Regarding the Dec. 5 article, “No Bursting His Bubble: SB Bubble Guy’s Glow Show Bounces Back,” as a longtime resident and frequent visitor of Shoreline Park, I feel compelled to speak out against the Santa Barbara Parks & Recreation Department’s recent attempt to require a permit for our beloved Bubble Guy.

In a world that often feels divided, the Bubble Guy represents something pure and simple: joy.

His pop-up performances bring together people of all ages — children delighting in floating bubbles, couples walking hand in hand, seniors enjoying a moment of community. He plays music that connects generations, and creates spontaneous moments of happiness in our public spaces.

But this is about more than just bubbles. It’s about our fundamental right to free expression and the character of our community.

The same department that wants to regulate bubble-blowing has previously attempted to restrict Women’s Marches and interfere with faith-based groups providing food to those in need.

These actions strike at the heart of our constitutional freedoms and the welcoming spirit of Santa Barbara.

Are we really becoming a city that requires permits for spreading joy? What’s next? Inspecting picnic permits for family gatherings and birthday celebrations?

Santa Barbara should be a place that celebrates spontaneity, community and the simple pleasures that bring us together. The Bubble Guy isn’t an inconvenience. He’s a treasure.

Our Parks & Recreation Department would do well to remember that public spaces are for the public, not for bureaucratic control.

Let’s keep Santa Barbara warm, caring and free — one bubble at a time.

Maureen Ellenberger
Santa Barbara

•        •        •

I walk at Shoreline Park every Friday with my dog. I remember the first time I saw the Bubble Guy. I thought, how unique and fun to watch. I heard the music but it never really stood out to me. Most of the time I could hardly hear it.

Then I read the Noozhawk article about the controversy. I laughed, and the more I read, the more I laughed.

• The bubbles were hurting the grass.
• The city does bubble analysis and determined, no harm.
• Jazmin LeBlanc, the Parks & Recreation Department’s assistant director, determines that permits are now required for public safety. Last I checked, bubbles pop when they hit you in the head.
• City Councilman Mike Jordan says there should be a compromise.

Nobody stands up and says “B.S.”

Jordan does approach the Parks & Recreation Department director, not the assistant director, to resolve this nonsense. It takes Bubble friends to find a solution.

But Shoreline dog walkers no longer have the smiles and bubbles while at the park.

Here’s another solution: If LeBlanc wants to require permits, let’s make permits like this free. Because of the public greater good.

Come on Jordan, get Mayor Randy Rowse and your buddies together and bring the Bubble Guy back for the Shoreline Park walkers.

Noozhawk, thanks for the news and the laughs. Thanks for making a difference.

It is my hope that my letter encourages the city and politicians to stand up like Kyle Richardson did for the Bubble Guy and those who enjoy his (nontoxic) bubbles.

Bart Bader
Goleta

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Regarding the Dec. 3 article, “Santa Barbara Council Talks Rent Stabilization, Tenant Protections,” City Councilwoman-elect Wendy Santamaria is in alliance with the Santa Barbara Tenants Union and CAUSE (Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy). She won by 152 votes, and ran on advocating for a 2% rent cap and stricter tenant protections.

Councilwoman Meagan Harmon is quoted as saying, “We’re actually not moving farther apart; we’re moving closer together” — but one might ask who is the “WE” she is referring to when she and Council members Oscar Gutierrez and Kristen Sneddon have all advocated for a 2% rent cap, and Harmon called to revisit stricter tenant protections.

Mayor Randy Rowse said, “The problems are not going to be solved by trying to demonize one side of the equation,” and that one in seven housing units in Santa Barbara is affordable by either subsidy or covenant.

If one is a provider of rental housing, we are left to ask ourselves who will be representing us, when it is clear beginning in 2025, the council majority will be for tenants?

Loy Beardsmore
Santa Barbara

•        •        •

I recently went to downtown Santa Barbara for the first time in maybe four years. WOW, what a disappointment.

