Jerry Roberts
By Jerry Roberts of Newsmakers
On a new “Ask the Mayor” episode, Randy Rowse returned to Newsmakers TV on Friday, still fuming about the capitulation of his City Council colleagues to political pressure from downtown restaurant owners over the scale of outdoor dining fees.
“They subverted the process,” said the Santa Barbara mayor.
Led by District 1 representative Alejandra Gutierrez, the council last month not only upended months of work by a special committee and City Hall staff, but also cast aside hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue by flip-flopping on a previously agreed-upon schedule of fees, to be paid by restaurant owners who have erected outdoor dining parklets on State Street.
The restaurants were given the right to build the haphazardly-designed and entropically-placed structures on State Street at the height of the pandemic, totally free of charge for the public right-of-way. In the face of an aggressive campaign by the businesses, five members — Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen Sneddon and the aforementioned Alejandra – on April 25 approved a token $2 per-square foot fee — months after council first had approved a $3 to $12-per square foot sliding scale in January.
In a free-flowing interview with KEYT’s Lily Dallow, Noozhawk”s Josh Molina and the genial host, Santa Barbara Mayor Rowse also discussed a series of other critical issues that have emerged from City Hall recently, including:
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The city’s controversial – and expensive – crackdown on residents renting out to visitors, in violation of restrictions on short-term rentals. (Making the case on law enforcement and fiscal grounds, he demurred on the more questionable claim that the effort would increase the availability of long-term rentals for tenants, and suggested perhaps the entire STR policy should be revisited).
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The hundreds of millions of dollars in unfunded pension liabilities the city faces as it moves towards passing a new budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. (Saying the burden may be eased as older workers retire, he said the liability is dependent on unknowable investment returns may ease asyounger public employees, hired with less lucrative pension benefits, replace them).
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The shortage of rental housing to accommodate middle class workers, including cops, firefighters and teachers, as well as the families of longtime residents and others who want to live here. (Citing “Santa Barbara: An Uncommonplace American Town,” former Mayor Sheila Lodge’s history of city planning and development, he noted that local officials have been coping with a “housing crisis,” at least since the 1930s).
Plus: The latest on those unfilled sworn officer positions in the SBPD; commentary on noise complaints about the airport; his take on what the Nina Johnson lawsuit says about City Hall morale; and Randy’s reaction to the harsh and personal attacks he hears in public comment from one particular restaurateur.
All this and more, right here, right now on Newsmakers TV.
You can watch “Ask the Mayor” via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast version is here. The show airs on TVSB, Cox Cable Channel 17, at 8 p.m. Monday-Friday and at 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. KCSB, 91.9-FM, broadcasts the program on Mondays at 5:30 p.m.
Mayor Rowse is 100% correct. He is a former restaurant owner. The City Council members who voted for this lowball, taxpayer subsidized parklet fees have no business experience. Some of these council members, including Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Mike Jordan, Kristen Sneddon and the aforementioned Alejandra Guterrez are essentially “Have Nots” who continually vote to give we taxpayer’s hard earned money away. Socialists with our money!~ They have spent a fortune for consultants to do their jobs and now, the city’s budget is in the red. Oscar is almost 45-years old and still lives with his mommy. On his own, he could not afford to live here. Wake up Santa Barbara!
Says the person who isn’t a “have not”
You either grew up with loaded parents, blissfully ignoring the situation around you or are truly stupid if you talk like that. My bet is the latter since most monied people don’t stoop like that.
Yes, the city council is f’d up and backwards, but you just seem a fool talking like that online.
Maybe time to vote for new officials instead of having a problem with everyone who doesn’t have what you do (or maybe has more?)
5:39–you apparently have no interest in politics, economics or government. “Socialists” do not give away money to private for profit businesses. (The National Socialist Party–NAZIs–were not socialists.) That is more likely to come from the political right which commonly gives tax breaks to the wealthy to support the fallacy of trickle down economics, etc. So while I agree that the subsidy of these restaurants is wrong, and the lowering of the already minuscule per foot rental proposal is worse, the main point is that the taking of public space for private benefit is against the general good. Period.
