To our esteemed officials of the city of Santa Barbara,
I want to pass along my adoration and congratulations on an amazing job throughout this crisis. I am especially impressed with the improvements to our beautiful tourist beaches.
I had no idea, until now, that the beaches could look any better, but was pleasantly surprised to find that tents and tarps of various colors actually add an air of European sophistication and joie de vivre that I think takes our lovely American Riviera to the “next level.”
As the heart-warming crowd of cheery campers grows larger each day, I look forward to the day (quickly approaching) when we outpace Venice Beach with our own version of beach-front living for the abject poor. I’m sure our International tourists will be beyond thrilled to know that they won’t have to travel to San Francisco, Seattle, Portland or Los Angeles to get a real sense of what it’s like to live in America.
I’m sure that our local restaurants and hotels are ecstatic with this addition to our tourist draw. Who wants to go to boring old L.A. to view creative solutions to homelessness when they can travel here and see first-hand what millions of dollars in state and federal aid, and numerous highly funded NGOs, can do to easily solve the problem. Whoever came up with the idea of just simply ignoring municipal codes and letting people live wherever they want is a genius.
I’m thinking of building my own house down near the wharf with a view of the harbor, and have started working with an architect to draw up some plans. I’m a bit worried about the climate crisis, however, so I’ll probably do something on stilts.
Once again, great job! You guys rock!
Anne West
Native Santa Barbaran