The youths aren’t afraid to ask tough questions.

Santa Barbara’s mayoral candidates — Wendy Sims-Moten, Eric Friedman and Kristen Sneddon — were hit with some of their toughest questions yet at Friday’s NAACP Santa Barbara forum.

Dos Pueblos High School students Sofia Summerhill and Jaxon Honeycutt and Santa Barbara City College students Arielle Goodson and Dillan Scott asked the candidates about responding to racism, the target of e-bike enforcement, accessible transportation and more.

In light of the recent Blackface incident at San Marcos High School, the candidates were asked what they think about how schools have handled race-related incidents.

Sims-Moten, former board president for the Santa Barbara Unified School District, said she was disappointed to hear of the recent incident as she believed some progress had been made in recent years.

“To be here again is simply not OK,” Sims-Moten said. “The schools are part of this city, they’re part of this county, and as a community, we should be appalled. Just because it’s in the school doesn’t mean it’s not our responsibility as well, as adults.”

She said she wants to see more accountability for schools and the Santa Barbara County Education Office, more community education, and work with students directly impacted by racist actions.

Sneddon referenced her history on the City Council, specifically how after the murder of George Floyd that she and Councilman Oscar Gutierrez worked together to declare racism a public health crisis, and invited Healing Justice Santa Barbara to present to the council. 

The city then formed the police oversight committee and secured ongoing funding for Juneteenth celebrations. 

“If I were to give advice to the school district right now, I would say stop what you’re doing, stop everything, bring everyone together, have training, have accountability there,” Sneddon said. “It’s absolutely unacceptable.”

Friedman brought up the Teen Court Program through the Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, where teens explain what happened to a jury of their peers who come up with a way to deal with the situation. 

“It’s much more powerful for everybody when it’s your own peers that are hearing you, and they’re saying, ‘You did wrong, but we’re not here to tell you that we need to penalize you. We want you to do better, and this is what you need to do in our eyes,’” Friedman said.

With e-bikes quickly becoming one of the top issues in the city, the candidates were asked how they would ensure that youths of color don’t become the target of growing enforcement and regulation. 

While dangerous e-bike behavior is often blamed on teenagers, Sneddon said she has experienced older people riding dangerously as well. 

“I think it’s a really important issue that it not be criminalized and that it not be targeted toward youth because of appearance,” Sneddon said. “I’m not going to sit here and pretend that that’s not a genuine risk.”

She also said the city can engineer the roads differently so people have to ride more safely, and that the oversight committee can be used to hold the city accountable and make sure there aren’t any disparities in enforcement. 

When it comes to addressing e-bike safety, Friedman said the focus needs to be on education, engineering and enforcement. Specifically, he said that if someone is riding dangerously, they should have to go through a course rather than get their bike taken away after the first violation. 

He also wants to focus enforcement in heavy traffic areas where officers can give warnings to unsafe riders. 

“We want to make sure we’re giving everybody the right opportunity to show that they’re having safe behavior,” Friedman said.

Sims-Moten said there needs to be ongoing conversations with those passionate about e-bike safety and those who will be affected by enforcement. 

“We should come together and have a conversation because more than anything, when someone feels like something’s going to be taken away from them, they’re going to get creative on how to make sure it stays,” Sims-Moten said.

When asked how they would improve transportation for low-income students and other individuals, Friedman said the city needs to make sure it is safe for cyclists to get across town, and incentivize people to ride the bus or a bike, as well as having housing near jobs and schools. 

“Let’s look at incentives for building housing, the new housing we’re building, near where the schools are, but also near where jobs are, so that you don’t have to rely on cars or transportation,” Friedman said. “You can actually walk to where you work, and that is incredibly powerful.”

Sims-Moten said the city should look at grant funding to improve transportation and cover the cost of bus passes for low-income individuals. 

Sneddon didn’t shy away from criticizing Santa Barbara’s bus system, taking issue with the limited services and high fees.

“I don’t think the level of service matches the cost of what it is, so it needs to get better,” she said.

She said she also would like to see free parking for local residents downtown and a free shuttle that goes up and down State Street.

Friday’s forum was one of the candidates’ last before voters decide who will be the next mayor of Santa Barbara on Nov. 3.