Regarding the May 13 article, “Santa Barbara Considers Crackdown on Businesses’ Temporary Sidewalk Signs,” the City Council has found its latest existential threat: sidewalk signs.
At a time when State Street businesses are gasping for air and store fronts are vacant, our elected officials are now obsessing over … not crime, not homelessness, not economic revitalization.
Signs.
These temporary sidewalk signs are not public safety hazards, they are lifelines. There is no data, no incident report, no evidence that anyone has tripped, fallen or suffered harm from a chalkboard announcing “Happy Hour” or “20% Off.”
What is far more dangerous is a city so wrapped up in bureaucratic navel-gazing that it forgets how businesses actually survive.
And if anyone on the council bothered to look beyond our city limits, they’d find that these signs are not just tolerated , they’re part of the fabric of vibrant business districts around the world.
On Broadway and SoHo in New York, they line the sidewalks with personality. On Champs-Élysées in Paris, they announce lunch specials in elegant script. On Oxford Street in London, they draw in shoppers with clever promotions.
La Rambla in Barcelona, Shibuya in Tokyo, Queen Street West in Toronto — all allow sidewalk signs because they understand what Santa Barbara clearly does not: if you want a living, breathing street, you don’t suffocate the merchants who animate it.
Without thriving storefronts, there will be no pedestrians to protect, no ambiance to preserve, no “walkability” to speak of. Just another lifeless downtown filled with For Lease signs.
If City Hall put half as much effort into supporting business as it does into regulating them, we might actually have a vibrant State Street again.
Peter Sadowski
Santa Barbara
• • •
According to comedian Ron White, “you can’t fix stupid.”
Regarding the May 13 article, “County Moves to Stop New Oil, Gas Production,” can stupidity be fixed in Santa Barbara County? Probably not while liberal activists are in control.
As the article reports, three members of the Board of Supervisors voted to “begin the process of phasing out onshore oil and gas operations in Santa Barbara County.”
Noozhawk reported that “Fourth District Supervisor Bob Nelson … asked county staff if they had made any attempt to reach out to representatives from local oil companies to gain their perspective and insight.”
County sustainability planner Garrett Wong conceded he has “not had any direct interaction with representatives of the industry.” Thus, staff reasoning was only supported by conjectures from environmental activists and not an objective analysis.
When making policy, leaders should rely on unbiased analysis. You can’t fix stupid, and this case proves the point.
Ron Fink
Lompoc
• • •
The May 12 article, “Police Hiring in Santa Barbara Rebounds After Recruitment, Retention Challenges,” was uplifting and hopeful until I read: “(Mayor Randy) Rowse said the department is doing better at recruitment, increasing diversity and trying to hire local residents.”
I thought we were done with “increasing diversity”? Human resources departments should be hiring only the best and remain color-blind to inherent characteristics.
One’s ethnicity should have no value when hiring for any job or career, including police. Those who are doing the hiring should only be looking for the most qualified candidates.
John Thermos
Lompoc
• • •
I recently was driving to a business in Old Town Goleta. I couldn’t walk, bike or take the bus because I had to pick up a heavy box.
I turned off Fairview Avenue and got stuck in traffic on the restriped part of Hollister Avenue.
As I looked at Larry’s 8-Day Auto Parts ahead, I wondered how this congestion affected the business my pal, Phil Unander, runs. I already know the answer.
As I moved ahead a car length, I thought, “What is the Goleta City Council doing?”
During Mayor Paula Perotte’s April 9 State of the City address, she stated that “the state of our city is strong.”
But in the May 10 article, “Goleta Considers How to Fund Fire Station 10,” the city admits it can’t fund the construction of Fire Station 10 in western Goleta.
If the dire need for Fire Station 10 can’t be met because there’s no money, how can the city be “strong?” Or maybe it’s that Perotte and I don’t have the same understanding of the word.
As I idled in traffic and glared at the line of cars ahead of me, I thought about a letter I mailed two months ago to Councilwoman Jennifer Smith, who represents me in District Three.
I had expressed concern about two key issues affecting northwest Goleta:
- Fire Station 10, which has been needed for decades and construction of which was announced to El Encanto Heights residents at a 2018 town hall
- The poor condition of some of the streets in northwest Goleta
After waiting for a reply, I re-mailed the letter a month ago, this time by certified mail. Again, no reply.
