IT WOULD SEEM that once revealed these financial shennanigans would be reversed, or that someone in Government would show remorse or shame. But no, where money is involved there is no sense of propriety or accountability. Slowly, inexorably, our beautiful city is being eroded and what made it so lovely ruined.
Excellent as always, Bonnie. Fixing things is just not good enough for our elected officials. No, they insist on redoing things that aren't broken so that they *are* now broken.
As always Bonnie, another great article. There's something like 171,146 words in the English language and "pedlet or pedlets" isn't one of them. But if you can give something a name, then it's real ... at least in the minds in the politicians of SB. It appears the city is trying to polish-a-turd with regards to the so-called pedlets creating a labyrinth of discontinuity ... an unsafe pathway for pedestrians. It's the same problem with roundabouts ... most people haven't experienced them, and they are very scary to newcomers to navigate (I still hate them). Since my comments from your last chat about State Street, the city has now projected some concerns about safety because of my inference they were trying to "kill off the local homeowners for property tax increases resulting in home sale tax gains." But we know better <g>. As Arlo Guthry shouted in Alice's Restaurant, "I wanna kill, kill, kill!"
City does count on higher and higher home prices, so they can carve out their "fair share" after theses significant jumps in the new post-sale property tax rates.
So do they keep pushing more "affordable housing" as a their own CYA window dressing? Hoping we will ignore their own continued built-in budget dependencies that require ever higher and higher home prices?
Schizophrenia is not a good quality to expect from any elected official. Or is it just plain partisan hypocrisy. Or speaking out of two sides of their mouth at the same time.
Thanks Bonnie. You can't make this stuff up and sounds more like Babylon Bee than reality.
BTW protestors are always paid. I understand that they fill out a form from Indivisible and they can get paid up to $200 each protest.
How else would these older government pension residents be able to constantly participate in these protests without being paid for it. They are not grassroots at all and or always local residents.
D and I enjoyed dinner at Holdren's yesterday. What a joke the 500 block of State St makeover is. Joke on us! The potted plants look cheap -- better without them. And the ped walkway is more like a maze. God help the disabled trying to navigate. Folks -- this Tuesday, October 12, is an important Council meeting when 2% rent control is presented by Sneddon and sidekick Santamaria . Show Up and Speak Out. If you have the time, come earlier to observe Finance Committee. (Pack a lunch for between, you'll need the nourishment.) Save what's left of our Santa Barbara. Good Luck.
When are these special CVRA carved out, low-voter registration districts** now in our city, going to be declared racially discriminatory, unconstitutional and finally thrown out?
**The specially protected districts that inflicted both Wendy SantaMaria and Oscar Gonzales on our body politic for only a few hundred earned votes each. Five other seats had to win thousands of votes, to get their place on council to vote in our names. How fair is that?
Time to move to hybrid elections -city council members residing in various city geographical districts, but voted on at-large, so the entire city can weigh in on all future city issues. No more of these small narrow-interest high-jackings, like that we have right now.
City council members Sneddon and SantaMaris propose using Measure C funds to .........."pay for services for people who are affected by ICE activities",.............???????
Since we are all affected when ICE is prevented from doing their required tasks, this means Kristen Sneddon and Wendy Santa Maria owes us Measure C money too.
What heck does that even mean ..........."services for people who are affected by ICE activities". The city continues to insult us six ways to Sunday, while they propose shoveling our cash out the back door in support of their own pet causes.
Remember these names when they come up for re-election or preposterously for the next mayor's race: Kristen Sneddon and Wendy SantaMaria - big spenders stealing our tax dollars for only their unauthorized pet causes.
MEASURE C WAS AN INFRASTRUCTURE MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR PROMISE TO VOTERS.
Thank you Bonnie Donovan, for shining the light on this city council member intended abuse of our promised tax revenues.
An immediate and FULL refund of taxes collected for Measure C is due to taxpayers. A good faith vote and taxes paid have been grossly misused. Measure C has abused the public trust. Dissolve it. Refund the taxes paid. Make appropriate consequences for those responsible for this public theft.
My first thought when I first saw the new "pedlets" on the 500 block was "trip hazards!" Lots of potential for slips, trips, and injuries. Insufficient visual cues for everyone. Hopefully they will be addressing this.
