Anonymous
Hotels and restaurants, such as the Lark in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone, were among the first and hardest-hit of local commercial endeavors in the COVID-19 pandemic (Photo: Sonia Fernandez)
By Sonia Fernandez, UC Santa Barbara
For a community whose economy relies in large part on the hospitality industry, the news is especially dire: It will take years for hotels, restaurants and other, related businesses to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
“Locally, we’re very hard-hit — the two sectors that really get hit first in this regard are leisure and hospitality, and retail,” said Peter Rupert, executive director of UC Santa Barbara’s Economic Forecast Project (EFP), in the Zoom webinar “COVID-19 Impacts on Local Tourism, Hospitality, and Business Lending.” The webinar is the first in a series of EFP presentations — offered in lieu of the project’s annual spring event — that examine the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
EFP’s annual reports have been condensed into a series of online presentations, with panel discussions featuring business leaders in specific local sectors.
Tourism is among the South Coast’s major industries, bringing in roughly $56 million in annual tax revenues, and $1.9 billion in total visitor-related spending, according to data from Visit Santa Barbara. It also provides close to 13,500 jobs. But thanks to the shutdown orders designed to slow the tide of COVID-19 infection, that economic engine is on very thin ice, according to Kathy Janega-Dykes, president and chief executive officer of Visit Santa Barbara.
“It’s also worth noting that this is the absolute worst time of year,” Janega-Dykes said, “because balance sheets are very thin after the winter and all of our hospitality operators rely on a robust summer to carry them through the winter.” While South Coast hospitality operators have certainly learned how to weather the seasonal dips in business in normal times, the magnitude of this event is unprecedented, with an 81% drop in hotel demand, a low 15% absolute occupancy and a minus 47% change in hotel rates.
Feeling the brunt of this economic vacuum is restaurateur Sherry Villanueva, who helms Acme Hospitality, the parent of Funk Zone restaurants The Lark, Lucky Penny and Tyger Tyger, as well as other eateries in downtown Santa Barbara. Restaurants have notoriously thin profit margins, often just enough to keep them going for a week or so at a time.
“Typically, we’ll do about $17 million in sales in a typical year; we’re now at a zero-revenue situation,” she said. The impacts aren’t isolated to restaurants themselves, she noted; they ripple across the community.
Restaurants not only represent a very large percentage of the available jobs in our community, they also are connected to a network of people: fishermen, delivery people, distributors and suppliers to name a few. “Tens upon tens of thousands of people” have jobs in the periphery of the restaurant industry in Santa Barbara, Villanueva noted, pointing to estimates of a 60 to 80% job loss in a restaurant-related workforce of roughly 18,000 people in the county.
The steep drop in economic activity is reflected in the steep rise in applications to federal loan programs such as the Payment Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), both are aimed at assisting small businesses and preventing unemployment. To respond to the anticipated rush of applications, Montecito Bank & Trust President and Chief Operating Officer George Leis in early April converted one of the bank’s Goleta branches into a call center to provide remote customer service.
“I could not believe the volume,” he said. “The incoming volume of phone calls from our community was absolutely amazing.” Two weeks later, both programs have announced that due to oversubscription, they are no longer accepting applications, leaving many small businesses in the lurch.
The pain is being felt all over. Since mid-March, four weeks from the time states began initiating their shutdown and stay-at-home orders, some 22 million initial unemployment insurance claims have been filed.
“My guess is that early on when they shut down restaurants and bars, those were the first initial claims,” Rupert said. “The best data we have right now from the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that employment in the leisure and hospitality sector alone fell 459,000 in one month. This is just an incredible number, never seen before.”
Projections vary on the future of leisure and hospitality employment in Santa Barbara County. The country has already surpassed the 19.8 million job loss the Economic Policy Institute predicted would occur by June, according to Rupert. That would translate to about 165,000 jobs lost in California’s leisure and hospitality sector, 11,000 of which would come from Santa Barbara County. Taking the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’s projection of 47 million jobs lost across the nation by June, that would translate to about 392,000 hospitality and leisure jobs lost in California, 26,000 from Santa Barbara County.
Perhaps most disquieting is the uncertainty around what to do next. Businesses, institutions and governments contemplate picking back up as new information emerges about COVID-19 and potential treatments, asymptomatic carriers, rates of infection and relapses. The South Coast has been generally successful in flattening the curve and keeping the rate of COVID-19 infection low enough to be managed by the health care system.
