Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment title=
The Ruby Princess anchored off Santa Barbara on April 18. (courtesy photo)
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Source: Santa Barbara Channel Keeper

On Thursday, April 21, the City of Santa Barbara Harbor Commission voted unanimously to establish a formal process in which the public can participate in an evaluation of the City’s cruise ship program. The Harbor Commission approved the formation of a new Cruise Ship Subcommittee as a first step in the assessment.

With the return of cruise ships to Santa Barbara after a two-year hiatus, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper resumed its cruise ship monitoring program this spring to help deter ships from discharging wastewater in the proximity of Santa Barbara. Channelkeeper also worked with the Waterfront Department to encourage cruise ships to reduce vessel speeds when approaching Santa Barbara to protect migrating whales from ship-strike.

Channelkeeper recently presented the Harbor Commission with additional recommendations for the City’s cruise ship program. Among these items was the establishment of a subcommittee to host a public process to re-evaluate the cruise ship program as it relates to the City’s economic, environmental, and community goals and to develop recommendations regarding the future path of the program.  The Harbor Commission’s decision to create a Cruise Ship Subcommittee to help evaluate the cruise ship program will provide a significant opportunity for community members to voice their opinions and provide input on this important issue.  Community input will help guide the future of cruise ship visitation in Santa Barbara.

Cruise ship visits to Santa Barbara are a polarizing topic. While some community members support the financial contributions from cruise ship tourism, others oppose the ships’ visitation because of their harmful environmental impacts and record of legal violations. Among the issues Channelkeeper will urge the Subcommittee to examine throughout the process is the City’s ability to achieve its adopted climate-related objectives, while simultaneously sponsoring a program that invites ships from an industry known to be one of the biggest sources of air pollution in Santa Barbara County to anchor offshore.

“As we’ve looked more closely at the emissions that these ships release, even while just anchored offshore, we have started really questioning whether or not this program aligns with the City’s broader climate-related goals and policies,” said Benjamin Pitterle, Channelkeeper’s Science and Policy Director. “This subcommittee will provide everyone an opportunity to examine all the pieces that go along with the cruise ship program in order to make informed and intentional decisions moving forward. We applaud the Harbor Commission’s decision to gather public input and conduct a thorough assessment of Santa Barbara’s cruise ship program.”

The Harbor Commission will provide public announcements in the future with details about the subcommittee and ways for the community to get involved.

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Sail380
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Apr 26, 2022 10:33 PM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

COVID-laden hordes? good one OAK MAN!! You make it sound like they had to test positive before getting on board. Far more people stop in Santa Barbara on a weekend drive than by a once in a while boat. Don't know how many show up by plane every day, seven days a week but it would probably qualify as a horde.

sacjon
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Apr 27, 2022 09:09 AM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

OAK MAN - "party animal cruise goers" - uh, you obviously have no idea how much these cruises cost or who the people are taking these. These aren't "party cruises," you're confused with 3 day Carnival Ensenada trips. The ships that stop here are on Alaska trips, CA coast and even world wide cruise trips. MUCH different clientele.

sacjon
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Apr 27, 2022 06:11 PM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

OAK - bwahaha! Yeah, they're different clientele from "party animals," as cruisers aren't taking 7-50 day cruises around the world to "party." You're actually being "classist" by looking down on an entire group of people based on some outdated and nonsensical assumption. Carry on..... lol

sacjon
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Apr 27, 2022 06:59 PM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

By calling ALL cruise ship vacationers "party animals," you are attributing a negative implication to an entire group, regardless of who they actually are. Again, people on these CA, Alaska and 1-2 month world cruises that stop here in SB are not the same as the drunken college students who frequent the 3-day Ensenada cruises.

Further, how was my original comment "racist?"

Harbor_Seal
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Apr 28, 2022 02:01 PM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

SACJON, I'll use my Gray Privilege* to confirm your original comment was not "racist", (W)OAK MAN frequently throws that word around when he does not have a real argument and to signal to others he's something he is so obviously not.

*Gray Privilege: I identify as a gray Harbor Seal.

