Once upon a time, Santa Barbara was a strong town — known for its beauty, art, culture and Spanish architecture, and referred to as “The American Riviera” and “Jewel of the California Coast.”
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Many people tragically died. The disease impacted every community and every single person — young and old.
Now in 2024, other cities have recovered, yet choices made have left Santa Barbara altered and in a state of limbo with restoration still unresolved.
Just as a blocked artery (if not unclogged) prevents blood flow to the heart, causing severe damage, Santa Barbara’s closed main artery has splintered the community and weakened the town.
There is a simple solution. Restore the flow and our traditional State Street for all to use and to enjoy Santa Barbara’s world-renowned style of beauty, art, culture and Spanish architecture.
Then, come together and focus on the challenging work to create the housing that will meet our community needs while protecting our natural environment and our beautiful small beach town vibe.
With appreciation and gratitude to everyone.
Cass Ensberg
Santa Barbara
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Thank you for Judy Foreman’s Sept. 11 column, “Aging Catches Up with Us Baby Boomers.”
I am at the whip’s end as I was born in 1960. Old enough to see the 1960s and aware to steer clear of most of it.
Anyway, this year my wife died suddenly. She was 58, born in 1965. The colloquial term, a widowmaker heart attack.
We held no celebration of life; my adult children and I felt that term was too mortuary. Instead, we held The Event, it was proclaimed, in a venue overlooking the ocean.
My daughter and I did come up with a theme. I had a printer-friend cut up some index stock, single drill hole for a common stud. We brought lots of art supplies, including rubber stamps.
We asked attendees to create a piece of art, add in a notation about a joint experience or other moment they recalled.
We are putting together a bound folio of the work. Even the nonartistic were enthusiastic. I sent out cards, too, as the physical limits of attendance would still allow others beyond that to participate.
John Jorgensen
Santa Barbara
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Judy Foreman had very good observations written in a succinct and readable way. I thank you.
Dan Buxton
Santa Barbara
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Regarding the Sept. 5 article, “Santa Ynez CSD Board Member, Husband Sentenced for Breaching Capitol in 2021,” ooooh, Karen and Robert Jones are being sentenced for high-fiving in the Capitol!
Think what would they would get had they desecrated UCSB, UCLA, Columbia or other universities while chanting racist and antisemitic calls for extermination!
This country has gone upside down, better to go sideways in the Santa Ynez Valley. Good luck in the stir, Joneses. Just know all the people actually committing crimes are free to continue their spree!
Brian Massey
Sonoita, Arizona, and formerly of Santa Barbara
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I’m writing to express my deep concern regarding the sudden and dramatic change in the
appearance of our Montecito neighborhood, which seems to have unfolded in the last few weeks.
There are now copious amounts of enormous fiber optic wires, apparently installed by someone with an enthusiasm for large, overhead tangled webs.
These new wires are not just mingling with the usual utility lines hidden in the trees; these thick wires are performing an aerial ballet of low-hanging chaos and look awful.
You can now see them crisscrossing overhead on Hot Springs and Sycamore Canyon roads,
East Mountain Drive and other streets — all without intervention from the Montecito Board of Architectural Review.
I cannot help pointing out the irony here. For the last 15 years, the MBAR has busied
itself micromanaging the minutiae of residents’ projects (myself included), yet this
colossal eyesore was apparently of no concern.
To say that these new installations havemdrastically altered the character of the area would be an understatement. Our once-quaint neighborhood now resembles something more akin to a developing nation’s urban sprawl.
How curious that MBAR’s microscopic scrutiny is routinely applied to inconsequential and
unseen details while miles of thick, obtrusive fiber-optic cables are now draped across our
streets.
I would like clarity on how this situation was allowed to occur and what steps the
Montecito Board of Architectural Review plans to take to address it.
Dara Barker
Montecito
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If you live in Santa Barbara’s Second City Council District — the Mesa, West Beach, part of the Westside — you probably already know who Mike Jordan is.
He’s been our City Council member for five years, and before then served for a decade on the Planning Commission. He’s a Santa Barbara native who has been involved in local issues for many decades, trying to make things better for the Second District and for the city as a whole.
He’s up for re-election in November, and I urge you to vote to keep him in office for four more years.
Even if you know Jordan’s name, you may not know all he’s done since he was elected in 2019.
Jordan has been a staunch advocate for proactive policy to help homeless people off the streets, both because they deserve and need roofs over their heads and support services, and because homeless encampments pose a fire risk to us all.
After the Loma Fire, Jordan went immediately to the city administrator and argued successfully that the city needed to act, ASAP, to get people into housing.
Because he understands from his years on the Planning Commission that we desperately need MORE housing — NOW — he has been a powerful advocate for housing as the City Council looks at both La Cumbre Plaza and Paseo Nuevo.
Jordan has been steadily pushing for more attention and resources to address the risk of what are now High Fire Zones stretching from Campanil Hill to Honda Valley Park. His commitment to fire safety has won him the endorsement of local firefighters.
Jordan is a get-it-done guy. When I reach out to him about a local issue, he responds quickly and effectively.
Local government needs to be responsive to residents’ needs, and he takes that job as seriously as every other part of being our voice on the City Council.
In an age of partisan arguing, we need highly effective, knowledgeable representatives who are looking to solve our real problems. Mike Jordan is that representative. Join me in voting for him.
Lee Heller
Santa Barbara
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Santa Barbara City College is a great investment for our community. A higher percentage of local students attend SBCC than almost any community college anywhere. The college is a key driver of our local economy.
The Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association is committed to ensuring our community’s tax dollars are spent wisely. Measure P on the November ballot is a prudent investment in our community’s future that will address crucial building needs at SBCC without raising taxes above what voters have already approved.
Importantly, Measure P includes strict fiscal accountability measures — including independent oversight, annual audits and public spending disclosures — to ensure that funds are spent appropriately.
The measure will qualify the college to receive tens of millions of dollars of state matching funds that will not be available in the future.
The Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association encourages a YES vote on Measure P. It will address long needed and crucial renovation and improvements at one of Santa Barbara’s most important institutions.
Thomas Widroe
Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association executive director
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I think it’s sweet that in Ron Fink’s Sept. 10 commentary, “Climate Action Plan Will Adversely Impact Vulnerable Families,” he seems to actually care about “low-income, marginalized, disadvantaged, persons of color and other community members.” He seems to genuinely be sympathetic to their plight.
Or it could be that Fink is using an entire group of people in our community as pawns in his ongoing crusade against acknowledging human-caused climate change, and even more insidiously, using his time and talent in actively pushing back on any endeavor to at least do something to provide a habitable planet for our children.
Which would also include the low-income, marginalized, disadvantaged, persons of color and other community members whom, it has been proven, fare worse because of a warming planet.
Leah Braitman
Lompoc
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