By Alice Post
Dear Santa Barbara Mayor, Randy Rowse and City Council members and members of the State Street Advisory Committee,
I have written to you before regarding State Street and spoken at previous council meetings over the past year and a half. I have been a member of COAST for two decades, and I am a card-carrying member of the bicycle coalition. I have been an advocate for alternative transportation, and especially for policies making Santa Barbara a pedestrian-friendly town (most notably, neighborhood schools and walking to school).
I am so sad that State Street is still such an ugly mess. Our original State Street was such a beautiful design, leading directly to the Wharf with a world class view of the ocean, such a destination for tourists to cruise our beautiful city by foot or by car, such a lovely visual shot straight down State Street from Victoria Street to the sea, and a such a nice place to shop.
What you did to it during the pandemic was reasonable to rescue restaurants during a crisis, but the crisis is over. Put our beautiful State Street back together, please. Give us back the Fiesta parade on State Street, please. The right-of-way was designed for the public, not for a few privileged businesses at the expense of everyone else. Look to Coast Village Road as your model.
My husband and I ate at dinner last night at Jane (on State Street between Micheltorena and Victoria), and I looked out the window as we dined. Walking to and from, I looked down State Street towards the ocean. All I saw as I ate and as I walked was ugliness and chaos. Oh, that you would just give us back the beauty and design that was once such a source of civic pride. Beautiful State Street is now a memory.
Stop throwing good money after bad. I’m sick of the rude cyclists on their ebikes speeding and endangering pedestrians or meandering around the right-of-way like it’s their private playground. It’s not a pleasant sight to watch when enjoying fine dining on State Street. Much more pleasant would be the orderly and safe, slow movement of pedestrians on the sidewalk, cars cruising slowly, and bicycles moving slowly, sharing two vehicle lanes with automobiles. Everyone safely in their lane. Orderly.
Sometimes what is old is new.
Restore State Street for limited outdoor dining on the sidewalk, pedestrian safety, the elderly. Don’t get me started on trying to take my 91 year old friend to her eye doctor appointment at the Balboa Building. How about the old-fashioned concept of stopping at a mid-street stoplight, and quickly helping your elderly mom out directly onto the sidewalk with her cane, to wait for you, while you can drive around the corner to park? What a novel concept: automobiles.
I support Cass Ensberg’s excellent design.
Thank the committee, and please make State Street beautiful and orderly again for all users.
Op-Ed’s are written by community members, not representatives of edhat. The views and opinions expressed in Op-Ed articles are those of the author’s.
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This article patiently describes how our beloved State Street has drifted over the decades into the dysfunctional sorry mess it has become. Landlords, especially non-local REIT’s also bear some of the responsibility for this plight by charging rents so high average businesses can never afford to pay. These high rents prevent the vibrant creative energy of Santa Barbara entrepreneurs from getting a foothold on State Street.
Totally with you on this!!
Well I’ve been here over 40 years and to restore it to “our original State Street” would have to tear down the overpasses at Garden and by the Fig Tree and put some traffic lights back up and have cross traffic on the 101 again lol. No but I agree State Street is in desperate need of becoming a non partlet straight shot again so to speak. Bring back cruising State too haha.
I think we all have different memories of what State Street used to be. I managed a retail store in the 500 block from 1989 to 1991. People were afraid to come down to Old Town. It was gritty; it was grimy. Piccadilly Circus was handy, but beautiful it was not.
Been here since 1957, when State was four lanes and kids (myself included, sorry!) cruised up and down on Friday nights after football games, revving their engines. Happy not to go back to that. Don’t blame city planners for what has happened in retail! Vacancies on State Street predate the pandemic by years. I don’t see any advantage to having car traffic on State Street. Very happy with the plan for a pedestrian corridor and well-designed parklets for restaurant seating.
Bikers need to yield to pedestrians if they’re going to have access, and that needs to be enforced. I’ve almost been hit during Tuesday Farmer’s Market a couple times. If bicyclists can’t yield to people on foot, they should use parallel streets, imo. Make those blocks a place to stroll. Landlords should be required to make empty storefronts look attractive!
Yes, old town was worse back then, but was improved since then. But now, ALL of State Street is gritty and grimy, and no one I know goes there. NO ONE. And, have you noticed that traffic has increased on upper State Street, around Las Positas and La Cumbre? Maybe, just maybe, it’s because people go there instead of Downtown.
“How did Nixon win? No one I know voted for him.” (Falsely attributed to Pauline Kael.)
And maybe the moon is filled with green cheese, but evidence is lacking.
“Nobody goes there anymore – it’s too crowded.” -Yogi Berra
The idea that Santa Barbara can become a haven for bicycle and alternative transportation is foolish. There are too many hills for the majority to use bicycles routinely unless they are battery powered with the attendant problems as described. It will never be the likes of Amsterdam where there are more bicycles than people.
And busses are not a viable alternative to cars for most people because the routes are too few and the times between busses too long.
In many parts of town, the streets are pedestrian unfriendly with no sidewalks, hills and blind curves.
Instead of pushing for things that won’t work in our geography why not go back to what worked?
Is this a joke? Firstly, SB is ALREADY a bicycle haven. And the advent of E-bikes has made it even moreso! I have seen it with my own eyes over the last couple of decades. I see all of the kids who can bike themselves the 5.5 miles to high school, instead of a parent taking them in a car. They are able to hang out with friends, instead of taking a car.
Many of my older friends (like me) are able to bike the 9-12 miles to work, WITH HILLS, in our 50s and 60s – instead of using a car – thanks to E-bikes.