ChillinGrillin
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Apr 26, 2022 10:50 PM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

Sure, tourism is great. But cruise ships are gross. They are notoriously lax about treating and dumping sewage offshore, and existing law only keeps them from dumping raw sewage 3 miles from the coast. Thousands of toilets, food waste, and diesel straight into the channel and onto our beaches so some tshirt shops and restaurants can get extra income. The more ships that visit, the more waste builds up. The owner of the ship in the picture, Princess cruise lines, got busted in 2013 for dumping sewage and plastic near shore and covering it up, then got dinged again in 2019 for the same thing! They can come back when they have basic decency.

pstarSR
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Apr 27, 2022 08:36 AM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

this is the reason we dont want them. they dont "benefit" everyone. only a certain few.

the drawbacks are worse. if you think a hospitality industry is perfect for a small beach town, imagine what will happen when you put all those eggs in one basket and it stops?

like state street........ locals used to go there. no local shops there now. when the tourists stop. those business's fail. citys are not money makers

Voice of Reason
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Apr 27, 2022 09:12 AM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

Yes, and 30 years ago our population was smaller, our economy was smaller, the number employed was smaller and the cost of living was lower. Those times are long gone and it would be catastrophic for our current community should that industry just disappear; massive job losses and business closures focused directly on small businesses. And if it did, the middle class would be further forced out, with the very wealthy swooping in to buy up their homes rather than seeing the higher levels of lower / middle class homeownership SB had 30 years ago.

Voice of Reason
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Apr 27, 2022 09:15 AM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

TJ, this was focused on the entire tourism / hospitality industry in town not just cruises and no, it wasn't completely removed the past 2 years by any means, we had a huge influx of day and weekend visitors from throughout CA in addition the massive economic stimulus provided.

Voice of Reason
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Apr 27, 2022 06:06 PM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

It is a driver of our local economy so that many small businesses can continue to stay in business. If tourism leaves, many jobs and small businesses will leave/close with it, but the demand for housing in our beautiful coastal town from wealthy people living outside of SB would not decrease.

ChillinGrillin
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Apr 27, 2022 06:09 PM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

VOR: Yet again with the false all or nothing dichotomy. Nobody is arguing to shut it all down. Just don't leave crap in the water! It's not that hard, the companies are just too lazy and cheap to do wastewater treatment and the govt. is too lazy to enforce the law. Whats the point of living in paradise if there's dookie in the water and on the beaches?

Voice of Reason
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Apr 28, 2022 03:57 PM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

Chillin, no need for name calling and condescension. That tiny boat from the local nonprofit would, as I clearly wrote, let.. us... know.... if the cruise ships were dumping anything they shouldn't be in the channel. If they weren't following the voluntary commitment to extend that 3 miles to 12 miles, we'd hear about it. https://www.sbck.org/our-work/field-work/cruise-ship-monitoring/

chico berkeley
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Apr 28, 2022 05:10 PM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

No it wasn't.
The soap opera "Santa Barbara" during Ronnies rein started the useless tourist influx.
Many good paying jobs in Goleta that had real world value(Moon project for one) that were outsourced to China, turned this town into a shell of itself.
Same as "Sideways" has had an effect on the Santa Ynez Valley foe 15+ years.

gizmo1
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Apr 27, 2022 09:31 AM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

Make each and every cruise ship have a clean bill of health with no sewage dumping events for the last year before they can dock in our harbor. Limit the number to a couple not every other day, we were doing fine without them. The harbor department gets a lot of $ per COVID boat load ,but by the time they have two policeman sitting there all the traffic cones put up they probably come out in a rear

Lucky 777
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Apr 27, 2022 10:37 AM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

Remember that cruises are "all you can eat" so they are less likely to be patronizing restaurants here, and once they have strolled up State Street and seen the souvenir kitsch where are they going? There is no organized area where the jeep tour or other experience enablers are gathered, like the Land Shark sometimes is by the Wharf. If people could stroll up and take their pick from wine tours, Cloud Climbers, etc that would at least get them past the acquisition of the made-in-China t-shirts and into an opportunity to actually SEE some of why we consider this a world-class tourist destination. There used to be "taxi ranks" and now there could be Uber Zones or other purveyors of vehicles who could convey visitors to our local sights.

sacjon
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Apr 27, 2022 10:53 AM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

LUCKY777 - they have a plethora of on-shore excursions that people sign up for. It's hardly as if the thousands of people are just mulling about lower State not spending money. The whole purpose of these high end cruises is to explore new locales. The all you can eat thing is fine, but on long cruises, everyone is getting off the ship to try local foods or see local sites. A LOT of misperceptions here about the people who take these cruises.

paglinsb
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Apr 27, 2022 05:16 PM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

How are the visitors supposed to get up and down State Street? That's a looong hill to walk up--especially for the older set. We used to have the State Street shuttle trolley. It might help if there were jitneys or something like that to help the tourists "cruise" and stop along state street. The Santa. Barbara Museum of Art is a big draw, but also a long way up the hill.

