We spend multiple million dollars creating recreational bike lanes, with monies intended for street repairs. They’re removing trees all over town, many to accommodate bike lanes.
They are elitists thinking you must be rich to be a golfer.
So sad that they are so disconnected from the community and it’s history.
I'm not a golfer, I'm a gardener and every April I watch the Master's golf tournament. The course is like a botanical garden, . . . here's my idea. Santa Barbara needs a miniature golf course as beautiful as Augusta National.
The Chase Palm park at Cabrillo has the empty carousel. That could be the clubhouse with drinks for adults and pizza for the kids. And tacos for everyone.
From the carousel down to the kids playground, I think there's enough room for two courses, one more geared for adults and one for kids. There's plenty of parking in two lots across Garden and Cabrillo. I've been watching the area for weeks and the park is mostly empty of visitors, except the homeless ones.
Almost everyone from age 8 to 80 can play miniature golf. This is a great revenue source for the city.
Bonnie, you’re article is “spot-on!” When I drive the streets around town and in Goleta I’m disgusted to say the least- The question ALWAYS comes up in my head, “why are the current roads not being maintained first before venturing off into ways to spend money the city doesn’t have!”
I could go on and on about the current/proposed road “improvements” that make very little sense, but I don’t want to be redundant-
Having been a golfer for 59 of my 68 yrs. on this planet, I can attest to the fact that golf can benefit
almost everyone who gives it a shot! 99% of my life’s experiences came from playing this great sport
and thank The Lord I was able to afford to do that! I was never financially rich, yet consider myself rich in family and friends! To raise prices does nothing more than limit the amount of times someone will play- Old/young/rich/not-so-rich, it doesn’t matter, it’s all relative my dear Watson!
PLEASE stop trying to fix things that aren’t broken and maybe just focus on those areas that really need help in this beautiful town!
I read in the Santa Barbara Current today that there is a proposed ordinance which requires firearms to be stored in a locked container and disabled with a trigger lock. You were identified in the article as the contact for an event on June 1 related to said proposal.
Please be aware that such a legislative enactment is not a law as it is unconstitutional and therefore unenforceable on its face. You and the city should get better lawyers before you are sued over this. The US Supreme Court has already declared a similar law in Washington DC to be unconstitutional in 2008 in Heller vs. DC. You are formally notified of this fact by this email.
You swore an oath of office to hold your position - to "bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States." Keep your word, sir. The City of Santa Barbara has no legal right to enforce such an enactment contrary to Supreme Court precedent, nor should the people's employees waste their time and our money discussing such.
Relevant part of the majority opinion by Justice Scalia:
"[W]e hold that the District’s ban on handgun possession in the home violates the Second Amendment, as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense."
If you want to suggest that citizens lock up their arms that is one thing, but the City has no legal basis to legally require such. This is settled law as a result of Heller. I'll be forwarding this communication to the City Attorney and the City Council and Mayor.
No response from our employee as of Friday afternoon. As expected. I'll seem him at 11am or so tomorrow at 1136 E. Montecito Street and let you know what he says.
So I went to the meeting. And read the actual ordinance. Which has been passed by the way - I was under the mistaken impression it was merely proposed. It has exceptions - for cleaning, self-defense and handling. Which makes it very unlikely that a court would find it unconstitutional. It is unconstitutional and I'm going to walk it over to a 2nd Amendment attorney, but it's likely that the court would find a way to say it is OK given the exceptions. For instance leaving an unlocked pistol in the nightstand would be an offense, which to me, is why it remains unconstitutional. The officers were very articulate when I spoke with them.
Once again you the taxpayer is being used and your tax money is being wasted.
How about going down the list of Dononvan's article:
Golf Course: It is an open space of green that produces Oxygen while binding Carbon (isn't that a good thing), it provides physical exercise, has a meeting space for the general public, so why make its existence problematic by increasing fees? The average golfer at Muni cannot afford other courses and then what about the kids who golf?
