The Independent article about the sale of the senior affordable housing owned by the Battistone Foundation should be a cause for alarm for the whole city. For decades this property has been an important part of our community. There are still unknowns about the sale, but what is known isn’t good. The possibility that it will continue as it has in the past does not seem likely.
Do we live in a city in which everything is for sale and money rules all? The people of Santa Barbara need to be asking city officials what they can do about this debacle. It is a gross scandal and an affront to anything like civic morality.
Santa Barbara is in the midst of a crisis that is frightening and portentous. What kind of city do we want to live in, and what will we fight for? The city is being transformed and our integrity and heritage as a city is being obliterated. The sale of the Battistone properties is an important event. It feels like the fate of the Battistone properties is the fate of Santa Barbara as a whole.
