It is so sad all the comments by folks with no idea what actually happens for State Street business. Being a business owner downtown for 35 years, maybe I can shine a light on the misinformation and lack of information.
• Parades haven’t gone away, they just moved over a few blocks.
• E-bikes are a problem that needs to be solved: Tell the mayor and city council to get off their asses and do something now.
• Any business in this economic climate relying on a possible lookie-lou randomly discovering their business while driving by isn’t going to survive anyway.
• Parades are terrible for retail business — people who want to shop stay away (no parking, but traffic and crowds) and people going to the parades don’t shop — it’s many of our worst sales day of the year.
Let’s keep the street closed to cars and do the pedestrian walk right, not this half-baked thing we have now. Cars will not help and it’s time to stop living in the past with fond memories of cruising — exactly how many sales did that turn into?
The retail business economy and Santa Barbara’s anti-business, crummy permitting structure, and insane amount of taxes is the main cause of retail failure. Do State Street right with the city, community, businesses, radio, and TV all working together to put on weekly and multiple fun events to drive folks downtown — the city isn’t doing it, the downtown organization does barely anything, no one is taking this opportunty to make downtown a success.
