Regarding the Nov. 12 article, “Santa Barbara Restaurant Faces Abrupt Parklet Removal Order for State Street Restriping,” the thoughtless, egregious actions by city staff requiring holiday weekend removal of The Daisy’s dining parklet should not go unpunished.
This so typifies the total disconnect between city staff and the struggling State Street business community. After dealing (aka fighting) with City Hall since acquiring a property in the 1980s in the 900 block, I have seen firsthand how common sense, ineptitude and just plain indifference have repeatedly made retail survival in this part of downtown almost an impossible task.
I deplore letters to the editor that just whine without offering any solutions, so here are my two bits’ worth:
Terminate, without benefits, the department head responsible for such thoughtless, irresponsible oversight in requiring short notice, holiday removal.
Educate city staff on what it really takes to be an entrepreneur, including the fact that those very entrepreneurs raise the tax money to pay the staff salaries.
Direct city staff to be less rigid in trying to fit a square peg into a round hole during permitting and when interpreting and enforcing city requirements. One size does not fit all.
And finally, after 45 years of battling City Hall, repeatedly reducing rents, spending hundred of thousands of dollars on everything from special bathroom amenities to environmental regulations, I am currently in escrow to sell my property and I am moving my money to Texas, where there seems to be a bit of common sense remaining.
Enough is enough.
Ronald Hays
Santa Barbara
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I just want to say how much I appreciate Noozhawk publisher Bill Macfadyen for being the lone voice sticking up for business here. His comments in his Nov. 17 column, “State Street Striping Project Squeezes Out Restaurant’s Parklet,” were spot-on. As a small business owner myself, I could not agree more.
Cindy Mejia
Santa Barbara
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It is a disgrace that Santa Barbara does not honor its veterans with a parade on State Street.
It is a disgrace that Santa Barbara does not honor our Fourth of July founding with a parade down State Street.
It is a disgrace that disabled people cannot be dropped off at The Granada Theatre.
It is a disgrace that the Solstice and Fiesta parades are now moved from State Street.
It is a disgrace that the MTD trolley down State Street to Stearns Wharf no longer runs.
And why? Because a bunch of people in power cannot come to a consensus?
There are simple ways to have a promenade on State Street and still have times when the promenade has other uses with reasonable care.
The very worst thing to do is to make it a race track for electric bikes to race up at 25 mph and down at speeds above that. Take a lesson from UC Santa Barbara and Santa Barbara City College. They have really great “Walk Your Bike” signs. It is relatively easy to enforce, particularly in this age with smart phones nearly universal and can take pictures of violators. It is only a few blocks.
Anything disrupting clear road access (tables, parklets, etc.) will have to be removable for at least three days every month or more for scheduled events.
The items blocking State Street access are redesigned to be easily removed and reinstalled with proper equipment.
We can have it all. We can have a promenade for calm strolling, we can have crowds celebrating, we can honor those we should, we can have fun again downtown.
A plus: crowds bring money.
Ron Nichols
Santa Barbara
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In his Nov. 10 letter to the editor, Barton Bader writes that “Someone needs to remind representatives and politicians that they represent us and not what they think is best for us.”
But he doesn’t remember that we were never able to replace Salud Carbajal, only to kick him up the political ladder to Congress.
John Richards
Orcutt
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Heal the Ocean does great work in cleaning our beaches, spending its time, energy and money for all of us. HTO also speaks well of the newly created zone in the Santa Barbara Channel that creates and publicizes the need for a safe and health body of offshore waters for whales, in particular, and other sea mammals and marine creatures.
Does Heal the Ocean know that Germany sited numerous offshore, floating wind turbines off its North Coast in the Baltic Sea? I read of this in an online scientific article about 10 years ago.
Over time, the Baltic sea mammals fled for their lives from Germany’s coast. I guess The Germans did not know any better.
Now that I think about it, New Jersey is doing the very same thing. Actually, New Jersey is killing the whales off its coast; the dead whale count is about a dozen just this year.
Coincidentally, Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, is presenting the same offshore, floating wind turbines to the north end of the Santa Barbara Channel. The recipients are to be Vandenberg Space Force Base and San Luis Obispo County.
I guess Carbajal can’t read. Can Heal the Ocean?
David Grill
Lompoc
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Legacy Estates is currently grading for a 59-home development in Los Alamos. At the start of the construction, oak trees were marked off along Den Street with “Tree Protection Zone” signs and fencing, only to be removed with no requirement to replace them.
While the final tract map includes provisions for protecting the oak trees, Santa Barbara County granted the developer a permit for removal, stating that the trees were not classified as protected or were not there when the project was initially approved 17 years ago.
Does this mean that the current conditions of approval have no weight?
Another issue has arisen as the developers’ encroachment has impacted an area south of a Los Alamos family’s home. This area is a right of way that the homeowner had cared for for more than a decade.
Working with the developer and their representatives, the homeowner was assured that the encroachment would have minimal impact.
In an email to the homeowner, a Legacy Estates representative wrote, “With this change, items such as the flagstone, seating and succulent plants identified will not be impacted. There are several oaks and mature trees to the south of the updated temporary fence line that Mr. Jones said he would have the Legacy arborist review for viability of keeping in place, and/or transplanting.”
As of this morning, most is gone, and the homeowners were not notified that the developer had reneged on its promise.
With the construction required in the unincorporated areas by the housing element, I urge all concerned residents to stay aware and speak up because the county won’t.
Christine Adams
Los Alamos
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