Sidewalks going to seed? How many millions of public works dollars have been spent on obstructing streets (e.g. Sola) for bike use that has not materialized? A 3 foot idiotic curb bulbout costs the city a minimum of $30,000 and if it includes a street drain around $150,00. How many side walks can be cleaned and streets swept for that money/let alone keeping traffic flowing smoothly?
What about a City Council that doesn't care about emergency response, and could care less about getting tourist from the beach to downtown to spend money? The State St. underpass is a low IQ project that costs $11.0 million? How about the city congesting Cabrillo at Los Patos for another one lane roundabout?
Hey folks these are just the top of the list for her article.
There is no lack of low hanging fruit for the picking when it comes to Santa Barbara's questionable decisions.
Do you notice how the city council does not seriously look at expenditures and focus on reducing them? Why not do this in an era of increasing costs? Why hold out their hands and ask for more
Income in the way of taxes? Why not take a closer look at expenditure categories and cut back?
Given the technology today, it’s quite easy to track time on tasks. Attorneys do this to billable minutes, employees can do so as well. There is no reason not to ask employees to track their time against cost centers and projects and make the data available daily for scrutiny by the public. Every employee has at hand a mobile device, many paid for by your taxes. Load a time tracking app, track work by cost center and project. Automate it, tie it into time reporting. It’s quite doable. By so doing, the real cost of government will be apparent.
Thank you, Bonnie - you have written the sanest news article today. Reading you I felt like there is hope for this country, because there are still people like you willing to write the truth about how crazy partisan politics have become, so crazy that politicians and government officials feel justified in using any means to stay in office, the Constitution be damned and the citizens be bankrupted and their voices - whether for the next president or for their own safety on their local streets - be silenced.
Thanks Bonnie for another “woman about town” review of City of SB shortcomings…I’m a golfer & can attest that golfers that play the “Mighty Muni” are not wealthy…also worked at the golf course for a dozen years until we were hit with C19…golf play dropped for a short period as we acclimated to C19 protocols & limitations…now it is more popular than for decades (C19 eventually resulted in increased play due to C19 restrictions on other forms of entertainment)…
most all players of the course are local lower-to-middle-class workers (people from the trades, office workers, retail clerks, etc etc etc)…most would love to play 2 or 3 times per week, but limit their play to the once-per-week round that fits their budget (a round of golf with cart ranges $50-70 depending upon time of day & day of week)…
PS, the golf course has always been a profit center for the City, thus a target to squeeze more revenue by the politicians & powers that be…
Unsubstantiated "class envy" has been a corrosive element within too many of our local political conversations. The whole point of our public golf course has been to provide healthy recreation for those who do not belong to the far more expensive local private county clubs.
Conflating this public recreational activity as a token only for the vaguely undefined "privileged" in our town is a grave error. Particularly when our municipal golf course has been operating so successfully as a self-sustaining enterprise, keeping this activity accessible for anyone in our city who does want to enjoy it.
Bravo to our prior city council leaders like Dale Francisco who championed this successful public/private business operations transfer - and a reminder Mulligan's is a great little local treasure dining spot, open to all in a very beautiful setting.
It seems that over the last few years the amount of infrastructure work has increased dramatically. In the last two years on my street the sewer lines were replaced, part of the water supply liies were replaced, the phone poles were replaced, huge speed bumps were added and stone festooned obstacles built in the middle of the road for no apparent reason.. I can't speak to the underground utilities but the poles seemed to be in good condition. Everywhere I drive roads are closed for work of all sorts including the construction of ever more unused bike paths. Yet at the same time I drive on other roads which are pothole ridden or walk on sidewalks in worse condition than Pompey. The city is misapproating its budget. By who and how is it determined that the phone polls and sewer lines need replacing? Who is getting the construction contracts? Gutierrez construction? Who decides that a bike path should be built when roads or sidewalks are crumbling?
Credit does go to the city council for dedicating the last retail sales tax revenues to city infrastructure projects, that had been long neglected. That is why we are seeing a burst of city infrastructure projects right now.
However, this latest retail tax increase was sold to the voters essentially by extortion which masked the long-term underfunding of these critical city projects. Eg: Pass these new taxes or you won't get these critical city projects maintained, let alone improved, because most of our revenues now go to fund promises made to city employee bargaining groups.
