Sullivan Israel says the city of Santa Barbara should keep downtown State Street closed to cars, in the latest episode of Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina.

Israel is the founder of the local chapter of Strong Towns SB. He grew up in Santa Barbara and attended Laguna Blanca before graduating from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a degree in planning.

Israel rejects the idea that re-opening State Street to vehicles would boost retail and restaurant traffic downtown, as some have argued.

“They think opening one lane to cars is a compromise,” Israel said. “I don’t see the point. I don’t see the point of opening up one lane to traffic.”

He said the argument that people need to drive downtown to see where to shop “never really made sense to me.”

“If you are driving and looking around to windows and signs, you are not doing a good job driving,” Israel said.

He said that there is no evidence that suggests cars on State Street will improve economic vitality. He said bringing cars back would take away the street’s charm, livability and beauty.

“You also make it more dangerous,” Israel said.

Strong Towns SB recently presented a petition to the City Council with more than 1,000 signatures from Santa Barbara residents asking that the street remain closed.

Although there is no formal proposal by city staff to reopen the seven blocks to cars, the Santa Barbara Downtown Improvement Association has gained support in recent weeks for opening one lane to vehicles.

Check out the podcast below to watch Israel talk about his arguments for keeping the street open.

Joshua Molina is a journalist and college instructor who interviews a wide variety of people on the issues of education, housing, politics, culture and business. He is a former reporter at the San Jose Mercury News. He also teaches at a community college. Visit SantaBarbaraTalks.com to sign up for his newsletter and make a contribution to this individually owned podcast.