Regarding the May 23 article, “Santa Barbara Council Denies Appeals of Six Restaurants Fighting to Keep Dining Parklets,” the City Council meeting was sometimes dramatic and not always predictable.
But each restaurant had ignored three separate City of Santa Barbara correction notices to fix deficiencies in their parklets’ required compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The correction notices were issued beginning in November, followed by unannounced inspections and repeat — and second repeat — correction notices until all restaurants were told to remove their faulty parklets in April.
Each appellant restaurant had some excuse for its noncompliance. Some hoped they could escape penalty because they had finally complied after stretching out the five-month process.
Some City Council members tried to award participation trophies to restaurants for simply following the law, albeit late, or quibbled over how quickly after the final notice a restaurant had finally acted.
In truth, city code enforcement has lagged terribly due to staff shortages and it’s likely the ADA deficiencies have existed for not the months of this process but for years since the parklets were constructed, as early as 2020.
Some City Council members tried to soften their responsibility by lamenting their duty to enforce the law. The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990 and is a long-established business requirement.
In the end, all the appeals were denied. It was vindication for disabled persons, specifically, and for the rest of us who must follow laws that apply to all.
Thank you to the City Council members who focused on the facts and acknowledged the leniency already afforded to the restaurants by city staff.
Richard Closson
Santa Barbara
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As Josh Molina has so ably reported, the Santa Barbara City Council is deliberating about its budget.
What has gotten the most attention have been the proposed increase in parking and airport fees (“Santa Barbara Proposes $3/Hour Parking Rate at Downtown Lots, Reducing Free Time to One Hour”), the proposed increase in fees for summer camps and cuts to summer programs (“Santa Barbara Proposing Pickleball, Summer Camp, Los Baños Fee Hikes, and Cuts to After-School Program”), and the ongoing saga of restaurant parklets (“Six Santa Barbara Restaurants Fighting to Keep Their Parklets”).
I write as the chairwoman of the Santa Barbara Public Library Advisory Board to bring to public attention the impact of the proposed 2% cuts on all city departments, most specifically on a treasured local institution, the Santa Barbara Public Library.
In recent years, the library has faced annual cuts to its budget. Further cuts will undermine its ability to be responsive to public needs, those of the young and the old, English language learners, struggling readers, the homeless, children, teens and families, among others.
We seek to raise public awareness of the proposed budget reductions and hope to galvanize public support for full funding of the library.
We ask our community to make their voices heard in support of a library budget that will expand open hours and maintain its excellent programs, collections and staff.
Margaret Crocco
Santa Barbara
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Regarding Detty Peikert’s May 22 commentary, “State Street Could Be, Should Be Catalyst for Santa Barbara’s Next Century,” there is a seemingly minor point about the design of a real promenade that is not mentioned but which makes all the difference.
In the United Kingdom, Japan and other places where I have often walked in pedestrian promenades there are no sidewalks, so the pavement extends smoothly all the way from one side to the other and is entirely available for walking without any step or curb on either side.
If you think about it, this is a significant design benefit as it prevents tripping hazards and makes the entire width of the passageway inviting and available for walking safely, and pushing strollers and wheelchairs.
This is something that our designers ought to consider.
Susan Shields
Santa Barbara
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Regarding the May 24 article, “Santa Barbara’s Inspiration Point Trail Reopening for Memorial Day Weekend,” I hope it does actually open this time.
While the article stated most South Coast hiking trails are open, this is inaccurate.
Arroyo Burro: Closed due to Southern California Edison contractor work to repair maintenance road and shore up powerline towers that are near to sliding into the canyon. Completion date: Unknown.
Jesusita: Closed due to winter trail damage. Despite signage to the contrary placed by Santa Barbara County Parks, no repair work is in process. Completion date: Unknown.
Inspiration Point and Tunnel: Closed but due to open May 27.
Rattlesnake: Open.
Cold Spring: Open.
Hot Spring: Proclaimed open but practically speaking is closed for lack of parking.
San Ysidro: Closed as stated in the article. Completion date: Unknown.
Old Pueblo: Closed due to construction (paving of a private driveway). Completion date: Signs say “Closed Indefinitely.”
