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State Street Serenade
Novelist Being Audrey Hepburn, Things I Can’t Explain. Creator Clarissa Explains it All and more. Writer for The New Yorker, LARB, National Lampoon, and Saturday Night Live
The City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday, May 19, 2020, to allow restaurants to create “parklets,” placing tables six feet apart in front of their restaurants with planters on the sidewalks past the tables to delineate a less formal boundary. Blocks of State Street would be closed at the 500 and 1200 blocks. This initial small measure is helpful in the short term and would hopefully lead to more aggressive steps to reinvigorate Santa Barbara’s Downtown going forward.
Venerable State Street has been historically important since the town’s inception when, according to the Downtown Santa Barbara Organization, saloons, dry goods stores, hotels, blacksmith shops, bordellos, adobes, feed stores, a few Victorian houses, a clock tower and even one puppeteer, lined the old dirt street. It makes you wonder what the puppeteer was up to. Were there really enough birthday parties?
It’s easy to imagine a Mediterranean open plaza, like this one in Croatia, working here
For decades State Street has been the hope or bane of Santa Barbara’s existence. Today, the moment of truth has arrived as a groundswell of public opinion favors the Mediterranean town square model: closing State Street to traffic and opening up the street to pedestrians, retail and outdoor dining, in hopes of making the city vibrant again while remaining within social distancing guidelines.
impending shell of Nordstrom, a hollowed-out Macy’s, and an unoccupied Staples, Downtown has at least six massive vacant structures unlikely to be occupied anytime soon.
Watching last week’s City Council meeting seemed like checking in on a cranky old relative who isn’t feeling very well. This week’s meeting was livelier if more contentious which is probably a good sign. The Council has awakened. The moment of truth has arrived. Now they have to navigate the first COVIDrelated budget with transparency to build trust and take continued action while there may just still be time.
A significant number of people called into the last two web-based City Council meetings explicitly supporting the preliminary opening of State Street. At the same time other voices were less than confident about the anticipated opening, wondering whether people would be socially reckless. Gathering homeless, especially in these dire times, are a worry both as a welfare issue and as a concern for business.
Many question how proactive the city’s first steps are and whether it still lacks a fundamental vision – a comprehensive understanding and master plan for how to navigate the dire months ahead. Councilwoman Kristen Sneddon, in a recent interview, spoke candidly about this subject.
Just Shy of a Ghost Town
But let’s take our Wayback Machine way back to just three months ago. Pre-COVID State Street was bleeding retail and restaurants, leaving empty storefront windows in the wake. Now, with three vacant movie theatres, the
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The Need for a Larger Vision
“I’ve been a proponent of closing down State Street to cars since I came into office (in November of 2017). I ran on the opening of State Street as part of my campaign,” remarked the council member. “I’m all for it, but there seems to be a panic to just do something without thinking it through. We need the larger vision or at least a framework for how we discuss what that vision is.”
With these immediate closures some kind of incremental change has begun. Hope has been rekindled. It would be good however to really get a sense of possibilities and whether the City will move off its presumed role as merely a regulator and fully embrace being a supporter or even a facilitator of business and initiate new progressive designs or revert to its narrower role. “Grand reopening” doesn’t mean you just spend one grand on it.
Short term measures may help some merchants and restaurants but it’s not going to fill the seventy plus vacancies on State Street or even bring back the street’s February 2020 levels of occupancy. In all likelihood the new State Street will be even more empty than it was before. These new steps may be a lifeline for some but too late for many.
One important way the City could breathe new life into Downtown would be to fully visualize and present a full understanding of where commerce is going, how this new iteration works and, most importantly, how we get there.
Your Montecito and Santa Barbara Real Estate Agent
Social Distancing, Arlington Plaza (rendering by 2017 Charette: Team 9)
Montecito | Hope Ranch | Santa Barbara | Goleta
WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER DURING COVID-19
MONTECITO WATER DISTRICT IS CONSIDERING CHANGES TO HOW IT CHARGES FOR WATER SERVICE
We’ve heard from our customers, who want their drinking water to come from local, reliable supplies with stable, predictable, and affordable rates.
More information on the proposed rate plan is available at www.montecitowater.com.
While at this time the State of California continues to observe Governor Newsom’s Stay at Home order, we know customers are all looking forward to phases of reopening. For any buildings that will be reoccupied after a prolonged absence or water use interruption, here are some important tips: • Buildings and large service connections such as commercial properties and institutions that shut down or significantly reduce water use have an increased risk of Legionella growth, low disinfectant (chlorine) levels, and leaching of lead and copper. • It is recommended that these properties flush hot and cold points of use (e.g., sink faucets, showers). • The purpose of building flushing is to replace all water inside building piping with fresh water. Flushing may need to occur in segments (e.g., floors or individual rooms) due to facility size and water pressure. • Flush until the hot water reaches its maximum temperature. Then flush cold water for the same time frame. • Further resources are available at the CDC website:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/building-watersystem.html Reminder: Customers can continue to use and drink tap water as usual.
Montecito Water District is delivering water that meets the highest quality standards. California’s comprehensive safe drinking water standards include disinfection processes for drinking water which are effective against viruses, including coronaviruses such as COVID-19.
