Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
Santa Barbara City may soon consider another increase to downtown parking rates amid a budget deficit.
During the city’s Finance Committee meeting last week, a proposal was discussed to raise the parking fee from $2.50 per hour to $3.00 per hour with the free parking limit reduced from 75 minutes to 60 minutes. Additionally, the recommendation includes an increase of the daily maximum fee to $33 and $5 increase to monthly passes.
The change could generate approximately $2.7 million in annual revenue and help balance the $2.9 million deficit.
The council already increased prices last summer from $1.50 per hour to the current $2.50 rate.
New programs were proposed that include weekend permits of $100 for six months, special event or festival passes of $75, and an annual $500 fee to businesses for them to offer subsidized or validated parking.
These proposals will be included in a staff report and next be presented to the City Council.
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June 29, 2022: Downtown Santa Barbara Parking Lots Increase Rates
It is getting expensive to dodge human waste and be harassed. Park on upper State St. and you can replicate the experience for free.
$3 and reducing it to 60 minutes will be the final nail in the coffin for downtown retail and dining. Good luck and good bye…
kinda pathetic that our Council just caters to the tourists and ignores the people that support and live here. $3 an hour is outrageous when we are paying close to 9% in sales tax, over priced EVERYTHING and now over priced parking.
Now you’ll really have to ask yourself, is it worth it? $3 an hour or face a $35 fine. Yeah welcome to shopping in Santa Barbara.
3 DV, cool. Ok, you go ahead and pay $3 per hour and come to our lovely downtown shopping district. We have the 99C store! We have Marshalls! We have….uh….$7 per scoop ice cream! Uhm…..we have endless entertainment featuring the guy on the corner talking to the trash can, the lady with her butt hanging out of her pants yelling at no one in particular. We have…a few movie theaters that are vacant always. Yeah come to SB! Ripe with shopping!
I disagree with the idea that State St has “Gone to the Birds” or any hyperbole like that. I still go there and enjoy it. That said, Zekew isn’t entirely wrong about “dodging human waste” and hearing crazy people threaten the wind (if you’re lucky) or you (if you’re not). Especially in the evening when it’s not as crowded.
We do need to clean State St up. Business and tourism revenue is what allows us to fund support for those in need, like it or not. Yes, everyone’s allowed to be somewhere, with dignity. No, we can’t allow camping / sleeping / loitering with shopping carts in the main tourist walk. That’s a pretty terrible approach, no matter what your politics. In any case, now is NOT the time to be tightening the noose on parking or in other ways for the businesses there. We need to SUPPORT them and help them survive. If more businesses leave, it’ll spiral. We’re in a precarious spot right now… act with care.
5 bucks is chill
Wasn’t Randy Rowse supposed to revitalize downtown?
GT – don’t you remember? It’s only the mayor’s job to fix homelessness, crime and everything else if her name rhymes with Mathy.
That’s not how US politics works. If the politician has a D next to their name they’re responsible for every crime and homeless person. If it’s an R, the bar is set at “not being a total nutjob/moron the majority of the time”
oh puhlease….DV because i nailed you, right? Like i said, do the research for yourself. Look at each president from 1970 to current. See what the red spent and blamed on the blue. Time and time again. If you think this is me spouting off, then fine, but i do urge you to look into this for yourself. I have. I have many many times. In fact the best pressie we ever had in a financial speaking way was Billy Boy Clinton. The man knows arithmetic. he knows it well. balanced all 3 budgets and left us with the largest bankroll in black in US history….all to be squandered by the incoming Bush admin…..look it up….look it up. unless facts scare you which i think scare most of the edhat folks
Mayor has no power. Simply only one elected city-wide. Runs meetings.
Chillin, how so? Every republicant president we’ve had since I’ve been alive (1970) has been a complete right wing wacko/nut job/crook. they spend more than we take in and leave the bill for the next guy. go back as far as 1970 and take a peak at how its worked. it’s a repetitive cycle.
Mayor is just one vote guys. This isn’t fake Trump world where we live in an Authoritarian city.
she was a friend of mine and probably the worst mayor we have had
What on earth? Why make it more expensive for locals to shop/eat locally?
Santa Barbaraians you are so spoiled and entitled.
No. Because obviously you don’t travel to any other city and pay for parking. SB has enjoyed cheap downtown parking for decades. $3 for two hours of parking is unbelievable. How much will you spend in eating or shopping? Or do you complain about that too?
No. Because obviously you don’t travel to any other city and pay for parking. SB has enjoyed cheap downtown parking for decades. $3 for two hours of parking is unbelievable. How much will you spend in eating or shopping? Or do you complain about that too?
oh so you know all about me eh? LOL ok dude. I travel as part of my job. This week i’ve been in five different cities along the central coast. None of them charge this much. If anything at all. If you think $3 for parking is great, then have at it, but i can for sure be certain of ONE thing. YOU yourself haven’t travelled much and have not paid for parking probably anywhere on the globe. This week i’ve spent time in Morro Bay. Free parking. San Luis Obispo, no fee. Ventura, no fee. Oxnard, No fee. Thousand Oaks, no fee. Calabasas, no fee. so as you were saying?
Hate us cause you ain’t us.
exactly how so? because we’re tired of paying increased taxes, increased parking fees, increased this and that? yeah so spoiled and entitled.
Tell me how much it costs to park in downtown L. A., Santa Monica, San Francisco and Seattle all places I have visited in this year. Not podunk Calabasas or SLO. I can tell you it is at least 10x more than SB.
