I was heartened to hear the Santa Barbara Historic Landmarks Commission’s opinion to remove off-State Street parklets and its desire to return State Street to pre0COVID-19 conditions as reported in the June 21 article, “Historic Landmarks Commission Wants Parklets Smaller on State Street, Gone Elsewhere in El Pueblo Viejo District.”
An important issue of the day is diversity. This should also apply to all transportation: pedestrians, wheelchairs, cyclists, motorized bikes and even vehicles.
I have heard the impassioned pleas to walk instead of ride. They apparently are not disabled or have physical limitations.
The City of Santa Barbara’s former transportation manger, an avid anti-car advocate, said God was guiding his decisions. It appears this religious fervor is alive and well in our city staff.
This guiding principle of reducing, then eliminating vehicles has hurt our retail community and those of us wanting to support our stores.
I no longer inflict my out-of-town guests to the distressed downtown. I think those speaking of a vibrant street scene are confusing raucous bar life with sober engagement.
The lack of appeal is evident that once our parking lots had waiting lines. Now the prices have been raised due to a lack of use. Not sure that’s the incentive needed.
The city has spent untold treasure on ill-maintained planters, overhead lighting and carnival-like outdoor seating in hopes of creating a vibrant promenade. I fear this effort has failed.
The most easily accepted societal change happens organically not through the heavy hand of government. The COVID-19 closure was to be temporary.
Now the question is how to make pedestrians safe after you’ve created a no holds-barred e-bike free for all.
Here’s a suggestion: pedestrians on the sidewalk, all bikes in the bike lane next to the sidewalk and vehicles in the street. End the chaos.
I have personally witnessed the aggressive, threatening assaults by the anti-car gang, but I implore the mayor and city council to do what is best for the whole community and return State Street to a boulevard that everyone enjoys.
Michael Self
Former Santa Barbara city councilwoman
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Regarding the June 17 article, “Housing Project at Tri-County Produce Site Gets Mixed Reviews From Santa Barbara Planning Commission,” comments on this project include “incredible site.”
Next to the railroad tracks?! I hope residents are not light sleepers. And next to the Milpas Street entrance and exit ramps for Highway 101? Already an overcrowded mess; often at five p.m. the ramp is backed up to the freeway.
From the one photo, the project looks like a factory with lots of windows. Bye, bye Pearl Chase’s Spanish-Mediterranean style, and welcome to the new Funk Zone style architecture.
This is not my definition of “incredible” unless followed by another adjective such as “bad.”
Jarrell Jackman
Santa Barbara
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Every Saturday morning, I make it a point to read Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen’s column. I often finish that pleasure by checking out “Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week.”
His June 16 story of the week — about China’s first COVID-19 patients being Wuhan Institute of Virology scientists — included his comment: “They must’ve all ordered the bat soup for lunch at that Wuhan market.”
I read that, spit coffee all over my three displays, and then was rolling on the floor laughing.
Great stuff, Bill!
Hib Halverson
Goleta
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How is it that underage kids are allowed to use e-bikes?
I view them as MOTOR VEHICLES. Last I looked, one has to be age 16 and older to be issued a driver’s license and only after going through some sort of training.
It is a bad situation made worse by the fact that if you tell a child they can’t do something, they will want to do it even more. This is part of growing up and one of major sources of learning from the School of Hard Knocks.
I find it amazing that some serious injuries have yet to occur. Tell them to dismount through events and the crowds they attract? Bah! They weave through the crowds showing off their “wheelie” skills at 20 to 30 mph. I think I can speak for many when I point out that this scares the beegeebies out of me.
This is madness! Any “rules” that might exist are simply NOT being enforced. If the law really does allow kids to use these motor vehicles, then I say the law needs to be amended. Because merely telling children to do or not do this or that is very ostentatiously NOT working.
Remember: These are kids.
John Vega
Santa Barbara
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Regarding Kristen Miller’s June 21 commentary, “Prioritizing Business Vitality on State Street Key to Santa Barbara’s Future,” it amazes me how easy it to create a false narrative regarding State Street.
The fact is State Street is sinking. It is in worse shape than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The vacancy rate is approaching 50%. Retailers are abandoning ship and speaking with their feet by leaving for other locations.
Having block parties and playing cornhole is not going to save the ship. Pretending we don’t have a problem isn’t going to solve the problem,
State Street is sinking and we need to fix it now! Visit www.fixstatestreet.org for the answers.
Jim Knell
Santa Barbara
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I loved Karen Telleen-Lawton’s tongue-in-cheek June 12 essay, “Why Elders Act the Way they Do?” and her wonderful parents.
But now I’m digging through the drawer of outgrown eyeglasses going back to circa 1965, when John Lennon’s granny glasses like Mrs. Sees’ were popular. I’m determined to find a pair of those cool wrap-around sunglasses that I surely didn’t throw away after my cataract surgery 10 years ago.
But where? In our aging household, it’s strange how so many sentences begin with “where is?”
Never mind! I’m too busy working on being one those “more self-aware seniors” who never interrupts, never repeats herself, has perfect hearing acuity plus stores of brilliant unsolicited wisdom … after the beloved family leaves so that I can be euphoric again.
Josie Martin
Montecito
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Climate change is a liberal lie. Green energy is bull. Stop your lying.
Brad Blue
Goleta
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Regarding D.C. Collier’s June 8 commentary, “But, Does Christ ‘Know’ You?,” being raised in an evangelical environment, the language was familiar and echoed what I have heard from pastors, teachers and relatives throughout my life.
Collier asks what it means to be known by God. After showing many Bible verses that seem to point to God’s intimate knowledge of us, Collier’s words eventually move from God to you.
These promises of God’s initiative toward us are apparently too good. Collier tells us that “conditions apply.” We learn that this promise only applies if we make an “intentional willful act of commitment.” None of this is new within evangelical spaces.
I wonder if we have pushed too far on a decision we make. I have a good amount to worry about if I make the wrong decision. I am left with more fear than assurance.
Evangelical worship appears to mostly use Jesus as a solution to the afterlife. Let me summarize this story quickly:
God creates the universe (Creation). Human kind created a problem (The Fall). Jesus came to fix that problem on our behalf (The Cross). God raises Jesus from the dead and defeats sin (Resurrection). Christians are to take the message of forgiveness and eternal life to the ends of the earth (Great Commission/Pentecost). Christians wait to be reunited with God either through death or Jesus’ prophesied return.
Everything is about us in this story. God has come as a solution to be used in our problem.
That’s a simplified telling of the story. But in this story, God is “for” us in how God solves a human problem and gives answers to our fear of death.
From Collier’s perspective, you better be sure you punched a ticket to heaven because the only way to do that is with an intellectual acknowledgement of the story above.
Throughout the stories of the Bible, we see humans trying to use God “for” our purposes. But God is not an instrument to be used.
More often, we see the stories within the Bible telling of God’s “withness” — God with us throughout all circumstances of life and beyond.
The Incarnation serves a radically different purpose. God in Trinity outpouring of relationship into the embodiment of Jesus.
I am much more assured by a God that will always be with. Regardless of what I do, God desires nothing more than what we sing in Christmas hymns. Immanuel. God with us.
We practice and embody this story in church every week. It is continuous and it never ends. Even better, we do not need to wait. We can live God’s future now.
Because God is with us, we can transcend our own lives and the lives around us into embodied relationships through daily practice of forgiveness, perseverance and hope. This is the good news of the story of God.
Sean Cox
Santa Barbara
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