The worst of the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be over. So, what will happen now on Santa Barbara’s most prominent boulevard?
The Santa Barbara City Council on Tuesday is scheduled to look at cleaning up the clutter along State Street and cross streets, without enraging businesses.
The council is expected to vote on whether to halt all sidewalk dining that wasn’t approved before the pandemic and ban any new fixed outdoor dining enclosures along State Street. New parklets also would not be allowed.
The council is set to discuss the matter as part of a full agenda that also includes a mixed-use development appeal regarding 825 De la Vina St., approval of the city’s $370 million budget, and an appeal of a denial of a development agreement for Paseo Nuevo.
For restaurant owners who celebrated Santa Barbara’s quick response to the pandemic a year ago by allowing outdoor dining, the mood has shifted. Now is not the time, some say, to try to put the genie back in the bottle.
“The outdoor dining customers are loving it,” said Laura Knight, owner of Pascucci on the 500 block of State Street. “The city would be making a huge mistake to take this away.”
A year ago, the City of Santa Barbara closed State Street to vehicles across seven blocks and allowed restaurants to set up outdoor dining in an effort to help them survive Gov. Gavin Newsom’s shutdown of the economy amid the confusion and escalating COVID-19 cases across California.
Before the pandemic, closing part of State Street to vehicles seemed like a fantasy of alternative transportation activists and certain transportation planners at City Hall. For decades, State Street was a spot for cruising, both in car and on foot, a spot to be seen and see others. It’s where people could show off a newly washed car, shiny hub caps and the latest threads, along one of California’s most recognized strips. Amid retail’s big boom in the 1990s and after the construction of the Paseo Nuevo mall, it was a hangout for teens and twentysomethings, and the locals of all ages came out to walk and watch.
It seemed to work, but the 2008 recession hit, Amazon arose to prominence and the next generation turned from interacting with people in real life to doing it virtually, and shopping in person became a chore that was time-intensive and passé.
Shortly thereafter, Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone began to catch fire commercially, and big-box retail stores that once waived their flags proudly were replaced by “experiential” destinations, such as beer and wine tasting, and gourmet restaurant experiences across shared tables.
So, as State Street began its slide, everyone from the sixth-generation Santa Barbaran to the just-arrived graduate student from UCSB had an opinion on what to do with State Street. The pandemic, for some, arrived just in time because it provided cover for those who pushed and promoted an alternative transportation agenda, a desire to close State Street to vehicles and a legitimate reason to act quickly.
Unable to service guests inside restaurants because of government mandates, the push to close State Street to vehicles suddenly became intertwined with an effort to save restaurants.
Just like that, on a Tuesday in May 2020, the City Council closed seven blocks of traffic, opening the flood gates to a State Street that looks largely like a back-of-the-napkin rendering of someone’s vision for what State Street could look like one day. Restaurants invested tens of thousands of dollars, some six figures, to create lavish outdoor dining spaces out onto State Street.
The decision, intentionally or unintentionally, delivered a significant benefit to restaurants on State Street, allowing for the creation of parklets on the street for more outdoor dining. Not all blocks and streets were closed to traffic, however, so diners ate alongside passing MTD buses and other vehicles.
So, the move to help businesses was swift, but by no means slick, and now, with COVID-19 numbers on the rapid decline, and months of people posting their vaccination photos on social media, things are just about back to normal.
Except that State Street is in a state of urban dysmorphia.
“I’m hearing that there will be more design and material guidelines,” Knight said. “Honestly, the city has had a terrible reputation for being way too hard on new businesses. This has been determined by hired consultants, and their onerous design requirements have kept new tenants from signing leases, so with the large amount of vacancies, hopefully they won’t go overboard on this, too.”
The city charges $275 a year for each outdoor chair on the sidewalk on State Street. One of the ideas on the table is to require businesses that set up tables and chairs during the pandemic, but had not previously been paying the city, to remove their outdoor dining. The sidewalks on weekends are frequently now packed with pedestrians, and weaving around tables, outdoor dining spaces and other people can be difficult.
Knight, whose restaurant is on the 500 block of State Street, doesn’t want the city to change things now that restaurants are thriving.