SBTONER: I grew up in a working class family and have nothing aginst those who are less fortunate than I have been I used the “have nots” term for only one reason. In our city government and other governing bodies, it is normally the elected officials that do not have their own financial resources who are the most likely to use taxpayers money to finance their idea of paternal governmnet. These restaurants are operating on city streets for next to nothing fees. The city has to keep the streets clean, safe, insured etc, which benifits these restaurants. $2.00 a s.f. for parklet space is a a giveaway of taxpayer money to subsidize private businesses! A car just demolished a parket on Ortega St. Had it been crowded with people, there would have been injuries and possibly deaths. Both the owner and the city would have been sued for millions of dollars. $2.00 per s.f. will not buy city costs and this level of insurance coverage. Parklets have no place in the middle of streets withauto and truck traffic in the first place. This point has already been proven. The $2.00 per s.f. fee is peanuts!
What has happened to State St is a travesty. It looks like crap. There was a purpose for additional outdoor dining space that no longer exists. It should be returned to the way it was until the city comes up with enough money to do it properly. If I had a retail store there is no way I would pay outrageous rent to have that crap in the street in front of my business.
100% agree
Like so many people I speak to I no longer find any reason to go to the lower State area. And sitting in a “parklet” watching bicyclists whiz by down the center of the street weaving in and out of the tourists is an unpleasant Coliseum contest, with unwitting pedestrians either targets in the street or besieged by bums if they walk the sidewalks. For years I spoke in favor of a pedestrian mall on State, turns out I was wrong. Unless walkers are the priority, and the outdoor dining done in a way that is up to standard with our fading reputation as a world class tourist destination, we have killed our downtown.
Isn’t Paseo Nuevo a walking mall, aka, a promenade?
I’m a baby boomer and pedestrian spaces make me ANGRY!
Lower state street serves a very important function. The funk zone is now the primary high end destination for Santa Barbara. Lower state street draws all the homelessness and crime away from the funk zone, which keeps the funk zone nice. Since we won’t actually address crime and homelessness, we need to provide plenty of space for it and lower state seems to be the perfect fit.
CHIP, time and time again, post after post…you act like you are active and downtown a lot. You’re comments and posts tell the rest of us that you maybe swing by once a month and report everything you see like it’s that way all of the time.
You really have no idea whats going on downtown and what you just posted is so incredibly wrong. I live in the funkzone and you want to tell me there are no homeless, no tweakers and no crime there? LOL!!! It’s still the unsafeest part of town. Hands down. Lower state is perfectly fine.
I support the redesign proposal that’s been bandied about: enlarge the sidewalks and eliminate vehicles, save for trollies and electric shuttles.
The ratchet-ass parklets that obscure storefronts can be eliminated and restaurants can simply place attractive seating, cafe-style, right outside their businesses. The bright, and clean look of state street is restored, there will be ample room for pedestrians and cyclists, and parades can return to our beautiful historic downtown corridor. A solution for everyone.
I like your idea, Mugsy. I want to see the electric shuttles come back, as well as parades. Alas, widening the sidewalks would be a very expensive project. Also, we’d need to come up with rules for what kind of umbrellas or canopies would be allowed.
AHCHOO those guidelines already exist for outdoor dining pre-covid.
That would be great Mugsy, only 1) SB doesn’t have the tens of millions of dollars it would cost 2) if we did, would that really be the best use of those funds for SB? 3) the mile long / 10 block SB promenade would be the largest in the nation where other smaller promenades have failed in larger cities and 4) it would exacerbate the vacancy problem as the promenade only benefits restaurants to the detriment of retailers, retailers do not want to be on a promenade like this, particularly one this long. Just go almost any time of day at look at the unused area downtown, wide open street sits empty most of the time. There’s plenty of room on the sidewalks for restaurants to use especially if they brick over the poorly maintained landscaping. Maybe closing the block by De La Guerra and have one way up from there and one way down with diagonal street parking would allow for parades, plenty of sidewalk dining, and more easily accessible parking is all that is needed to revitalize downtown and it won’t take millions of dollars out of our budget nor be an added expense to the city budget like the current promenade is.
