the cost? What about permits processed, permits outstanding, fees charged on a daily basis? These are not impossible things. Randy knows this, I know it. In the resturant business we would get a total in the register tape before the noon rush hour, and after, then before evening rush, and after, then at closing. We would know food and labor cost daily, and map that against income daily. Every employee has a cell phone or access to computer to log and account for activities throughout the day. Discipline and financial management is sorely needed. It’s not the council’s dime, it’s tax paying citizens. Accountability is needed for all the city folks and the council… daily. It’s business- act like it!
Randy has only one vote. Put the onus on three other city council members required to make things happen on this seven member city council, to create a new functional majority.
Which ones share the real blame for the failure of our city government? (1) Sneddon, (2)Harmon, (3)Jordan, (4) Gutierrez and/or (5) Santa Maria. Here is your city council majority; not the sole vote of Mayor Randy Rowse.
What part did you play electing these five horsemen of the current city apocalypse?
Rowse has been hiding under his desk. Zero leadership! Put him in the same category as the other progressive council members.
Mike: Explain the math to me - Rowse has only one vote on a seven person council. Rowse is the only person elected at large by the entire city.
The rest of the city council votes come from petty district satraps, who have zero interest rowing together for the city at large. While they curry the few localized voters on niche issues that are required to ensure their own re-election.
Eg: rent control; bike paths; climate change claptrap; expanding government employment; handing the property tax base over to non-property tax paying non-profits for "affordable housing"; and ensuring more employee union dues paying memberships and expanding city employee benefits. Do you see the common theme among this current city council majority?
Why did you hide under your desk when five other city council member got elected to permanently out-vote anything that Rowse tried to do?
Yes, Rowse only has one-vote; but he has the Bully Pulpit as Mayor. He should be sounding off weekly to get State Street open--the silent majority of the electorate wants this to happen. A real leader would find a way to make it so.
Great article, Bonnie ... as always. Instead of using the term "attractive nuisance," I'd prefer the term "hodgepodge." There's nothing attractive with the appearance of State Street and all the street paraphernalia. A motorcycle can be considered in legal terms an "attractive nuisance" which can, for example, attract a kid and in turn the presence of the motorcycle can somehow create an accident. Although the hodgepodge of "walking transitions" certainly can create an accident! Who maintains these "walking transition" devices. Are these foot traffic transitions engineered or someone just skillfully nailing something together. Will these "things" handle a 400-pound person? Will kids or animals get stuck in the crevices of these devices. Something to slip on in the rain? Will rats make nests under these things? Of course, the city has thought all about this stuff and the cost of potential lawsuits as a result of someone's creativity. It seems it's OK for your home, maybe, but used in the public ... I don't think so. I like the use of cost per minute of things.
I copied the picture of State Street and have studied it. Wouldn't it be a first to create a roundabout for walkers. Simply get rid of those corner traffic lights and use yield signs <g>. If someone stops on an addon street platform and turns their back to the street to talk to someone; and then backs up and doesn't think about the drop from the platform to the street surface, a cracked head or death of a SB resident could occur. Maybe the city government wants to kill its residents. The SB resident death results is a former homeowner's house going up for sale and the city gains by collecting ten times the property taxes. Don't laugh too hard. Our $400K home sold for $4M when the neighbors, city and FBI ousted us from our SB residence!
The only good thing about the street hodgepodge is the safety of not being noticed if you want to pee in a plant. You'd think all the plastic, orange "safety" posts would negate any "beautification" attempts. Next to the pee pots there's an unprotected drop-off at the sidewalk and where the platform ends. You got to be careful navigating this street "clutter." I'm almost convinced the SB government wants to kill their citizens or at least injure citizens so they can't make their house payments.
Perfect. The addition of French pissoirs would fit into the current city council overly romanticized vision of historic European small town squares, for our one very long, linear State Street.
I'm thinking of a human roundabout needs a central island in the middle of the intersection. The pissoirs could be placed on this roundabout island along with a statue of a council person.
That offers a nice irreverent Monty Python touch to the act of reliving one's self, in the presence of a surrogate elected official. "Your mother is a hamster, your father smells of elderberry ......and I **** in your general direction."
Love it, Bonnie. Our local officials should have price tags on them just like those pots.
Polly, me thinks you might have hit the nail squarely on the head.
That'll be $105 for my time.
