Regarding the April 26 Noozhawk article, “Santa Barbara Council Approves Pilot Program to Track Down Owners of Illegal Vacation Rentals,” as a 60-year Santa Barbara resident, I am concerned to see our City Council attempt to over-regulate law-abiding citizens who are simply trying to make it in this expensive city by meeting two very real needs: generating income to allow them to stay here, and providing short-term housing to people who can’t afford hotels.
I have sent the following letter to the council and Mayor Randy Rowse:
I am writing to weigh in on the recent decisions made regarding short-term rentals in our city.
I would like to point out that when there is a need, people will find a way to meet it. There is obviously a definite and ongoing need for the kind of overnight housing that Airbnb and VRBO offer.
You are in the process of making criminals of otherwise law-abiding people who are just trying to make it in this expensive city.
I do not understand why it is not possible to control any negative impact in our residential neighborhoods by dealing with problems as they come up.
I REALLY do not understand the need to put such onerous parameters around shared housing. Most of these are situations that would not lead, ever, to workforce housing.
As an example, my husband and I needed a two-year boost to our income so we could supplement the tuition of a foster child we came to care about in a therapeutic boarding school.
We had nary a complaint from our neighbors; in fact, they supported our efforts wholeheartedly. We obtained a license and paid our transient occupancy taxes.
When our foster child graduated, our home became our own again.
A young man I know lost his wife and would have lost his home since he no longer had her income and had a greater need for child care for their two little girls.
He tried permanent renters, UC Santa Barbara students. He told me that students all come with a car. They all come with a girlfriend with a car. They never go to bed. It was a nightmare.
When he went to Airbnb rentals, a young family in one car would drive up. They got up early, enjoyed the city all day, came home exhausted after dinner and went to bed. He and his neighbors were minimally impacted.
Which would you choose for your neighborhood? Or … would you have the young father lose his home?
I respectfully request that you revisit this issue. The mark of true leadership is when you can admit that you need to adjust your thinking.
Rebekah Mulder
Santa Barbara
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Regarding the May 1 article, “Santa Barbara City Council to Review Audit of Police Department, Use of Force,” I’m glad the Santa Barbara Police Department is coming under outside scrutiny.
But, Noozhawk, don’t forget that the community is counting on YOU to hold the police accountable. The City Council won’t do anything, really. Westside residents are counting on Noozhawk.
Olivia Lopez
Santa Barbara
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Regarding the April 29 article, “Core Spaces COO Defends Evictions at Isla Vista Apartment Buildings for Needed Renovations,” if the public is so upset that Core Spaces is evicting residents from their homes, why not boycott Core Spaces and leave them with an extremely expensive property that sits empty.
As I stated before, SCREW THEM!
Patrick Cooper
Santa Barbara
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Regarding the April 29 article, “Collaborative Street Medicine Program Brings Health Care to County’s Vulnerable Residents,” I just want to give a big shout-out to the medical community bringing medicine to the homeless. Thanks to the wonderful people involved in this endeavor.
Now if we could just find a program for rehabilitation and habitat.
Keep up the good work.
Sharon Allbright
Lompoc
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Bravo Kristen Miller for her April 30 commentary, “Regional Natural Gas Bans Create Uncertainty and Challenges.”
The wacko ideas coming from the anti-fossil fuels crowd almost seem like they are testing the limits like a petulant child doing more outrageous things to see how far they can go before getting a disciplinary smack.
This whole group needs a serious TIME OUT. Their illogical thinking can’t even be challenged because their science is “settled” and extensions built on faulty assumptions impose even greater illogical penalties on comfortable living.
Banning natural gas cuts off a sustainable, abundant, clean energy source.
Jan Lipski
Vandenberg Village
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Ron Fink has never met a police boot that he wouldn’t lick. In his May 2 commentary lamenting the inability to get rid of poor people, “Fiscal Impact of Low-Income Housing in Lompoc,” he blames the lack of funding for his beloved police department on Lompoc’s poor.
He waxes poetic that the streets are in poor repair because we have too much Section 8 housing (completely ignoring the fact that Lompoc was granted millions of dollars for this very purpose that it hasn’t spent.
He complains that the police have no money for vehicles, while the police cruise the streets in new SUVs.
This is not the first commentary in which he blames the poor for making “his” town to his disliking, but is one of a series in which he spews his hateful venom to those less fortunate than he is.
Homeless people? Wreck their encampments and homes (never ever posing a solution, just destroy their homes is his mantra). People with addiction issues? Weak, horrible people that Lompoc needs to be rid of!
His SOP is to blame and complain without ever pausing to reflect on what could be done to improve the situation. He is a classic man shaking his cane at a cloud, and Noozhawk should be ashamed to provide him with a platform.
Chris Baugh
Lompoc
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