“Lives have absolutely, unequivocally been saved,” said Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons, an infectious disease specialist with Cottage Health System. As a result of the community’s social distancing, the number of people infected, while growing, is still manageable, and health care facilities in the area can handle small rebounds that may occur in the coming months.
As local leisure and hospitality look far ahead to the reopening of restaurants and the return of tourists, and local financial institutions prepare to administer the next round of federal assistance, there is some reason to remain optimistic, though still very careful.
“I don’t want people to feel that going forward, we are constantly going to be in danger of another sharp rebound,” said Fitzgibbons. “I think that concurrent with so much that’s going on has been really, really rapid vaccine development as well as serologic tests, which I think are really going to slowly start to help with population control during, I would argue, the next stage of this pandemic, which may go on for months.”
Santa Barbara does not have a balanced economy and hasn’t for years since the City Council approved the enlargement of existing beach front area hotels, turned the lower state area former workshop industrial area into a pricey restaurant and tourism centric “funk” zone and approved the mega complex of restaurants and hotels at the foot of Stearns Wharf. Taking out regular jobs from these formerly low cost housing, retail and industrial workspace areas sealed the current fate of Santa Barbara. What was added were low paying jobs, poverty resulting from the poorly paid jobs, a crowded beachfront on holidays and weekends, and pollution from traffic from tourism cars and the weekly cruise industry (along with the large increase in pollution from air traffic bringing tourists in). Even before the virus hit, the result has been a dying downtown retail area and a flight of local folks to Goleta to buy from the cheaper and more available goods from big box retailers. Instead of quaint, working folks town, with a well stocked downtown for locals, Santa Barbara has become a beautiful tourist attraction, with all the downsides for locals, and upsides for the tourism industry. Ironically, Santa Barbara’s planning was originally much like Goleta, with think tanks and light industrial in the areas which now house many hotels and restaurants. The voters actually voted to change the zoning to assist Fess Parker in the development of the original hotel there. The original zoning was meant to provide well paying jobs and a beach front used primarily by locals . Soon the local government began to depend heavily on tourism revenues instead of a balanced economy, with the result we see today.
I’m not saying you’re wrong. But there is no place on earth like our town in 2020 that would not be besieged by tourists regardless of what the city council did or did not do. This place could not stay some secret for “locals only.” That’s a fantasy. How much have you traveled in the last 10 years? Travel is over for people who even want to go somewhere that doesn’t feel completely mobbed. I lived in Europe recently. Towns I remember visiting 10-20 years ago with moderate numbers of tourists are literally completely overrun. It was to the point my husband and I asked why we even lived in Europe because every single place we ever went was so mobbed at all times of the year by people from all over the globe that it was impossible to feel anything was authentic or local anymore. Every little town in Provence sells the same made-in-China tchotchkes. Cities like Bath are filled with 200,000 Chinese at any given time. It’s everyone’s right to travel, and I fully recognize that I am part of the problem. I wanted it to go back to the good old days when few people in the world could afford to go abroad. How nice that would have been for me. Those days are over. While I sympathize and agree with much of your sentiment, you cannot act like it would be possible for Santa Barbara – an extremely unique, beautiful, historical, alluring place on the coastline of California (which worldwide is a synonym for paradise) – could stay some secret that could continue to offer affordable housing, locals-only atmosphere, etc. Those days are over – everywhere. Not just Santa Barbara. Ironically, it may be COVID that helps usher back in a time when globalism was less so, when people stayed closer to home, when there were enclaves for locals only. But as soon as there’s a cure, or a treatment – all bets are off.
Yes I have traveled and seen many beautiful areas turned into Disneyland tourist areas, and have seen many that did not go that way. It is difficult to stand up to the deep pocket tourism industry, but not impossible. Santa Barbara resisted for many years, finally succumbing with Council changes and the passing of many activists who resisted the changes. Morro Bay and San Luis Obispo are good local examples of local based planning and balanced economies. Both are pricey, which is to be expected with the beauty and amenities of the areas but not overrun or dominated by tourism. Goleta has also worked to strike a balanced economy, although for about ten years a lot of hotels were approved, ostensibly to provide income for the City. It remains a small town with big shopping, open beaches, parks and open spaces, good jobs and schools, a respected contiguous University, high community involvement on Boards and Commissions and low poverty. It works on planning and makes changes when appropriate, but the emphasis is on the local population’s needs and a balanced economy.Council members who don’t agree usually lose in the elections. People have a choice how their community develops. It is not too late for Santa Barbara to realize what has happened and find representatives on their City Council who will meet the needs of the local population, and work to strike a balanced economy fostering good jobs, a healthy business environment and quality educational institutions.
