Someday, State Street might be an urban paradise, where people on foot and bike co-exist peacefully, while surrounded by outdoor dining, trees, wider sidewalks, mini green-spaces, pedicabs and public transportation.

But how we get there, and who pays for it, remains a mystery.

If you ask Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse, who has been a supporter of opening State Street to cars again, the whole situation now is unnecessarily complicated, and unsafe.

“Public safety is compromised by closing off State Street,” Rowse said. “It just is. We don’t get to roll a black-and-white down the 500 block of State Street.”

He noted the recent fires in Los Angeles to remind his colleagues and city staff about the need for public safety access.

“When the fire department has to respond they still have to figure out how to get through the flower pots,” Rowse said.

The city of Santa Barbara once again talked about changes to State Street at last week’s City Council meeting. The discussion came in hour five of a marathon, nearly six-hour-long meeting.

The councilmembers expressed positive sentiments about some of the proposed changes.

The plan is to remove unused newspaper racks and move the outdoor dining that is currently on the street to the sidewalk and widen the sidewalk with “pedlets” on the 500 block of State Street. The city also wants to remove non-tree landscaping on the 1200 block. In addition, officials are talking about bringing pedicabs and a golf cart shuttle program to State Street from city parking lots.

City staff has proposed a “pop-up forest” on the 700 and 800 blocks with new seating, shrubbery and trees.

“We are still here, we are rocking and rolling, we’re continuing to work on State Street, and I appreciate all your energy and time on this effort,” said Robin Elander, executive director of the Downtown Association. “Thank you for your continued efforts to invest in the renewal and revitalization of State Street.”

Rowse said he likes many of the changes proposed, including removing non-tree landscaping on the 1200 block and eliminating unused newspaper racks, but he raised questions about continuing to allow outdoor dining with requiring the restaurants to increase the number of available bathrooms.

“We’re trying to do all these things to accommodate these large outdoor dining facilities without taking into considering the uniform building code and the fixture count,” Rowse said. “The reason I say that is because other businesses around town have to comply with that.”

Rowse brought up how a company wanted to put in a roller rink inside the former Macy’s building on Ortega and State streets three years ago, but they pulled out because the city required them to install more bathrooms. The building remains vacant.

“We have to be fair about this,” Rowse said.

“Let’s go back to simple and programmable open spaces and let the restaurants have adequate outdoor dining,” Rowse said. “I love outdoor dining.”

He said the amount of outdoor dining on State Street should match the restaurant, noting the Chase’s large outdoor dining setup.

“You can’t tell me that the Chase has the bathrooms to fit what that parklet is,” Rowse said.

The city staff is also wrestling with e-bikes and how to slow down riders.

Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon maintained a positive attitude and optimism about the direction of the changes, but said that the city needs to tackle e-bike safety.

She said the street needs structural, physical ways to slow the “full-throttle” e-bikes down.

“People just don’t walk in the middle anymore; they are on the sidewalk, and the certain full-throttle bikes are going very fast and sort of taking over in a way that it is making it difficult,” Sneddon said.

Bicycle activist Molly Pearson spoke at the meeting and said the city needs to recognize that e-bikes aren’t going anywhere.

“E-bikes are not just for recreation,” Pearson said. “They are part of our transportation future and an economical and environmentally preferable option for our community.”

Pearson opposed the idea of pedestrian-only closure of State Street over two blocks.

Everyone agreed that it was time to remove the newspaper racks.

“The newspaper racks are a mess and they are just now with free weeklies, there are no more paid papers anywhere,” Rowse said.

Sneddon said although everything isn’t perfect, the fact that city staff is proposing ideas and making progress is a good step forward.

“I think this is what many of us envisioned, that we’d be trying things and have reasons to go down and see what’s new happening on State Street,” Sneddon said.

City staff will continue to work on the ideas and will return to the City Council monthly.

“All of these continue to breathe fresh air into the future of the District,” Elander said.