Regarding the April 20 article, “Santa Barbara Releases Flexible-Use Draft Plan for Downtown State Street,” I’ve driven, walked, biked, e-biked, dined, drank, shopped, seen movies, pushed my mother’s wheelchair and walked my dog on State Street for 25 years.
Today, I look at State Street and see a real-world version of the fable of the goose that laid the golden eggs. It’s playing out in Santa Barbara.
Cars were the golden eggs. They brought steady, predictable prosperity. Cars don’t just move people — they deliver customers. With the best of intentions, we removed them.
The government estimates that almost 90% of local trips are made by car. Shoppers expect to cruise a street, load or unload, park nearby, and move easily between destinations.
How can we expect a retail and dining corridor to flourish while excluding the primary way people like to get there?
Nearby commercial districts — Carpinteria, Montecito, Upper State, Milpas and Goleta — are seeing new investment, business formation and rising rents.
State Street’s challenges aren’t entirely caused by any single factor. And having a human-centric downtown community core is a worthwhile goal.
But excluding the dominant mode of access to a retail corridor is a choice that carries consequences. Here’s one: The city’s downtown parking fund has run deficits every year since since 2020, with a projected $4 million shortfall in 2025 alone — a fund that once paid for itself!
The good news is that this is reversible. State Street can thrive again if we restore the access that made it thrive in the first place.
Mark Dewey
Santa Barbara
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It does not seem to make any difference what the community wants when the city is paying someone to redesign a functional business community into a walking street with vacant storefronts. Will having bikes and walking bring that much revenue back to the city?
The city, with its dreadful decisions downtown has encouraged business to go to Coast Village Road and other areas where there is activity and vitality.
The city never listened to the business community nor to Mayor Randy Rowse. So disappointing.
No one shops downtown anymore. There are no more anchor stores to shop at. Instead, the city is painting over the problem, not solving it.
If it’s important enough to reopen State Street in front of The Granada, what is the city not seeing?
Dana Hansen
Santa Barbara
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Loved seeing the idea of retractable bollards! We saw these in France two years ago, and actually sent the idea to the city. Maybe they listened.
Simple: push a button and up come bollards to close the street to cars. Push again and it is open to cars.
Even the French figured this out! Fabuleuse!
Kirk Greene
Santa Barbara
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It was with pleasure that I read the draft vision of a State Street plan, its creativity and the attention to detail.
I was hoping to find a section that proposed cheaper parking as an important factor in drawing locals downtown for shopping and dining.
In Goleta, businesses are thriving, and the free parking lots are full. Couldn’t that be addressed in a long-term vision for State Street?
Paul Meisel
Santa Barbara
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I would encourage any and all retail establishments to sue the City of Santa Barbara for fouling up the State Street area as a result of the COVID-19 paranoia.
If I owned frontage property on State Street, I would be livid seeing my rights trampled upon by a city that cannot make a sound decision!
Today, State Street is a mess, with out-of-control cyclists — particularly POWERED ones — and their attention to pedestrians is the least of their concern!
Because of a lessening of law enforcement coverage due to budget constraints, the policing of downtown is even worse.
Merchants paid full retail prices for such spaces, and yet have been denied its usage. I would like to see a return to the days when you could simply drive up and down State Street and choose your parking area based upon which lot is closest to the shopping you intended to do.
Dan Lindsay
Santa Barbara
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Where is the funding coming from? The city is already short on funds for streets and police.
Arthur Villegas
Santa Barbara
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I think the trolley should run up and down State Street and bicycles should be rerouted off State Street. They’re not bikes anymore.
The bikes seen during the day are younger folks doing wheelies and riding e-bikes, which less and less have pedals.
At night, older riders are frequently drunk, shouting, carrying boom boxes and disobeying traffic laws — cruising.
At night, there are more pedestrians on the street.
David Smukowski
Santa Barbara
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I could not agree more with Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen’s April 24 column, “State Street Master Plan Reaches a Costly Crossroads,” and his call to adopt Cass Ensberg’s proposal. We could have been done with this mess two years ago and saved taxpayers millions of dollars.
Laurie Thurston
Santa Barbara
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I agree with Bill Macfadyen: Implement Cass Ensberg’s plan and reopen State Street to cars. But kick the e-bikes over to Chapala Street.
I also agree that these bikes are electric motorcycles. Noozhawk should do a story on the dangers they pose.
Sherry Cabrera
Santa Barbara
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Regarding Tom Modugno’s April 18 column, “Saving the Historic Barnsdall Service Station,” thank you for this critical reminder to never lose the treasures of our past.