I whole-heartedly agree. The forced routing of the ‘Funk Zone’ was the nail in the coffin for downtown SB. That was home for the last remaining local folk – artisans, industrial endeavors, AND low income renters. I remember reading a story years ago about a wheelchair bound veteran who was forced out his apartment knowing he would not be able to afford to rent anywhere else. That area, that is now the “Funk Zone”, was one of the last areas that made Santa Barbara unique. Now we look just like Thousand Oaks and Santa Maria, but with beach access. (No offense to Santa Maria – I’m sure it had it’s own unique character at one point) But dollars prevail. The developers, corporate entities, banks and the Chamber of Commerce are all to blame, as well as the City Council and the County Supervisors. They saw easy money (carrot) and took a gamble, and pushed SB into a tourist economy. I’m watching them chip away at Old Town Goleta now…. it’s so sad.
This guy Rupert is a bit of a hack and an embarrassment to UCSB. Now he will start his ‘drill, baby, drill’ mantra to bolster the oil industry.
Morro Bay is an awful comp. It’s a depressing, foggy dump if you ask me. There are about 5,000 reasons a tourist would want to visit Santa Barbara over Morro Bay. And SLO is just sleepy and has always been far less cosmopolitan than Santa Barbara.
Ah, yes, Morro Bay. A town of 10,000. Great comparison.
Overpriced and not that special. Trendy little Funk Zone is my least favorite part of town. With that said, I don’t wish bankruptcy or business failure on anyone and it makes me sad that our local economy is suffering, again! The Thomas fire and then the mudslides really did some damage and now this is deeply impacting pretty much every local business. I hope that we can get to the other side of it soon and start returning to some type of normal, including the funk Zone and their overpriced, grossly trendy eateries.
MM4865 Thousand Oaks looks nothing like Santa Maria and Santa Barbara is far out of both of their leagues. There is no comparison. There is no other town in California like Santa Barbara. Hopefully we won’t turn into a crap hole like Santa Monica. The AUD program and the state’s mandated housing will be the demise of this place, not tourists.
Great post. Telling it exactly as it is.
So much ageism in this pandemic!!! People in the U.S. have a disregard for the old. It’s so sad. This virus impacts us ALL. “Grandma”, your mom, your dad, your siblings… your jobs, your friends, your lifestyle… every single one of us.
AMEN to that! When a town relies solely on tourism it loses it’s soul.
What we need in Santa Barbara instead of low-paying industry jobs is AFFORDABLE HOUSING. Less hotels, more local housing for all our workers that are serving the tourists that the City bows down to.
SBTOWNIE, It is HIGH RENTS that has killed downtown. Entirely. Few local businesses can afford State st. Out of town development companies and huge management companies like CIMA own a lot of the buildings. The rents are OUTRAGEOUS. No one can afford it, if they can, it’s either a chain outlet or prices are so high that locals shun it. It’s too damned expensive. We need it all to come down to Earth. Maybe then, State st. and downtown can revitalize. And yes, the homeless are a problem. They flock here because of weather. SBPD, do your job. Move them along.
I agree with you, but this Native Californian would LOVE to keep SB the way it was in 1978.
You’re right, but it’s because of OVERPOPULATION. Look at the numbers of humans now, as opposed to say… the 1970’s. There are just too damned many people! We need a moretorium on births. I think people should have to pass an intelligence test before breeding.
BIGUGLY I actually agree with almost everything you’ve said – including the moratorium on births unless you have a certain IQ LOL (if only) – BUT what you’ve said about rents is NOT true. I’ve studied the issue closely. The business owners DO NOT say high rent is the problem. They list tons of other problems: homeless, bureaucracy, etc. Our rents are definitely too high (like so many places), but that is not the source of the problem. There is data to prove this and there is also data to prove our State St. rents are not at all out of keeping with rents in many other similar cities. I was surprised to hear this, but it’s true. I do agree it is toxic though to have property owned by too few, including by many out of town operations who would rather let property sit vacant than rent to a local. Let’s all get educated – THIS is a great article showing it is not RENTS, but rather the BANKS backing so many landlords that are the problem. Please read this (cached version so you can get around the paywall): https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:iFkazH6rCJwJ:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-22/blame-the-banks-for-all-those-boring-chain-stores-ruining-your-city+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Also BIGUGLY, how the heck can we keep SB in 1978 if you want us to also offer affordable housing? For affordable housing, we need density and development. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.