Next time put new tax funding for city employee perks and benefits on the ballot, instead of making new tax demands to fund city infrastructure projects. We are all in this together.
Property taxes or retail sales taxes? Use taxes? Transient Occupancy taxes? State funded projects? Federal grants funding? Parcel taxes? School bond measures?
We all need to better articulate the basics of our city revenue streams, before we keep writing checks to more special interests noisy demands. Guard against "Lady Bountiful" candidates who only promise more handouts; but show not a single clue they understand the fiscal compromises required to fulfill those promises.
Plus theses overly generous candidates know upfront "term limits" means they will not suffer the consequences of their poor decisions made today. Someone else will need to clean up the fiscal messes after they are "termed out". Local taxpayers who do get stuck with these delayed costs and need to participate far more prudently when casting their own votes.
City Budgeting 101 - it is our duty to learn more about our current fiscal realities.
Why do expensive bike lanes take priority over pot holes? How do demands for more rent control and taking property off the tax rolls for more subsidized housing affect our long-term fiscal health? How will we fund our growing government employee pension short-falls? What gets sacrificed later, in order to pay off unsustainable promises made today.
Serving in public office affords the luxury of being paid to try to change the way things are into what you think they should be. Running a business affords no such luxury as idealistic forays inevitably lead to failure. Only in public office is failure tolerated or rewarded. Experience running a business should be required for public office. Perhaps the city council should receive zero compensation. The pay seems to attract dross.
We spend multiple million dollars creating recreational bike lanes, with monies intended for street repairs. They’re removing trees all over town, many to accommodate bike lanes.
They are elitists thinking you must be rich to be a golfer.
So sad that they are so disconnected from the community and it’s history.
Sad, smart and hilarious column. And the more irreverence I see about SB’s mostly-unused bike lanes the happier I am.
I'm not a golfer, I'm a gardener and every April I watch the Master's golf tournament. The course is like a botanical garden, . . . here's my idea. Santa Barbara needs a miniature golf course as beautiful as Augusta National.
The Chase Palm park at Cabrillo has the empty carousel. That could be the clubhouse with drinks for adults and pizza for the kids. And tacos for everyone.
From the carousel down to the kids playground, I think there's enough room for two courses, one more geared for adults and one for kids. There's plenty of parking in two lots across Garden and Cabrillo. I've been watching the area for weeks and the park is mostly empty of visitors, except the homeless ones.
Almost everyone from age 8 to 80 can play miniature golf. This is a great revenue source for the city.
Bonnie, you’re article is “spot-on!” When I drive the streets around town and in Goleta I’m disgusted to say the least- The question ALWAYS comes up in my head, “why are the current roads not being maintained first before venturing off into ways to spend money the city doesn’t have!”
I could go on and on about the current/proposed road “improvements” that make very little sense, but I don’t want to be redundant-
Having been a golfer for 59 of my 68 yrs. on this planet, I can attest to the fact that golf can benefit
almost everyone who gives it a shot! 99% of my life’s experiences came from playing this great sport
and thank The Lord I was able to afford to do that! I was never financially rich, yet consider myself rich in family and friends! To raise prices does nothing more than limit the amount of times someone will play- Old/young/rich/not-so-rich, it doesn’t matter, it’s all relative my dear Watson!
PLEASE stop trying to fix things that aren’t broken and maybe just focus on those areas that really need help in this beautiful town!
Cmdr. Katsapis,
I read in the Santa Barbara Current today that there is a proposed ordinance which requires firearms to be stored in a locked container and disabled with a trigger lock. You were identified in the article as the contact for an event on June 1 related to said proposal.
Please be aware that such a legislative enactment is not a law as it is unconstitutional and therefore unenforceable on its face. You and the city should get better lawyers before you are sued over this. The US Supreme Court has already declared a similar law in Washington DC to be unconstitutional in 2008 in Heller vs. DC. You are formally notified of this fact by this email.