@DPJ – But Santa Barbara is not LA or Santa Monica or San Francisco or Seattle. SB is more closely akin to SLO or Ventura.
First hour free. 2nd hour $3. So if $3 to park for 2 hours is too much for these whiners, I doubt they are spending much to eat (or tip!) or shop.
Yeah, I gotta say, it’s cheaper than anywhere else I’ve lived or visited. I just can’t get too upset about this.
We have to fund the salaries and benefits for the City’s large staff first. Then, if there is any $ left, we fund the services to the tax-payers. If there isn’t enough $ then we raise the taxes and fees. Remember that the government is no longer “of the people, by the people, for the people” as Lincoln stated. It’s now a self-propagating entity for entrenched bureaucrats . We voters/taxpayers only pay the bills.
Sac, ah dam, sorry if i knew i’d not have commented. good one though and good luck with that lol! 😉
I think I’ll run for the council and knock out one of the downtown members. been here since 1982 and have seen a lot come and go and change and not for the good. time we get someone in city hall that actually thinks for the locals that live here, work here and support the city and to have the city stop crapping on us.
Karma, please do. So many people bitch and moan about the state of everything and SO MANY OF THEM DON’T EVER DO SH!T
Be the change.
Great point! So why hasn’t your guy Randy done anything he promised?
People seem to have forgotten our elected officials are supposed to work for us.
KARMA – good to know! I was mostly just poking the voice bear since he and his cronies used to constantly badger Murillo about this stuff.
Sac, i know Randy pretty well. He’s a good dude. He’s a business man and an independent. We discussed recently how politics have crept into City Hall and there should be no politics in City Hall. No left or right, no red or blue.
then we need to elecct new people for SB Council.
And so the mayor and council members SHOULD be badgered, to recall they are public servants. (Etymology of “servant” “one owing duty of service to a master or lord, one employed by another and subject to his orders,” from Old French servant “servant; foot-soldier,” noun use of servant “serving, waiting,” present participle of servir “to attend, wait upon” (see serve (v.)) …”
I walk the waterfront Dailey. I have been visiting with those who come toSB on ships. More and more are disappointed with Santa Barbara. A woman from Italy told me how excited they were to come here, she had been here 15 years ago and loved t,she was followed and harassed by a probably homeless person and very disappointed that so many places were closed and s he said if I wanted to drink I would just stay on the ship their ba rs are beautiful,she won’t be back and word gets around. We do depend on tourists like it or not.sad to see sb going down while prices for us to stay here go up.
MEBK, i spend a lot of time down there too and have done the same thing. I always make it a point to chat up the cruise passengers for their take on things, because what Mike the waterfront manager and the City say is so untrue that it’s laughable at best.
Where is your retail? Why are there so many crazy people here? Why are there so many poor people here? Why is that guy yelling at the ground (@ Fig tree)? You only have Marshalls and the 99C store??? True comments from various cruise ship passengers. I’ve also got laughs when i asked them if they came for dining or drinks. Same response, it’s all aboard….we paid for it already. Met a group from Germany that had been here about 20 years ago. Asked what happened to the city. Most if not all have also commented on the closeur of State Street. Agreeing it’s not a good idea and seems to congest traffic on other roads and prevents people from seeing State street like they should and used to be able to take the trolly up and down State. Sorry guys. our city council loves to screw up things for us and you.
The continued closer of State St., which only benefits a small number of businesses on State, all of which are bars/restaurants, will only further exacerbate this problem.
VOR i agree with you here….this closer is lame. I work on State. Our offices are impeded by homeless and junkies. Kicked two out of our back storage area this morning, one of them was shooting up. Nice…welcome to Santa Barbara.
Downtown used to always be our 1st choice. Now when we want to meet people for a meal or a movie, rather than pay $5 ( or more! ) to park we meet in Goleta….. Shortening the time for free parking is just putting another nail in the coffin of dying downtown business 🙁
They operated fine for decades with no increases in fees. Reducing the Free Time is an insult to the locals that depend on having available parking for business, meals, and shopping. IT’S CALLED GREED! Quick fixes such as this, will have negative long term effects. I won’t pay that much for parking!!
I mean, they, just recently DOUBLED the FEES. Now they want MORE! Stop it!
I like space, not to be packed next to others, EXCEPT that having empty movie theaters is the proverbial handwriting on the wall: these theaters will soon up and leave. Metropolitan Theatres must be bleeding money that could be better spent on other developments such as the one they did next to the Arlington, the luxury Arlington Village. ….Is that what _our_ city council wants, more luxury apartments and condos on State Street?
The City Council has free parking. Missing is the Council raising its own parking fees in that large space next to City Hall. “Do as I do” is always more tolerable than “Do as I tell you to do.”
great point, so is the council themselves going to pay $3 per hour or move their cars every hour like the rest of us do that work downtown? i’d be willing to say they won’t even consider doing that.
I have lost all faith in our city government.
Increasing parking fees won’t fix the problems of downtown SB. Higher fees will make it more expensive for locals, discourage tourists from staying and shopping longer, and make it more difficult for small businesses to lure customers to their shops.
If the entirety of the State St. pedestrian promenade remains long term, there will be fewer and fewer shops. Retailers do not like nor want to be on a closed street. The only businesses that benefit from it are the restaurants and bars located on State.
Do we want OUR elected officials looking for ways to increase revenue, or do we want them to focus on spending less?