That sounds good and, if it can be cheaply accomplished, even better. The main point is to utilise the sidewalks for elegant and lively outdoor seating and to get rid of cars on State Street, as they are dangerous, polluting, and the street is and always has been practically useless as a thoroughfare for automobiles. Oh, and of course, bring back parades, because there’s just no place better than State Street for them.
No two lanes in what was proposed, please re-read for accuracy and understanding before commenting. Retailers do not like the pedestrian promenade and it is absolutely one of the reasons for our increased vacancy rates. One way traffic, with diagonal parking on one side, bike lane on the other would attract many more retailers that the current situation.
“One way vehicular traffic going uptown from the city center, one way down towards the beach, each with diagonal parking. ” – YOUR proposal is what I was commenting on. Maybe I misread, but it sounds like 1 lane going uptown, 1 lane going to the beach, EACH with parking = 2 lanes.
One way up from downtown (1 lane), one way down to the beach from downtown (1 lane). Diagonal parking on one (1) side of the street, bike lane on the other side of the street. This solution nets the most benefits for all businesses, people, interests, and public safety and IMO, better than the two (2) way traffic flow from before covid.
to be fair, looks like I accidentally made the 5/8 3:24 post anonymous.
Really? Turn State St. into a parking lot? Not since I was a kid have cars been allowed to park on lower State. Could you imagine the nightmare that would create? Cars parking, cars cruising, delivery drivers trying to drop off food/drinks, emergency vehicles, bicycles and tourists wandering all on the same street? How do you see that all being possible?
No where was parking lot mentioned. One way vehicular traffic going uptown from the city center, one way down towards the beach, each with diagonal parking. Pedestrians walk on our wide sidewalks, made wider by bricking over some of the large ill-maintained landscaping beds while keeping trees. Bikes use a bike lane on the opposite side of the street from the diagonal parking (which is only on one side). This improve access for delivery and emergency vehicles as well as bring back parades to State ST.
Just like we did before, temporary partial closures can be made to accommodate things like the Farmers Market. I’d also like to see the 500-600 blocks (or so) closed Friday and Saturday nights to accommodate the nightlife, similar to what many other cities do around their downtown restaurant/bar/nightclub scenes.
“Let people park directly in front of the business they want to go.” – same thing.
2 lanes with diagonal parking will create a mess. Have you seen people try to park, or wait for parking spots to open? Have you seen tourists drive? I don’t know, I think leaving cars off lower state is working out fine. The vacancies aren’t due to lack of parking in front of the stores. No one used to drive up/down State looking for places to shop. It’s always been a cruising street with heavy foot traffic.
It is rather useless as a thoroughfare for automobiles for people that really know downtown well – it isn’t for everyone who isn’t very familiar with which public parking lot is closest to the store they want to go to nor would it be useless if it was one way with parking on State. Want less vacancies and more retail? Let people park directly in front of the business they want to go. No retailer wants to be on a mile long / 10 block promenade with no vehicular traffic. Santa Monica promenade couldn’t generate the increased pedestrian density needed to offset the lack of vehicles and that is a much larger city, with a much larger tourist count, and a much smaller pedestrian promenade.
Mugsy, I’m with you
This is only our little town and it feels like the war of the “haves and have nots” is coming. Think French or Russian Revolution. Guillotine next?
Randy is just a bitter old man who needs to be put out to pasture.
wow…lots of people crying….lots and lots of criers. I see a lot of comments that hold value and have base and meaning and most of these comments are from people with really confused perceptions of things and it appears that many of you nay sayers have it wrong and really don’t spend much time downtown. you come here once a week, once a month and claim you know it all and have seen it all, while only reporting a few bad things you saw during this time.
