Westside Begins its Own Street Scene in Santa Barbara
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
19 Comments
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Jun 29, 2020 12:59 PMWeird 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?
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Jun 29, 2020 02:01 PMSACJON: I'm even more against the closure of State Street, but the difference here is that when you close off an entire block on the main north-south artery of the Westside, you divert all the traffic to totally residential streets that aren't equipped to deal with it. One traffic accident was reported at San Andres & Micheltorena. Parking is always problematic in the 1400 block of San Andres, but when you shut down the block, everyone who'd normally park on San Andres now has to park on the already crowded side streets. The result is NO parking for anyone, including customers. There was absolutely no notice of this fiasco, although it has the fingerprints of Council member Oscar Gutierrez all over it. This never, ever should have been given approval. From what I understand, attendance was…shall we say…"sparse." I hope the City comes to its senses and puts an end to this self-serving street blockage. Streets are for motor vehicles, not pedestrians.
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Jun 29, 2020 12:52 PMWow, 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?
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Jun 29, 2020 10:40 AMTalked to a local business owner who did not participate because the City did not cover the liability insurance like they did for the State Street businesses. Possibly there is more tax revenue from those businesses? Still, makes the economics hard.
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Jun 29, 2020 09:20 AMThe businesses on San Andres seem to be overlooking something major—parking. A neighbor realized that the street was blocked when he went to buy a couple of bottles of vodka at the liquor store and couldn't get through to their parking lot. Parking on all the adjacent streets was full, as it always is on weekends, so he drove to Ralphs and bought what he needed. Another San Andres sale lost. Please call City Public Works and demand the street closure be rescinded. As it is, this fiasco is scheduled for 11 weekends. It's actually kind of scary that such permission is so easily granted with virtually no public input.
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Jun 29, 2020 10:43 AMNot too sympathetic about the people not being able to buy alcohol whenever they want. But I rarely drink so maybe I am in the minority. Yes, don't think about driving to this area on the weekends. Walk, bike, or scooter. Small businesses will control whether it continues or not, depending on how much their sales increase.
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Jun 29, 2020 07:04 AMThis 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.
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Jun 29, 2020 01:03 PMBusinesses on San Andres between Micheltorena and Sola, La Bella Rosa, El Zarape, hardware store, party store, liquor store, cell phone store, Palmieri's bar, and those are just off the top of my head. Hopefully this program is helpful to them and encourages alternative forms of transportation. Maybe the city could cite the drunks and use it as a revenue stream?
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Jun 28, 2020 05:11 PMWelcome to the ICU !!
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Jun 28, 2020 07:56 AMTo 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.
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Jun 29, 2020 09:03 AMWe 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.
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Jun 28, 2020 06:52 AMA Trojan horse for the Hispanic community? They are already being hit hardest.
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Jun 27, 2020 10:49 PMHomeless 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.
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Jun 29, 2020 10:43 AMPaid for by whom?
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Jun 28, 2020 08:07 AMThe city should have round the clock security there, it would be a huge thing for the neighborhood of that park was safe and usable.
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Jun 27, 2020 10:38 PMHas 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.
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Jun 27, 2020 08:59 PMAt 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.
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Jun 27, 2020 08:50 PMSan Andres Street is where this is taking place.
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Jun 27, 2020 08:01 PMI 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.