Adios to Bruce Rittenhouse, Seven-Time Santa Barbara City Council Candidate
Out of the Closet and Into the Great Beyond
It took me a while to figure out that Bruce Rittenhouse was not the crypto-fascist megalomaniac I long supposed. First impressions die hard with me. And I had my reasons.
When Bruce exploded upon the Santa Barbara scene in the 1980s, it was as an anti-homeless demagogue and would-be savior of downtown from the unwashed hordes who had, in fact, occupied City Hall for months as a sustained act of political insurrection. Bruce — who ran for a seat on the City Council seven times between 1987 and 2001 — was all glowering indignation and bushy-browed bombast. Back then, he was advocating for a city-wide anti-camping ordinance of questionable constitutionality. Most famously — and ridiculously — he argued City Hall should red-stripe the curbs where panhandling was to be prohibited. As if panhandlers couldn’t move.
Bruce — who died this week in Puerta Vallarta — never pretended his ideas would work, just that he had them. “At least it’s an idea,” he’d shrug. That, in his mind, put him head and shoulders above the competition.
