Regarding the Aug. 29 story, “Santa Barbara to Roll Out Designated Bike Lanes Along State Street Promenade,” WHY would you put a playground in the middle of a street??? There are multiple parks available for that purpose — or even De la Guerra Plaza!
This is the most confusing “plan” that I have seen, with every few blocks being different.
State Street is the ONLY street that has direct access from downtown directly to our beaches. Don’t mess that up.
No new businesses are going to come in until Santa Barbara decides to open State Street back up. We need businesses for the tax revenue they provide to the city. The city has raised the parking rate for the public instead, but they have lost their reason for going downtown.
The closure and the parklets were done during COVID-19 restrictions and were TEMPORARY. Those restrictions are over.
Retail suffered during the pandemic, but since then, the closure of State Street has exacerbated their problems. People can’t even drop off or pick up merchandise in front of the stores.
Bring back downtown! Let retail come back; put the outdoor dining back on the sidewalks; bike lanes on the outer sides of the street; and car lanes down the middle! Bring trolleys and cars back and start to reinvigorate the downtown economy.
Please bring the parades back up State Street, which would benefit the merchants that are open. (2024 is the 100th anniversary of Fiesta and of The Granada; let’s celebrate those together!)
Also, bicycles: There are two huge, long bike paths all along Cabrillo Boulevard; let the bikes continue to play there. Many of the kids on electric bikes are under age for that type of machine in the streets anyway.
Our City Council keeps kicking the can down the road, but the road in question is State Street and is the heart of our downtown!
PLEASE put State Street back together and move the recreation to another location. SAVE OUR DOWNTOWN.
Patricia Dixon
Santa Barbara
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Did Santa Barbara police Chief Kelly Gordon really say that speed limits for bicyclists are unenforceable and too complicated? How are they any different from, you know, speed limits?
Cheryl Gaines
Santa Barbara
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It saddens me to see the deterioration of State Street, which, for so many years, the City Council worked hard to make something locals and tourists alike could admire for its beauty.
It is also sad to see Coast Village Road, which the council is also responsible for, imitate State Street with hideous parklets and temporary barriers that make no effort to maintain the tasteful standards we once shared.
One only need to look at two of the most successful restaurants on Coast Village Road, Lucky’s Steak House and Tre Lune, to realize how far we have fallen from being one of the most attractive small towns in the country, to one of the most deteriorating.
Soon, tourists will stop coming to Santa Barbara and we will see even further flight of businesses. The blame should be shared by the city officials who take no action and the business owners who commandeer the space with little concern for how ugly our streets have become.
Taking no action to address this blight is a dereliction of duty by the council and a lack of respect from the business community for those who contribute to their profitability.
Let’s return State Street and Coast Village Road to their pre-COVID-19 status — by Jan. 1 — and then take on the challenge of how to implement some of the good ideas that have been advanced over the past year.
One final thought: It’s likely that the cost of returning our streets to pre-COVID-19 status is the only option the city can finance.
George Lilly
Santa Barbara
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Thank you to Karin Hill for her Aug. 27 story, “Carpinteria Dog Making Miraculous Recovery After Harrowing Week Lost, Attacked in Sierra Wilderness.”
I think every pet owner can relate to the panic the Alldredge family felt when Jackson went missing, and I’m glad there truly was a happy ending.
Good luck with Jackson’s continued recovery!
Ana Moreno
Santa Barbara
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While I’m glad Jackson was found and is recovering, I’m curious how he got lost in the first place.
Did he fall or jump out of the back of the truck? Was it an open bed pickup truck? Was the dog not secured like the law requires?
Brad Harris
Lompoc
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In the Aug. 30 article, “Deputies Take 31-Year-Old Woman into Custody after Man Stabbed in Goleta,” we read about a 31-year-old woman who allegedly stabbed someone and barricaded herself in an apartment for an hour.
The response by local law enforcement was amazingly overwhelming.
In photos, you can see more than 20 law enforcement officers along with two armored personnel carriers, six or seven officers in full military combat gear, a K-9 unit, Santa Barbara County Fire Department units, a Santa Barbara County sheriff’s command truck and a crisis negotiation team.
What an over-response for one woman with a knife! And what a waste of taxpayer money when most of these personnel could have been performing other needed law enforcement activities.
I am all for law enforcement and appropriately dealing with criminals of all types. But shouldn’t the response by the authorities be appropriate to the level of the threat?
Is a platoon of combat-equipped shooters really needed for one woman with a knife?
Art Thomas
Santa Barbara
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Could Noozhawk please ask the authorities to explain why there was such a massive police response for one woman with a knife?
Susan Tucker
Goleta
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Regarding the Aug. 30 obituary for Marilyn McMahn, “Longtime Santa Barbara Journalist Marilyn McMahon Dead at 93,” we began communicating after she wrote an excellent article about a Santa Barbara High School student who produces The Cramm newsletter.
We emailed each other numerous times about the many great articles she wrote for the Santa Barbara News-Press.
Her article about Richard Eager, Bobbie Kinnear’s book about her dad, who was the pilot for British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery in Africa, Sicily and Italy during World War II, was outstanding.
When I again commented about what a great story she wrote, McMahon emailed me to come over to her house by the Santa Barbara Mission and gave me a copy of the book. We chatted for about 15 minutes.
What a wonderful woman!
Jim Coombs
Rancho Santa Barbara
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Thank you for sharing the obituary for Marilyn McMahon. She was a class act, and I always enjoyed her articles and the genuine appreciation she showed for the people she wrote about.
I’m sorry she didn’t take publisher Bill Macfadyen up on his offer to write for Noozhawk, as he wrote about in his Sept. 1 column. (The business cards were a clever idea, by the way.)
Marta Lopez
Goleta
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One of the perks of being president of the Santa Barbara Friends of the Library, is that I’m learning a great deal about how local government works.
On the positive side, I’ve been impressed with how open the City Council and the mayor are to input, but on the negative side, I’m appalled that a bid for city construction projects goes to the lowest bidder, which is how the Department of Public Works decides on a contract.
Defaulting to the cheapest proposal has its shortfalls. For one thing, price is not always synonymous with value. The construction at the Santa Barbara Public library, which is being done by a company from Los Angeles, has been riddled with problems, including the release of asbestos into the air.
It is unclear to me, if contracts are only awarded to unionized contractors. If that’s true, not only does it drive up costs, but it eliminates many local construction companies.
If we stay local, it is easier to reach management of the company, we can see firsthand the work that has been done by the company, the money is spent in our local community and local contractors know the requirements of the city.
Frank Schipper Construction Co., for example, has 35 years of award-winning projects and an extensive base of clients, including the Lobero Theatre.
I would like to see the policy changed so that when the city does construction projects, it uses a local company that cares about its reputation and the future of Santa Barbara.
Barbara Cronin Hershberg
Santa Barbara
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