Bonnie. Unbelievable bot not in Santa Barbara. Hey guys ( the city council) we have this bushel of money it doesn’t matter where it was intended we need to spend it as we want to. The council of clowns
Santa Barbara's "The Restaurant Guy" checks in on Pedlets too:
"PEDLET PANDEMONIUM
Posted on Wednesday, October 8, 2025 by The Restaurant Guy
It has come to my attention that numerous restaurants on the 500 block of State Street are unhappy. Why? I am told that there is a problem with the new pedlets (sidewalks) on both sides of the street.
Apparently all restaurants on that block now have to remove all their patios from the sidewalks to make room for work on the pedlets next Monday-Wednesday. Some of the patio equipment, including tables and fences, are bolted to bricks and that has to undone.
Some people have reached out to me saying that the pedlets move foot traffic too far away windows of businesses that are not restaurants and that window shopping might be toast if this concept is rolled out to the rest of Grand Paseo.
Hopefully the pedlet people will also install wider ramps at either end which creates a bottleneck for walking traffic."........................
But these are not "immigrants". They are persons who came here illegally without prior authorization. They are persons who knew from day one they would need to return to their home countries, at some time during their continued unlawful presence in this country. Please note the latest euphemism now being used is: "persons of unsatisfactory immigration status".
Dignity is a two way street: persons of "unsatisfactory status" need to honor our laws and accept all full consequences for their own choice to dishonor our laws. Where is the dignity demanding we must now reward them for their own intentional and illegal choices?
Notice all the buzz-word salting in this announcement of city tax dollars disbursement - painting the most negative light on what has been a voter-mandated lawful process. Lower the tone of divisive hysteria, City of Santa Barbara. Please remove all hostile, gratuitous language and unfounded language in your official pronouncements.
Fix what is broken? Did anyone see the "Safe Streets"??? memo by the city? Now there is a joke.
They co-opted the name of a former NGO to continue their destruction of the street grid and parking. SB Safe Streets stood for open and efficient streets.
Bonnie good that you were able to get some response about the costs. Locals are up to their noses with this joke of the 500 block of State St.
Does anyone else find it strange and corrupt that the City and its anti car trolls have dismissed without comment the option of opening State St. from Victoria to Carrillo to find out if (as Harmon would state) vibrancy and resiliency to the downtown business core?
Remember this council and "Central Committee" demand failures would not happen if you had not voted for them. More and more are complaining...but more and more are not willing to make McAdoo face her failures and then make the Council sweat over the continuing destruction of the City's transportation grid.
Simple when she refuses to answer questions under Public Records that either prove or disprove the past 7 years she is a failure.
There have been plenty of times she could have exposed street and downtown failures. Did she? Wait until the social services draw back hit the city. Just as the County found out there isn't going to be money to suck on. Then she can state how successful her tenure has been.
Are you listening Council. The money train has left the building.
Thank you Bonnie for doing real, impactful journalism and exposing the waste, fraud and abuse by our local officials. Admittedly, nothing glamorous about exposing cracked, broken sidewalks and infrastructure, while the rest of the local “media” is foaming at the mouth over “No Kings,” and the seemingly never ending collective meltdown by local leftists.
Follow the money, and if indeed public funds from Measures “C” are being misappropriated from what we the voters have approved, then it may be a matter for the Grand Jury to determine and act upon.
Just walked my own few blocks this morning to go out to breakfast (support local businesses) and counted at least 20 treacherous sidewalk seam trip hazards. Some were ground down, some painted neon orange, some crudely patched with cement or asphalt. And create a bumpy ride for any wheelchair, walker or baby carriage.
But most were left jutting up and ready to trip any unwary pedestrian. That is what I want Measure C moneys to fix. Bikers got to take over the entire downtown for their own exclusive use. But I cannot even walk a few blocks around my home, without keeping 911 on speed dial.
It seems likely that, in many cases, in government, funding approved for one purpose are available for some level of misappropriation to pay for other, unfunded, objectives. Once the government has your money, you as the taxpayer have lost control of its use, no matter what purpose you approved. I do not believe this practice is limited to Santa Barbara, or to city staffs. I doubt that the city council can stop it.
IT WOULD SEEM that once revealed these financial shennanigans would be reversed, or that someone in Government would show remorse or shame. But no, where money is involved there is no sense of propriety or accountability. Slowly, inexorably, our beautiful city is being eroded and what made it so lovely ruined.
