Open Season on Pedestrians

re. race representation in the City Council: Why must we keep focusing on race/gender/sexual lifestyles/etc when it comes to political representation? Why not be post-racial and focus on who can best serve the community? I wouldn't care if they were all hispanic so long as their agenda had everyone's best interest at heart.

"Even with the light" Just gotta learn not to walk on red lights and get over it.

"Why not be post-racial ...." SantaBarbaraDianne needs to start from within. Start within the race-bating, gay hating, "god-thanking" regressive GOP operatives. It must be some kind of disorder to politically bate and switch and then blame the victim. And we do not have "political representation" but simply individual representation.

We also have a "no traffic laws apply" zone for bicycles in Santa Barbara and a "no turn signals allowed" zone in Santa Barbara and a "skateboards allowed anywhere" zone in Santa Barbara.

C'mon Barney, let's spread the responsibility around appropriately. It ain't just the drivers of cars; it's also the drivers of feet and bicycles and skateboards.

Regarding Kar is King; It is clear that law enforcement technology has not kept up with the driving attitudes. Not only are we using outdated 20th century motorcycle cops and fewer of them in relation to the traffic volumes, technologies and "attitudes" we are having a technology lag in enforcement. We really need to consider deploying something new like overhead silent predator drones with frickin lazers attached.

And the narrow and self-proclaimed safety experts and car lobbyists Michael Self and Dale Francisco have done absolutely nothing to address these safety issues and lack of law enforcement. Real Estate expert council member Hotchkiss is no help at solving these problems either. Both council members Self and Francisco have no interest in working on these issues and have stopped any interest at implementing city policies adopted with the intent of improving safety for walking, cycling and even driving!

Great points in the pedestrian section, Barney. As I've stated here at The Indy in recent weeks since Ashleigh Brilliant's encounter: Pedestrian beware.

Even in the most attentive of instances, a driver can easily be distracted or simply not see you. I cannot count the number of times I witness pedestrians of ALL ages lock in on a green light and step off into the crosswalk without so much as a self-preserving glance as to what might be barreling down upon them.

Not to mention the cyclists with no lights or reflective clothing on that regularly scare the bejeezuz out of drivers on Milpas Street every single day from dusk 'til dawn. Unbelievable. I call them Future Hood Ornaments of America.

State Street down town should be closed to traffic in both directions, with the lone exception of approved delivery vehicles who must traverse at 5mph or less. Make downtown from Carrillo (or Canon Perdido) to Gutierrez auto-free.

With so many tourists about to soon descend on SB, those little pedestrian signal crosswalks are run regularly by people who never see them because of all the visual distractions. Cyclists blow through them at every opportunity erroneously believing the law does not apply to them.

Until then: Caveat ambulantor.

Why districts? The idea is for better representation. What do we mean by better representation, and what would be the best type of representation? Let me answer that.

The best representative for me would be someone who agrees with me most of the time. Not necessarily someone who lives in my neighborhood.

This is where Choice Voting, a form of proportional representation, comes in. Everyone in the city votes for x candidates amongst the same list of candidates.

If issues A, B and C are important to me, I would vote first for the candidates who agree with me on A, B and C. If I still had votes left but no more candidates who agreed with A, B and C, I would then vote for a candidate who agreed with, say, A and B.

See http://preview.tinyurl.com/y7mols8 for more info.

I agree that there should not be the concentration on race and national origin when it comes to elections or, probably, anything. If there is going to be that concentration, then I would think that "whites" in Santa Maria should now get the affirmative action minority preference in jobs and so forth.

As for the Kars are King, the ones I see racing around in SUVs are the younger smart growth types, not Hotchkiss, Francisco, Rowse and Self.

Indeed, caveat ambulator!

Bitter, grumpy, intolerant. What a way to go through life. And all the while hypocritically blasting others. Must be a real peach to be around in "real life." Insufferable here for sure.

District elections would inevitably bring back that very same pot-hole mentality that we experienced before. Why in the world would we want to make the same mistake twice?

As Barney wrote:
"...consider district elections, which we need anyway because our neighborhoods are so different from one another."

Ethnic makeup of the Council might follow as a result a geographic, neighborhood basis of Districts.

I propose a hybrid approach to the issue, with 3 zones each having with 2 Council members representing each. Mayor elected at-large, of course. Start the proposal by using State Street as the zonal boundary extending from the tip of Stearns Wharf up to Las Positas Road, then the boundary would be north and south down the middle of Las Positas Rd.

Those 3 zones may not be equal population, but that design is a start to add or subtract distinct Census Tracts to equalize the populations for the final boundaries. Benefits: each Council zone has a stake in the economic and transportative engines as frontage along State Street and Las Positas Rd, plus a beach gets included in each zone along with wide multi-member stakes in watershed planning and water quality issues.

Of course, how to form the exact boundaries for Councilmemberic Districts (or Zones) can be fraught with gerrymandered shenanigans, picking and choosing reliable voting bases, the same way that led to the current State and Congressional legislative Districts. An independent, unbiased commission would need to set up the boundaries.

The price to run a competitive election campaign would plummet with any form of District elections, and voter contacts would boost tremendously.

All anti skateboarding laws need to be lifted now.
And dead philosopher guy, none of the modes of transportation you list have the same kill and maiming capacity as motor vehicles. What is your stake and keeping automobiles the primary mode of transport?

Some day, Barney will die and go to heaven. Once there, he will complain about the abundance of the angel feathers blocking his path.