You swore an oath of office to hold your position - to "bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States." Keep your word, sir. The City of Santa Barbara has no legal right to enforce such an enactment contrary to Supreme Court precedent, nor should the people's employees waste their time and our money discussing such.
Link to majority opinion:
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/554/570/#tab-opinion-1962738
Relevant part of the majority opinion by Justice Scalia:
"[W]e hold that the District’s ban on handgun possession in the home violates the Second Amendment, as does its prohibition against rendering any lawful firearm in the home operable for the purpose of immediate self-defense."
If you want to suggest that citizens lock up their arms that is one thing, but the City has no legal basis to legally require such. This is settled law as a result of Heller. I'll be forwarding this communication to the City Attorney and the City Council and Mayor.
Sincerely,
Robert Vance
No response from our employee as of Friday afternoon. As expected. I'll seem him at 11am or so tomorrow at 1136 E. Montecito Street and let you know what he says.
So I went to the meeting. And read the actual ordinance. Which has been passed by the way - I was under the mistaken impression it was merely proposed. It has exceptions - for cleaning, self-defense and handling. Which makes it very unlikely that a court would find it unconstitutional. It is unconstitutional and I'm going to walk it over to a 2nd Amendment attorney, but it's likely that the court would find a way to say it is OK given the exceptions. For instance leaving an unlocked pistol in the nightstand would be an offense, which to me, is why it remains unconstitutional. The officers were very articulate when I spoke with them.
The JOKE is on you!!!
Once again you the taxpayer is being used and your tax money is being wasted.
How about going down the list of Dononvan's article:
Golf Course: It is an open space of green that produces Oxygen while binding Carbon (isn't that a good thing), it provides physical exercise, has a meeting space for the general public, so why make its existence problematic by increasing fees? The average golfer at Muni cannot afford other courses and then what about the kids who golf?
Sidewalks going to seed? How many millions of public works dollars have been spent on obstructing streets (e.g. Sola) for bike use that has not materialized? A 3 foot idiotic curb bulbout costs the city a minimum of $30,000 and if it includes a street drain around $150,00. How many side walks can be cleaned and streets swept for that money/let alone keeping traffic flowing smoothly?
What about a City Council that doesn't care about emergency response, and could care less about getting tourist from the beach to downtown to spend money? The State St. underpass is a low IQ project that costs $11.0 million? How about the city congesting Cabrillo at Los Patos for another one lane roundabout?
Hey folks these are just the top of the list for her article.
There is no lack of low hanging fruit for the picking when it comes to Santa Barbara's questionable decisions.
Do you notice how the city council does not seriously look at expenditures and focus on reducing them? Why not do this in an era of increasing costs? Why hold out their hands and ask for more
Income in the way of taxes? Why not take a closer look at expenditure categories and cut back?
Given the technology today, it’s quite easy to track time on tasks. Attorneys do this to billable minutes, employees can do so as well. There is no reason not to ask employees to track their time against cost centers and projects and make the data available daily for scrutiny by the public. Every employee has at hand a mobile device, many paid for by your taxes. Load a time tracking app, track work by cost center and project. Automate it, tie it into time reporting. It’s quite doable. By so doing, the real cost of government will be apparent.
Thank you, Bonnie - you have written the sanest news article today. Reading you I felt like there is hope for this country, because there are still people like you willing to write the truth about how crazy partisan politics have become, so crazy that politicians and government officials feel justified in using any means to stay in office, the Constitution be damned and the citizens be bankrupted and their voices - whether for the next president or for their own safety on their local streets - be silenced.
Thanks Bonnie for another “woman about town” review of City of SB shortcomings…I’m a golfer & can attest that golfers that play the “Mighty Muni” are not wealthy…also worked at the golf course for a dozen years until we were hit with C19…golf play dropped for a short period as we acclimated to C19 protocols & limitations…now it is more popular than for decades (C19 eventually resulted in increased play due to C19 restrictions on other forms of entertainment)…
most all players of the course are local lower-to-middle-class workers (people from the trades, office workers, retail clerks, etc etc etc)…most would love to play 2 or 3 times per week, but limit their play to the once-per-week round that fits their budget (a round of golf with cart ranges $50-70 depending upon time of day & day of week)…
PS, the golf course has always been a profit center for the City, thus a target to squeeze more revenue by the politicians & powers that be…
Unsubstantiated "class envy" has been a corrosive element within too many of our local political conversations. The whole point of our public golf course has been to provide healthy recreation for those who do not belong to the far more expensive local private county clubs.
