AnonymousBy an edhat reader
I recently heard the Santa Barbara City Council voted to hire an “economic development consultant,” and to form a committee overseeing the consultant, to review suggestions for revitalizing downtown State Street.
There are so many questions but I’m curious what edhatters think. What is this consultant supposed to do and how are they expected to “revitalize” downtown? Also, what’s the point of having a consultant if the committee is overseeing and reviewing suggestions. Seems like this could be an internal process or hire some local students to compile data.
This vote to hire a consultant came out of the Tuesday meeting that had a large attendance, and several State Street business owners and landlords spoke about what they want to see happen. I got the impression that the city council doesn’t have the chops to come up with a game plan, so they want to bring in someone who might actually have an effect. My first thought was Oh no, not another highly paid outsider with great ideas that go nowhere. But if the business owners want it, maybe it is worth a shot. I’m skeptical, but hopeful.
I agree. Limit several blocks of State Street to foot traffic only. Keep it clean. Now, I never go lower than Victoria Street. Just not a nice place to visit or shop. If I need something now, I go to Goleta (with lower sales tax) or Ventura (lower tax rate). Wait a day or two – online is the way to shop.
I would go for a vacant building tax.
Sounds like Bob Wilson hit the nail on the head. Greed, greed, greed! I doubt this “consultant” can get around that with ideas to revitalize.
Friedman is an IDIOT. He made the motion. With luck he will only serve 1 term. Who does that? An IDIOT. Councilmember Dominguez tried to get parameters in, but was shot down by our IDIOT Mayor. City Hall had too many people on the Council who can’t think logically or are bought off by the Developers. We need good representatives (Democrats) who are Not supported by the local Corupt Democratic Party. They just place cronies in the positions who will pander to non-residents and ruin Santa Barbara.
Clearly Edhatters have all the answers so the notion of hiring a consultant is immediately repugnant. HIRE US, we can direct where the City needs to go to revitalize downtown. it may not be to everyone’s liking but we’ll be for it. Amirite?
I can’t wait to hear what reasons the consult comes up with. I’m sure he/she has already been instructed by the city council to tell us it’s anything but high rent and homeless. Schneider took us to the ground. Is Cathy going to bury us? Stay tuned.
There is a committee set up of Friedman, Murillo and Rowse. Hart proposed it. It all seem pre-planned. We’re they talking before had? Isn’t that a brown act violation? As for the group: Friedman can’t think for himself. He quotes other’s endlessly and I am sick of hearing about his kids. Murillo wants ultra expensive mega density housing with no parking and has never met a Developer she wouldn’t bend over for. Rowse just wants to appease the downtown businesses. He could care less about good government. I would like to know if he could even vote on anything to do with putting higher density housing downtown. That is where his business is. Changes would affect his business financially. With this group of geniuses we are sure to have a consultant the staff wants, with the questions Developers want answered. Residents should be up in arms with this. Results will be: 2500 housing units downtown, no parking requirements, people will be able to park in the parking structures for $$$ or park in the neighborhoods.
The cops “doing everything “ to deal with transients will only happen after the new jail is built. Now they know nothing will happen to them because there are no beds in the jail to use as deterrents.
The State St. problem is one that is very difficult to resolve and sarcasm and criticizing our elected officials doesn’t help. You elected them and they are trying their very best to resolve the problem, especially gathering ideas from the public. That is the role of a leader, i.e., one who includes all and then makes the final decision. One idea I have is that we should not have chains like Laguna Beach. As one person pointed out no one is going to travel to SB to shop at a Gap. Another idea I have which was also voiced by a citizen is to change land uses to allow for residential above commercial, like in our grandparents day when they lived above the store. This is the future and we have to be ready to make changes. The Economic Development specialist will try to corral all these various interests and ideas and coordinate them. Our staff is already overburdened so hiring someone to help resolve this difficult issue is essential. I like the idea of providing a day shelter for the homeless as many are veterans who served this country and many are mentally ill. Our society should be ashamed of the way we treat them but we are living with decisions made in the Reagan Administration..
Maybe they could simply talk to the mayor and city council of Goleta. I do not believe that there is even one empty storefront in Old Town Goleta, maybe one or two “empties” at the Calle Real Shopping Center, two at the Fairview Center, and the Glen Annie/Stork/Hollister corridor is doing extremely well. Goleta has vision, three new major hotels, and soon a Target; Santa Barbara has Murillo, public-defecating bums, and five new push cart vendors. Here’s an idea: open up a ski resort on State Street since it’s going downhill very-very fast!
Don’t you just hate committees that like to endlessly analyze problems without daring to come to a decision or implement a solution? It’s a waste of time and money. Both the problems and the solutions are pretty obvious.
