A national voter discussion is going on now about affordability, not that the Santa Barbara City Council has any concern for it as evidenced by their pointless decision last week to change the name of Calle Cesar Chavez. If you think living in Santa Barbara is expensive, try operating a manufacturing business in the city.
Poorly considered political decisions like this have real financial impacts on businesses. It will cost our company a minimum of $8,000-plus for printing plates, document reprinting, licensing, certifications, and work order and product record revisions. These are just the hard costs. We also must also notify our 800-plus customers of this out-of-touch decision. This won’t bankrupt us, but it’s an unnecessary and insulting expense.
Aside from Mayor Rowse, the council obviously cares nothing about the operating challenges of small businesses in the city. We create jobs and pay taxes. The council’s action indicate they would rather spend their time virtue signaling.
Why even change the street name? Does Chavez’s alleged sins erase his notable achievements for farmworkers? We’ll never know. And the fact that the council seriously considered “Dolores Huerta” as an alternative street name proves that they have learned nothing from the council’s original error in 1997 by naming this street after someone who hasn’t been dead for 100 years.
Calle Cesar Chavez isn’t State Street or a tourist zone and there is no civic reputation to protect. It’s a forgotten and blighted six-block corridor mostly populated by non-retail businesses. The council would be wise to stop woke-naming streets and tend to real public issues.
