The Laying Down of Blankets: Where Santa Barbara Civility Goes to Die

There is a reason I no longer attend the Easter egg hunt at Girsch Park. Adults pulling their toddlers along by the arm shoving in front of each other trying to put a few plastic trinkets in their kids Easter egg baskets to show their kids the Easter spirit. Truly unbelievable. Entitlement and Idiocracy rears its ugly head.

Unreal!

Adults acting badly to say the least. Why not just arrive when the concert starts and enjoy rather than the need to show up five hours early to act like a fool? Really!

This used to be a locals' concert series on Sunday afternoons at Alameda Park. I wonder how much money is spent marketing this -- and other events, as well -- to the tourism trade.

I'm not surprised. What does surprise me is no one called 911 to have an undesirable removed by the police from a particularly prime spot. An interesting note in your essay, Lauren, is how you noted it was mostly seniors or middle aged individuals who were the most brusque. #MAGA, baby.

Thanks for sharing this post. Unfortunately, in reality this is how people are in this community. It took me years to realize, no matter how inclusive and spiritual and progressive people want to seem here, there’s a true reality to it that people are just out for themselves and the whole Santa Barbara yoga healer etc vibe is just a fashion front façade. It took a long time to understand that it was all false. This is truly unfortunate, because for people that are truly laid-back and easy going, we’re not gonna deal with this kind of stuff. Nobody should be allowed to put anything out before any type of event whatsoever, people should show up when they are ready to stay. The Fourth of July is a another completely ridiculous event down on the beach, where the hogs get down there as soon as they can and cordon off the biggest space they can, for them. Thank you for highlighting this and video, you got some great shots. This truly shows how many people in this town, no matter how they want to be perceived, truly have no consideration and respect for others when it comes to getting the best spot for themselves.

Baby Boomers that never grew up No Thanks! I'll sit in my yard smoke a doobie and listen to the radio...

Evidence of what the sharing society and elimination of private property rights will actually look like. People remain tribal and territorial, regardless of decades of social engineering indoctrination to the contrary.

Put on my Birkenstocks, got in my Subaru (you know the one, with all the Namaste, Coexist, Bark less Wag more stickers on the back window) , parked on the wrong side of De La Vina so I could run in to TJ’s real quick, then sped down to the park (ya, I didn’t use my blinkers and almost ran over a couple in a crosswalk but you know; Namaste my friend), finally made it down to East Beach, screeched into the parking lot, ran across Cabrillo and elbowed my way to a killer spot. It’s good to be me, now, here in Santa Barbara
Bless this Paradise

We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . . So now you can go up on La Cumbre Peak and look to the ocean, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

Mom is that you? Misbehaving in public again!
Boy will this lady be happy when she hears she made Edhat

They should stop allowing people to set up and claim space more than a couple of hours prior to the concert. That goes for all of the parades and other events around town. Any large group can always find one person who has nothing to do on a given day and that one person can unjustly claim space large enough to accommodate 30+ people while locking out the average person that goes there with one person to quietly enjoy an event.

Running of the Bulls or Thinning out the Herd!
Some people are just beyond words but some how Lauren said it so eloquently.
I am still laughing. I wish I could see her face at work tomorrow when
her co-workers show her this video. Maybe someone can video that too.

How sad over music! Close your eyes and listen. Who needs a prime spot for that?

Typical cyclist entitlement, I wonder if he's one of those who runs lights and stop signs while riding on the white bike lane lines. Hmmmm....haha! ;)

i think i'll go there at 3pm and re-arrange all the blankets while those people aren't around...teehee

What a bunch of miserable people. It's been like this my whole life here. As kids we used to laugh at buffoons like Mr. Cycle-pants, in their faces too. Boy would they get mad! People like this make Santa Barbara unfriendly and ridiculous.

I fly often and this is exactly the same vibe when queuing for a flight en route to SBA. It doesn't matter if it's Alaska from PDX, United from SFO, or American from PHX. The SBA crowd is unique and I can spot our "special neighbors" halfway down the terminal. Yuck.

great writeup, sad situation though. this is the main reason I dont attend any events in SB anymore, no solstice, no chalk painting at the mission, not even fireworks.

cause no one cares that there are other people in the world around them, that might like to enjoy the same event.

