Regarding the May 5 article, “Santa Barbara County Moves Forward with $47 Million Workforce Housing Project,” the majority of Santa Barbara County employees should no longer require workforce housing.
They already are well-ensconced in their work-from-home environment. Some are not even working in the county and, as rumored from other county employees, do not even reside in California!
Why is it not mandatory that county employees reside in Santa Barbara County? Why are they still “working from home?”
Apparently, as proven by the missing clerk-recorder-assessor and lack of downtown staff, the county doesn’t know anything about where its employees are at any given time.
If Santa Barbara County cannot be responsible for employees, why give it millions of dollars to spend on housing for staff that doesn’t exist?! Hmmm.
JoDee Langley Oliver
Santa Barbara
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I wish my employer would build housing for me in downtown Santa Barbara, just two short blocks away from my job. Since my company doesn’t have unlimited taxpayer dollars, I guess it’s not going to happen.
Chloe Goodwin
Goleta
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Not just “no” but “hell no!” to Santa Barbara County’s unfair scheme to build housing for its own workforce right in the middle of downtown. If such housing is built, it should be available for ALL downtown employees.
J. Quiñones
Santa Barbara
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In his May 1 column, “Now That State Street Plan Has Council’s Backing, Let’s Talk Housing,” Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen makes the case for downtown housing and concludes, “And THAT, not bollards and bikes, would be the cornerstone of a true revitalization project.”
Macfadyen gets the “Beacon of Reality Award” for his observation.
Hib Halverson
Goleta
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This simple fact has, apparently, escaped the attention of our elected officials and the high-priced consultants: Bikers aren’t shoppers!
Bikers downtown are, in fact, a pestilence and, along with the homeless and the mentally ill, make it unwelcoming.
No wonder merchants and their customers are leaving, Me, too!
Pete Ralston
Montecito
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As a fourth-generation Santa Barbaran, I have a solution for State Street downtown: We need to vote out the people who want to change it.
Too many of them did not live here when our real Spanish heritage was reflected in a beautiful downtown. Just a thought.
John Sween
Santa Barbara
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Nick Sebastian’s May 2 commentary, “Santa Barbara Insists on Fixing What Was Never Broken,” was a fun read — sour sarcasm served with the honey of humor.
Like Sebastian, I have been dismayed by the decline of downtown Santa Barbara and critical of what seems the endless futile fidgeting by a succession of city councils to address it — always accompanied by the noisy squabbling of interested parties over varying proposals.
Unlike Sebastian, however, I don’t believe downtown was not broken. It was breaking before COVID-19 pandemic hysteria transmogrified it.
The free flow of vehicle traffic wasn’t going to keep it from breaking. Inexorable elements of change overwhelmed it: the systemic demise of brick-and-mortar retail; the relentless invasions by the homeless; the migration of vibrant business activity to the Funk Zone.
All left the core downtown diminished, nearly forsaken.
If it can be fixed, something needs to be done, but returning to the past as the remedy would require time travel. Recreating all the essential conditions of even 10 years ago is an H.G. Wells fantasy.
The critical observation Sebastian makes is that Santa Barbara is a singularly attractive place worthy of preservation but threatened by misguided, malignly selfish forces. Indeed.
That threat has existed for many decades but until relatively recently has been repelled by wiser city leaders who saw their roles as stewards of the place.
The paramount threat to Santa Barbara is population growth, now aided and abetted by the ham-fisted state mandates forcing more housing on communities; the growing horde of wanna-be residents who conflate desire with deserve; and the ever-present people-packing forces of greed taking advantage of it all like circling sharks around a wounded walrus.
The prudent preservation of Santa Barbara — let alone any revitalization of its downtown — have been crippled by the forced change from at-large city council elections to district elections.
Council members can now be elected by tiny minorities of citizens whose parochial interests can be at odds with the greater interests of the entire city.
Can anything here really be fixed before a broken city council is fixed?
Randy Alcorn
Santa Barbara
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I want to express my gratitude to Noozhawk for the sponsorship of the recent Pat Metheny concert at the Lobero Theatre.
It was a rare treat for a sold-out crowd to enjoy Metheny and his Side-Eye III+ group. For more than two hours, they played mesmerizing jazz music that soared and covered all of the bases.
Guitar, keyboards, drums, stand up bass and vocal backing, each with outstanding solos. Three standing ovations from the crowd confirmed their absolute delight with the show.
Thank you!
Thomas Evans
Santa Barbara
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I read a social media post from a gentleman who is living in his car with his family. They hadn’t eaten since the day before and their food stamps wouldn’t arrive for another week.
There were several responses from kind people who filled up his car with gas and brought him food. And many suggestions about places to get meals and other help in Lompoc.
Tonight, SpaceX launched a rocket that shook our house at midnight, followed by a sonic boom to cap it off. These rockets returning to Vandenberg Space Force Base rather than on a barge in the ocean save SpaceX millions of dollars.