1. Acknowledge that Retail is becoming obsolete. To save what’s left, commercial rent control (depending on the company’s gross revenue or # of total employees) will allow small, unique businesses to flourish. The unique businesses used to be a huge draw for tourists and locals. Who will drive to SB to go to a Gap?
2. Make it illegal to give money directly to any homeless person. Get the homeless into a center for assistance, and some real help. Get them off the streets. Post signs throughout town stating it’s illegal to hand homeless people money, along with a QR Code. Those who feel generous can take a photo of the code and donate a few dollars. This money would go directly to local charities who support the homeless, people with mental illness, and those with substance abuse.
3. Police officers on foot patrol 24/7 in downtown areas. They could issue loitering tickets, and advise all to donate to the homeless charities via the QR code rather than to the homeless directly. I do not give money to homeless, but would donate to a charity like this.
4. Convert behemoth vacant buildings, such as Macy’s, to residential; whether condos or apartments. The increased presence of people downtown will support more local shops, increase property tax revenue, and decrease crime and homelessness in the area.
5. The property owners should not be penalized with a vacancy tax. That’s adding insult to injury, and won’t help the dying retail industry. These investors committed a lot of money into what they thought was a wise business investment. Who could’ve predicted they’d be obsolete due to online shopping? Let’s help them through this world-wide shift of economics; not attack them.
Does anyone else have any other real suggestions?
A consultant allows a city council to make “politically incorrect” decisions, without paying a political price. Following the advice of the consultant sanitizes what city councils should have been doing all along: clean the bums, their carts, their packs and their signs off State Street and wherever else they show up. Give us back our city, our freeway off ramps, our intersections, our libraries, our downtown, our waterfront, and our parks.
Idea #1 A Nuevo Paseo Nuevo
Dejà vue all over again baby!
#2 The American Riviera Bum Museum- a live, interactive multimedia exhibit with its own app.
#3 Brick and Mortar retail – CC should make a motion to declare it an endangered species and apply for federal funds to protect it.
#4 Live webcams like the island bald eagles. Pay per view, monthly and annual subscriptions, continuous revenue stream.
#4 Aggregate benches outside properties that have been for lease for a year or more. Build a coin operated fountain adjacent, encourage tourists to put a quarter in to turn on water for a minute to watch homeless bathing. Homeless Petting Zoo!
#6 Use eminent domain to seize properties that are not leased to longer term tenants. House the homeless in them. Call it the Bleeding Heart Hotel chain.
Send the consultant fee to my address. Thank you
Greed is what destroyed State Street. Greed of those who bought the property to use tax advantages and capital appreciation. They have no local loyalty. They have no duty to improve the community. Capitalism begets and rewards this stuff. There is no way around it without social interest legislation. Certainly catering further to the demands of the owners of these lots will only sink the taxpayers into further morass. It we would just eliminate government support for such investment schemes they would collapse overnight. That would be a free market solution.
I find it too typical here that the “solution,” after years of talking about it, is to form a committee and hire a consultant. Why should we need to hire a consultant when we pay huge salaries to executive staff members to run the city. Shouldn’t it have been their job to deal with this long before things reached the point that we are now faced with? In 2017 we paid the city administrator $372,675; the community development director $275,679 and the chief building official $201,231 (source: Transparent California. BTW that site is an eye-opener as to how many PD, FD and city staffers earn over $200k per year). So, for a combined salary of close to a $ million per year, along with their highly compensated staffs (almost 2,000 staffers in SB), all we get is a recommendation to hire someone else to do their job? And to all those that were at the meeting congratulating the city council and the city staff for “taking the lead” to solve this challenge, all I see is the council and staff hurrying to try to get in front of the many private organizations’ efforts in attempt to make it look like they are leading.
I paid $3,950 per month for small storefront in the 800 blk. of State Street . My profit from a clothing store i had made no more then a $2,300 net profit each month . It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a consultant to figure out that the rent way too high to make a living there . One clown in the Council said that the storefronts are empty due to the homeless . Lower my rent to $500 and i won’t care how many homeless are on State Street . The darn rents are ridiculously high .
Anyone else remember how in the early 1980’s the Baghwan Sri Rajneesh buses came to town and convinced a LOT of the local bums to take their ride to the Oregon commune? Lower State Street was effectively cleaned up, until the ones who discovered they were supposed to WORK up there came drifting back. It worked for a while. I say take the budget for the consultants and give the rifraf Greyhound tickets to somewhere else. Hell, a one-way to Hawaii for all of them would probably equal the money wasted on an opinion monger.