AnonymousBy an edhat reader
This information was overheard from a contractor who was talking a little too loudly in public.
Amazon is planning on opening a fulfillment center at the old Sears location employing about 500 workers. This information has not been released by the city.
These 500 workers will not be able to afford living in Santa Barbara on warehouse worker salaries because the city refuses allow building enough housing and rental units, so they will have to commute from outside of town on the already extremely busy freeway.
Does anyone have more information on this?
Not to worry, with those salaries they can’t afford cars. Imagine 500 bikes and skateboards instead. See, problem solved.
Do they really need a prime shopping location for a fulfillment center? Seems like an expensive move, and not in keeping with Amazon’s bare bones cost structure.
I don’t get why we would need people from outside our area to fill any jobs. We have plenty of people looking for jobs amongst us already. I bet plenty of students need jobs too.
If the city is smart they will encourage the highest and best use of this large plat of land within their city limits to generate more tax revenues for the city. Encouraging its permanent use as one more tax-free non-profit “affordable” housing scheme would be folly. High value land for high value use. Low value land for low value use. Those are the rules, folks. City has gotten burned in the past encouraging just the opposite.
Many of those ‘down on their luck’ want nothing to do with a job except for collecting the paycheck – it gets in the way of their smoking their ‘medicine’.
A better use would be a high end movie theater that would serve dinner and drinks as many cities have already found.
500 workers? Where are they going to park? The lot at La Cumbre Plaza is big, but not big enough for 500 workers’ cars PLUS the shoppers/employees for the rest of the mall.
Overheard by someone at a bar talking a little too loud, “…and the workers will be flown in by drone each day.”
Strange assertions all around… So you’re going off of a eavesdropped conversation and jumping to a conclusion that not only is this hearsay factual, but that the people who become employed will not be about to afford to live here or have anywhere to park? Considering that our local hotels and restaurants employ thousands of people who are paid min wage or very close, I’d say there are many local people who will be interested in these jobs. Also considering that there are literally 1000’s of people who live in SB rent free or rent subsidized thanks to the various govt housing programs, there actually are enough places in the area available to those are capable and willing to pay. They’re just gifted to some… To solve both the affordability issue and the lack of available units, we should shutter all the city and state housing here in town and instead open those apartments to people who are employed and or contributing to the tax base and to society. There is no reason for a city of 100k with dire affordability issues to be in the business of housing people. The percentage of units not available to the public is way out of whack for a small town and is a giant part of the housing problem.
Do the math. 1000 low paid jobs lead to 500 higher paying jobs and so on. Even if all 1000 worked their butts off and were equally qualified, only 500 could get a better job. That’s why the licensing organizations clamp down on the number of doctors, lawyers, accountants, and plumbers we have. Our system needs a lot of poorly paid people to work, fair or not.
Oh Jesus, now the vegetarians are chiming in! Yes, they’re going to have an amazing vegetable-onlyrestaurant to cater to the snowflakes. I hope they also have heavy-duty restrooms to handle all the diarrhea tat will be caused.
Has anyone contacted Mayor Murillo or Rep Friedman to confirm this Amazon rumor?
Can someone ask at today’s City Council meeting at 2p during Public Comment. I thought Sears was to be the replacement police station with the automotive repair shop there.
Murillo is only informed when they cut the ribbon.
I could be wrong, but I thought that the owners of the Sears parcel in La Cumbre wanted to turn this into 550 rental apartments. I’m not sure what happened after they discussed this with City Council.
Amazon just leased the old Saks building for an Alexa research project. Maybe the contractors were talking about both new sites and because this was an overheard conversation, then the two topics could have been misconstrued? I’m not saying you heard wrong, however this is how the game of telephone works.
This chat thread makes a case for psychotropic medications.
Does anyone know if they will have a cafeteria that is open to the public? I sure hope so, and that the menu will have plenty of vegetarian options..not just unhealthy burgers and greasy fries, which are already available at The Habit 100 feet away.
10:06 wow…. isn’t it a little early in the planning process of a project that might not even happen to start expecting the employee cafeteria meets your dietary needs?
More jobs and more tax revenue! AMAZING….AMAZON!!!!! Super cool!!!! As we move into the future having more high tech companies coming to SB will invariably bring more high paying jobs. This is GREAT NEWS!!!
To 8:32 AM: Hah, Hah! Yours is the most accurate statement in this entire thread 🙂
To Factorum: I think that was Amazon’s long range plan, i.e., put brick and mortar stores out of business then take over the brick and mortar type of retail shopping for themselves.
Like Goleta in the 60s – working on the moon landing and other high-tech and defense projects. Boom times with much tax revenue.
Sarcasm? Amazon is not a high tech company but is a behemoth exploiter of working people and a bully to local government and a seducer or national politicians. Without regard to the suspect nature of this “news” we should not cheer the success of such businesses as they always seem to get their profit from the screwing of the working person.
The future of the Sears building sure is a hot topic! But the last I heard, it was going to be turned into housing. Any solid evidence on the assertion that Amazon is moving here? …. https://www.edhat.com/news/will-sears-turn-into-condos …
https://www.independent.com/2019/03/05/sears-replaced-housing/ … https://www.noozhawk.com/article/sears_property_could_be_home_to_550_rental_apartments_santa_barbara
It is exactly truthful to say that the median worker at Amazon or Walmart doesn’t get paid enough to live in SB. But those companies are reaping the benefits of the system that we have created. Maybe stop blaming the companies and change the system?
One roommate is a pipe dream. You have to have multiple roommates in this town if you work at a low wage job. One local kid I know lives with 5 other people in a 2 bdr Pini apartment. It’s like living in IV without the possibility of getting a degree or a good paying job, ever.