Three Designs Proposed to Revamp the State Street Promenade

Those bench-like dividers/curbs are asking for trouble. We do need some seating so that tired tourists and elderly locals can rest while shopping, but we should learn from other cities and install the kind that only allow one person to sit or perch on and then the seat flips to vertical when one stands up. Isn’t that what the fancy consultants should tell us? How to learn from other cities that have already tried things like this?

So.... benches for tourists and elderly only? They can't sit on a bench that was used for sleeping the night before?

Do you think people sleep on benches only at night? It’s rather nice to sleep on a bench in the sunshine. But we don’t want to encourage that in the downtown shopping zone.

There are not enough benches for people to sleep on! I think it’s time we make it official and devote this segment of state street to the poor people we like to pretend are suffering from nothing more than high rents. Instead of designing benches with obstacles on them to stop people from laying down, we should build sleeping benches along state street. Perhaps the city could even start taking over some of the vacant buildings to provide more services to the folks who its trendy to refer to as “unhoused.” One could practically trip over bodies the way state street is at night these days, some thoughtfully designed sleeping areas could really spruce things up and help manage the growing population of zombies, I mean “unhoused” that is taking over.

I actually agree. Leave State as is and spend maybe a fraction of that just to freshen it up a bit. No need for a grand re-haul. Yes, affordable housing must be a priority.

As-is isn't working and will lead to more and more vacancies. Retailers simply do not want to be on a closed street. In the few locales where something like this does work, mostly international, there are 10+ stories of apartments on top of the street level retail, density that will never happen in SB. Prior to covid, it was working just fine. Except for some of the busiest holiday weekends, all pedestrian traffic can be accommodated on the existing sidewalks.

Which is it? You said to use the funds for something else. I said leave it alone. Same thing.

Yes, reopen to vehicles and dedicated bike lanes as it was, added bonus brick over the unkept/mismatched landscaping beds like it's done on lower state by Hotel CA / Moxi / Finney's area making for a cleaner aesthetic and more room for sidewalk dining. The funds for the promenade vision don't exist, the city is in a deficit as it is.
The first part of the sentence was IF we had the funds (we don't) would State St. promenade be the best use (it wouldn't).

So $50 Million... that's only 50 more consultants haha!

That seemed to be the consensus at the last meeting.

Of course the consultants are out of touch with reality. I believe that’s what they are hired for.

Since you bring up unused space Bird, by having the actual street closed to vehicles, most of it goes unused most of the time, and this is the most prime square footage in the heart of our downtown. Very very rarely are there so many people walking State that they couldn't have been accommodated on the sidewalks as was done pre-covid. In SB we already have many wonderful trails, parks, and an oceanfront with the beach, boardwalk and greenbelts - many wonderful places to meander/stroll and spread-out from the crowd - our commercial core should focus on being conducive to commerce.

Do Voters / Taxpayers even want a promenade at all? And, Wait they payed almost a million dollars for virtual renderings that are beyond any realistic budget, to further impede vehicle traffic?? The Promenade should be a three block stretch, maximum. Not forever!

JJ - 100% agree. It's bizarre that people think there are somehow less people on State than back when it had cars. Did tourists stop visiting SB because we closed State to cars? Of course not. The businesses have been doomed for far longer than just the last 2-3 years. I go downtown far more often now solely because of the open streets and seemingly (at least to me) less concentrated gutter punks. They have more room to spread out now so you don't always have to walk past them.

If there is some direct evidence of the lack of cars causing woes for the State street businesses, I'd be interested to see it and might change my mind. I see no lack of foot traffic now that it's pedestrian and bike only. Yeah, I'm from Goleta but am down there pretty often. I see what I see.

Based on pedestrian counts, more people aren't coming downtown now with the promenade than prior to the pandemic. Ask any experienced commercial retail broker in town and they will tell you retailers don't want to be on a closed street. If you want more retail vacancies, keep it closed to vehicles for the entire mile +. The examples MIG gave of other cities with promenades were not examples of successes but failures, they all were bigger cities, with significantly smaller promenades, and higher vacancy rates. Select a block or two AT MOST, might be feasible, but they already did that when they built Paseo Nuevo remember?

8:27 - "more people aren't coming downtown now with the promenade than prior to the pandemic." - OK, but that's not the same as saying LESS people are walking around downtown now.

wrong, been here since 82. more people were downtown in the 90s and parts of early 2000s, closing the road and leaving vacant buildings vacant doesn't draw people, it brings in more tumbleweeds

i work on state, in a retail business, we as well as every store on this block want it fully reopened. that would give SBPD laws to enforce. It would clean up the hobos, it would possibly attract someone to open a shop or two on the street again...

3rd Street is currently a failure with a 40% vacancy rate and is unable to attract new retailers nor shoppers. It is not an example we should be trying to emulate. Take a drive down this weekend and see for yourself.

@883 we are nor will we ever be anything close to 3rd St in SM. That is a shattered dream that will never happen. Retail left SB in the 90s and didn't bother looking back. The city makes it nearly impossible to do business here, well the city and the land owners. It's not feesible. Ventura has WAY better retail and dining.

We have Paseo Nuevo. This serves the same purpose.

There are no parallel safe bike routes to State Street.

KARMA - you're right, retail has been sketchy and vacant downtown for at least 20 years. I don't think allowing cars to drive up and down State again will fix that though. Brick and mortar retail in general is suffering. Add to that, insane rental costs and you're left with what we have now. A few chain stores and bars and restaurants. Retail won't come back until it's affordable to do so. I think it's going to be dead whether the street's open to cars or not.

Spoken like someone who has zero experience in commercial real estate. Brick and mortar are absolutely not suffering. If the issue real was "insane rental costs" retail would not be flocking to Montecito where rents are significantly higher than they are on State Street.

VOICE - I never said THE issue was rents, it's definitely one of them. But, by all means, continue making up things and blabbering them out as facts......

Nothing made up but based on nearly two decades of working with small businesses downtown.

https://www.trafficsolutions.org/thenewsite/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/TS-Map_Insert_SB_13.pdf

Salsa is 100% correct and I'm down on State daily (i work here). There is no retail for us. There is very little dining that won't empty your wallet, but there are loads of drunk homeless people fighting and yelling. Plenty.

Im a 50something local and agree. There is no reason to be downtown and spend money unless you're a tourist. Nothing downtown is set up for locals, just tourism.