Will you take a Democrat Party backed bitcoin?
Perfect, Polly. Just like Formula One racings cars at the Indianapolis 500, city council members should be required to wear prominent badges advertising their own primary election and re-election sponsors.
An art gallery in Santa Barbara should do a show of Bonnie's photographs.
The Decline and Fall of Santa Barbara.
Yes!
Since only Mayor Randy Rowse was listening to Council member Eric Friedman's presentation, that means Kristin Sneddon, Meghan Harmon, Oscar Gutierrez, Wendy Santa Maria and Mike Jordan were not.
Time to use the names of negligent council people, just like reminding voters "the state" is in fact our own state senator Monqiue Limon and state assemblyman Gregg Hart, who are doing these things to us.
Reminder: Oscar Gutierrez and Wendy Santa Maria represent "rotten borough" city voting districts that require earning only a few hundred votes total to win their seats, since these voting districts were artificially created by the California Voting Rights Act as carved out minority-majority voting districts who historically have extremely low voter turnouts.
The other non-attentive council persons (Sneddon, Harmon, Jordan) do require earning at least few thousand votes from their districts to win their voting seat on city council. Only one city council vote -that of Mayor Rowse - requires taking his case to all of the voters in this entire city of 90,000 inhabitants.
This city took a huge step backwards when "the state" forced it to go to district elections. Monique Limon and Gregg Hart, what do you have to say for yourselves? Other than, yes this is exactly what we wanted to happen - a 100% Democrat tax and spend majority, permanently controlling this entire city in perpetuity.
I read this article by the Bell Of Justice Titled "Dollars per minute"
By Bonnie Donovan and I have a supporting Title "Follow the
Public Corruption Money in Santa Barbara" I quote from the Bell of Justice>
"Unattractive, Confused, and Filthy AND Over $500,000 later for a city that is in the RED, Does anyone seriously like this utterly unattractive poorly thought-out condition??"
How about $7.0 Million embezzled in Santa Barbara in the form of alleged
"Legimate legal services" that leads to "Honest Service Fraud"
Follow the Money Folks as Director Kash Patel says >>
https://x.com/Chicago1Ray/status/1973918637732835500
And as former FBI Executive Tom Parker has stated >
"Perceptions of Political Corruption Too Often the Harbingers of Stark Reality"
https://www.independent.com/2020/02/22/perceptions-of-political-corruption/
Welcome to the Santa Barbara's Stark Realty folks.
Howard Walther, Member of a Military Family
Bonnie, you are a force for change and improving the mess that has become State Street. Your passion for creating and maintaining an efficient and beautiful city is admirable. There are 87,290 fellow citizens of yours in Santa Barbara who should care as much as you do. Where are they?
This is not a party-political issue or should not be. However, the district voting system for such a small city, disenfranchises the majority of city residents, when only the mayor is elected at large.
There are only four priorities for this city council. The first is to keep being elected by their small constituencies. The second is keep firm control over private landlords. The third is to cram into the city boundaries as much high-density housing as they can. The fourth is to continue to find ways to impose sources for new taxes and fees as they can to pay for their profligate spending.
Where are members of the 87,290 city residents protesting in the streets against both the actions of the city council and the really serious money, they are paid in total, for part-time jobs they perform so badly? Why, also don't they call to account the full-time city executives who participate in the mismanagement of the city?
Perhaps, so many city taxpayers, in disgust, no longer visit state street that they don't care?
Bonnie, a question for you that perhaps you have mentioned before but I may have missed. Although we are all affected by what the City Council does as far as the running of State Street, etc., but have no vote because of not living with the city limits, do you know approximately how many voters are there that can actually vote for the City Council?
A quick look at Grok indicates that Santa Barbara city has 49,121 registered voters, while the county has 246,000.
Now, to check the population of both.
The population of the city is 88,000, the county 448,000.
And then Party affiliation - listed for the county only
Democratic 46%, Republican 26%, No Party Preference aka all others 21% and other 7%
As the streets continue to fail businesses, and tourist as well as locals continue to avoid the core of the city it means only one thing. Failure.....
Did anyone see that San Diego is fighting a 8 story building demanded by builders remedy?
The fight against e-bikes, and the likes of b-cycle that are getting a free ride (get it?) is spreading .... just quote Forrest Gump and then ask why you elected them and are paying them.