Carpinteria Councilman Fred Shaw is stepping down and paving the way for at least one new member on the Carpinteria City Council.
Mayor Wade Nomura is also running for re-election in the Nov. 3 election. It would be his third term on the council.
In addition to Nomura, the Shaw-endorsed Natalia Alarcon is trying to win a seat against Mark McIntire, a former Santa Barbara City College instructor with a history of activism in conservative political circles.
The candidates have expressed a wide range of issues as priorities if elected, including diversity, affordable housing, business development and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Carpinteria has 3,866 registered Democrats and 1,629 registered Republicans, and 1,706 voters have registered with no party preference.
The city has long had a reputation as an iconic coastal beach town, although the skunky cannabis smell from nearby growers recently emerged as a talk-of-the town issue. Like every beach community, there’s natural tension between preserving the city as a community for locals or working to attract more visitors and tourists to the city.
The candidate who gets elected will have to wrestle with COVID-19 and revitalizing the local economy after the pandemic.
Natalia Alarcon
Alarcon, who speaks Spanish, moved to Carpinteria when she was 8 years old. Her parents immigrated from Chile. They stayed with family friends in Carpinteria before finding a place of their own.
“It was in this community where I experienced homelessness,” she said. “My parents worked hard to get a roof over our heads. I know what it means to have very little, and I know what it means to be resilient and work hard for your goals and dreams.”
Alarcon, who has three children, said she wants to run for the Carpinteria City Council to amplify the voices of underrepresented populations and to make the best decisions on behalf of Carpinteria residents.
“I have spent many months thinking about running for City Council, and I came up with many reasons not to,” Alarcon said. “However, with 48 percent of our population identifying as Hispanic and or Latino and 50 percent being women, I believe there exists a significant lack of diversity on the dais.”
She said many perspectives are not being taken into consideration when making decisions affecting the residents of Carpinteria. She said she has overcame barriers and wants to help others in Carpinteria because she can relate to their experiences.
If elected, Alarcon said she plans to focus on the economic recovery from the pandemic.
The city facilitated a partial street closure on a trial basis, creating a promenade in the downtown area.
“This did not work for our community, and the overflow of parking into Smart and Final was not a viable solution,” she said.
She said she supports temporary bulb-outs that allow restaurants to expand their outdoor dining.
She said she is a strong supporter of the city’s Business Restart Program, which provides business owners with some of the resources they need to stay solvent.
“I would like to explore how we can continue to expand this program and provide greater support,” Alarcon said. “Deferring or halting fees to existing and new businesses can provide relief.”
Alarcon also said she wants to focus on creating more affordable housing. Too many families, she said, have left Carpinteria because of rising housing costs.
“Our community is changing,” she said. “I believe through creative strategies we can develop balanced solutions that will increase affordable housing options and minimize overcrowding.”
Since land in Carpinteria is scarce, she wants to push for mixed-use projects in the downtown corridor. She also wants to support more accessory dwelling units.
“The city can partner with Peoples’ Self-Help Housing and Habitat for Humanity to increase our housing stock,” Alarcon said. “I want to increase the quality of life for many of our families living in overcrowded households. I want to create a community where our teachers live where they teach.
Mark McIntire
“Since I have lived here the past 10 years, I have noticed that the council has drifted into a way of operating with a do not ask the citizens if various projects that benefit special interests are of benefit to the citizens,” McIntire said. “That’s what I want to change.”
He said he has concerns about a proposed hotel near the Amtrak train station as well as how cannabis operations in the Carpinteria Valley have affected residents.
“We the people should be deciding things that are of that magnitude,” McIntire said.
He also said he wants Carpinteria to partner with American-made 5G technology companies. He said Cox does not have a 5G tower in Carpinteria, which is why “when you look at your phone, you don’t get many bars.”
“Zoom meetings are always crashing, people are losing audio, people are losing video,” McIntire said. “Kids in school are not getting a good education because they don’t have good Internet.”
He said he has approached some providers because he wants them to compete for the business.
McIntire most recently worked as an instructor at SBCC, where he taught philosophy, before a high-profile dispute and settlement with the college led to his resignation.
He is somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades. He starred in a one-man show called “JFK: A Time Remembered from 1977 to 1986.” He has appeared in more than two dozen TV commercials and five movies and films between 1977 and 1988. He’s also a former sales manager for Santa Barbara Auto Group BMW and Audi.
“I counted up all the things I have ever done in my life for money — 22,” he said.
McIntire, who is also an activist in Republican Party circles, filed at the last minute to run for the City Council.
“Literally, it was 30 more minutes before anyone could file,” McIntire said. “They had no idea I was even on the radar.
“I want the City Council to make decisions that benefit everyone.”
McIntire said he is eager to serve on the council, quoting one of his philosophical influences.
“I follow Aristotle on this,” McIntire said. “Democracy works best when it is the closest to the people voting.”
McIntire said he has knocked on more than 500 doors and enjoys meeting people.
“I like meeting people,” McIntire said. “I like the organic process.”
Wade Nomura
Nomura serves as the city’s mayor. He was born and raised in Santa Barbara. He moved to Carpinteria in 1977 to raise a family.
He said he is focused on serving the needs of the city’s Hispanic residents.
“As a minority, I have been subject to discrimination during my life, and I know the effects this can have,” Nomura said.
As mayor, he pushed to have all signage, resources and the broadcasting of city meetings done in Spanish and English. He walked in a student-organized Black Lives Matter rally and initiated two committees to review and address inequities in the city’s policies and procedures.
If re-elected, Nomura said he wants to strengthen the community, protect the city’s small-town charm and preserve the environment for future generations.
“We must focus on the damage this pandemic has done to our city and citizens,” Nomura said. “We have seen one of our highest unemployment rates, our greatest loss of businesses, and the largest slump in our local economy. COVID has affected everyone.”
He encourages Carpinteria residents to spend locally.
“Research shows that every dollar spent locally can circulate up to six times before leaving,” Nomura said, adding that rebuilding from the pandemic will take a team approach. “As we rebuild, we need to be cautious to do so in a balanced way, especially since tourism plays such a large role in our economy, but it must not dominate.”
The mayor said he has the experience and deserves to be re-elected.
“When trouble happens, it takes effective leadership to navigate difficult times and keep the community together,” Nomura said. “During our most challenging times of the Thomas Fire and COVID, I have been on your City Council. As your mayor during COVID, the time I have invested into helping this community has been never ending.
“For a lengthy period, we had daily meetings doing what we could to work out how best to handle matters. I have implemented my strategic experience to help our community, including collaboration, effective communication and know-how to address matters.”
Nomura and his late wife, Roxanne, started the Rotary Club of Carpinteria Morning. He served on the Architectural Review Board for 17 years. He ran for the City Council eight years ago, and he served in the rotating position of mayor for the past two years.
“I am running again for City Council as I want to keep helping everyone recover from COVID,” Nomura said. “In the longer term, I want to ensure we all continue to enjoy Carpinteria and everything we have all worked so hard to build and grow for many years to come.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
