AnonymousBy Jay Jacobson, Santa Barbara
I read the recent opinion article on edhat titled “State Street Meltdown” and felt like I needed to provide a more rational and balanced counter-argument from an actual resident of Santa Barbara.
State Street has long been hailed as the heart of our beautiful city. By transforming it into a car-free “promenade,” we have created an inclusive space for families, cyclists, and pedestrians.
Diners are able to enjoy a meal outdoors without the stench of exhaust or noise from suped up vehicles. While there is still work that needs to be done and decisions that need to be made, the groundwork has been laid to create a vibrant and welcoming atmosphere that encourages social interaction and community engagement. People can linger at outdoor cafes, enjoy artistic street performances, and encourage the opening of local boutiques, establishing State Street as a true cultural hub.
Once the finals plans are decided, there will be significantly improved safety for pedestrians and cyclists. With fewer cars on the road, the risk of accidents and injuries are greatly reduced, creating a safe and inviting environment for all. A car-free State Street improves accessibility for individuals with disabilities, ensuring they can navigate the city center with ease and enjoy all the amenities it has to offer. By prioritizing pedestrians, we demonstrate a commitment to inclusivity and equal access for everyone.
This also presents a tremendous opportunity for local businesses to flourish. Studies have consistently shown that pedestrianized areas attract higher foot traffic and spending, with people more likely to leisurely explore shops and dine in local establishments. By creating an environment that encourages people to spend time on State Street, we can support small businesses, strengthen the local economy, and spark a sense of community pride.
Keeping State Street closed aligns with our city’s commitment to sustainability. Reduced vehicular traffic will result in lower carbon emissions and improved air quality, contributing to a healthier environment for residents and visitors alike. Encouraging alternative modes of transportation, such as cycling and walking, promotes physical activity and reduces our dependence on fossil fuels, taking crucial steps towards a greener and more environmentally conscious Santa Barbara. Plus, if you’re dying to drive downtown, there are plenty of other streets to navigate around these ten blocks.
By prioritizing people over cars, we can reinvigorate State Street, making it a vibrant, safe, and sustainable space for all to enjoy. Embracing this transformative change will not only enhance our city’s character and charm but also foster economic growth, improve public health, and showcase our commitment to a greener future.
Let us come together as a community and embrace this opportunity to shape Santa Barbara into a living example of urban revitalization and a shining model of innovative city planning.
Op-Ed’s are written by community members, not representatives of edhat. The views and opinions expressed in Op-Ed articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of edhat. [Do you have an opinion on something local? Share it with us at info@edhat.com.]
Agree, thank you. Tired of the curmudgeons who want cars back. Why?? It makes no sense.
Yeah, I really don’t understand how people think that opening state street to traffic will solve homelessness, gang issues, drug and alcohol addiction and the ability of brick and mortar retail to compete with online shopping.
The City tried the cars-on-State-Street model. The City built public parking garages. The City gave away 75 minute free parking in those garages and on surface streets. The City ran electric trolleys up and down State Street. The cars-on-State-Street model worked for some years, but by 2017, the retail model began to fail. You don’t go back and install what failed in order to bring the heart of downtown back to life. A good start: parklets, 10 blocks of pedestrian/bike zone, consistent sanitation, police patrols on foot or bike. Try new models, don’t return to the past, yes?
But we do need the shuttles. For tourists and locals alike. It’s a bit of a trick to make the street accessible to shuttles but not allow other vehicles, but I’m sure it can be done.
Well said, couldn’t agree more.
I’ll be willing to compromise for leaving State closed to cars if we get 3 hours free parking.
Also what did they do with the 25 cent tourist shuttle?
I said back in 2020 that closing State street under covid rules was a progressive’s wet dream.
Now here we are and the only people disagreeing with the re-opening are….You guessed it.
I hate politics so I do not belong to any party because I don’t see any benefit to people who love fighting over politics for power or $$$$$$$$$$…….
Santa Barbara was a jewel in the past and the very things that made it that way are under attack and that pisses me off.
The town is a shell of its former beautiful and shiny self.
State Street has no charm anymore.
“I hate politics” but all I EVER do here is complain about the left.
I’d be all for shutting down SS to traffic, but only if some sort of autonomous “mini” rail system (vs the e-shuttles) were put in. Say from Micheltorena or Pedregosa to Cabrillo. If not to Cabrillo, then to Gutierrez. Also, dedicated pedestrian and bicycle paths…not the crazy free-for-all format that we have now. Parklets would have to be properly built to SB standards with none of these temp ramshackle throwaway that we have now.