Excellent as always, Bonnie. Fixing things is just not good enough for our elected officials. No, they insist on redoing things that aren't broken so that they *are* now broken.
Thank you Bonnie for all your hard work and insights…
As always Bonnie, another great article. There's something like 171,146 words in the English language and "pedlet or pedlets" isn't one of them. But if you can give something a name, then it's real ... at least in the minds in the politicians of SB. It appears the city is trying to polish-a-turd with regards to the so-called pedlets creating a labyrinth of discontinuity ... an unsafe pathway for pedestrians. It's the same problem with roundabouts ... most people haven't experienced them, and they are very scary to newcomers to navigate (I still hate them). Since my comments from your last chat about State Street, the city has now projected some concerns about safety because of my inference they were trying to "kill off the local homeowners for property tax increases resulting in home sale tax gains." But we know better <g>. As Arlo Guthry shouted in Alice's Restaurant, "I wanna kill, kill, kill!"
City does count on higher and higher home prices, so they can carve out their "fair share" after theses significant jumps in the new post-sale property tax rates.
So do they keep pushing more "affordable housing" as a their own CYA window dressing? Hoping we will ignore their own continued built-in budget dependencies that require ever higher and higher home prices?
Schizophrenia is not a good quality to expect from any elected official. Or is it just plain partisan hypocrisy. Or speaking out of two sides of their mouth at the same time.
Thanks Bonnie. You can't make this stuff up and sounds more like Babylon Bee than reality.
BTW protestors are always paid. I understand that they fill out a form from Indivisible and they can get paid up to $200 each protest.
How else would these older government pension residents be able to constantly participate in these protests without being paid for it. They are not grassroots at all and or always local residents.
D and I enjoyed dinner at Holdren's yesterday. What a joke the 500 block of State St makeover is. Joke on us! The potted plants look cheap -- better without them. And the ped walkway is more like a maze. God help the disabled trying to navigate. Folks -- this Tuesday, October 12, is an important Council meeting when 2% rent control is presented by Sneddon and sidekick Santamaria . Show Up and Speak Out. If you have the time, come earlier to observe Finance Committee. (Pack a lunch for between, you'll need the nourishment.) Save what's left of our Santa Barbara. Good Luck.
When are these special CVRA carved out, low-voter registration districts** now in our city, going to be declared racially discriminatory, unconstitutional and finally thrown out?
**The specially protected districts that inflicted both Wendy SantaMaria and Oscar Gonzales on our body politic for only a few hundred earned votes each. Five other seats had to win thousands of votes, to get their place on council to vote in our names. How fair is that?
Time to move to hybrid elections -city council members residing in various city geographical districts, but voted on at-large, so the entire city can weigh in on all future city issues. No more of these small narrow-interest high-jackings, like that we have right now.
City council members Sneddon and SantaMaris propose using Measure C funds to .........."pay for services for people who are affected by ICE activities",.............???????
Since we are all affected when ICE is prevented from doing their required tasks, this means Kristen Sneddon and Wendy Santa Maria owes us Measure C money too.
What heck does that even mean ..........."services for people who are affected by ICE activities". The city continues to insult us six ways to Sunday, while they propose shoveling our cash out the back door in support of their own pet causes.
Remember these names when they come up for re-election or preposterously for the next mayor's race: Kristen Sneddon and Wendy SantaMaria - big spenders stealing our tax dollars for only their unauthorized pet causes.
MEASURE C WAS AN INFRASTRUCTURE MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR PROMISE TO VOTERS.
Thank you Bonnie Donovan, for shining the light on this city council member intended abuse of our promised tax revenues.
An immediate and FULL refund of taxes collected for Measure C is due to taxpayers. A good faith vote and taxes paid have been grossly misused. Measure C has abused the public trust. Dissolve it. Refund the taxes paid. Make appropriate consequences for those responsible for this public theft.
My first thought when I first saw the new "pedlets" on the 500 block was "trip hazards!" Lots of potential for slips, trips, and injuries. Insufficient visual cues for everyone. Hopefully they will be addressing this.
Bonnie. Unbelievable bot not in Santa Barbara. Hey guys ( the city council) we have this bushel of money it doesn’t matter where it was intended we need to spend it as we want to. The council of clowns
Santa Barbara's "The Restaurant Guy" checks in on Pedlets too:
"PEDLET PANDEMONIUM
Posted on Wednesday, October 8, 2025 by The Restaurant Guy
It has come to my attention that numerous restaurants on the 500 block of State Street are unhappy. Why? I am told that there is a problem with the new pedlets (sidewalks) on both sides of the street.
