DID YOU KNOW? Bonnie Donovan
“The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, self-discipline, sacrifice for the common good, and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate,” said Pope Benedict XVI during his only visit to the United States. “It also demands the courage to engage in civic life and to bring one’s deepest beliefs and values to reasoned public debate.”
It is hard, it is exhausting, and as Pope Benedict said, it takes courage to work for the common good.
Locally, if we don’t stand up and band together, we will lose the grace, charm and unique qualities that make Santa Barbara such a grand place to live and to visit.
Some of the extremely vital issues before us, besides the condition of State Street, and the Modoc Preserve, is now that we are facing the imminent closure of our La Cumbre Plaza within the next five years! If we are to lose our Macy’s at La Cumbre, why not put Macy’s back where it formerly was in Paseo Nuevo, try and really work at making that downtown mall vital and thriving again, and bring retail back the way we have enjoyed not that many years ago.
Bottom line, we need retail in downtown Santa Barbara. Let’s save our town so that we can go shopping, try on the jeans, rather than order three pairs online and send back two. How green is that? Instead, during in-person shopping, you can feel the fabric and have a choice. At the same time, you can enjoy being with your friends, shopping downtown.
We still have some good shops there. Banana Republic has great clothes and good sales.There are the Gap and the Gap for Kids and many other shops, not to mention the Metro Theatre movie houses, and Center Stage Theater, as well as many other shops.
By the way, we hear that the Santa Barbara City Council is in dialogue with a company out of New York to revitalize our Paseo Nuevo. We hope the City Council is prudent and does not make it so difficult that new investors walk away from what is an opportunity to rebuild a tried-and-true center of community and commerce.
Speaking of the closing of Macy’s at La Cumbre, why couldn’t the Macy’s building stay in place at La Cumbre. and above the parking on the State Street side, someone could build apartments? To an extent. A developer wouldn’t have to build as many as 700 housing units perhaps and keep the mall parking.
With the rains, welcome as they are, the roads in our area are a disaster, it took 45 minutes to get across town, zigzagging through street closures, normally a 15-minute drive.
Since both the West Side and East Side flooded and were blocked with mud, freeway onramps closed due to the overflow, where is the escape route for Santa Barbara residents? Wouldn’t it have been nice to have been able to use State Street when Garden, Chapala, Castillo, Bath, etc.were all closed due to mud and water?
On the subject of muddied waters, the rampant hypocrisy in our government shows no end in sight, and bare-faced lies are the order of the day.
President Joe Biden and others continue to bleat how much we must sacrifice for “the kids” and their rights. Their right to equity in education and role modeling, which only the teachers and administrators, we are told, are best able to provide, and it will be legislated! Don’t forget the youngster’s right to gender choice. The parents of the children are sidelined and apparently so are some children — no matter their race or social standing. Just depends on if you are an insider or an outsider, so to speak.
Yesterday instead of protecting the children they purport to care for so much, the children who survive abortion, were voted against. In fact, 64 Catholics — all Democrats — voted against the measure called The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Gratefully for these survivors, the bill still passed this week. How horrible that we must legislate laws to protect the helpless from agencies that claim freedom of choice.
Another related bill (H.Con. Res.3) also passed this week, which condemned violence against pro-life organizations. This addressed attacks on women’s clinics, churches and pro-life facilities, which have experienced approximately 200 acts of fire bombings, vandalism and violence since May. Why would U.S. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, vote against both bills, which are simply a stand against violence?
However, once again Congressman Salud Carbajal just asked for help on his New Year’s Resolutions. No. 7 on his list is “fighting back against attacks on abortion rights.” If that represents 50% of the population, why is he not representing his constituents equally, the other 50%? Shouldn’t violence against any part of the population be forefront in what our government does to protect its citizens?
Freedom is why people come here, and why people fought to create this free nation in the first place. Yet now we see that protection is only served to those who agree with those in charge.
By the way, first on his list is to “combat climate change.” Isn’t that leading the witness?
Ironically, President Joe Biden and company say they want to protect children who have asthma. The president’s “green” proposals continue to focus on the eradication of natural gas, an abundant resource in the USA. Now they want to ban gas stoves in homes due to the claim that 12% of children with asthma COULD have problems.
Wouldn’t the prudent normal response be for those families with an asthmatic child to purchase an electric stove? Who is it who thinks they have the right to decide for the rest of the population whether they can cook with gas or must use electric?
The clean energy battle of electric vs. gas is another bare-faced green lie, or at least a difference of opinion depending on where the facts are trolled.
Yet the ban makes no sense from a science-based perspective since the electric stoves that would replace gas ones would be powered by fossil fuels, including coal and oil. Gas stoves are more efficient than normal electric stoves, and the cheapest induction stoves cost approximately twice as much as basic gas stoves. They also need special pots and pans to work.
A recent report from the Department of Energy stated that the cost of clean electricity is four times higher than the cost of natural gas. All one has to do is compare their gas and electric bills to see the difference in cost.
We have choices. It has never been one size fits all.
In fact, that size does not fit anyone.
