DID YOU KNOW? Bonnie Donovan
Mayor Randy Rowse
We certainly applaud the much needed leadership that carries a vision for the long-term future instead of the reactionary Band-Aids we have suffered with over the last decade in city government.
Thank God for Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse, who said the ad hoc committee comes with no ideas to enhance State Street and just kicks the can down the road.
They are between a rock and a hard place. They cannot reconcile themselves to meeting the practical demands of the citizens of Santa Barbara with the mandates of the Democratic National Committee.
Any restaurant with a parklet wants to keep it for the obvious reasons: It doubles their seating capacity and enhances their income. But we cannot let their interests supersede the needs and the shared traditions of the people of Santa Barbara.
As Mayor Rowse says, we can incorporate what is good for restaurants with the prevailing greater good. But we are now graced with a mayor having the common sense of a long-term successful business owner who understands both sides of any issue that the city faces — from homelessness to State Street vacancies. And he understands how the issues are interconnected.
Mayor Rowse duly notes the mayhem that presently occurs on State Street as a holdover from the previous leadership, whose neglect of the problems allowed this condition to exist. Pedestrians are being hit by EBikes, and skateboarders are illegally present in the downtown corridor.
Thankfully our mayor is addressing these problems and insisting on real solutions.
He expresses his disappointment with the lack of resolve from the Ad Hoc committee, “for not doing its job by providing concrete proposals and performance timelines based on ideas generated by staff.”
He went on to say during a News-Press interview last week, “… I do not think the council should bounce around concepts. We are supposed to receive and ratify and modify those concepts, not brainstorm.”
Mayor Rowse says that continuation of the status quo does not make any sense to him. We could not agree more. At least our mayor has mustered the courage and went on record dissenting over the Santa Barbara City Council’s decision to kick the can down the road when it comes to the issue of State Street and parklets. Maybe we have finally found someone in local government worthy of a position in politics.
We have determined two major ways that lead us down the road to destruction — whether that be on a local, state, or a national level. All too often, misguided and potentially unlawful or overreaching unilateral decisions are being made by our leaders. The other one, equally destructive, is a dearth of leadership or the unwillingness to be proactive. One does not contradict the other.
An example of this unilateral decision-making is Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is moving to provide benefits to all Californians regardless of immigration status. We imagine that he will be using our surplus that he garnered in this year’s budget and spending it on this agenda rather than addressing issues that affect our (legal residents;) quality of life present and future: homelessness, repairing infrastructure, building a meaningful statewide water distribution system, and/or returning it to the lawful abiding citizens of his state.
Here’s another overreaching decision. Gov. Newsom is at it again. Before it was his own dining experience at the French Laundry while the rest of us were given orders to stay home during COVID-19. Now it’s banning travel to states that don’t support his political position, while he goes to a state for which he has forbidden other Californians to go: Montana. Is he buying property?
Besides ignoring our infrastructure and the sanctity of our borders, Gov. Newsom is now forbidding state employees to travel to any state in the union that is restricting LGBTQ+ legislation.
We agree with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who responded, “It’s unfortunate California state employees won’t be able to travel here and visit all the businesses that have fled their state.”
Look for a ricochet to all these restrictions. That is the law of human nature. Americans will not be subjected to travel restrictions in general. If their ultimate goal is to control the
populous, the pendulum will swing.
Did you know Carpinteria will now bill you for owning property above ground water? They keep adding fees to private property owners and wonder why rents go up. Yes, this will only be 10 or $20 depending on the size of your land, but the city of Carpinteria does this on many things: water and trash hikes, school bonds etc.
It’s another version of making property owners relinquish their mineral rights. They can tax you right off your property, and price you into the street and into government housing all done by exorbitant increases in utilities.
Another huge issue right now facing Santa Barbara and other high-profile communities up and down the state is this fiasco called Pacaso. City Attorney Ariel Colonne, who is unwilling to step up and follow suit with other local communities to keep out Pacaso, refrains from taking action. What is Pacaso, you ask? It is fractional ownership in an estate, perhaps too costly for the normal family to own. It is an oversized, over-aggrandized timeshare much like a vacation rental. Advertised as the modern way to own a second home, responsibility shared, eight owners perhaps.
For example, here in SB, a $12 million property in Montecito was advertised as an investment opportunity for a fractional timeshare. Strongly objecting neighbors placed “No Pacaso” signs everywhere, and the owners backed out of the deal. This is a fine example of community standing its ground and gleaning good and fair results to protect and preserve traditional neighborhoods.
Based upon discussion with several legal scholars and lawyers, the Roe vs. Wade decision that was made by the U.S. Supreme Court was the correct decision. Rather than accepting the judicial branch’s decision on the matter, AOC, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Newsom, and U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, have gone into protesting and whining mode. A dangerous precedent to set as the high court should always remain free of lobbying and influence.
Instead, they could have accepted the decision graciously and turned their attention to the fact that this simply returns the authority over these matters to the states. Exactly what Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg believed, that the states were the governing body to oversee this life and death issue.
“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth. Life without liberty is like a body without spirit. Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity.”
— March 2,1788, letter from George Washington to James Madison.
