It would be time well spent for the mayor and City Council members to take a field trip to check out other streets that are closed off to cars, as in Santa Monica and Ventura.
Santa Barbara is not trying to do something that hasn’t already been done, so I don’t understand why we to need to hire consultants and have more committees to figure it out.
It would be great if the portion of State Street that is closed off could be pedestrian only so that people don’t have to be afraid to cross the street because of unsafe, speeding cyclists.
If you want to build community, what better way than to have music, food, art, and activities in an area that can be explored by walking.
Retail is never going to return to what it was, so why not let nonprofits use the windows of empty storefronts to advertise what they do until the buildings are leased? Maybe the Friends of the Library could even have a pop-up bookstore on First Thursday, or at least a cart.
Let’s not make it harder than it needs to be.