Don McDermott, why do you believe the total misrepresentations about GOP/Conservatives and the like? So much of what is said about them turns out to be true about the very ppl saying it, i.e. "the vitriol coming from the right" (w/little to back up such statements, btw)--and then you hear the left, from the POTUS down saying really mean, nasty things about anyone who disagrees w/them. I back up that statement w/the things said about the Tea Party by NPR, Obama and so much of what was said in WI during the protest. The right, I hope you'll agree in retrospect, are really mostly fair-minded in their actions and words.
Sorry to go off-subject here but I had to address that accusation.

Special message from "SantaBarbaraDianne":

“Be what you would seem to be - or, if you'd like it put more simply - never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.”

I have no stake in cars or bicycles or walking shoes. I believe we all have a stake in observance of the law. And the proportion of scofflaw bicyclists far exceeds that of motorists, as can be observed by anyone, anytime, anywhere in SB.

If a pedestrian brazenly steps off the curb in front of a moving car but not in a crosswalk, then is the pedestrian at fault if hit? If a bicyclist runs a stop sign (not that that EVER happens in SB, oh no, no way) and is hit by a car, is that bicyclist at fault? Or is the big bad motorist always at fault just because his is the bigger vehicle.

BTW, I picked my posting name as a tribute to individual responsibility - something obviously in short supply around here.

Dear SantaBarbaraDianne

Thank you for giving me newfound respect for Binky's wit, and providing further evidence to support our beliefs about the far right wing in your numerous posts.

EZK

Binky's 'wit'? Where? When? The person can't write a coherent sentence.

Binky is not only witty but a smart smarty pants.

"John" if you're having problems reading Bunky's posts maybe get a new pair of glasses?

David_Pritchetts' proposal is an interesting proposal. But district 3 still appears (if I understand correctly) a distinct district of "the great white north." I kind of like the tidiness of the citys' original 7 districts. I also like the idea of alternating the at large and district elections. Either way "the voters" must approve and right now, with few exceptions, all we have are pro-Kar nuts on the council or running for council regardless of district. You cannot be a born again anti-kar nut and win. Crazy I know. Hence we will have L.A.

Clearly citti is an apologist for Francisco, Self, Hotchkiss and Rowse. Everyone drives like a maniac.

Just did, EZK, so that's not it.

Francisco, Self, and Hotchkiss need no apologists. Thanks to them and the Milpas Association something productive may actually get done about the homeless situation here (gee, someone outside the reality distortion zone may have actually been able to make progress on the issue, imagine that). Not to mention the pedestrian-and-bicyclist-endangering devices aka bulbouts. But I can see that with Pritchett, McDermott, and EZK all here I am outnumbered by apologists for the regressive, er progressive movement. Nitey night.

Bad proposal, David. The basic underlying assumption is that you have to live near me in order to represent me. Or, worse, you have to look like me in order to represent me.

I live on the Mesa. I don't believe that means that someone in, say, San Roque or the eastside can't do a good job of representing my political beliefs.

The worst effect will be the inevitable parochialism that will ensue. If one district gets, say, a police substation, then the other districts will want one too. Same for schools, roads, etc., etc. until local politics is reduced to nothing more than maintaining a balance between the various districts, the real needs be damned.

District elections: two thumbs down.

One argument in favor of districts is that a representative living in that district is more , or at least should be more knowledgeable about the condition and specific issues in that district. It also insures that attention is paid to that district's needs and not just one hypothetical district in which all the representatives could be conceivably from.
It also holds that representative more accountable to their neighbors. People on the Mesa have different specific concerns in their hood than someone who lives on lower Milpas.
So it goes beyond whether the rep is a repub or a demo or what have you; its more a matter of knowledge and making sure all neighborhoods get their fair share of bs.

Rather than argue for/against district elections based on the current makeup of the Council or on political party prejudice, how about based on reasoned arguments about representation? In this case I'm with EZK. District elections put representation closer to the people being represented - isn't that what little-d democracy is all about?

District elections seem like a good idea to me and I have felt this way for years not because of any racial issues per se, but because different parts of a given city may have specific needs. Ironically, it would be a more Republican form of government as it would break down power structures more individually,

As for aggressive drivers, I've been driving since 1977 and I first started to see this behavior back in 1994. Since then it's epidemic. In all the time I've posed questions to Barney I've never gotten a response but I'd like to know what he means when he says "Look, I don’t want to die in the gutter because the car-crazy City Council majority is setting a kind of free-for-all freeway spirit and not reminding folks that cars have brakes, too."

Don't get me wrong, I completely share Barney's frustration at the foolish driving habits of the vast majority of those who take to the wheel, but if one is to make such accusations as he has about the city council, one should back them up with supportive explanations.

Am I asking too much?

Not at all. But documented evidence is not Barney's strong suit. In that regard he fits right in at the Indy.

I would add that in the 14 years I've lived here I've seen a dramatic increase in the disregard of traffic laws by bicyclists as well as by autos. One might think that one's observations depend on one's prejudices, no? I think bikes are great, but should not act as if they own the road - any more than cars or peds do.

And only recently have I seen anything other than a pro-bike, anti-car bias in the City Council, which may finally begin to counterbalance a clear pro-bike bias in unelected city staff (look at what they push for - bike lanes, miniroundabouts, bulbouts - all designed to discourage cars - one official even quoted recently as using his office and planning authority specifically to 'eliminate' cars from our streets - another example of nanny government run amok)..