The golden era of restaurants is over. We were blessed to have some of the best food and drink in the world, right at our doorstep. An amazing array of great chefs, winemakers, beer makers and local artisans. Most will fold. Livelihoods are lost. So sad. No matter what comes next, it will certainly not be like it was…
Sadly, the restaurant culture was already going downhill as they’ve become too expensive. I know that I’ve found that I can eat more healthy and much more cheaply by cooking my own meals. I don’t seeing that change all that much once the world gets back to normal.
Of course you can eat more cheaply cooking at home. Do you not get how restaurants work? You pay for someone to source, prepare, serve, and clean up for you. Sorry to be rude but don’t be daft. Your misunderstanding of basic economics is not a valid indictment of the restaurant industry.
My goodness…@9145 you sure do have A LOT to say in your 10 different posts. Hating on the Funk Zone and congratulating yourself “telling it exactly like it is”. You must not get enough adulation in your real life?? Anyway, I am a native of Santa Barbara and I absolutely love The Funk Zone and the revitalized lower State Street area! State Street had been in decline for many years before The Funk Zone came along as the hotspot in SB. As a 40+ professional who enjoys good food+wine The Acme restaurants have been a welcomed addition to Santa Barbara. I’m pulling for them and all the other small businesses to survive this storm just as I’m pulling for our people to show unity and resolve during this excruciating time. This is not the time to second guess the science. Facts matter. Anyone who wants to argue that the deaths have been low in SB…the reason is because the Governor shut everything down so early. It’s proof that social distancing works! We ALL want to get back to some sort of normal. We just have to be patient and realize that may not be as soon as we’d like, but it’s about SAVING LIVES.
It’s very difficult to feel positive for the near future of Santa Barbara City. We’ve become a one industry town, tourism —— and seem to have the worst, that is, the most incompetent city council yet. For the council, either watch last week’s 5-hour city council meeting or read the Indy’s Poodle column for an accurate description. The only thing Welsh didn’t mention was the racism of two of the councilmembers demanding that members of the new economic task force be chosen on the basis of their ethnicity! For the economy, overseen by that council, somehow there has to be a way of getting back to a diversification, a way of learning from Goleta, yes, Goleta!, about city planning, unless maybe it is too late and we are stuck with the fate of being a tourist destination, of majority low-income workers unable to live near their employment.
With social distancing and being very careful with hygiene we figured out how to keep grandma safe. Now we need to open up the economy just as safely so her grandkids can support themselves again. My two college kids lost their part time jobs that were helping pay their school bills. We’ll figure it out in the end, but I fear the economic devastation will be much worse than this disease.
Mr. Shasta, If the virus was killing infants, children and young adults, would your sentiment change, instead of keeping “grandma” safe, we would be risking the young instead? Polio was a killer of children, Spanish Flu young adults. “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
Benjamin Franklin
I wrote the post saying Morro Bay is a dump – everyone who loves it there so much (because I am hugely outnumbered in my opinion from the number of downvotes) – can move there! Those of us who want SB to be cosmopolitan and host robust industries like technology and medicine (not sure what planet these people live on who think our economy is not diversified and is 100% tourism) can keep the town. Personally, I cannot wait to go back out to eat at Loquita in the Funk Zone. I grew up here and it’s my town, too. EdHat readers (or commenters, anyway) seem to be parochial and obsessed with their idea of keeping SB as it was in like, I don’t know, 1978? The other half are cheering the downfall of local restaurants run by people who grew up here so they can be replaced by SmashBurgers. I don’t know who any of you are in real life, but I don’t want to be friends with you AT ALL!
@SBGAL I’m another native and I could not agree more. I don’t know who these people are. I don’t want to live in their version of SB, I’ll tell you that much!
Where do you like to eat? And what’s your favorite part of town?
All of you need to get a grip. We are not a one industry town. Our economy is diverse.
https://www.countyofsb.org/economicinfo.sbc
The County’s Workforce Investment Board (WIB) commissioned a study on the key industry clusters to better understand segment of the local economy and more effectively engage employers. The following key industry clusters account for 40% of employment in the County and 66% of new jobs.
Agriculture, Tourism and Wine: Employs 36,088 people (15% of workforce, 5% growth expected from 2011-2016). Comprised of food production and services industries such as wineries, accomodation, amusement and recreation industries.
