Santa Barbara is a city in the throes of an identity crisis, and nothing illustrates this crisis quite like our upcoming election for mayor.
Some envision our city as one built for wealthy landowners and designed to attract wealthy tourists. In that city, ordinary folks are welcome to work here, so long as they live somewhere else. In that city, roads unimpeded by public walkways are crowded in traffic. That city’s government decries the inhumane immigration policies of the Trump administration, while it denies any ability to provide concrete help.
There’s a second vision of our city, one that respects how the city is built on the backbone of families from all backgrounds, many with deep roots here. That city does the difficult work of slowing the accelerating cost of renting housing while it develops more affordable housing in a way that preserves our local character and environment. In that city, our immigrant communities have a true advocate in City Hall, one who is willing to work to change city policies and provide real assistance.
The first vision of the city is friendly to a group like Indivisible Santa Barbara. The second supports Indivisible’s local initiatives, and provides Indivisible with the right to use city parks and streets for its No Kings events. In that second vision of the city, AI-driven mass surveillance cameras from Flock and other companies are forever banned from the city limits.
We get it. There are some who prefer the first vision of the city we’ve described over the second. Certainly, there are more opportunities in that first city for wealthy people to add to their wealth. But our vote for mayor is for that second vision of our city, one that supports the working class over the moneyed class, one that defends our city’s historic diversity and values the lives of all of its residents.
Our vote for mayor is for Kristen Sneddon.