You are correct that the bus lines are limited – plus they aren’t well advertised, and there’s only room for 2 bikes on each bus. I can get to work on an E-bike (10 miles) faster than by bus. And the addition of the bike lanes on Las Positas and Modoc have made it SO MUCH EASIER.
The answer to pedestrian friendly spaces is to add sidewalks.
I like this idea. How about just return State Street to our beloved version of how it was before Covid? Let it be that way for 6 months and see how we all like it? State Street really was at the heart of our great city. Let cars come back. Let pedestrians walk the sidewalks, and bikes move within bike lanes. And, retail? Some kind of rent control, so increases keep pace with inflation? Landlords need to be accountable for gouging business owners. I know we’ll never turn around the demise of retail that is occurring nationally, but this might make a slight dent. Just ideas….
I agree and really miss what State used to be. In addition to what has been mentioned there was the beauty of the trees down the middle at Christmas.
Me again. In 2009, there was an article in The Independent about the demise of State Street. I’m not sure which magical time people keep referring to that they want to return to.
I don’t think State Street was magical, but it was much nicer than it is now. I liked to drive down State Street. I liked to park in a lot behind the stores/restaurants, and shop or go out to eat. I liked to just wander down State and look in the windows. I don’t do that now. No one I know goes down there now. NO ONE. It’s dirty. It’s heartless. There are rats. There are electric bikes. Stores I loved are gone. Restaurants are gone. Now I go to upper State by Las Positas and La Cumbre.
Sorry to hear that. I live downtown and am on State Street 4-6 times per week. Lots of people I know come for a dance class or yoga, shopping and meals. Perhaps you could try again. Park behind Victoria Court and come have a wander around: SB Museum of Art, The Book Den and lunch at The Daisy might be a great reentry itenarary.
Same. We walk over to State often and most of the time it’s lively, filled with people and music. Occasionally we take our bikes and head a few more blocks down the road than I wanna do on my feet, or go all the way down to the beach. State street is just better without cars.
La Arcada is still lovely.
You aren’t doing on upper State any of the things you say you liked to do on State Street. And maybe you just don’t know anyone.
exactly
I have been to the promenade in Santa Monica and it’s not that great. Yes I know there are many I haven’t seen, but perhaps in Europe they don’t have the commercialization that we have. In addition, our streets are dirty and we do have uninvited guests that leave their mark. Add to that gray strips of paper instead of business in many stores. We would have to have rent control and any other option that might be available to keep businesses here. Yes, I miss prior Covid State Street and the Christmas trees.
It’s a mistake not to have a trolley going at least one direction on State. Having a trolley on Anacapa and Chapala will just feel like a bus, especially since we no longer have the open air, cute shuttles. Pedicabs are a cute idea but I expect will be too expensive for a lot of people.
Thank you for writing this love letter about our once beloved downtown State St. It was beautiful only a few short years ago and it could be again. I too love Cass Ensberg’s design ! It is the BEST solution that anyone has been able to come up with and I hope that it will become a reality 🙂
“such a lovely visual shot straight down State Street from Victoria Street to the sea”
Was that in 1920? It certainly wasn’t in 2020 before the street was closed to cars, and the rise of ebikes. This sort of blaming one thing for an unrelated result because you don’t like that thing is grossly dishonest and a credibility killer. The same goes for touting your membership of organizations when they and the majority of their members don’t share your view.
“I looked out the window as we dined. Walking to and from, I looked down State Street towards the ocean. All I saw as I ate and as I walked was ugliness and chaos.”
That was more a mirror than a window.
Absolutely agree. This sort of delusional attachment to the past is just silly. It’s time to think about the future of our city and leave the past where it is.
WHY do so many of these older people want cars back? WHY??? Bringing cars back will not help. I have no objection to a single lane for a shuttle. I actually think having the parades elsewhere is better – more room for more people! You are NEVER getting rid of the E-bikes, as much as you complain about them – they are better than cars. UGH. (For sure they can be regulated better.) You are NEVER getting your “old state street” back.
“All I saw as I ate and as I walked was ugliness and chaos.”
Wow. Would you please tell us what you saw that made you say this?
Folks, the problem isn’t with the design or the look or feel of State St. let alone the lack of cars. The problem is our local government is inept, incompetent and drunk on both power and spending. They are incapable of fixing this (*or any) problem. Dont agree? Show me anything the city has done correctly, on budget and on time in the last 20 years. I’ll wait.
Until the people of Santa Barbara recognize that city workers and elected officials (our CC members are not leaders, they are representatives. Leaders lead, these people follow). They will spend more money we dont have on solutions that are neither appropriate or tenable, and nothing will change.
Stop looking to the city to change.They will never change. They are bureaucrats who are interested in one thing and one thing only, themselves. Whether it’s their political aspirations or cushy jobs. Our city is being killed by a machine that has zero interest in the long term viability or the ability for people to build a happy life here. We are heading towards bankruptcy and while the ship is sinking, our representatives are spending more on less while begging for higher taxes and bigger paychecks.
At this point, I am convinced that the only thing that will save SB is a major earthquake that levels most of the buildings on State and beyond. Only then, and with hordes of federal and private funding along with public desire, will the Street and the City right itself. You cant tax your way out of this and you certainly cant build anything of worth by committee.
Everything has to change or nothing will.
Is that nonsense, or what??
Totally agree with you. The same can be said for the entire state.
It can be said, but that doesn’t make it even remotely true.