Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
A campaign to restore the historic Band Shell at Plaza del Mar has raised $45,500 to bring back live entertainment.
The Parks and Recreation Community (PARC) Foundation partnered with the City of Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation Department to secure the funds needed to achieve the renovation.
Plaza Del Mar, located near the Harbor and Los Banos Pool, is one of the city’s oldest city parks established in 1899. It was a favorite location for strolling and outdoor gatherings with the band shell constructed twenty years later to provide a venue for public concerts.
Five thousand people attended the band shell’s opening concert on May 4, 1919, which featured a 22-piece municipal band. Since then it hosted concerts, dramatic performances, recitals, and speeches. Designed in the Mission Revival style by Winsor Soule, it is the only remnant of the iconic entertainment structures which once graced historic Plaza del Mar.
An assessment of the building condition in October 2020 revealed that the band shell needs structural repairs to the building frame, roof, and the wooden stage surface in addition to façade repairs. Electrical upgrades and restoration of the original lighting will allow a wide range of future uses. Lastly, the renovation will achieve accessibility improvements to the building and the stage, according to PARC.
PARC hopes the renovation of the band shell will revitalize Plaza del Mar for music, drama, dance and celebratory events.
It will be super nice to have this venue up and running again for local performers. As someone who has performed publicly for many years to earn money by playing music, I can tell you that very few businesses in town fork out dough for live entertainment. One must work really hard to get paying gigs, and it certainly helps to know someone who knows someone who needs/wants live music.
For anyone to say that the vast majority of locals avoid Pershing Park due to the clientele who are there day in and day out just does not have a grasp on how things work. Of course, you can go there with your kids and have bowl after bowl of the weed and puff away all day….even have 40s and pints of Popov….yes, yes, and yes. However, most parents and citizens really don’t want to be around the folks high and drunk all day, no one wants to be around addicts when they go to the park. Fights, screaming matches, cops, and ambulances are frequent visitors to Pershing Park.
Time to clean up before we continue on the path like these places in the news today:
(UK Daily News) “The death of downtown: San Francisco, Cleveland and Portland have seen activity drop by almost 50 percent – as soaring crime in the Democrat-run cities forces workers, tourists and homeowners away
– San Francisco’s downtown activity was down to 31 compared to 2019 as the city contends with high crime despite finally agreeing to shut down its controversial open-air drug market by the end of the year
– Cleveland’s downtown activity was down to 36 percent, a blow to the city making strides to fight back decade high crime rates and giving police more leeway to crack down on crime
– Portland had the third worst downtown activity since its pre-pandemic era, down to 41 percent, as homeless encampments surge in the city that championed the defund the police movement.”
So, yeah, by all means, double-down and allow bad actors to destroy Pershing Park (Oak Park, Leadbetter, Chase Palm, Alameda, …… on and on), and head there with your families to escape reality through drugs and alcohol. Be our guest to provide examples of bad behavior, which some consider “good” behavior.
Zero, maybe 227 confused you with one of the homeless people as you admittedly were doing drugs in the park, as some of the homeless are observed doing. I’m 420 friendly but in Santa Barbara burning a bowl in public is verboten.