Buena Vista: Open but connects to San Ysidro and Romero, both closed.
Romero: Closed as stated in the article. Completion date: “No reopening date.”
With the majority of the trails closed, the few that are open are seeing VERY heavy use. Please continue to report on the trail status and push for answers from officials as to when they will be reopened.
Bill Fincher
Santa Barbara
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Wow! Sportswriter Mark Patton’s great May 21 column, “Spirit Of 1983’s ‘Gauchos On Fire’ Still Burns Within UCSB Baseball,” brings back so many memories!
I still remember that doubleheader sweep over Fullerton in 1983 like it was yesterday! That was a fun time for UC Santa Barbara baseball.
I also remember how USC coach Rod Deadeaux was very complimentary of the Hammerheads. He loved college baseball and everything that made it exciting.
As far as the Hammerheads were concerned, I always really liked the way that they kept their ragging clean. No matter how many beers they “hammered,” they never resorted to obscenities. “Is this a ball?” “Yes that’s a ball!” … It was so much fun back then.
I feel like I’ve been a part of Gaucho baseball for more than 50 years. I saw my first game as a freshman in the 1972 season, and saw the Gauchos host USC in the second round of the regionals (Imagine hosting a regional at our place). Things looked promising until Fred Lynn crushed a homer over the trees in right field that I’m not sure has landed yet.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed the look back at Gaucho baseball history. Let’s hope that Gauchos can get it on track at Hawai‘i this weekend and get to the Regionals.
John Slade
Santa Barbara
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Mark Patton’s column brought back great memories. Thank you for a great article.
Living those great days keeps us all young. There is nobody better than Mark Patton in retelling the story.
Bob Brontsema
UC Santa Barbara assistant athletic director
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Nobody is talking about the fentanyl epidemic in Santa Barbara County. There were four deaths this week, all under the age of 40.
People have to be told that you can’t buy anything off the street, only prescriptions from a trusted pharmacy.
My neighbor has lost two nephews, both with families and successful businesses. Both bought pain relief for back injuries from an unknown source.
I’m told that coroners are so overwhelmed, they are stacking bodies on the floor.
There is free Narcan at the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, no questions asked. Everyone should have some. It may save a neighbor or loved one.
Carol Platt
Goleta
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In Melinda Burns’ May 20 story, “Santa Barbara County Sues Carpinteria Valley Cannabis Grower, Then Grants Permit,” Carpinteria homeowner Jeremy Norris lamented, “It’s a perfect example of a broken system.”
“Broken” implies the possibility of repair, but the cannabis “system” is not just broken. It’s an irreparable failure.
After pro-potters bamboozled voters into approving Proposition 64 in 2016, figuring everybody will get stoned, politicians ran around with their hair on fire setting up “systems” to regulate and tax legal marijuana.
Expectedly, those who visualized easy money from legalized dope fell all over themselves to get permitted and join the cool kids in the legal cannabis industry.
Fast forward four years. The county has a plethora of pot “plantations.” Production skyrocketed. Santa Barbara County is the biggest producer of marijuana — legal and, perhaps, illegal — in California.
Even the pot business can’t violate the laws of supply and demand. Another two years go by. The price of marijuana is collapsing. A lot of that tax money the county Board of Supervisors promised us? It’s gone up in smoke.
After Prop. 64’s passage, pro-pot Supervisors Steve Lavagnino and Das Williams predicted cannabis would go for $2,000 per pound and the county, with all that tax revenue, would laugh all the way to the bank.
That didn’t work out so well. No one’s laughing. Some are crying.
The mad rush to marijuana production has the county’s growers producing way more dope than the market can smoke, vape or eat.
By the end of last year, the cannabis price was going down, trailing smoke from $1,400 per pound to $660 per pound, both numbers way less than what Lavagnino and Williams promised.
In fact, tax revenue fell more than 60% from 2021 to 2023. Heck, at that level the county may not even be able to cover the expenses of its cannabis “system.”
This total poop show begs the question: Why do we keep electing these people? OK, that’s a question for a future letter to Noozhawk.