SB LOC
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Apr 27, 2022 07:46 PM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

The creation of a committee is a shield the City of Santa Barbara uses to protect the City Council from heat from local residents. The City of Santa Barbara thereby compartmentalizes significant complaints and the process gets dragged out for years. In the meantime the City of Santa Barbara continues the offending practice, particularly if money is involved. Cruise ship complaints need to go directly to City Council. If the City Council does not listen to locals then the ballot box (not many people vote in City elections, so it does not take the switch of many votes to get rid of the Council Members that do not exemplify Santa Barbara values) is the only real choice to end problems. If money is involved the City of Santa Barbara will do its best to protect the status quo (cruise ships may be here to stay for a while as cruise ship revenue has become a big part of the Waterfront Department's budget) until the next election. Make your voices heard at City Council here's where to send your complaints: sbcitycouncil@santabarbaraca.gov

SB LOC
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Apr 28, 2022 10:06 AM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

Here's a good article (see link below) concerning "Overtourism." We have the symptoms of overtourism in SB. The Santa Barbara City Council is responsible for SB's overtourism problem. As an example from the article: "When rent prices push out local tenants to make way for vacation rentals, that is overtourism." Many of the problems SB Locals see and are affected by are directly caused by the Santa Barbara City Council. One item that is seldom realized and discussed is the forced financial turnover of the local population of Santa Barbara. Meaning our kids are forced out of the community because they cannot afford to rent or buy homes because of overtourism. The problems Santa Barbara faces are interrelated and largely caused by the political class. It is interesting to see some of the people that work for the City of Santa Barbara have been demonstrating with signs making their voices heard. The problems the State of Hawaii faces from overtourism are materializing in Santa Barbara. There is a letter from June 4, 1992 from Sheila Lodge detailing what she envisioned for Santa Barbara by 2017. "If Santa Barbarans have continued to care and plan for their City, by 2017 the town will be just about fully built out. It will have retained its unique architecture and beautiful landscaping and WILL BE EVEN MORE OF A REFUGE FOR VISITORS FROM THE CONGESTION AND TENSION OF THE LOS ANGELES AREA." The focus has been to bring in people and their money and that's why all of our children cannot afford rents and housing and therefore they are forced to leave. Write to the Santa Barbara City Council concerning all the damage it has done to our community:

sbcitycouncil@santabarbaraca.gov

Here's the link to the "OVERTOURISM" article.

https://www.responsiblevacation.com/copy/what-is-overtourism

a-1651187083
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Apr 28, 2022 04:04 PM
Harbor Commission Votes to Gather Public Input for Cruise Ship Program Assessment

Many Santa Barbara City Councils bought into this "ecologically clean, few city services" ethos of maxing tourism, to the exclusion of prime waterfront clean technology parks (as in Goleta), and local recreation . The waterfront which now hosts the Fess Parker hotel was zoned for light industry/technology which was designed to bring in high salaried workers (as in Goleta) but the City Councils changed the zoning to allow the Parker hotel which brought in low paying jobs instead.

Other zoning changes in the funk zone and on State below the freeway allowed wealthy out of town investors to buy up most local stores and affordable lodging in the highly prized waterfront area. As the tourism Disneyland got steam, along came trollies, cruise ships, 6 person trolley bicycles dominating bike paths and sidewalks and mobs of tourists year round. In other words, Santa Barbara sold it's waterfront to the wealthy investors at the expense of locals. To change this mess, a lot of people would have to get involved, including changing the City Council. Otherwise, it will get more crowded, more expensive, more polluted and more expensive for Santa Barbara residents. Who voted for a new Disneyland anyway?

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