It’s dirty and appears as if the city really doesn’t know what to do with it. Dining parklets are shabby, sidewalks are filthy, as is the street. Empty spaces are not kept up.

It’s a sad sight.

But I had Thanksgiving in Newport Beach with my daughter. Santa Barbara city staff should take a trip there to see how to maintain a city. It is spotless. No beggars or homeless on the corners, and if they are, the city gets them to where they’re supposed to be or back to where they came from.

As far as reviving State Street, two things: The spaces are too big for most small business and rents are too extreme, ie. price per square foot and triple-net leases. The different world we navigate in with all online purchase makes brick-and-mortar stores a very hard go.

John Sween
Santa Barbara County

•        •        •

What better example of  American citizenry than Karen Telleen-Lawton’s wonderful Nov. 25 commentary, “Ballad of Ballots or Ballot Billeting.”

It was an honorable exercise in both rigor and humility not to speak of fortitude canvassing as a Democrat in Maricopa County, Arizona, for nearly a week. Finally that long, long Election Day, helping voters stuck in endless lines while also poll-watching and “poll curing” in Tucson.

For all of Telleen-Lawton’s disappointment in the ultimate results, she inspires us to be deeply loyal to democracy, whether you win or lose.

In calm articulate prose, we are reminded what it means to be more than a hat-wearing, flag-waving, so-called patriot.

Thank you to Noozhawk for featuring such an important and even humorous piece. Would that the next four years display the same level of decency.

Josie Levy-Martin
Montecito

•        •        •

In his Nov. 30 commentary, “As World Leaders Fail on Climate Change, It’s Up to Santa Barbara to Fight,” Robert Sulnick blames evil “fossil fuel lobbyists” as the reason yet another international conference “failed to reduce fossil fuel emissions.”

I see the world — more likely, Third World countries that WANT to be developed to First World standards of living — realizing that the hypocritical climate-change zealots peddling “fossil-free” nonsense are full of it.

We can’t live without fossil fuels, and won’t be able to fully replace their functionality for at least a century, if then.

If we ban their production here in Santa Barbara County, we’ll just have to get them from somewhere else. And how will they get here? Probably by using fossil fuels.

Chris Spencer
Buellton

•        •        •

As Robert Sulnick makes clear, starting next year, our national leaders will try to take us backward in the fight against climate change.

This makes our local and state efforts more important than ever. The Community Environmental Council, the Sierra Club, Citizens’ Santa Barbara and other local environmental groups must double their efforts, and they deserve our support.

We must also support our state legislators as they continue their excellent work to encourage energy conservation and the use of clean power sources in California.

Now more than ever, it’s up to us to lead the way toward a sustainable world.

Dennis Thompson
Santa Barbara

•        •        •

Robert Sulnick reminds us of the mind-boggling disconnect reflected in the recent election results.

Despite all we have witnessed about the impacts of climate change and all the warnings of impending catastrophe by climate scientists, voters chose to ignore it.

While aware that carbon emissions from burning coal, oil and gas are overheating our planet and causing deadly and destructive heat waves, storms, floods and droughts, voters elected leaders who deny the reality of climate science and plan to ramp up fossil fuel production and use for years to come.

The only explanation for voting against our own interests is lack of information or knowledge.

For decades coal, oil and gas interests have confused the public by spreading disinformation about climate change.

The fossil fuel industry is the largest and most powerful political and financial force on Earth. They will continue to do all they can to protect their lucrative business model.

Sulnick indicates how they have dominated the global climate conferences. But even more devastating for our country, the Republican Party has now become their ally, the party of “drill, baby, drill.”

While we can’t give up on efforts to transition our nation and the nations of the world away from fossil fuels to a clean energy future, Sulnick is right that we can get involved locally. I volunteer with the local chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, which always welcomes new volunteers.

All of us — Democrats, Republicans or Independents — want our families and future generations to live and prosper in a safe and healthy environment. Let’s do what we can to achieve that goal.

Robert Taylor
Montecito

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