Goleta continues to outshine the Santa Barbara City Council on what it really means to run a city! The Santa Barbara council needs to sstop trying to be the political soap box and just take care of the city! Their commitment to annual salary increases, misuse of the people’s tax money and million-dollar bad ideas is ruining a once jewel of the world.
We do not want another New Jersey shoreline. We want our historic landmarks and uncluttered beaches and streets to remain the historical town it is and stop wasting everyone’s time and the future of the city on their harebrained, erratic bad ideas!
While Goleta continues to marry the environment with the modern needs of a town, Santa Barbara seems hell-bent on destroying the same beauty this region has for now and future generations.
The consensus continues to be the people at odds with the council on most of their goverming practices.
Thank you to Tom Modugno and the City of Goleta for aiding our beautiful part of California to be a voice for preservation, not destruction.
Paige Probst
Santa Barbara
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Regarding the April 13 article, “Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse Will Not Seek Re-Election,” as a longtime resident, I want to thank Noozhawk for including the Mayor Randy Rowse and Monopoly Man photo.
Truly. There are no words. LOL
Matt Turner
Santa Barbara
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Thank you to Mark Patton for his April 19 column, “David Ortiz’s Brotherly Love Came at the Point of a Needle.” It is such a beautiful remembrance of my friend and next-door neighbor, David Ortiz.
I lived in Santa Barbara for 36 years and, for the last 10, I had the great fortune of living right next door to David and his lovely wife, Leslie. A better neighbor would be difficult to imagine, and I loved all the anecdotal references to different stages in David’s life.
I was a middle school teacher for 2½ decades, so it was easy to share stories and strategies on those Saturday mornings that found us in our front yards doing a bit of gardening.
David always had a smile on his face … and I felt very good that my two youngest boys had him as their La Colina Junior High School principal before they became Dons.
Thanks for the memories, Mark, and to Leslie … thank you so much for all your kindness over the years!
David Pratt
Hailey, Idaho
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Regarding the April 20 article, “‘It’s Shocking’: DA Criticizes Sentence for Drunken Driver in Fatal Crash,” how can these visiting judges be prevented from making such appalling sentencing rulings in the future? What recourse is there?
Mandy Williams
Montecito
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Regarding the April 21 article, “Sheriff’s Office Reports Progress Reducing Overtime Hours,” law enforcement jobs are high-stress jobs and time off is mandatory for balance and mental stability.
It should be limited per person. Hire more deputies and put a ceiling on overtime per officer.
Donna Downs
Carpinteria
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In a previous letter to the editor, I questioned the motive behind a request by Lompoc Mayor Jim Mosby to discuss the Lompoc conservation rebate program ASAP. This seemed to be motivated by fraud charges that are pending against one of the current council members concerning the rebate program; I was wrong.
On April 21, the City Council discussed the program, and some startling revelations surfaced concerning how it has been (mis)managed.
In all levels of government — city, county state or federal — the common denominator seems to be the absence of any effective management of the distribution of public funds.
It turns out there appears to be an abundance of faulty applications for the Lompoc rebates. Councilman Jeremy Ball made it clear that fraud is one thing, but mistakes due to mismanagement of the program is another.
The council directed the city attorney to provide a closer look at the scope of the problem and provide an estimate of the cost of an audit versus any potential recovery of taxpayer funds due to faulty rebate submittals before a third-party audit is requested.
There is an old axiom; once you open a can of worms you can never get all of them back in the can.
Ron Fink
Lompoc
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Now that the tariffs have been ruled unlawful and refunds have been ordered, it’s important to be clear: these funds are expected to be returned to the companies that paid them.
Blumaka, a Goleta company making high-performance footwear products from recycled materials, is one of those companies.
In looking into this, I have found no evidence that the office of Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, has established a specific program, process or initiative to assist businesses in recovering these funds.
That feels like a missed opportunity. I often hear supportive words, but I do not see corresponding action on this issue, and this seems like exactly the kind of moment where leadership and a clear plan would make a meaningful difference.
The amounts involved are significant. I am aware of at least one Santa Barbara-area company that could be owed on the order of $100 million. This is not theoretical; it has real economic impact in our community.
I would encourage Carbajal’s office to take immediate steps to support businesses in his congressional district by establishing a clear point of contact, providing guidance, and helping companies navigate what is likely to be a slow and bureaucratic process.
This is an opportunity to ensure that local businesses — especially smaller ones — are treated fairly and are not disadvantaged.
Stuart Jenkins
Goleta
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