The Return of State Street

Summing up the first quarter of this year is a full discussion involving affordable housing, housing mandates, homelessness, storm impacts, and budgets. All of these issues have a year’s worth of content and require dissection, but …

That herd of elephants meandering through the living room is State Street. This year, 2024, marks the fifth year of the current configuration of eight blocks of the downtown business corridor. The multi-year State Street Master Plan process continues, but the issues of consensus, execution, and financing are still undetermined. We are suffering from business vacancies which, to be fair, were occurring prior to COVID, but other business areas have since been recovering nicely.

Our downtown parking system is in the red, as the lack of traffic downtown is taking its toll. More fees are being considered, but that is not a viable solution for returning life back to the downtown businesses.

Maintaining the status quo is not an option.

The closing of State Street was the correct response to the economic emergency posed by the pandemic, and other cities did the same, allowing parklets in the public right of way to preserve their restaurant businesses. As in other cities, that response has run its course. No data or studies are needed to confirm the obvious.

The property owners and those businesses that remain need an opportunity to survive and not languish while we equivocate.

State Street’s last major reconfigurations included wide, walkable sidewalks, restricted vehicle traffic, defined bike lanes, and activated pedestrian crossings. The initial result created a walkable, bike-friendly Santa Barbara, with capacity for a robust sidewalk dining atmosphere. Trolleys moved folks up and down our El Pueblo Viejo historic design district. Parades celebrated our cultures and traditions. Off-street parking facilities were developed to support downtown businesses, giving people a convenient means to leave their cars behind while frequenting the amenities downtown.

Once we reopen the street, portable barricades can be employed as needed, closing streets to host events, the Farmer’s Market, First Thursdays, or other community happenings. All of these activities are consistent with the stated intentions of the Master Plan, a massive volunteer citizen work effort, which can continue uninterrupted in its development while activity returns to the downtown in the interim period. The closed street has no relation to the Master Plan effort. We can do this immediately. The eventual development of housing in the downtown will be another major key for recovery we can look forward to.

All of us on the City Council have said we want the same things, i.e., vibrancy and vitality in the downtown with housing, restaurants, theaters and retail. We may have differences on how we get to that point or what success may even look like. There are no guarantees with any action, but inaction ensures the status quo. Leave the K-rails to Caltrans. Our downtown deserves better.

Randy Rowse is the mayor of the City of Santa Barbara.