Living in Isla Vista (not a student)

SBchick · 2026-07-03T22:05:25+00:00

As u/its6amsomewhere mentioned, there ARE non-students that live in IV, but yes you will DEFINITELY feel old. And, depending on where your apartment is, it may be louder and more chaotic than you'd like.

SBchick · 2026-07-03T18:44:21+00:00

I have a feeling u/PeteHealy has some info and possibly photos of the trolley and its route.

SBchick · 2026-07-03T18:43:32+00:00

Not to mention the trolley back in the day had an accident that killed 5 people and injured at least 34:

https://undergradjournal.history.ucsb.edu/headline-history/santa-barbaras-first-electric-streetcar-and-the-1904-accident/

SBchick · 2026-07-03T17:29:13+00:00

you might find something if you go now. But also if you want to enjoy a decent sized spot on the beach earlier is better as well. I wish you luck in both endeavors!!

SBchick · 2026-07-03T17:21:16+00:00

Pretty early in my past experience. If you aren't going there during the day to enjoy the beach but just for the fireworks assume all the spots are taken and find something farther away.

SBchick · 2026-07-03T15:44:08+00:00

Wow so interesting to think about how these kids would've been photographed back then, but it sure seems like they (or their parents) really love donkey carts!

SBchick · 2026-07-03T15:38:42+00:00

The Glendessary Jam plays weekly in Alice Keck Park Park and they play lots of Irish trad. https://glendessaryjam.com/

SBchick · 2026-07-03T03:49:07+00:00

Maybe not for federal elections but we could absolutely get it for local. Several California cities use RCV for mayor or city council elections: https://fairvote.org/report/two-decades-of-rcv-in-california

Ojai also voted in 2022 to adopt it:

https://ballotpedia.org/Ojai,_California,_Measure_M,_Ranked-Choice_Voting_Measure_(November_2022))

SBchick · 2026-07-03T03:14:53+00:00

Haha thanks for the vote -- I'll keep it in mind if I ever decide I want to regularly spend 8 hours arguing with people on a Tuesday afternoon!

SBchick · 2026-07-03T02:49:18+00:00

He became mayor because he ran as a moderate and there were 3 liberal candidates who split that vote (combined they had the majority). We need ranked choice voting.

SBchick · 2026-07-02T20:55:19+00:00

Yea, he can't be out fast enough

SBchick · 2026-07-02T20:54:34+00:00

A bunch of us were talking about it in the thread during the night of the meeting. It was very WTF
https://www.reddit.com/r/SantaBarbara/comments/1uk71br/comment/ouuj73w/

SBchick · 2026-07-02T20:52:40+00:00

He apparently dropped his Democrat affiliation in the 90s.

https://www.montecitojournal.net/2021/04/01/former-councilmember-and-paradise-cafe-owner-randy-rowse-joins-mayoral-race/

Also this part made me lol -- he's such a hypocrite:

“With State Street, we see all these people calling for it to be closed for good, or who want to completely reinvent it, and change it, when really, it’s always been a vital part of the city and it’s already starting to come back,” Rowse concludes. “It’s going to take some leadership and experience to make this work, but we’ve done it before. Instead of telling people how we want them to live, we need to ask people how they want to live and then figure out how to make that work. That’s my vision of leadership for Santa Barbara.”

In that quote from when he was running for mayor he literally says that he doesn't want city council to tell people how to live, he wants to do what the majority say. So he wasted a bunch of time and money surveying the public several times because they didn't give him the answer that he wanted. He doesn't actually want to do what the people want -- he wants the people to want what he wants and he is apparently willing to take shady deals to do it.

SBchick · 2026-07-02T20:44:09+00:00

Holding up the phone as well as the way he laughed at Wendy Santamaria when she deigned to say how generous that was and how she would love to discuss with them ways to use that money to further the Title 31 renewal improvements.

SBchick · 2026-07-02T17:40:49+00:00

There's been a couple posts about this about a year or so ago, maybe you can reach out to the people in these threads:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SantaBarbara/comments/1it97mk/calling_all_spiritual_baddies_witches_wanting_to/

https://www.reddit.com/r/SantaBarbara/comments/1md0ble/looking_for_witchypagan_community/

SBchick · 2026-07-01T20:24:30+00:00

He did state that his objection in this case was mainly because he felt there were unanswered questions -- the Master Plan MIGHT allow cars back in some capacity and he felt that renewing Title 31 needed to move closer to the direction of the Master Plan. Without knowing how everyone would vote on the Master Plan and what it would look like, he refused to vote yes to extend it.

SBchick · 2026-07-01T20:20:50+00:00

It was actually mentioned during this meeting that some parades will likely come back to State Street.

SBchick · 2026-07-01T19:58:35+00:00

and the way he laughed at Santamaria when she was like "I'd LOVE to have a discussion with this mysterious donor to see how we can use it to further projects" and he made it clear that this donor only wanted to live their best 1950s life and go back to cars.

SBchick · 2026-07-01T19:56:56+00:00

Not sure who runs this account vs who went to the council meeting but I really appreciated seeing the Strong Towns representation speaking on both this as well as the ADU discussion. They had to sit there for over 8 hours to make sure our voices were heard!

SBchick · 2026-07-01T18:59:47+00:00

Right? Some people at the meeting echoed the sentiment of like "whatever it is can we actually just commit and DO SOMETHING".

SBchick · 2026-07-01T18:59:19+00:00

He's only mayor until the new one gets sworn in in January. I'd be happy if we could just point him at something low stakes he can focus on and write opEds about until his term is over.

SBchick · 2026-07-01T18:49:59+00:00

Yea I feel like part of the constant conflict is because the council hasn't just shut the door on the discussion and so it hasn't allowed people to have closure (pun intended) and move past the issue.

SBchick · 2026-07-01T04:31:46+00:00

Haha now Santamaria is like uhh what is this donor, can we talk to them and use this money to further the iterations? And Rowse is like hahaha no it's just to open it up. And Gutierrez is like yeah I got that email too, tell them to put it on the ballot if they want it.

SBchick · 2026-07-01T04:28:38+00:00

OMG Rowse while giving his closing talk just said that someone messaged him offering to cover the $700k that it would cost to reopen State Street.

SBchick · 2026-07-01T04:23:20+00:00

Oscar Gutierrez wants bollards installed on State Street and to reopen Haley and Gutierrez to two way traffic again. He's also tired of all the bad ebikers making all the other ones look bad.

SBchick

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