I’m astonished at Smith’s disdain for constituents, such that she will not reply to concerns they put on paper.
But this episode is indicative that the City Council is focused on its policy agenda, some of which (based on this traffic mess on Hollister) is obviously misguided.
The council needs to focus more on its citizens’ needs for infrastructure, like fixing streets and public safety, like the glaring need for more fire protection in northwest Goleta.
Remember that when you vote in the next City Council election.
Hib Halverson
Goleta
• • •
Not long ago, I lived a life in the state of New Jersey that most people would call “successful.” A stable career, decent income, nights out with friends, and vacations when I needed to “escape.”
Everything changed the day I visited a high-intake animal shelter. I’d signed up to volunteer, hoping to “do some good” on my day off.
What I saw there stayed with me — and haunted me. Row after row of dogs, barking, pacing, shaking in fear. Some were puppies, others seniors, many once-loved pets now discarded.
But the worst part wasn’t the noise or the desperation — it was the clipboard hanging on each kennel door.
Some of the dogs had a small red mark next to their name: “Euth list – 48 hrs.”
I remember staring into the eyes of so many dogs that had done nothing wrong but run out of time. The dogs wagging their tails as I approached their kennel doors, unaware of the fate written in ink just outside their cage.
That moment broke me — and it also woke me up.
Over the following weeks, I made the hardest — and best — decision of my life. I walked away from my job, packed up my car and moved into a smaller place in Santa Barbara.
I threw myself into rescue work, applying for employment at shelters, networking online, and eventually fostering dogs that were at risk. I began working with dogs on death row — sometimes with only hours to spare.
I learned the system was broken. Dogs weren’t being killed because they were aggressive or sick. They were dying because shelters were overcrowded, underfunded and out of time.
I’ve now helped save hundreds of dogs. Some were barely more than skin and bones. Some had never known love. Some had families who never came back.
But every single one mattered. Every single one deserved a second chance.
People ask me if I miss my old life. I don’t. That version of me was surviving. This version of me — though often exhausted, emotionally wrecked, and covered in dog hair — is alive.
I’ve found purpose. I’ve found connection. And most important, I’ve found that love, in its truest form, often comes with four paws and a second chance. They saved my life.
To anyone out there feeling stuck, searching or aching for something more: sometimes the path to healing isn’t found in climbing ladders or chasing titles. It’s found in saving lives.
And if one of those lives happens to be a dog on death row, then you just might find your own life saved in the process.
Marlena Piacenza
Santa Barbara certified shelter behavior consultant
• • •
Regarding Jim Langley’s May 10 commentary, “Working and Living in a Fallen World,” why isn’t Langley locked up in a shelter for the mentally disabled? I can’t believe Noozhawk lets this incompetent nut write commentaries for your readers.
This idiotic talk about the Garden of Eden, with peace and tranquility, coupled with — oh, my God — original sin is scary.
I started vomiting when he wrote that God sent us President Donald Trump. Really? This guy is a true dangerous fruit cake.
Ken Kimball
Santa Maria
• • •
In his May 9 letter to the editor, Ron Fink confirms what was already obvious: He is a bigot.
He writes:
“… .beating my significant other, stealing cars, joining a gang, selling drugs, molesting kids, attacking another person and, of course, … murdering someone.
“The problem seems to be that many of the ‘undocumented’ come from cultures that seem to condone these sorts of things, so it’s no wonder they think it’s OK to do it here.”
Glen Mowrer
Santa Barbara
• • •
After reading another letter from Ron Fink, I thought I’d inject a few facts. This information is easily available from the National Institute of Justice, part of the Justice Department.
Violent and Drug Crimes: Undocumented immigrants are arrested for violent and drug offenses at less than half the rate of native-born U.S. citizens.
Property Crimes: Their arrest rate for property crimes is approximately one-quarter that of native-born citizens.
Incarceration Rates: Data from Texas, the only state that tracks immigration status in arrest records, shows that native-born citizens are over twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2½ times more likely for drug crimes, and over four times more likely for property crimes compared to undocumented immigrants.
This trend has been consistent across various studies and time periods.
For anyone who is “having trouble trying to figure out why citizens of our country want to protect these people no matter what they have done,” I hope this clears up their confusion.
Brian Epstein
Goleta
• • •
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