I think if cars are not going to be allowed, then the name of State “Street” should be changed. It will not be a “street” anymore in those blocks. It is destined to be a “promenade” or something else. All the maps will need to be changed and that will help to revitalize the dead downtown.
Fortunately the word “street” pre-dates the existence of cars by at least three hundred years, so probably fine as-is.
Yep. The preference for the pedestrian corridors is the voice of the overwhelming majority of public opinion, as indicated by a staggering amount and variety of public input.
There’s a small community of old-timers who still want to cruse like it’s 1975. Might make you feel old, but that was 50 years ago. We need to ensure that the “consensus” opinion is as loud as that small old-timer minority who keeps saying, “State St is dead… I never go there!” There are LOTS of people there and enjoying it. It’s vibrant and full of life. We can make it better, and we should, and keeping it a Promenade is 100% the way to go.
The main arguments against are red herrings. The closure isn’t why some retail is struggling (that’s a much larger trend), and the closure is not the root cause of misuse (that’s us just not enforcing rules, which we’re not doing currently cars or not).
Some adjustments are needed. I strongly support re-assigning adjacent street parking (near the intersections) as additional handicapped spots and “drop-off” spots.
The pedestrian zone is now beloved by the vast majority. Be prepared for an army if you try to take us back in time.
I don’t understand an argument over it. The traffic did nothing good for state street except people driving by. Other main drags and “promenades” around the country are dead or dying for the same reasons – The rise of Amazon killing brick and mortars, exorbitantly high rents, fall-out from the pandemic. Have tourist shuttles deliver people to nearby cross streets. We’ve tried traffic and trolleys and all sorts of things and it didn’t do &*$!
There are a lot of problems with downtown with a myriad of causes. I worked downtown for almost 30 years but still love the place. I like the promenade – and I also want State St. open…during the week. My idea might not solve any individual problem, but be it fair or not to the homeless, vehicle traffic would displace some of them away from State St (that is not really my intention BTW). Since covid, the City has allowed the restaurants to run State St – they have been given a disproportionate amount of preferential treatment. The promenade exists mainly to benefit them.
Here is my idea (you probably heard it before – let the DVs begin) – 1) get rid of the hideous parklets, 2) open up State St. to cars ~Monday 0800 to Friday 1600, and 3) close State St. to cars from ~Friday 1600 to Monday 0800. If a restaurant wants to offer dining outside they must convert their gig to portable furniture – available to them on parts of the sidewalks 7 days a week and out onto the promenade Friday through Sunday nights. At least this way, everyone gets a piece of the pie.
SBZZ, that’s an interesting idea. Who will block the roads every afternoon and unblock them again in the morning? That takes employees and barricades of some sort—signage wouldn’t do the job.
I second. Can’t upvote but my voice is my vote.
eStuff is problem 1, other “vehicles” problem 2. Banning cars is great IF you don’t replace them with eBikes, eSkateboards, eHovers, and other powered vehicles plus of course everything else that enables an inattentive unlicensed operator to weave without speed limit among actual pedestrians in the State Street free kill zone. Put up video cameras and count the close calls when someone actually walking in the “Promenade” impulsively turns toward a shop or restaurant and comes within inches of a rented unlicensed vehicle clocking 30mph with an unlicensed operator using a phone. Guess we can just wait for bad reviews/publicity, a few injuries, fatalities, and mega lawsuits to awaken planners and police to the problem. The idea of an MTD eTrolley narrower than cars (to pass between barriers) for transit and sightseeing could be a big plus, reviving that safe and very successful service.
1 lane for cars. Towards the ocean.
It’s called compromise
What would really help your argument is if every photo in the newspaper that discusses State St didn’t feature a douche bag riding a bike while looking at his phone.
Reduced vehicular traffic will result in lower carbon emissions? Where did you get the data that shows there are fewer cars driving in downtown SB because of the promenade?
Exactly. However, there has been no count of vehicles to downtown before the “promenade” and after the “promenade”. Fewer to no vehicles on State means more on Anacapa and Chapala. Seems to me that the cross streets are just as busy as they were. Whatever GHG reduction there is is probably equaled by the C02 exhaled by all the humans exerting themselves biking. …jking, but maybe it’s true?
What to me would make sense would be to keep it to a three-block “Promenade” or “Play Space” where the restaurants now are. Btw, the majority of Santa Barbarans can not afford to go to most of those restaurants very often, Hanburger Habit excepted but the prices there have gone up, too.
