Regarding the Sept. 18 article, “Santa Barbara Man ‘Felt a Little Helpless’ After Getting Pepper-Sprayed By ICE,” where does the hero of this story find the time to hold a job at UC Santa Barbara?!
Noozhawk tells us that he “usually works in rapid response, which means surveilling reported U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Santa Barbara, but also sometimes observes activity at the jail.” At 6:30 in the morning.
What Noozhawk doesn’t tell us, and never does, is why ICE was at the jail in the first place. I’m guessing the man these “volunteers” and “observers” were defending didn’t just happen to be at the jail randomly.
Good for ICE.
David Wright
Solvang
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Perhaps “Helpless” could “volunteer” for something that improves Santa Barbara and not get in the way of law enforcement.
Maybe volunteer to pick up trash at the beach, plant a tree, coach youth league sports or paint park benches. Those volunteers are the real local heroes who never get press and certainly never get a headline in Noozhawk or any other local media.
Please don’t treat these people as heroes, but rather as people who have no social conscience defending criminals indiscriminately and feeling like they are doing good for society.
Jim Breen
Santa Barbara
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Thank you to Lesley Wiscomb for saying out loud what needed to be said in her Sept. 24 commentary, “Santa Barbara Must Put Financial Discipline, Public Safety Ahead of Costly ‘Priorities’.”
These are items that the City Council needs to get a hold of and return us to solvency. This is particularly important with the so-called State Street Master Plan.
Someone early in developing the plan decided not to identify what specific blocks housing units could be placed, and deleted that scope of work from the consultants’ contract. More than 100 local architects, associated professionals and community members spent hundreds of hours in 2020 (during the COVID-19 shutdowns) offering conceptual design solutions, not only for the street itself but at least six blocks on both sides of State Strete where housing could work.
Most all of this work was ignored. The amount of professional donated time could have been equal to at least half the half-million dollars spent on consultants.
Fred Sweeney
Santa Barbara
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I lived in Goleta for about two years but have left. Noozhawk helps me remember what I used to enjoy.
I am not an education guru but I have always believed that education was the pathway to success.
My one-off interviews with strangers, children and grandchildren have me very concerned. I conclude that teachers unions and course selection are formidable determinants of success.
I have no idea what the Santa Barbara Unified School District did to find its way, nor do I have any idea how the literacy of its students compares and contrasts with other cities.
I believe strongly that Rachel Canter and her fellow advocates are successes.
Marc Green
Portland
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If there is one thing that should have been driven home to all of us over the past 10 years, it is that when it comes to electing candidates, we should value integrity and competence above all else. Even above party affiliation or a policy difference here or there.
It is for that reason that I am voting for Kristen Sneddon for Santa Barbara mayor.
I do not know any of the other candidates and, therefore, I certainly have nothing bad to say about them.
But I do know Sneddon and only have good things to say about her. She is a highly competent, intelligent, high-character individual who, having served on the city council for the past eight years, has the experience and knowledge to lead this city.
Santa Barbara has many challenges ahead in the next four years: meeting our housing obligations, addressing traffic congestion, ensuring pedestrian safety and creating a hospitable atmosphere for small local businesses, all while maintaing the unique character and atmosphere that makes this one of the best cities in all of California to live in.
I am confident that Sneddon is the most competent person to tackle these challenges.
That is why I am supporting and voting for Kristen Sneddon for mayor.
Craig Smith
Santa Barbara
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Kristen Sneddon will get my vote for Santa Barbara mayor. Not because in 40 years, our men mayors have been easy to chat with over a beer, while the women mayors got things done.
Not solely because college-level science educators like Sneddon use trained analysis to understand and solve problems, then are good at explaining their decision rationales.
Sneddon has been on many ex officio City Council committees, but I have especially observed her at Historic Landmarks Commission meetings where she is the council liaison. She sits in the gallery to hear the full discussions and to show both audience and commission that she pays attention.
She has a strong sense of Santa Barbara’s history and where we might go in the future.
Sneddon is interested in the human character — not just the commercial appeal — of Santa Barbara’s future.
As a geologist, she knows our city’s mountains, beaches and climate — coupled with our signature historic revival architecture — will make Santa Barbara always attractive to visitors and residents alike.
And as a longtime resident, she is familiar with the financial struggle for so many to live here.
I applaud her efforts to control runaway rents. Santa Barbara will be a better place when teachers, gardeners, food servers, construction workers and clerks can also be neighbors.
Electing her mayor will allow that search to continue for the right balance of affordable housing and commercial satisfaction.
I hope you will join me voting for Kristen Sneddon for mayor.
Richard Closson
Santa Barbara
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