“We are seeing locals downtown that haven’t come downtown in years,” Knight said. “It’s a great social energy on State Street. And when you think about it, most countries, Mexico and in Europe, all have a central district, an area of town where locals can gather and see friends, for many years. The U.S. has just had malls, which are not the gathering spots they used to be. So now State Street has a real energetic, social vibe, which has been very well received by folks of all ages.”
Knight praised the city for doing “an amazing job of very quickly approving the outdoor seating” that saved downtown, adding that she hopes it won’t quickly undo it.
The city isn’t looking to halt the program just yet, but smaller yet still significant changes are ahead.
For Aron Ashland, owner of The Cruisery on the 500 block of State Street, outdoor dining needs to remain, and now is not the time for the city to make drastic changes.
“That would be the biggest mistake they could ever make,” Ashland said.
In addition to the concerns around outdoor dining, parklets and sidewalk tables, restaurants also have been competing with market forces and difficulty hiring new employees. Nothing has been predictable for the industry. Ashland said he could see the city enforcing rules on sidewalk dining, particularly since the sidewalk is 25 feet wide on the mountain side and 15 feet wide on the Westside.
Ashland said he did a lot of the work himself to create his successful outdoor dining space, but it could have cost about $85,000 had he contracted it out. He had recently taken over the spot on the corner of Haley and State streets from the Santa Barbara Brewing Co. His business was growing by about 60% before the pandemic hit. The outdoor dining, he said, has saved the street.
“I didn’t realize how much I missed seeing people’s smiles,” Ashland said.
One of the issues that Ashland was pushing for before the pandemic was more enforcement on State Street as it relates to theft and homelessness. He still hopes to see increased enforcement. The city, he said, needs to protect the downtown vibrancy. He sees and hears stories about people with weapons.
“This is our problem, whether we like it or not,” Ashland said.
Tina Takaya, owner of Opal on upper State Street, said she and other restaurateurs are worried that the city doesn’t understand their issues coming out of the pandemic.
The last year-and-a-half was difficult trying to survive with the opening and closing a couple times. For most restaurants who survived, it’ll take about the same time to bring everything back to normalcy, she said.
Regarding the parklets, Takaya said she is comcerned.
“We feel that they don’t understand what it takes to run a restaurant overall, much less in a city where we don’t have millions of people,” Takaya said. “Parklets gave us an opportunity to survive and will continue to help us get back on our feet. Many of us spent quite a lot of money building the parklet to code and we’re hearing that the city wants take the roofs off and possibly get rid of them all together.”
She said the roofs for many restaurants actually look good and create comfort and safety for guests.
“Umbrellas rather than a roof do not work well as we all know it’s virtually impossible to shade every table and if it’s windy it’s a danger,” she said. “The roofs provide both warmth and shade, which is imperative for our operations.”
Times have changed, she said.
“We have all been through quite a lot and of course it’s part of life but it’s time for our city officials to understand what it takes for a small business to survive and flourish, not only because of the pandemic but in general in a small town such as ours,” said Takaya, who also owns OKU on Cabrillo Boukevard. “The more small businesses flourish the more revenue comes to our town, which is obviously a necessity.”
Warren Butler, general manager of The Chase, said he welcomes the recent reopening and the ability to sit people inside at full capacity.
Butler and some other restaurant owners and managers noted that the demand for food delivery services has slowed down as hiring has increased and the capacity to seat has returned.
“We will keep the delivery services as much as we can to serve our guests that are not ready to come out,” Butler said.
He said that whatever the city has in store for businesses and outdoor dining, it shouldn’t involve tweaking things too much.
“People love sidewalk dining and love being outside,” Butler said. “It’s the best weather in the country.”
Butler said a hands-off approach at this point would do wonders for the city.
“I think they definitely need to keep cars off State Street and make it friendly for pedestrians, bicycles and roller skates,” Butler said. “Make it the State Street boulevard that feeds the entire city. Bring back a smaller shutle from the beach to Victoria Street. It would be great to have the parades back, too. It will become the boulevard of dreams.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