Conflating this public recreational activity as a token only for the vaguely undefined "privileged" in our town is a grave error. Particularly when our municipal golf course has been operating so successfully as a self-sustaining enterprise, keeping this activity accessible for anyone in our city who does want to enjoy it.
Bravo to our prior city council leaders like Dale Francisco who championed this successful public/private business operations transfer - and a reminder Mulligan's is a great little local treasure dining spot, open to all in a very beautiful setting.
Great points. I hope the council reads this though I suspect they only read far left leaning publications like the Independent.
It seems that over the last few years the amount of infrastructure work has increased dramatically. In the last two years on my street the sewer lines were replaced, part of the water supply liies were replaced, the phone poles were replaced, huge speed bumps were added and stone festooned obstacles built in the middle of the road for no apparent reason.. I can't speak to the underground utilities but the poles seemed to be in good condition. Everywhere I drive roads are closed for work of all sorts including the construction of ever more unused bike paths. Yet at the same time I drive on other roads which are pothole ridden or walk on sidewalks in worse condition than Pompey. The city is misapproating its budget. By who and how is it determined that the phone polls and sewer lines need replacing? Who is getting the construction contracts? Gutierrez construction? Who decides that a bike path should be built when roads or sidewalks are crumbling?
Credit does go to the city council for dedicating the last retail sales tax revenues to city infrastructure projects, that had been long neglected. That is why we are seeing a burst of city infrastructure projects right now.
However, this latest retail tax increase was sold to the voters essentially by extortion which masked the long-term underfunding of these critical city projects. Eg: Pass these new taxes or you won't get these critical city projects maintained, let alone improved, because most of our revenues now go to fund promises made to city employee bargaining groups.
Next time put new tax funding for city employee perks and benefits on the ballot, instead of making new tax demands to fund city infrastructure projects. We are all in this together.
And WHAT do you folks pay in taxes in SB???? YIKES!
Property taxes or retail sales taxes? Use taxes? Transient Occupancy taxes? State funded projects? Federal grants funding? Parcel taxes? School bond measures?
We all need to better articulate the basics of our city revenue streams, before we keep writing checks to more special interests noisy demands. Guard against "Lady Bountiful" candidates who only promise more handouts; but show not a single clue they understand the fiscal compromises required to fulfill those promises.
Plus theses overly generous candidates know upfront "term limits" means they will not suffer the consequences of their poor decisions made today. Someone else will need to clean up the fiscal messes after they are "termed out". Local taxpayers who do get stuck with these delayed costs and need to participate far more prudently when casting their own votes.
City Budgeting 101 - it is our duty to learn more about our current fiscal realities.
Why do expensive bike lanes take priority over pot holes? How do demands for more rent control and taking property off the tax rolls for more subsidized housing affect our long-term fiscal health? How will we fund our growing government employee pension short-falls? What gets sacrificed later, in order to pay off unsustainable promises made today.
City budgets can be helped if we reduce redundancy projects like the City's one-time "hazardous waste disposal" promotional event, when this same service is available every weekend at UCSB for all county residents: https://www.ehs.ucsb.edu/programs-services/hazardous-waste/community-household-hazardous-waste
I have been playing Santa Barbara municipal for many years.
I play there because of the affordable rates that I can’t afford at other local courses.
Also, the course is in better shape than it was when the city ran it.
I guess if the city prices me off the golf course I will have to take up pickleball
Serving in public office affords the luxury of being paid to try to change the way things are into what you think they should be. Running a business affords no such luxury as idealistic forays inevitably lead to failure. Only in public office is failure tolerated or rewarded. Experience running a business should be required for public office. Perhaps the city council should receive zero compensation. The pay seems to attract dross.