In 1977, I watched from Stearns Wharf as 200 homes and half the Riviera went up in flames during the Sycamore Canyon Fire. In 2018, Councilmember Kristen Sneddon was sworn in on the day of the Thomas mudslides, when our essential workers and first responders had to be ferried in by boat because both ends of Highway 101 were shut down and they could not afford to live in our city. Kristen’s leadership on safety and affordable housing are just two of the reasons I’m supporting her for mayor.
As a UCLA-trained geophysicist, she worked closely with our neighborhood association on the city’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan leading to more funding to clear vegetation and expanding our defensible space. She also applied the report’s empirical evidence to create a local ordinance that limits SB 9 lot splits in high fire zones. No surprise, she is the candidate endorsed by the city’s firefighters association.
When rents soared during COVID, Kristen stepped up to serve on the council’s housing crisis committee, which proposed stronger tenant protections and more funding for affordable housing. As a board member of two housing nonprofits, I lent my name to the Measure I sales tax with the expectation that affordable housing would be a priority. So when only 10 percent ($1.5 million) of Measure I’s revenues went to the Local Housing Trust Fund, I applauded her leadership in moving more dollars there while requiring the reserves be replenished.
Kristen’s push was about prioritizing scarce public resources and keeping promises to the voters on Measure I. This council knows how to do both: In 2024, it unanimously pledged $227 million in principal and interest to be paid over 30 years from general fund revenue (Measure C) for the new police station and Dwight Murphy Field, despite an ongoing operating deficit.
We are at a crossroads with this election. Do we want the interests of big business and real estate to have undue influence over local land use decisions? Having lived in the Bay Area, I know how that ends up. I worry we’re turning into a playground for the wealthy where the people who protect our city and keep it running are forced to commute in.
We need a safer and more sustainable Santa Barbara. We need a leader who responds to an emergency, like the massive displacement of our workforce, and takes a stand even if it’s not politically safe. We need a scientist with a strong moral compass and the conviction to follow through. We need a mayor like Kristen Sneddon.
