Primetime
June 1, 2018, 10:32 am
7.7k Views
26 Comments
By John Palminteri
Businesses in Santa Barbara with unapproved signs are getting warning letters that could lead to fines of up to $100 a day.
Among the most common complaints are sandwich board signs in front of State Street stores that are set up in the walkway.
Currently, the city is responding to 80 complaints of various types linked to placement, design, and size of signs.
Read more on KEYT.com
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You can thank your Mayor for identifying & rooting out the true issue that plagues State Street. Shut down the businesses so they don’t hear complaints by businesses of the homeless. Make sure to vote for the increased sales tax so they can spend more & do less
Will this “enforcement” apply to the panhandlers signs? Or is this just for real businesses?
ADAM I noticed that in the second picture the business sign and art thingy are taking up two pup tent camp sites. This is unacceptable and the proper authorities should be notified immediately ! (sarc)
What the hell if I can’t find a place I can camp on State street cool…:)
The City Council could have chosen to place a temporary relaxation of the sign ordinance as a pro-business gesture of support, but no, they went the opposite way. I’m sure the City elders are the only snooty-snoots who care that the aesthetic standards are being compromised.
I like the sandwich board signs. There is a limit, of course. But in my view, it has not yet been exceeded.
Who in their right mind would have voted for Murillo for mayor? We had excellent pro-business choices, but instead chose this simpering blob of putty who is molded in the hands of the “disenfranchised”. It’s tragic when you can’t take your kids to the park without confronting homeless cutthroats and their guard dogs, you can’t walk down State Street without the same detritus of society harassing you, but legitimate, struggling business women and men- who’ve invested heavily in our community- can’t display a damn sign to promote their businesses. Thanks, Cathy.
Exactly what are the alternative plans for revitalizing downtown businesses?
Oh, for god’s sake…
Actually the City has not actively enforced on these signs for over a decade, as a way to be more pro business during the last couple downswings in the ecomomy. But now people are getting cut throat and demanding the City to not be so soft and enforce their rules. Its usually when business owners are under economic strain of the high rents etc, that they start pointing fingers at each other.
The economy is still teetering. And, in general, I like the signs, and usually read them. Don’t always go in the store the first time I see one, but it does put the store in my mind for future needs, or wants. I’d rather see them take care of people who might be a threat to others in some way, than worry about some small signs. Maybe provide more bathrooms, etc., so the streets smell better.
Who actually complains about signs? That is so sad.
Yes! The reason there are sign regulations is to keep shop owners in-check. Otherwise they put out all kinds of banners, signs, and ugly LA stuff – this is what makes SB beautiful 🙂
Little sandwich boards are “ugly LA stuff?” Sorry, just don’t see it. Also, the stench of human waste and cigarette smoke in downtown SB are a much bigger problem to SB beautification, than little colorful signs on the sidewalk…..
Well then get all that clumpy “art” of the corners of state st. while your at it! Those things are hideous and that would make this issue a double standard. HELLO these people need all the business they can get or they will be the next victim of the state street storefront closure epidemic.
Happy to see this is being done. There are rules and regulations for a reason. But I agree about the “clumpy” art. Why clutter things up? Put the art in the parks or on school campuses.
You have to sdmit that this shows that Mayor Murrillo is following through with her campaign promise to clean up the downtown area. Thank you Madame Mayor for making Santa Barbara a better place to live, work, and visit!!!
I will admit no such thing. “Cleaning up” downtown SB should start with the stink and dirt, not the cute little sidewalk signs that harm no one, well except for those who are so thin-skinned that they were offended enough to complain about them….
The signs have to go to make more room for the bums and hobos and their tents, drug needles, liquor bottles, feces, urine and stolen bicycles.
I second the more bathroom suggestion. In Europe, not only are there are more accessible bathrooms, there are walk-up urinals on sidewalks much like phone booths or smaller. I realize that such things would disturb the delicate sensibility of most US Citizens; “Euoo! That man standing in that urinal must be peeing”, but it sure beats, “Euoo! the smell and visible pools of urine are going to make me barf. Damn, I just slipped and fell in pee.
How would they handle Jonsey and his signs today?
What is the city going to do about the illegal real estate “for sale” signs that are all over town? By code these signs are limited in size but they have been growing to ugly dimensions in recent months and they are augmented by add on signs with the agent’s name and such. I guess these are OK because “Realtors” are big campaign donors?
When there are no more stores on State St, the bums WILL take over. It happened in my small hometown back east when the City closed the Main st to cars. What are City leaders waiting for? The stores are closing at a much faster rate than they are opening. And just how long Is that Museum of Art going to take to re-build. It’s been going on years now. Construction noise, traffic delays, disorganization does not help the situation.
Well, let’s just deputize you to go out among the plebes and decide when the limit is reached. Your subjective view is obviously a lot more appropriate than a black and white law that everyone can follow.
The Jack Hole that is doing this is “one” guy on the Architectural Review Board. Someone mentioned they have been lax in the past, but this is absolutely false, this has been ongoing. The lady that has to go out and enforce this “one” guys whims is not really thrilled with doing it and is retiring. The thing about this Jack Hole is that he is only reporting the locally owned mom and pop stores. But he does nothing about the massive illegal window signs at all the Starbucks, Forever 21, Marshalls, Saks, 99 cent store, Old Navy etc. The lady that enforces them is required to enforce any and all complaints, even though it is just one Jack Hole making all the noise.
We have already closed one store on state and will be closing another after summer. Note, this is not the Amazon effect. This is plain and simple skyhigh landlord rents, rising minimum wages, local taxes, and over the top city enforcement.
The other day I stopped in the yellow unloading zone to let my partner drop off 2 boxes of merchandise and the meter maid told me to move along. I told him I had a business and I we were dropping of two packages. He said the yellow zone is only for commercial vehicles. He rudely told me to move it or get a ticket. We left without dropping the merchandise. I was so upset that I looked up the law and lo and behold you do not need to have commercial plates for the yellow. You just have to be out of the spot within three minutes and not leave car unattended. This is exactly what we were attempting to do.
I also like how the Santa Barbara Economic Forecast group announced that if you take out Saks and Macy’s, we only have less than 5% vacancy rate. Who is this guy working for? There are two ways of measuring vacancies….storefronts, or square footage. Clearly they were not using storefronts as their metric otherwise with over 20 vacancies on State Street that would equate to 400 businesses. So they must be using square footage. Well how convenient is that to take out massive vacant square footage of Macy’s and Saks to skew the percent while attempting to shrug it off as only two “storefronts”.
The city, county and state are nearly bankrupt due to their bloated pensions, and this is after using actuarial assumptions of the last ten year bull market for their future pension growth…..good luck!! Watch out for another round of sales tax increase next year, and also dramatic increase in city license fees to businesses. Google Illinois Financial Crisis to see where California is headed.
Yet another incredibly pointless effort by obnoxious SB NIMBYs. Does it ever get tiresome being such miserable people?