State Street shoppers hope for a new year
Siblings Aaron, Olivia and Paulina Sanchez wait in line at Lululemon with their labradoodle dog on State Street in Downtown Santa Barbara Sunday. They are shopping and returning gifts after Christmas, like many other shoppers in line.
New Year’s Resolutions are hard in a year where the world seemed to turn upside down, at least that’s what the general consensus seemed to be on State Street Sunday afternoon.
Post-Christmas returns and shopping brought small crowds (and lots of dogs) to Santa Barbara’s shopping hub. As people waited in line to return not-quite-right Christmas gifts, the News-Press asked: “What’s your New Year’s Resolution?”
Many seemed confused. It hadn’t occurred to them yet.
“I guess people say they want to go to the gym,” one said.
But most gyms are closed until the county reaches the red tier.
“I’m not one of those guys that are gonna say ‘go to the gym’ or anything,” said Jake West. “I just want to be happy and be healthy.”
Part of his goal of being healthy is getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
“We have family in Europe and in the Philippines. So hopefully with the vaccine, hopefully we can get to travel,” he said.
The holiday season has been different for him, but he is optimistic for next year.
“I hope we can get rid of this pandemic and just move forward, and this time next year we can really enjoy ourselves,” he said.
Many resolutions were tied to the pandemic.
“Hopefully we won’t have to restrict as much,” said Paulina Sanchez, who was visiting Santa Barbara with her family. They recently moved from Solvang to Los Angeles.
Her brother Aaron Sanchez seemed to agree.
“I wish to get things back to normal,” he said.
Their sister, Olivia, wanted to cut back on screen time — a habit that’s been amplified by the pandemic.
She was one of few who had a seemingly normal resolution. Many seemed focused on large-scale issues rather than personal improvement, like hitting the gym.
A college student named Isabelle who was out with her family had a practical goal: keep in touch with friends.
She attends the University of Minnesota and is far from many of her classmates. Because of COVID-19, they haven’t been on campus.
Her father, Mark, is just looking forward to a fresh year.
“Well, I’m just hoping 2020 is actually over,” he said. “That would be my number one.”
He would like to get vaccinated in 2021.
When asked if it’s hard to set resolutions this year, his son Matt nodded.
“We just want to fix everything,” he said.
Ruth Marshall was out on State Street enjoying music a small group was playing from a speaker.
She had a resolution for everyone.
“That our integrity would increase and that our selfishness comes into alignment,” she said.
She said it’s okay to be a little selfish, but she wants people to see the larger issues in 2021.
And hopefully, there won’t be many large issues.
email: ahanshaw@newspress.com
