CityofSantaBarbara
By the City of Santa Barbara
The City is hosting a community forum on Tuesday, June 20, at 8:30 a.m. in the Faulkner Gallery, located in the Central Library at 40 E. Anapamu Street, to gather community input regarding outdoor dining.
The ordinance authorizing temporary outdoor dining facilities will expire at the end of 2023. In May 2020, the City authorized restaurants to construct temporary parklets in the street or temporarily expand outdoor dining facilities into parking lots and private property in response to COVID-related restrictions on indoor business operations.
The City is exploring whether to extend the authority for outdoor dining in the public right-of-way, and if the community desires permanent, expanded outdoor dining. The City invites the community to complete a brief online survey about outdoor dining, available at this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/r/98TDC7Z
I just took the survey and it is perfectly useless. The questions are too vague, it does not distinguish between outdoor dining in different settings and it leaves no space for a person’s additional comments. I agree with the above critique of these kinds of surveys.
Another great example of the City of SB higher level employees being absolutely clueless. Yet they’re retiring one after another with big benefits and pensions. Zero accountability. Must be nice, if you have no conscience.
Meetings when most people w/a job could not attend …. and a survey that anyone could answer anonymously and repeatedly 🙁 ….. What further proof do you need that the city does not actually care what the people they serve want ? This is nothing but another ‘show’ to say that they’ve done their due diligence. They will just continue to do as they please. … Don’t waste your time on their so called surveys.
It should be illegal to hold community meetings before 5pm. 830am on a Tuesday?? Come on. Shame on the City for that.
They hold several regular monthly commission meetings early, for instance, Downtown Parking at 7:30 A.M., so they probably think it’s fine if no one attends besides the commissioners and staff! (I don’t know, maybe the public does attend but this member of the public does not.)
Instead of conducting a survey, put this on the ballot!
As the expense for the promenade / State St. maintence is borne by the taxpaying citizens of the City of Santa Barbara, an expense that pulls funds from other City services, it would make sense for the people actually living in the City to vote on it rather than focusing the decision on input from the restaurants – the people that would benefit/profit from this while not bearing the cost.
You can bet that the “restaurant caucus” will be well represented in survey data (they have the most to gain).. And they can vote as many times as they want!
Putting this on the local ballot would prevent multiple responses from the same person, and would limit voting to local residents!
OUTDOOR DINING SURVEY – COMPLETELY ANONYMOUS, COMPLETELY BOGUS
I would like to know what City staff were thinking when they launched a completely anonymous survey allowing the public to weigh in on outdoor dining / parklets.
I just entered my responses ONE (1) time, however participants can vote as many times as they want!!
Will the results of this survey be used in the decision-making process, as they were with the State Street promenade, Ortega Park, and many other projects – the results of which were used in city planning and land use decisions???
UNACCEPTABLE. UNREAL.
I haven’t ‘taken’ it yet, but a friend said it was quite biased. I wonder if they define “outdoor dining” since that is what many, maybe most homeless folk (aka PEHs) do daily.
Through docs obtained via the CA Public Records Act, I have the 2018 survey results from Ortega Park renovation project – all the responses and details tallied up. Remember, this survey could have been filled out multiple times by the same person.
Use the following links to get a general idea of most surveys utilized by the City of SB. The attached survey (English & Spanish) was conducted in 2018, and the results were used in the creation of the Ortega Park Master Plan. Special interest groups were notified of the survey before it was launched (I have the documentation to prove this too), and anybody from anywhere could complete the survey (and lie about being a SB resident). It could be filled out as many times as desired.
I am knowledgeable in aquatic sports, particularly competitive swimming. Anybody with an aquatics background can see how biased and leading the questions are. Was there ever a mention of a competitive pool? ..one that could host swim meets if desired? NO. Only a shallow, non-competitive pool was offered as an option. Low income neighborhood kids have no access to aquatic sports.
Later the City said that the community had voted for a non-competitive pool.
In addition, however flawed the survey & data gathering methods were, notice the results regarding artificial turf vs natural grass. Artificial turf was not chosen. But I would have voted for natural green space for environmental, mental health, and safety reasons. These decisions need to be researched!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uJPvpKQ_a3PoJnoTsJG6zplPwyZ64Tw6/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vxZNkpOU9abNf3VcCEjTVZbH8NZfJZPZ/view?usp=sharing
Ostensibly, the city is split on extended dining & the street closure. So why not just split State Street up? Half to the Traditionalists and half to the Future Forward(s)? This is a wimpy City Council that wants to please everyone. A bold visionary plan seems unlikely. So much of taxpayers $$$$$$ wasted on hiring consultants when public input already has made clear a preference for an interactive , community accessible State Street !
Is your information based on surveys?
Open up State Street!! Sign here: https://www.change.org/p/re-open-state-street-santa-barbara