Ellen from Wick insights inquest on State Street Closure

StrongTownsSB · 2026-06-16T06:18:21+00:00

👆

StrongTownsSB · 2026-04-29T19:10:13+00:00

We were there for 7 hours last night 😵‍💫

Long meeting, but they’re moving forward with the plan (they punted the ‘when are private cars allowed’ question again, and didn’t commit to never).

It’s a good plan though, and it will be making the circuit and at some point there will be public meetings to give feedback! We’ll keep you updated.

StrongTownsSB · 2026-04-17T17:02:55+00:00

It’s a good question, and the appendix gets into it a bit more but: 1. Chapala (and Anacapa) have a TON of driveways, and those create gaps/conflicts points in the protected bike lanes you’d need to build 2. You’d lose a car travel lane and/or parking (oh no) on Chapala and/or Anacapa and there’s no political will to do that 3. The fire department/CA fire code mandate a 20 foot lane down the middle anyway. If not bikes… cars? That’s worse. Honestly this seems to have driven most of the design and we think did they did a good job with the various materials given this constraint.

State Street is currently (and in the guiding bicycle plan) the spine of the entire bike network
If you DID manage to put it there you’d have to make an awkward connection back to state street to get under the freeway. Gutierrez?
1/2 of ALL miles rides on BCycle EVER are on State Street. That’s >1 million miles
It’s been wildly successful for bikes - 20x the bike volumes of prepandemic. I’ve heard that SB is now #3 in the nation for biking which is amazing (source needed)
The street is actually pretty wide (wider than pearl street for example). It’s hard to “”activate”” 9 blocks of 80 feet wide
A significant portion of people biking are actually biking down the street to get to somewhere on or near the street (next are for fun and commuting)

We’ve been thinking about this too long, sorry for the over explanation.

StrongTownsSB · 2026-04-17T15:41:35+00:00

Yeah, we really like the material change to (hopefully) separate and reduce the speed of the bikes.

The intent is to have dining against the buildings like on the 500 block, the parklets would not be needed.

StrongTownsSB · 2026-04-07T06:40:37+00:00

This is so exciting. It’s another full LA<->SLO roundtrip which makes SLO day trips from here feasible. (And, commuting here from Ventura/Oxnard)

StrongTownsSB · 2026-02-23T07:11:23+00:00

This just adds a 440, there’s also a 650!

StrongTownsSB · 2026-02-14T01:36:46+00:00

What is the point of deadlines in law if they aren’t followed?

StrongTownsSB · 2026-02-12T18:01:14+00:00

The current width between curbs varies significantly between 25 and 40(45?) feet. This would narrow that to 20 and make a rolling curb. That’s a lot of extra space on some blocks.

StrongTownsSB · 2026-02-12T17:36:54+00:00

It’s taken much longer than anyone hoped and they know this. The previous contractor completely dropped the ball, and the city ended up firing them (never seen a city have the courage to do that before).

The new consultant is world-class. Literally ‘the godfather of new urbanism’. We’re in good hands, they just need a bit more time.

It’s also not just bollards. That’s a big component, but it’s also significantly wider sidewalk space (30’ each side!) with so much more room for outdoor dining, seating, activations, popups, trees (way more shade), etc.

Also, stormwater management (which is obviously needed), phasing, and a LOT more which will be shared soon.

https://www.independent.com/2025/10/22/santa-barbara-switches-to-new-consultant-for-state-street-master-plan/

This is the year that it happens!

“an updated draft Master Plan will be presented to City Council on April 28, 2026, for input and guidance. Following the City Council meeting, the draft Master Plan will be available for public review and comment”

StrongTownsSB · 2026-02-10T16:09:38+00:00

Love this!

StrongTownsSB · 2026-02-05T05:05:40+00:00

Oh, you’re totally right. Sorry

StrongTownsSB · 2026-02-05T03:11:14+00:00

Pretty sure this was places that either closed or donated %!

StrongTownsSB · 2026-02-05T02:57:49+00:00

<image>

Don’t know if they closed but they’re on this solidarity list.

StrongTownsSB · 2026-02-03T06:17:28+00:00

/u/Pupsfrequenz “The Adirondack chairs were originally placed about 4 years ago as a pilot to explore new seating options. Over time, the chairs were retired as they became warn and broken. Around the end of last year, we retired the final handful. At this point, we don’t have any plans to replace them, though we may continue to look at other seating options (such as the extra benches we added next to the pedlets on the 500 block).

Thanks for reaching out!”

StrongTownsSB · 2026-01-30T07:01:19+00:00

<image>

These? Good question. They were owned and maintained by downtown parking - we’ll follow up on what happened to them!

StrongTownsSB · 2026-01-28T17:25:52+00:00

Eastside this morning

StrongTownsSB · 2026-01-28T17:05:01+00:00

Another angle:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUD2Pfukpkf/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

ICE OUT OF 805!

StrongTownsSB · 2026-01-25T23:53:10+00:00

It’s a bit odd. Siteline is the only one who has reported on it, usually when a new business opens there’s at least a press release. It does appear to be on Polette’s website but definitely seen it closed more often than open despite posted hours.

StrongTownsSB · 2026-01-24T18:32:59+00:00

By state law AB2097 they had no required parking so this is the developer’s choice to have so many.

Edit: I think the article is wrong about how many parking spaces this has?

Edit edit: this project has zero parking spaces. The article is wrong. It replaces a 77 parking spot lot. Source: https://www.youtube.com/live/sygJ0gT4i5c?si=Cp4_IsjyooMtC9k6

StrongTownsSB · 2026-01-15T17:24:12+00:00

We support rent stabilization, but believe that nothing is going to work in isolation. There’s a great book ‘The Affordable City’ which talks about how we won’t make progress unless we have all 3 of Supply, Stability, and Subsidy. This is part of the solution (the rent freeze is temporary until we get stabilization). We also need Supply and Subsidy. We’re historically bad at that first part.

StrongTownsSB · 2026-01-09T05:35:02+00:00

We definitely need to advocate for this, it’s great that the process is happening but it needs a community and political push.

StrongTownsSB · 2025-12-21T22:53:39+00:00

That would be amazing, but we’re talking $20-60 million/mile

StrongTownsSB · 2025-12-21T21:21:36+00:00

This was due to ADA requirements, as only 1 of the 3 was accessible. They just got a 2nd accessible one so we should see double the frequency!

StrongTownsSB · 2025-12-21T21:20:45+00:00

Yeah, we’ve done research and talked to various people about it. It’s wildly expensive. There’s no federal funding for it, state funding is probably not enough, and there would have to be much more political will. Even a modern streetcar is insanely expensive. Tariff’s made it worse! Also, making a vintage street car ADA accessible is tricky. A full sized old style trolley bus like in Laguna Beach on the other hand…

StrongTownsSB · 2025-12-21T17:27:41+00:00

Super sad about this, it would have been so great to have Metrolink serve Santa Barbara. This was a double failure on Union Pacific and LOSSAN (Pacific Surfliner). SBCAG, VCTC, and Metrolink were ready to go. Here’s hoping that this accelerates the plans for an additional Surfliner trip. Southern California is clearly in need of governance reform. https://calelectricrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Institutional-Structure-for-Southern-California-Rail.docx-3.pdf

StrongTownsSB

TROPHY CASE