Lauren-

This truly was hilarious, and a great post. One of the best of all times. It would be great to start to go to all of these events and do some sort of reporting like this you would enlighten the community greatly. It can be called blanket shaming. I hope these people are basking in the glory right now, drinking their chilled wine and just having the best time ever.

Of course he’s entitled to a spot first he’s an elite sponsored cyclist. First they want to take the road away now want first dibs on front row blanket space. Gimme a break. Haha.

This is precisely why I stopped going to these shows.

Oh brother. Yeah, no thanks.

curious: the race of the man who shoved you. why mention it? everyone already knows that people of all races has their fair share of jerks.

I miss the days of describing people as "that skinny guy with the snaggletooth and messy hair" or "that fat guy with the mole" or "that woman over there that's taller than her bf/husband".

They act like the down voters...

I have to agree with Lauren. If you look at the SIZE of the blanket that woman brought it was ridiculous. It left no room for the cyclist's blanket. Unless she had 8 people coming with her that was too much! It's the same thing at movie night at the court house. So discouraging. Worse when you show up and someone has actually moved your blanket and put their own in place. Has happened to me several times.

Typical SB. I bet Trader Joe's parking lot was empty while this sad spectacle was underway.

Actually it was pretty mellow at the park today at noon, and lots of space. Don't know why anyone was hassled. The crowd and band tonight was great, folks of all ages dancing and enjoying "Blue Breeze" R and B band with a nice ocean breeze and the full moon rising over the ocean. Thank you Parks and Rec Dept.

Seriously losing faith in humanity.....

Am I the only one who finds it ironic that in an article about Santa Barbarians not getting along and/or treating their neighbor as a person worthy of respect and understanding their pov, that literally 26 of the 32 comments have been relegated to deletion due to the night crowd (possibly people with no obligations come the morning) comes out and downvotes everything to oblivion? Come on, people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another, right now.

The Blue Breeze Band was incredible last night- no wonder all the fighting for real estate. Hope they return next year!!

The number of deleted comments is a testament in and of itself, to the complete lack of civility among so many in this town. They should be forced to live in NYC for awhile - where people aren't afraid to get in your face and tell you off for rude and bad behavior. That might humble them, shake them up and get them in line.

This is why we stopped going a few years ago. It used to be fun.

"Running of the Blankets".

Great article, Lauren! What's equally offensive, I think, are the folks who put their blankets and chairs down for parade sites on State Street way ahead of time. I can't recall the city rules on this, but from my past recollection, they aren't enforced.

This type of behavior ruins what should be a fun community event. Thanks for your insights and candor. Blanket Bullies beware- videos of offensive behavior posted on Edhat and elsewhere may be a way to encourage public shaming!

Thanks, Ryan, for the old hippie anthem supporting "peace and love".

As noted before by myself and others, this event is for tourism and business at the tourist traps. Get people where the stores are--like Universal Walk. It is not really for 'locals.' The casual Sunday afternoon in the park downtown were very much for the locals. We really enjoyed them and felt it was a community event, not a calculated dip into the pocketbook. Oh well, no surprise when people behave badly at night rather than at a Sunday afternoon event.

These have turned in events for Santa Barbara's elite. Drive your hundred thousand dollar luxury car to the beach in the middle of the day, when normal families are working, to get a prime spot. By the time the event starts there is no place to sit and no parking. Security is good when there is a concert in the park - the rest of the week when families want to enjoy the area it seems unsafe due to the army of homeless. Not a locals event anymore.

This used to be a fun place to sit on a blanket, listen to music, eat, and chat with friends. Let the kids run. Then you had to worry about the pot smokers and the homeless off on the side. Then the kids got to be the age that they'd run off, so you'd spend the entire time at the playground, watching them like a hawk. Then they get old enough not to wander off but they'd get run over by the teenagers at the playground. Then they become teenagers "too cool" for concerts anyway.

It's nice that SB has a bunch of free entertainment for the locals, but I guess when you have so many locals, it gets crowded. I haven't managed any kind of parade in quite some years for the same reason. If you just show up, you have people pushing and shoving to see...that's no place I want my 5 year old.