Growing up in Santa Barbara, beautiful beaches, beautiful sights, clean areas, and, of course, the legendary State Street mentioned in many songs about Santa Barbara or just a well-known place.
Since, the closure for COVID, State Street has yet to reopen. All that work to redo the entrance from Stearns Wharf to Haley Street looks beautiful until you’re pushed off to Haley Street, an old area, very dilapidated, not very touristy, yet we’re not opening State Street? Why? To cater to a handful of restaurants scattered in the area?
You can look down the blocks and see one restaurant here, the next block maybe two there, the next block three or four at the most closer to Haley Street. This has me thinking: Are there City Council members in a partnership in restaurants? Getting kickbacks in some way to keep State Street closed? Or to please a small group of individuals who are new to Santa Barbara?
There’s no real reason for it. We’ve lost businesses, people don’t want to walk that whole area. If they do, they’re not shoppers; they’re people leisurely on their breaks or out for an evening stroll or riding e-bikes or skateboards. And what’s hurting? The businesses.
State Street is such a key street for Santa Barbara. So this closure now is causing traffic on more narrow side streets that were not meant to handle that kind of traffic. I know because I deal with this all the time.
City Council didn’t ask permission to close State Street for COVID so why do we have to have voting or rulings to have it opened? City Council is not taking into account the people who have lived here for decades like myself. Makes you wonder how many of these councilmembers actually grew up in Santa Barbara.
There’s no reason to keep the street closed.You give these restaurant owners a 90-day notice of removal of all the outdoor eating areas. If your restaurant is good, the people will come regardless. If space is the problem, well, maybe you should relocate your business.
Seeing so many shops closing on State Street because they’re not getting the kind of traffic as when it was open to vehicle is sad, yet not an eye-opener for City Council.
There’s plenty of other side streets or streets that we can do a closure and do this “walker friendly” environment instead of a key road that is part of Santa Barbara history.
Speaking of Santa Barbara history, we changed the historical Fiesta parade, something that has been going on for probably 100 years. It went up State Street and everybody benefited come parade day. All the businesses, all the shops, everybody was able to have people traffic because people were there, people could easily get there. Changing a parade route that has been part of historic Santa Barbara is ridiculous.
Let’s make Santa Barbara great again and just open State Street.