Apparently all restaurants on that block now have to remove all their patios from the sidewalks to make room for work on the pedlets next Monday-Wednesday. Some of the patio equipment, including tables and fences, are bolted to bricks and that has to undone.
Some people have reached out to me saying that the pedlets move foot traffic too far away windows of businesses that are not restaurants and that window shopping might be toast if this concept is rolled out to the rest of Grand Paseo.
Hopefully the pedlet people will also install wider ramps at either end which creates a bottleneck for walking traffic."........................
All of this is ADA compliant I’m guessing?
How can the blind follow the maze without an aid?
In case anyone missed their daily scolding from the City of Santa Barbara, we finally learn where $350,000 of our tax dollars are now going. City announces six recipients of "immigrant relief funds". https://www.noozhawk.com/city-names-six-recipients-of-immigrant-relief-fund-awards/
But these are not "immigrants". They are persons who came here illegally without prior authorization. They are persons who knew from day one they would need to return to their home countries, at some time during their continued unlawful presence in this country. Please note the latest euphemism now being used is: "persons of unsatisfactory immigration status".
Dignity is a two way street: persons of "unsatisfactory status" need to honor our laws and accept all full consequences for their own choice to dishonor our laws. Where is the dignity demanding we must now reward them for their own intentional and illegal choices?
Notice all the buzz-word salting in this announcement of city tax dollars disbursement - painting the most negative light on what has been a voter-mandated lawful process. Lower the tone of divisive hysteria, City of Santa Barbara. Please remove all hostile, gratuitous language and unfounded language in your official pronouncements.
Great work, Bonnie, thanks. Love the photos of the sidewalks!
Really???
Fix what is broken? Did anyone see the "Safe Streets"??? memo by the city? Now there is a joke.
They co-opted the name of a former NGO to continue their destruction of the street grid and parking. SB Safe Streets stood for open and efficient streets.
Bonnie good that you were able to get some response about the costs. Locals are up to their noses with this joke of the 500 block of State St.
Does anyone else find it strange and corrupt that the City and its anti car trolls have dismissed without comment the option of opening State St. from Victoria to Carrillo to find out if (as Harmon would state) vibrancy and resiliency to the downtown business core?
Remember this council and "Central Committee" demand failures would not happen if you had not voted for them. More and more are complaining...but more and more are not willing to make McAdoo face her failures and then make the Council sweat over the continuing destruction of the City's transportation grid.
Thanks for the list
Scott -- What failures does McAdoo need to face?
Simple when she refuses to answer questions under Public Records that either prove or disprove the past 7 years she is a failure.
There have been plenty of times she could have exposed street and downtown failures. Did she? Wait until the social services draw back hit the city. Just as the County found out there isn't going to be money to suck on. Then she can state how successful her tenure has been.
Are you listening Council. The money train has left the building.
Thank you Bonnie for doing real, impactful journalism and exposing the waste, fraud and abuse by our local officials. Admittedly, nothing glamorous about exposing cracked, broken sidewalks and infrastructure, while the rest of the local “media” is foaming at the mouth over “No Kings,” and the seemingly never ending collective meltdown by local leftists.
Follow the money, and if indeed public funds from Measures “C” are being misappropriated from what we the voters have approved, then it may be a matter for the Grand Jury to determine and act upon.
Just walked my own few blocks this morning to go out to breakfast (support local businesses) and counted at least 20 treacherous sidewalk seam trip hazards. Some were ground down, some painted neon orange, some crudely patched with cement or asphalt. And create a bumpy ride for any wheelchair, walker or baby carriage.
But most were left jutting up and ready to trip any unwary pedestrian. That is what I want Measure C moneys to fix. Bikers got to take over the entire downtown for their own exclusive use. But I cannot even walk a few blocks around my home, without keeping 911 on speed dial.
It seems likely that, in many cases, in government, funding approved for one purpose are available for some level of misappropriation to pay for other, unfunded, objectives. Once the government has your money, you as the taxpayer have lost control of its use, no matter what purpose you approved. I do not believe this practice is limited to Santa Barbara, or to city staffs. I doubt that the city council can stop it.