Regarding the Aug. 14 article, “Yardi’s Plans to Turn Paseo Nuevo Space Into HQ Deemed ‘Immensely Supportable’,” I live on West Ortega Street near Paseo Nuevo. The proposed uses for the Paseo Nuevo building will definitely add vital life to a beautiful building.
However, with the Yardi headquarters and the proposed apartments how can there possibly be enough parking provided?
The surrounding area currently requires residential parking permits B and C. Enforcement is lax and most days there are more unpermited nonresidential cars taking spaces away from people who live on these blocks.
I understand there will be less parking provided than necessary because of a loophole called “close to public transit.”
Does anyone really think people who can afford these apartments or work for Yardi will forgo their cars to actually take the bus?
Every resident will have a car, and how will they contend with Yardi employees for coveted spots? The residents will have to have a spot to park their cars even if they want to take a bus.
No, I see an epic battle for parking that will spill onto the surrounding streets, and the biggest losers will be the local residents who live in this Westside neighborhood.
Kathy Poulis
Santa Barbara
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In June 1925, an earthquake struck. Civic leaders Pearl Chase and Irene and Bernhard Hoffman saw an opportunity to establish Spanish Colonial Revival architecture throughout the city.
I’m sure naysayers asked, “Why can’t we have our old Victorian buildings?” Yet within years, Santa Barbara became a mecca known as “the American Riviera.”
By 2017-2020, State Street’s decline reached a nadir with Amazon’s rise, loss of Macy’s and Nordstrom, and COVID-19.
Like Chase and the Hoffmans, Tristen Miller, Ian Bauche, Sullivan Israel and Joanna Kaufman formed Strong Towns Santa Barbara.
Businesses are returning. Yardi is relocating to Macy’s. Housing will be built at Nordstrom. UC Santa Barbara is building downtown housing. The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has a new Film Center. The Music Academy of the West is creating a year-round music education/performance hub.
This Renaissance occurred with State Street remaining car-free.
Today, my wife and I rode our bicycles to the Public Market for lunch, then along State Street, Cabrillo Boulevard and the Modoc bike path. We encountered cyclists from Santa Clarita and Ventura. State Street was bustling with shoppers, pedestrians, musicians, visitors and residents.
Thank you, Strong Towns Santa Barbara and the City Council for reauthorizing Title 31 in June keeping seven blocks car-free. State Street is pedestrian- and bike-friendly, with outdoor dining and our beautiful Mediterranean climate.
Chase and the Hoffmans would be proud. I urge our civic leaders to continue putting people first, not cars.
Marty Conoley
Santa Barbara
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I was amazed to read in Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen’s Aug. 14 column, “Monterey Car Week Drivers Put the Pedal Down, CHP Puts the Hammer Down,” that “a Santa Barbara CHP officer conducted a double stop of two of the cars traveling together on northbound Highway 101 in Carpinteria, north of Bailard Avenue. Both were clocked at 115 mph — 50 mph over the speed limit — and their drivers were cited for unsafe speed and reckless driving.”
Kudos to the CHP officer for successfully stopping these two cars. I can hardly imagine the remarkable skill that this maneuver required. He should be nominated for a medal.
Susan Shields
Santa Barbara
• • •
During my time as executive director of Heal the Ocean, we led the charge — with a lot of help from lawyers, Rincon residents, donors and staff — to build the Rincon septic-to-sewer project, which eventually got built in 2013 after 15 years.
This project removed septic systems from the beaches from Rincon to Summerland — seven miles of South County coastline. It is generally agreed that 1) it was imperative to prevent septic waste from getting into the ocean along the beaches, and 2) if we started today, the increased costs of materials and construction would prohibit such a project. Period.
In her Aug. 9 commentary, “Los Olivos’ $60 Million Sewer Pipeline Is a Debt for Generations,” Michelle de Werd piece talks about a “$60 million generational debt.”
Numbers like this scare everybody, but one must do the math: $60 million divided by a 30-year (state or bond) loan is $2 million per year, divided by 370 ratepayers is $5,405 per year, per ratepayer, paid twice on a property tax bill for $2,700 each payment.
Compare that to the price of buying an advanced treatment system ($40,000-plus), servicing and monitoring it, and filing a regular report with the Regional Water Quality Control Board.
These rough numbers are before deducting state loans and grants that will most certainly be thrown into the project.
The “generational debt” Los Olivos does not want to leave is the septic systems leaching into the biggest groundwater basin in Santa Barbara County, a freshwater basin that supplies many people in the Santa Ynez Valley.
The basin is already registering nitrate numbers that are beyond acceptable public health levels in some areas of the basin. The Santa Ynez River Water Conservation District, Improvement District No. 1 has already had to move one of its wells to avoid nitrates in the water it serves to valley residents.
The Los Olivos Community Service District is on the verge of solving this situation after years of arguing and fighting (over 20 years). That’s why people were applauding during the hearing de Werd wrote about.
Hillary Hauser
Santa Barbara
• • •
Santa Barbara mayoral candidate Kristin Sneddon is concerned about the cost of living here especially housing.
She is not alone and this is not new. Everyone is concerned about working families being squeezed out of our expensive city.
Her caring is not the same as governing wisely, however. Experts and studies advised against rent control (aka, rent “stabilization”) and voters have repeatedly rejected it.
But Sneddon did not want us to vote. She, among four City Council members, already decided for you.
Now the council is exposed to lawsuits for violating constitutional rights, at taxpayers’ expense. Sneddon sees no problem with having others pay the costs of her decisions.
In this and other instances she ignores taxpayer costs. She backed millions of dollars for redundant State Street planning consultants, most recently, another $92,773.
Leadership involves good decision making, tight budgets and healthy reserves. When Sneddon was told the city budget reserves were gone at the June council meeting, she expressed complete surprise. The money is gone and the very person responsible for spending it was surprised.
Sneddon lacks sound judgment and is not concerned with spending the money that WE pay through increasing fees for parking, permits, processing fees on top of the taxes on sales, utilities, occupancy and business.
We taxpayers deserve to know our money is being spent responsibly, and the outcomes are achieved and the outcomes justify the cost. Sneddon has failed.
J.W. Burk
Santa Barbara
• • •
I am writing to express my strong support for Devon Wardlow as the next member of the Santa Barbara City Council representing the Fourth District.
With 10 years on the Planning Commission and almost seven on the City Council, I’ve developed a clear sense of what it takes to be an effective leader for our community: doing the work, engaging people, and moving the needle. Wardlow checks all those boxes.
We speak often of bridging the divide, of moving beyond the “us versus them” dynamic. I believe Wardlow is the kind of leader who can help us do that — someone who listens, works across differences, and is focused on finding solutions.
It isn’t just her 15 years of professional experience managing complex projects and initiatives between the private sector and local governments, or her five years on our Planning Commission shepherding a wide variety of projects, prioritizing our downtown redevelopment, holding developers to high standards, and addressing the city’s dire housing shortage for those who work and live here.
Wardlow is a problem solver with a pragmatic, get-it-done approach. She’s skilled at building relationships across the aisle and committed to working with all community members. That has been her professional specialty, and it is sorely needed right now.
Wardlow and I don’t agree on every issue. But I’m impressed by her intelligence, her deep knowledge of local issues, her commitment to the city she loves, and her willingness to work with everyone to find the best solutions for Santa Barbara.
Mike Jordan
Santa Barbara
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