Every elected official in Santa Barbara County has promised to be a problem solver. And yet, many of our most significant problems predate the COVID-19 pandemic and have worsened since.
So where have all the problem solvers gone?
If you are a SpaceX shareholder or an Ella Langley fan, then you might point out that they have been “Choosin’ Texas.”
Another singer-songwriter, Paula Cole, offers a different perspective on our inability to solve problems in her poignant and haunting 1997 hit song: “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?”
As her life unfolds, the song’s protagonist laments that she was promised a “John Wayne” — a man who believes in duty, honor and hard work — but instead ends up with a man who leaves her alone to run the house while he goes day drinking with his friends.
Myth versus reality.
Like Cole’s cowboys, Santa Barbara’s problem-solving politicians are largely a myth. Santa Barbara’s voters, like Cole’s protagonist, have been seduced and disappointed.
Many of our public schools are struggling. At the county level, K-12 test scores have dropped dramatically since 2015.
But not our poverty rate. Today, Santa Barbara County has the second highest poverty rate in California. We’ve been ranked between first and fourth for more than a decade.
With a poverty rate that high, it is not surprising that we have an underperforming and moribund economy.
We are losing young workers at an alarming rate and getting left in the dust by San Luis Obispo, which has generated more than twice as much economic growth over the past quarter-century.
The gap is glaringly obvious. Just look at the increasingly sad state of State Street, which is now a festering sore on our political body.
The latest effort to fix our signature South Coast corridor could be a step in the right direction, but it is inchoate, costly, years from implementation and contentious.
Santa Barbara’s problem-solving politicians are largely a myth. Santa Barbara’s voters have been seduced and disappointed.
With widespread poverty, economic mismanagement and poor budgetary choices, it is hardly surprising that we face large structural budget deficits at the county and municipal levels.
Our elected officials are offering the standard responses to these deficits: raiding reserves, raising taxes, cutting staff, deferring maintenance and reducing service levels.
These band-aids will not solve any of the underlying structural problems. Our fiscal outlook is gloomy.
Our bright spots over the past decade — such as improving our local water supply and capping abandoned offshore oil wells — have been few and far between.
This is because even when we elect individual problem solvers, they cannot build majorities on our boards and councils that are willing to admit that we face serious problems and then work together to develop sensible solutions to those problems.
Instead, as political journalist Dan Walters noted when he spoke to a packed house at the Lobero Theatre in February, most incumbent politicians are incentivized to kick the can down the road rather than solve an actual problem.
Voters care about ideology rather than competence. To change this dynamic, he argued that we must strengthen civic engagement in our communities and provide voters with the information they need to hold elected officials accountable.
These types of efforts are underway in California and Santa Barbara.
At the state level, CalMatters recently hosted an Ideas Festival to promote problem solving in Sacramento. The statewide news organization also hit the road for its “VotingMatters” tour before the June primary.
Noozhawk sponsored the Santa Barbara stop (as it did in 2024), which fostered energetic and civil discussion about the candidates for governor as well as local races.
Building on the Walters and VotingMatters events, Spotlight Santa Barbara and Noozhawk are returning to the Lobero Theatre on July 23 for a discussion of “California’s Problems, Santa Barbara’s Choices.”
The expert panel will discuss sensible solutions to the biggest problems facing Santa Barbara.
In that same vein, the UCSB Economic Forecast Project has become more active in evaluating and suggesting policy proposals related to housing and State Street.
These are important, but nascent, efforts to reinvigorate our public square.
To create a civic culture that rewards problem solving and discourages shirking, these and similar civic engagement efforts need public support and participation.
If they are not nurtured, then Santa Barbara voters will find themselves standing in the shoes of Paula Cole’s protagonist and ruefully asking: “Where have all the problem solvers gone?”