Primetime
By John Palminteri of KEYT News
The Santa Barbara Westside neighborhood is gearing up for a street closure to help revive the economy during the COVID-19 recovery period.
It takes place this Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to sunset.
The area is described by many as resilient but this economic set back has impacted some of the city’s smallest businesses hard.
Wasting no time, after seeing the surge in activity in downtown Santa Barbara during the multi-block closure there, community leaders led by the Santa Barbara Hispanic Chamber of Commerce came up with a workable plan for the Westside.
The event will be called Weekends on the Westside.
The area between Sola St. and Micheltorena St. will be closed to traffic.
Read more on keyt.com
I love this. Even though we need tourist and the new state st is working great for that we need to cater to our own people too. This is great, I’ll be sure to make my way there.
San Andres Street is where this is taking place.
At least there are no (or less) homeless begging for money in this area. Haven’t shopped or done any business on State Street in 15 years.
Has this been approved by the city? I have heard nothing about closing the main north-south artery of the Westside. This is a terrible idea.
Homeless drunks hang out at the little Park …. San Andres & Victoria street. Today, I called the non-emergency Police because there was a drunk bum, face down on the cement, passed out, and some empty beer cans and trash all around. And, it’s getting worse everyday over there. It’s supposed to be the kids Park, but it’s more like the bums Park. And, WHY can’t the City put back the porta-potty for them…. they are pissing and pooping in the bushes and along the fence line….. gross.
Welcome to the ICU !!
A Trojan horse for the Hispanic community? They are already being hit hardest.
To all the State street haters: You need to come and support the good folks who own local businesses and employ people. We depend on and serve many people, not just tourists.
This was a horrible idea. Practically no businesses on that street. Went to see what the closure looked like, and exactly what I had expected, no one out except for all the drunk. The “outreach booths” were empty. The only thing it caused was horrible traffic on Chino St. And then you had all of the drunks that parked their cars in the residential area, coming back late at night to get into their cars and drive away, drunk.
We don’t necessarily hate State St…we hate running the gauntlet of the maskless to get to what we want. Luckily you can sneak in the back door of some places.
Wow, it gets even better… That stupid picket fence thing pictured above is actually taking up a parking space in the street. It is not on the sidewalk. Parking is a pain in the ass in that block of San Andres to begin with, without having spaces taken away. And this dumb fence thing is apparently in for the long haul, instead of just on weekends. Are these business owners out of their collective minds? Are they TRYING to run off customers?
Weird how pretty much all comments are negative for this, but everyone was whooping it up about State St. I wonder why the difference of opinion?