Business Support Services: Employs 18,534 people (8% of the workforce). Comprised of ten subsectors including graphic design, accounting, advertising and employment services.
Heathcare: Employs 18,259 people (7% of all jobs, 9% expected growth from 2011-2016). Comprised of three subsectors: Ambulatory Health Care Services, Hospitals, and Nursing and Residential Care Facilities.
Building and Design: Employs 16,623 people (7% of workforce). Comprised of the design, interior design and building of residential and non-residential buildings.
Technology and Innovation: Employs 10,756 people (4% of workforce). Comprised of industries focused on development and production of new technologies and products.
Energy and Environment Employs 566 people (.2% of workforce, 17% expected growth from 2011-2016). Comprised of industries that produce and sell energy, improve environmental sustainability and meet environmental regulations.
I don’t want SB to learn from Goleta. Have you been there?!? Big box stores. Hideous shopping malls of incongruent architectural style that look like they came from Riverside or Fresno. Ugly new housing clustered – ALWAYS – right up against the freeway? Sprawling office parks. Ugly new chain hotels in similar random POMO architectural style. Please tell me what we can learn from Goleta!
Just when you thought the number of State Street commercial property vacancies couldn’t get any worse.
Original poster and ALL of your followers – you have a terrible grasp on actual economics if you think expanding tourism is what caused our downtown to die. The math you’ve done makes no sense. Downtown is dead for a zillion reasons – tourism is probably the only one that DOESN’T apply. Even I was shocked when I attended a Noozhawk Town Hall and many of the local store owners on State St. cited the numbers of where their business comes from. It was over 60% of their revenue came from TOURISM. It’s locals who aren’t shopping at their stores. They’re shopping online. Downtowns everywhere are hollowed out. Nowhere is immune. New York City has empty stores littered through SoHo and the West Village. I get it you, don’t like tourism but there is no planet on which it caused the hollowing out of downtown. The problems facing downtown are actually: shift in consumer shopping habits (shopping online), poor selection at our stores (a catch22 for many of our retail outlets like Nordstrom for the last 25 years has been the same – they don’t get sent much stock because we’re not a priority location, therefore they have nothing to sell, therefore they can’t get more stock because they’re not making sales), HOMELESSNESS continuing to make downtown undesirable, Kafka-esque bureaucracy and rules making it difficult for businesses to do X, Y, and Z and ultimately causing extreme timelines for launching businesses and causing subsequent huge costs for hiring consultants etc. to interpret the dense and impossible-to-understand language our city committee members have put together, retail spaces that are WAY too big for modern retail. Most retailers don’t need huge, deep, spaces – they want smaller SF but State St. does not really offer many spaces like that making it hard for small businesses. Etc. Etc. Etc. Please if you disagree with me I would really welcome hearing your explanation of HOW TOURISM caused downtown to die. Educate me!!!
We were all prepared for those what ifs that you list, but they never materialized. New York City is sending away the Navy hospital ship because it’s not needed. The ”Javits Center” field hospital set up by the National Guard or Army Core of Engineers (I can’t remember which) really was never utilized. NYC now estimates that 20% of the city residents have had the virus. This causes the death rate to plummet to well below 1%, not the 4% we were all scared about when this thing began. NYC did the unconscionable by sending elderly people who tested positive for the virus back to their care facilities only to spread the virus among the elderly population. This alone was responsible more a large proportion of the deaths. This is not a killer of young people like the Spanish Flu was, besides, our medical technology is vastly improved since 1918. If this was a killer of young people, the media would be blasting us with images of 1000s of 5-10 year olds dying in hospitals. Lockdowns can only slow the spread, not stop it. We’ve figured out how to keep granny safe, now let’s prevent her grandkids from becoming a lost generation because we shut the economy down for longer than was necessary.
@SBGAL, you sure do sound like a realtor. I’ve got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn, sweetie.