These two things might seem unrelated, but wouldn’t it be great if SpaceX would do something to revitalize our community in appreciation for disturbing the peace of 50,000 residents?
Starting with the homeless. They are not all mentally ill or drug addicted. There are families who could use some help.
SpaceX could show some good will to the community that has no say and no choice in the ever-increasing number of launches we endure.
Sally Bass
Lompoc
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I feel it necessary to correct the observations voiced by Karen Telleen-Lawton in her May 4 commentary, “Bhutan and Happiness.”
I visited Bhutan in 2008 and was also charmed by the peaceful ambience there. However, there is another side to the story.
For the details I refer to a 2021 report by the UAB Institute for Human Rights Blog. Many people from Nepal employed as workers who actually had Bhutanese passports were expelled from Bhutan and languished for a long time in refugee camps in Nepal. In recent years, many of them have finally been able to emigrate to other countries.
Another little recognized aspect of the Bhutanese government is the employment of laborers from Bengal to perform manual labor. I myself witnessed the drudgery of Bengali women mending roads using primitive tools and with babies tied on their backs.
Not everyone in Bhutan is happy.
Susan Shields
Santa Barbara
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Mark James Miller’s May 7 commentary, “The Nights That Panicked California All Started In Goleta with a Bang,” is an interesting rehash of the shelling of the Ellwood oil facilities and the confusion that this generated in World War II.
But I beg to differ with this claim: “Enemy shells had not fallen on American soil since the War of 1812.” Personally, I would say that bombings by the rebellious Confederacy during the Civil War was bombing by an enemy of the nation.
This sort of blind spot seems increasingly common. We want to exclude the Confederacy and its purposes by minimizing the “alien-ness” of the players.
The same sort of thing happens when we exalt “the Alamo” as a heroic effort of an abused people when, in fact, Texas was fighting to get out from Mexico because Mexico had abolished slavery and Texans wanted it.
We know that victors write history but we can hope that historians can at least check their writings.
Glen Mowrer
Santa Barbara
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Joe Holland was first elected as Santa Barbara County clerk-recorder-assessor in 2002. Yes, 24 years ago.
Yet he is running again this year, asking voters to return him to a job he has held so long that he’s simultaneously collecting retirement from another job.
Isn’t it past time for a new generation, with energy and expertise? Especially someone who actually comes into the office, works with staff, and develops new programs?
Holland’s been there so long that he literally phones it in: he admitted at the recent Board of Supervisors’ budget workshop that he hasn’t been in a county building in 18 MONTHS! Imagine electing an official who expects everyone else to show up while he stays home.
By contrast, his deputy, Melinda Greene, is an energetic leader eager to get things done. She’s been chief deputy for 12 years, working in every division of this key department that handles our records, financial information and access to voting.
Greene’s developed expertise in finance, IT systems and elections administration to make sure the department is serving this county at the highest level. That’s why she’s been endorsed by both North County and South Coast supervisors, our congressman, state senator and assemblyman, the firefighters’ union, and more.
Even if this seems like an obscure job, they recognize that it provides essential services and needs fresh leadership.
When your ballot arrives, don’t pick the guy with the job next to his name. Pick the woman who’s been doing the work.
Christian Alonso
Santa Barbara
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I am not a fan of tax increases for “general purposes.” These taxes are often sold by politicians to fix one problem and then diverted to favored projects that benefit very few people.
But the “City of Lompoc Special Street Repair and Maintenance Temporary Transactions and Use Tax Ordinance,” Measure B2026, is one I can support because it helps anyone using our streets, sidewalks and alleys, which are rapidly deteriorating.
Unlike many tax measures, this one was restricted by the City Council: “Revenues from the transaction and use tax enacted by this chapter shall be expended solely for maintenance, repair, rehabilitation and reconstruction of the city’s public streets, roads, alleys, sidewalks, storm drains and roadway drainage infrastructure.”
And the council specifically says this new revenue cannot be used for “administrative costs.”
I’ll vote “yes” on Measure B2026.
Ron Fink
Lompoc
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I had the honor and pleasure of appearing before Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Thomas Adams for more than 32 years.
As a deputy district attorney I appeared before him in both Juvenile Court and adult Criminal Court for countless cases. Once I was elected district attorney, I frequently communicated with him on a variety of criminal and juvenile justice issues.
Throughout my decades of working with Adams, I found him to be honest, ethical, compassionate, professional, articulate, hard-working and extremely intelligent.
Without any reservation I wholeheartedly support Adams’ re-election.
Joyce Dudley
Retired Santa Barbara County district attorney
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I have been receiving in the mail fliers from the Tom Steyer campaign demonizing Xavier Becerra. Enough of the sleaze. Steyer loses any vote I may have given him.
Kent Richards
Montecito
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