“Reduced vehicular traffic will result in lower carbon emissions?” – Yes, just like reduced food intake will result in lower weight gains. Reduced sun exposure will also result in less sun burns. Also, less water will result in less plants. It’s one of those things.
Yes, my idea would require some effort to open and close the cross-streets once per week, but if you notice, the barriers are already in place – those removeable posts (not the potted plants). Those posts are easily removable now, I assume for emergency vehicle access, etc.
It’s so much better as a promenade. A natural, logical, progression. It certainly isn’t like we’re losing any parking spaces on State. The “State Street Promenade”.
Now, if we could just get rid of those pathetic plants in the large jardinieres, and replace them with large shrubs, (all the same; we need continuity ) make all dining structures look like Bouchon’s at Victoria Court, (their structure and shrubs should be the the standard to emulate)) the promenade could finally become postcard-worthy as well as functional. As long as merchants are allowed to “do their own thing” with structures and planters, it will continue to look like pop-up carnival booths.
I grabbed this comment from Sitelinesb. I agree with most of what this person wrote. The solution is to grow and adapt and build a strong middle class. With good paying jobs. Not to lean into nostalgia and certainly not to do more of the same. Keep most of State St closed to cars. Not the whole thing, but def the lower blocks packed full of bars and restaurants along with the “arts district” between Anapamu and Sola. Stew
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Want to reinvigorate State St and downtown? Start fostering startups and attract growing companies with high paying, highly skilled jobs. Building “low income” housing and pushing for more tourism is the most asinine and shortsighted path possible. Tourism is an abysmal business for anyone but the owners of the company. Most of which are out of town corporations. It attracts short term visitors on tight budgets and creates terrible jobs for low skilled workers. Low income, low skilled jobs that pay so little that they leave very little disposable income. In fact, they often push people into the very government subsidies that take more and more away from the community. How many low wage tourism workers are using EBT? Are they also the same folks qualifying for these low income housing builds? How about health care and other essential services?
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How do you expect retail and restaurants to thrive in an area that is surrounded by working poor? These people do not have the disposable income to buy $200 sweaters or eat $18 burritos. They are living paycheck to paycheck, barely able to survive. That’s reality. It sucks for everyone.
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It is insane that in an area with one of the greatest engineering schools in the world we dont foster and attract high paying jobs or entities. For every startup or tech job downtown, there are dozens of low wage, low skilled ones.
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But none of this is in the works. Because the city wants their monthly dose of heroin – Transit Occupancy Tax. So they can pay for their bloated workforce, bloated salaries, bloated benefits and service our bloated debt. In SB, the government is the single largest employer. Whether directly, as in the State, County, City, or the Feds out at Vandenberg or indirectly via govt subsides and the ancillary businesses that rely on their dollars. We are in essence, a socialized economy.
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Communters do not participate in the community. They dont send their kids to local schools. They dont spend their money in town. They dont pay taxes here. They spend it where they live. Ventura / Oxnard is by far the biggest recipient of our communities payroll and its workforces disposable income.
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Time to build a community that can grown itself out of this mess. The only way you’re going to do that is by fostering and attracting real companies with real products and services. Not min wage jobs that suck the life and the money from our community. Not sole proprietorships such as lawyers and accountants. But real companies that build real products and support good paying, long term, full-time, jobs. Jobs that allow people the ability to afford a home, a family, to go shopping, to eat out, to spend!
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None of that will happen until we cut our city’s staff, start demanding results from our elected officials and stop placating to the lowest common denominator and misguided factions. The solution is growth. Not more housing but more jobs. Private sector, high quality, high paying jobs. It is the only way forward if we want to reinvigorate our community and our once great city.
I’m happy to see this. Fortunately, this is the opinion of the majority. Someone please explain to me how vehicle traffic on State St. actually helps anyone. There was no parking. How does cruising slowly down the street and staring out your window benefit the businesses? State was not a thoroughfare, I can guarantee you no one’s commute is affected by the closure. Aside from deliveries and parades, there is zero reason for vehicles to be on the lower stretch of State St. This is really should be a dead argument.
The mis-named “parklets” are an eyesore. Looking up State Street is like looking at a cheap parking lot flea market. The high speed bicycles are a hazard. The lack of public transit makes it tough for locals and tourists alike to and from get from Cabrillo to the shops in the pedestrian zone. Local architects have given the city council and staff ideas as to how to remedy these challenges but, in true SB fashion, we are doing yet another study (this time at alomost a million dollars). Did Pearl Chase hire consultants???