How many of you actually live and work downtown? How many of you spend more than a few hours a week downtown or in the Funkzone? For me, i spend about 60 hours a week on State street, heart of downtown, I spend about 25 hours in the funkzone and two hours every saturday evening on state with my kids and dogs. I would like to see the hoards of homeless people, crackheads, and everything else you’re complaining about. Don’t tell me about one or two, let’s see the huge amounts you claim are here and destroying things. Let’s see it all. Show evidence or shut up.
Also complaining about people on bikes and scooters and skateboards. Then walk on the side walks if you don’t feel safe…or better yet.. pay attention and be aware, but certainly don’t complain thinking it’s just going to be pedestrians only. there isn’t enough retail on the road to justify that. nor the amount of foot traffic.
KarmaSB: It appears that you are one of the few commenters (possibly the only commenter) here who actually works, lives, and breathes the Funk Zone and downtown SB. Since you are so involved on an hourly/daily basis, you are much/much too close to actually see the problems that exist in the Funk/DT areas. Yes indeed, much too involved to notice things that those who only infrequent the place will notice. We are all so jaded that when we see an individual passed out on the sidewalk we simply walk/drive/ride past them. No need to jump on people because they are simply reporting what they see, and what they see makes them feel unsafe. Take a step back for a moment and look at the FZ and DT with fresh eyes. The new FZ developments are going to make it a safer and better for everyone.
If you want to watch a city downtown fall apart look at the non tourist downtown areas of SF and the businesses pulling out. Pharmacies, Grocery, Services, T-Mobile, Apple and now the mom and pop local owned small shops that do not have deep pockets to cover theft, vandalism, and need foot traffic that is safe, no stepping in human waste, no fentanyl overdose going on in the doorway. Poorly managed cities can die and the fastest way to kill a city is to restrict foot traffic, allow crime and drunk, stoned people to sleep, do drugs, take a dump on the walkways and building entrances. The other way to ruin a city we’ve learned, is to micromanage a mild to moderate pandemic confusing credentials for competence, and using the word ‘science” for the credentialed ones fever dreams
Why are republicans always trying to raise taxes for small businesses? Bad for business, bad for Santa Barbara.
Rowse, nor anyone on the city council, is a republican. Rental fees to utilize public space for a for-profit business is not a tax. The fees don’t even cover the full cost to maintain this system that only a handful of Santa Barbara businesses (specifically a few restaurants and bars on State St.) benefit from to the detriment of all other businesses in the city. In reality, it’s the democrats on the city council that are reallocating tax dollars that benefit all of SB businesses and citizens toward something that benefits a minute fraction of SB businesses. While you’re incorrect that it’s republican, incorrect that it’s a tax, and incorrect to lump all SB small businesses in with the very few who use parklets on State, you are right that it’s bad for business and bad for Santa Barbara.
I do not believe that State Street will be shut down to traffic forever. It is completely obvious to the average person that the shutdown has not been beneficial to the community or businesses in that area. Even on the most congested days, State Street was a joy to cruise through….check out the sights, people, businesses, etc. (I think there’s a book about it….’Cruisin’ State’…or something like that).
I wish that Goleta had learned from our awful decision to close SS. I usually have positive reactions to what Goleta is doing, but I believe if they follow through what was reported on Edhat last October, it will be Old Town’s death knell:
“The Project includes:
– One vehicle and bike lane in each direction
– A non-traversable painted median
– Back-in angled 90-minute parking along the north side of the street
– Parallel 90-minute parking along the south side of the street”
I originally thought it would be a good idea, but the more I drive/ride through that area, it is going to be a big fat mess during heavy traffic periods, 101 freeway shutdowns/accidents, and other emergencies such as flooding/fires.
It would be devastating if they force the little flower stand next to Santa Cruz Market down….our go-to place for flowers (although today/tomorrow there will be a limited supply of flowers because tomorrow is Mother’s Day for many of us). In case you are wondering, that’s why there are so many street-corner vendors in town today/tomorrow.
Side Note: Happy Mother’s (a day early), and a special Happy Mother’s Day to Yoli, Myra, Aunts Paz/Linda/Cecilia, and cousins Maria/Annabelle/Estrella/Elisa/Mercedes. Life would not be the same without you!!!