All while folks living around pot farms smell the putrid odor of marijuana production on a grand scale and the county permits the same grower in 2023 that it sued two years before. Is that the definition of irony or stupidity? Maybe both?
The “system” is more than broken. It has irreparably failed.
Hib Halverson
Goleta
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Robert Sulnick’s May 25 commentary, “Republicans Hold Environment Hostage with Debt Ceiling Threats,” was a useful reminder of how unhinged the Democrats are these days. All they’ve got is MAGA, MAGA, MAGA.
But between all those MAGAs he squeezed in, I’m wondering why Sulnick didn’t think to explain why President Joe Biden didn’t get a debt ceiling deal before the evil “MAGA Republicans” were in power? Didn’t Democrats control everything just a few months ago?
What were they doing all that time?
Michael Gutierrez
Lompoc
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Robert Sulnick will no doubt be criticized as partisan for calling out Republicans for using the debt ceiling charade to undercut action on the climate crisis. But he’s not wrong.
Although scientists warn that climate impacts will soon become irreversible and catastrophic, Republicans have ignored the climate issue. They offered no climate plan as part of their 2016 or 2020 election platforms.
According to the Center for American Progress, 139 members of Congress — all Republicans, 52% of House Republicans and 60% of Senate Republicans — deny the established scientific consensus that the world is warming and that burning fossil fuels is to blame.
These same climate-denying members have received more than $61 million in lifetime contributions from coal, oil and gas industries.
On climate, the two major parties could not be more different: Republicans want to continue a fossil-fueled economy; Democrats want to transition quickly to a clean energy future.
The Democrats’ signature legislation, the “Inflation Reduction Act,” invests billions of dollars to lower energy costs for households, create manufacturing jobs for American workers, and deliver a clean, secure and healthy future for our children and grandchildren. Not one Republican supported this legislation.
If we care about a livable future, if we want to break the grip of a rogue fossil fuel industry that imperils our future, only one party deserves our support.
Until Republicans get their act together, we must use our influence and our votes to give Democrats the congressional majorities required to deliver the climate actions we desperately need.
Robert Taylor
Montecito
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I thought I heard Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen say he was not going to publish overly partisan op-eds anymore since he was getting criticized by his liberal readers for allowing conservative op-eds. If Robert Sulnick’s op-ed isn’t ridiculously partisan, I am not sure what is.
This guy is the epitome of a political hack.
Lou Segal
Santa Barbara
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Noozhawk publishes some excellent articles by writers who usually seem knowledgeable, rational and informed by decent values. I was therefore disappointed to read Jim Langley’s May 20 commentary, “Then He Made Woman.”
He says, “my desire is to simply promote and present God’s purpose for male and female as created, while disaffirming the world’s current view and presentation of gender dysphoria . We need to snuff out this effort to confuse what should be obvious … According to Scripture, God made man and He made woman.”
If only life were so straightforward. Alas, it is not. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, God also made people of indeterminate gender.
Just in case Langley doubts this, he might like to do a Google Scholar search using the terms “gender dysphoria — suicide — adolescents.” This will yield 11,900 hits, an indication that scientists have extensively researched this condition and its treatment.
But why stop at stigmatizing transgender people? Let’s invoke the rest of Langley’s 4,000-year-old moral code and bring back stoning for adultery (Deuteronomy 22:22) and execution for homosexuality (Leviticus 20:13). And where’s the harm in a few witch burnings while we’re at it (Exodus 22:18)?
As for Noozhawk, do you really need to publish the kind of dangerously uncritical dogma that Langley puts out?
Robin Corcos
Goleta
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Jim Langley’s “Then He Made Woman” commentary was an excellent message.
John Johnson
Montecito
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Why does Noozhawk, a “hyperlocal news site” that asks “that you keep your opinions and information relevant to Santa Barbara County and the Central Coast” feel it is appropriate to platform a controversial religious commentary such as Jim Langley’s, which has absolutely nothing to do with our community, and everything at all to do with divisive religious dogma and proselytizing.
Langley’s column inflicts pain on vulnerable parts of our community when he expresses views like his dismissal of “the world’s current view and presentation of gender dysphoria.”
Deborah Gordon and Andrew Harper
Noleta
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