Some of Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse's lefty city council colleagues like to portray the eight, shut-down blocks of State Street as a venue of "celebration" and "dancing in the street."
Which makes Hizzoner's eyes roll far, far back into his skull.
"A party in a vacant lot can be really fun, but after the party's over, it's still a vacant lot," Randy said, in a conversation with Gwyn Lurie, Josh Molina, and the gential host of Newsmaker TV, as he returned this week for a new, special "Ask the Mayor" edition.
Rowse's long-held and well-placed concern that the city is helping to sap the vitality of retail business on its main, um, business corridor, was triggered anew when a one-vote majority on council once again refused to rescind even two blocks of the pandemic-era closure of State Street to traffic (that's four years and counting for those keeping score at home), the better to kowtow to a callow cohort of over-educated geniuses whose starry-eyed utopianism has turned downtown in the 405 freeway for e-bike buccaneers whose antics have strolling citizens forced to cheat death each time they dare set foot into the erstwhile "Promenade."
"Is State Street wonderful now?" he asked, with perhaps a slight hint of sarcasm in his voice.
On other issues, Rowse:
Hawked the virtues of Measure I, the proposed half-cent sales tax hike on the Nov. 5 ballot, all but challenging the skeptical host to pistols at dawn, in arguing that the increase is necessary to close a chronic shortfall in the $667 million budget, while swearing an oath that City Hall never again will seek such a boost (mostly because we'll hit the state's legal limit on sales tax if this one passes, but still...).
Heralded the "huge success" of the city's new FARO Center (for "Fostering Access, Resilience and Opportunity," or Spanish for "lighthouse"), a one-stop hub for homeless folks to get help navigating government and non-profit agencies to locate employment, housing, health, mental health, and other services, and added that Santa Barbara is making progress on an intractable problem he acknowledged "will never be (fully) solved."
Expressed opposition to Proposition 33, a statewide ballot measure that would repeal California law that currently restricts the ability of local governments to impose rent control on landlords; the issue has emerged as a defining difference between candidates in the campaigns for council in Districts 1 and 3, and Rowse defended District 1 incumbent Alejandra Gutierrez, whose determinative vote against rent control would be lost if she is defeated by challenger Wendy Santamaria, against charges of excessive absences from City Hall, citing a series of health problems which she suffered.
Randy also waded into that big kerfuffle over county planning officials trying to elbow the Montecito Planning Commission out of the way in a major controversy over big foot developer Rick Caruso's bid for a vast expansion of luxury retail space at the Miramar; begged off joining the panel's pile-on of Das Williams; and bit his tongue over a proposal by council member Oscar Gutierrez to use Super Glue to install traffic bumps in order to slow down those pesky e-bikes.
There were no injuries.
All this and more, right here, right now, on Newsmakers TV.
JR
Check out our conversation with Mayor Randy Rowse via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast is version is here. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight, M-F, at 8 p.m., and on weekends, S-S, at 9 a.m. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts us on Monday at 5:30 p.m.
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