State Street Cartoon

"This town is like a ghost town". - The British Ska Band The Specials -

Rental Price for Vacant Spaces Right Now
- 710 State Street: $33,232/mo (restoration hardware blg, not including utilities)
- 506 State Street: approx 7500/mo (small 1300 soft retail)
-1021 State Street: 7500/mo (2500 sqft

Old Navy was paying $90,000 a month for their spot on State Street several years ago, so yes, rents are that high.

Fast and careless teen bike riders made our walk on State promenade scary and unpleasant Saturday afternoon. This is a frequent hazard in our experience. I’ve never noticed any police presence to curtail this. Has anyone else??

State Street was losing businesses- and had way too many empty storefronts before the promenade. When it was full of the “hustle and bustle “ of traffic and the people population pushed all together, concentrated on the sidewalks, it was less noticeable, and with the pandemic adding to the empty space numbers, it’s sad.
The rents are crazy high on state, that’s why the mom and pop, and small businesses are unable to remain. A big problem is that these big corporations or wealthy land owners that have empty spaces get tax write offs, so they don’t seem to care if it stays empty. I have heard of other towns that had similar issues, start charging some sort of “empty/ vacancy tax” that charges the owners a tax/ fee for having an empty building, making it worth their while to get renters. And it apparently is working for them. Something has to be done.
And mixed use is a great idea. When I was young I knew people who lived above the State Street shops and businesses downtown. Having residents there keep the area populated day and night and can help reduce crime by having eyes on the area ( their neighborhood) 24/7.

I was downtown last week for business. The "Parklet"smelt of rotten milk and vomit.
Look forward to your next cartoon.

The cartoon needs to add a few more details - the grime and trash , the homeless people and their stuff, the so called "parklets", and bikers swooshing by at 40 mph! Are the rents really that high?? Everywhere? Who would pay that much in an environment like our "Promenade" right now?

Right on, C.B. — nice work!
State Street landlords are due for a spanking.

holy toledo are the rents actually that high?

Downtown SB basically sucks nowadays. Feel free to argue/disagree.

Cartoon is spot on. The latest scuttlebutt on our late great City of SB: Macy's and adjacent parking areas have been sold to condo developers. This came from a store manager in a struggling store in what is left of the La Cumbre shopping center stores. Can anyone confirm? The manager's reason for the debacle there: greedy landlords and high rents.

Fitz: I'm thinking that what you saw was some sort of April Fools Day "gag" or setup similar to what they do in the 'Jackass' series of movies or 'Impractical Jokers' TV show. You did not mention that the children were hit, so if they fell down it's probably because they were startled by the "cyclist" who kept riding as the grandmother screamed for someone to stop them (stop them for what?). So, possibly just a gag to get people to think it was real, which it m-a-y have been. Who knows...

I'd like the cartoonist to drawn one showing a female bicyclist causing two children to fall as they were walking across State Street to attend the Granada children's concert Saturday afternoon. The grandmother should be shown picking up the children and pulling them back and yelling for someone to stop the bicyclist. Not fun for them or the families watching it unfold.

Nice!

For the sake of accuracy, the dog should be sniffing human fedes

This one I get.