Tuesday the Council has the AUD on the Agenda. The Council wants to push through parking space reductions to 0, upzoning and host of other giveaways to downtown property owners in a pandemic without any real thought to what the future of the City should look like. It is again banking on tourism and expensive housing when the jobs here can’t support it. It again is baking on rental units that those who want to own a home will pass on. It also want to create rooftop bars and restaurants for tourist right next to high density housing where no balconies or open space will be provided to apartment dwellers. Oh, and the stated goal for micro-apartment users is around 300sf. Can you imagine being locked in a 300sf apartment unit during a pandemic? Santa Barbara needs a more diversified economy. Santa Barbara needs a plan for the future. What it is going to get after this pandemic is a economy still focused on tourism and a plan where we have created the slums of the future or future penthouses for the rich when all these micro units are torn up and the properties down-zoned because there is no market for micro units… Tell the City Council that NO decisions on the AUD should be made this year. That the AUD program should not be extended due to its increase on the need for more low-wage jobs and gentrification. That the City is too over-weighted in tourism and service industries. Tell them that the City needs to focus on planning policies that will attract businesses that focuses on skilled trades, high tech and other solidly middle class jobs not low wage service and leisure industry jobs. Tell them that the day of focusing on low wage businesses needs to end and the only way to do this is to create a plan for the future now. Email: SBCityCouncil@SantaBarbaraCA.gov
Can you explain how building more dense housing leads to higher costs? That is basically your claim.
That is true, 12:30. We are also no longer supporting the amount of retail we have. We should shrink some of the commercial downtown footprint, convert existing retail/offices into housing. I’ve seen this happening in a few projects like the conversion of offices on Mission to apartments. That is a win for all. We don’t need to build a ton new buildings, keeping preservationists happy. That’s also environmentally friendly. We get new housing and hopefully for cheaper than it costs to build it new, keeping those who want to live here but can’t afford a SFH happy. We can increase population without changing the look/feel of the town, and doing so will then boost the base of consumers, thus also helping to revitalize downtown. What do we need to achieve this? Citizens and politicians being honest and admitting we maybe don’t need to keep cycling one failing business after the next through challenged locations. Citizens and politicians being honest that Santa Barbara cannot be a zero-growth town (like so many here want), but we can do it in a way that makes those who want it to stay feeling the same happy, and in a way that is environmentally friendly. And also citizens and politicians being honest that we need to deal with the homeless situation downtown in order to make it desirable as a place to live, work, eat, and shop.
I don’t agree at all that downtown is not walkable. It is very walkable. Closing off streets has very limited positive benefit. I’ve done all of the research. We also have a serious question of how we create more pedestrian area in a city that refuses to deal with a homeless crisis (not that we are in any way alone in this). Any new public space will be taken over by the homeless. It would be wonderful if De La Guerra Plaza were a beautiful public park and that entire area were pedestrian only. But I don’t actually advocate for it to happen because all I see it becoming is even more of a bum congregation than it already is. Downtown IS too big. You are absolutely right. See my post above about reducing office/retail and converting existing into housing. Then we have everyone happy: environmentalists (low footprint for converting buildings to housing versus building new), preservationists (we don’t need to change much about what we have now, we just repurpose), housing advocates (it costs less to convert than build brand new in this town), people (plenty of people who would love to live in an apartment downtown), business owners (with more people living downtown we will see more patronage of local businesses). We should do this before we develop ANY MORE Disneyland-meets-Morocco-meets-Spain buildings. We have enough of those. Put the breaks on NEW development and let’s work on repurposing what we already have.
I’m sure His Royal Highness Gavin Newsom will wave his mighty hand and make things right, just as soon as he’s done handing out money to illegal aliens.
When the dust settles I do think Gavin Newsom will get a lot of credit for shutting down California early and keeping the state with relatively low case/death numbers. He’s really shown a lot of leadership and isn’t afraid to make the tough choices and risk political blow back.
“low case numbers” are due to low testing availability and very strict testing requirements. Period. shutting down does not reduce the case numbers. WHO YOU TEST… is what defines the case numbers.
Undoc immigrants pay billions in state taxes, so you don’t think it is fair that they get some of that back while they are struggling like many people? But you are willing to accept their taxes in the first place. Seems hypocritical.
Are you assuming your parents would have still had you if this system was in place?
Wonderful! Those of us in small town middle class well managed Goleta are more than happy to have SB Townie and others who like high density, crowded streets and beaches, poverty cheek to cheek with wealth, and outrageous housing prices stay in SB and increase the mess with the 300sq ft proposed “housing” for the servants. Just don’t visit our “big box” stores and make the traffic worse in Goleta.
So why is everything so “grim” in SB City if the economy is balanced? You are reciting County numbers. SB is not the County and certainly doesn’t have 36,000 people working in Ag, which is mostly North County. Please give us the stats for the City of SB. It would be useful.
Someone quoted Benjamin Franklin in this thread. Here is another one to consider, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Over the last 20 years or so, Santa Barbara has not been able to support the number of restaurants that open annually. The majority close within a year.