Aron Ashland remembers a day when people used his restaurant’s sidewalks and parking lot for drug deals and shooting up. 

The Cruisery owner had to find a way to bring people in from the other side of the street, where there was more sunlight and less crime. He found a way, but it wasn’t through people.

Ashland, rarely seen without his shadow – a 7-year-old Pomeranian and Shitzhu mix named Penelope — put out water bowls and created a doggie flight that had dogs pulling their owners over to his side of the street. 

Soon enough, people (and dogs) filled his restaurant and parklet space to enjoy his food and drinks.

But these days Ashland is doing his own barking – in the direction of Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse and the city of Santa Barbara. 

“I think the mayor has made a big mistake in that they did something accidentally that was amazing. And then they thought they knew what they were doing and they screwed it all up,” Ashland said.

On Tuesday, the Santa Barbara City Council will vote on a resolution that could raise fees between $3 and $10 per square-foot for parklets between the 400 and 1300 blocks on the State Street promenade.

This section of State Street is heavily populated with restaurants and bars, most of which took advantage of the city’s COVID-19 response to provide outdoor dining by design of parklets.

Three years later, outdoor dining is still allowed, and restaurant owners are fighting to keep it.

Since the pandemic, this new-found promenade has changed the environment of downtown Santa Barbara, literally stopping traffic.

You can walk, ride bikes and scooters, skateboard and take dogs along the nine open blocks. At night, people walk freely from bar to bar, play cornhole, toss a frisbee around, finding just about any possible use of the strip.

What’s gone from this new version of State Street are the parades – such as Summer Solstice, Old Spanish Days Fiesta and the Downtown Holiday Parade – as well as the trolleys, landsharks and bike tours mixed in with everyday traffic.

Critics of the parklets and open street say the promenade looks shabby from an inconsistent design, and that restaurants are benefiting from free outdoor public space more so than the other businesses.

With this resolution to raise fees looming in the air, Ashland has showed up or called in to City Council meetings during public comment for the past few weeks to single out the mayor for his stance on outdoor dining.

“Please don’t listen to the mayor, listen to our residents,” said Ashland in a council meeting last week. “They want a vibrant promenade, and patios are why they come downtown.”

Rowse said he wants State Street “to be fair for all the merchants.” He’s been outspoken about the area going back to being “programmable,” where trolleys would drive through the street and storefronts be filled in.

“People have a lot of opinions, and my job is to try to herd the cats of opinions that are out there – and they’re kind of wild right now.”

Rowse, who owned a restaurant called Paradise Cafe on Anacapa Street for around 30 years, said he understands business owners’ annoyance at the disruption. 

“I think we as a council haven’t been very clear in communicating, because we keep going back and forth on what we plan to do with State Street,” said the mayor. “If I were in business today, and I used to be in that business, I would be a little frustrated with the lack of clear directions.”

With his background in restaurant business, Rowse seemed rigid in his vision for State Street.

“I would like to see the city – I get a hard time for using this word all the time, but – programmable. And that means the most flexibility possible,” said Rowse.

Rowse said he would like to see the street adopt a hybrid solution, one that allows for select events to block off traffic, such as a farmer’s market, “and then we could open it up for parades.”

“We can get a trolley back, get the crazy bicycle thing kind of under control, which is hard to do on a closed street,” said Rowse. “I don’t think anybody wants it to be the eight or ten blocks long – or whatever it is today. But it also has to be fair.” 

Rowse explained that during his time as mayor, he worked to widen the sidewalks on State Street for the benefit of all businesses, and for visitors to admire the city’s beauty and vitality. 

He said the street is currently closed for the restaurant businesses, “which is great,” he added, “it kept them alive during the hardest time.”

In addition to his view on the promenade inequitably favoring the restaurants, the mayor mentioned how the parklets take away from the city’s architectural design.

“The parklets are temporary structures, that’s the way they were built. They were never engineered or designed – that was the direction of the city at the time. And now we’re trying to figure out how to put the genie back in the bottle.”

Santa Barbara has a reputation for great architecture and visual beauty, and State Street at the moment, isn’t holding up to that standard, Rowse said.

“I know that I, personally speaking for myself, I don’t appreciate architecture being mixed in with, you know, two by fours and plywood. And I think that was never the intent. And I don’t think that’s what people appreciate about the heritage of Santa Barbara in terms of our esthetic and architecture.”

Others agree.

Eva Linowski, manager of Antique Alley on the 700 block of State Street, said she feels the parklets could be more decorative.

“We have so many artists here in Santa Barbara. I think we could really make it beautiful and it wouldn’t cost that much,” said Linowski.

However, in opposition to the mayor’s stance, Linowski said that their retail business “actually is doing much better” since the installation of the promenade.

“We have so many people coming in here. Spring break was amazing, and we’ve got the cruise ship people coming in,” Linowski said.

When it comes to any lack of business for this thrift store, Linowski said she believes it’s “because of all the closures and the high rents, and maybe internet,” such as Amazon.

Antique Alley is one of downtown Santa Barbara’s oldest shops. It is a feast of colors and offerings, including vintage clothing, classic coins, arty antiques and rare jewelry.

Linowski, within her 30 years at Antique Alley and even longer as an antique dealer, carries the same vibe with an air of elegance as she describes the condition of State Street. 

“I used to get more coughs because of the exhaust coming up and down the street,” explained Linowski. Now, “we do get families coming up and down the street, and dogs, so it’s a little more friendly, which I think is kind of nice.”

And that’s exactly what the dog-friendly Cruisery owner Ashland wants people to understand – that State Street should be a place of vitality for everyone.

“I can’t unsee how vibrant and amazing the promenade was. And so you can say whatever you want about it, I can’t forget that,” said Ashland. “It just made it fun to be downtown and that, I think, should be our perspective.

“We should try to create a space that’s so fun that the entire city comes downtown like that.”

On Monday evening, Ashland sent out a last-minute attempt to rally his restaurant’s consumers. He urged them in an email blast to speak out to the City Council in protection of the promenade.

Ashland said he wants the council to consider the people who enjoy State Street as it is, and the restaurants, who need the outdoor dining to survive financially.

“It’s not going to crush me, like I’m not fighting for myself, honestly. And if you think about it, I have the biggest indoor space in town. If we all get a bunch of patios, it’s going to make my life more difficult.

“But I’m fighting for that because it’s actually important to the whole city, not to me.”