State Street Made Simple

For those heroically grappling with the State Street Master Plan, here’s a four-step plan we are calling State Street Made Simple to bring economic and social vibrancy back to the whole of downtown State Street:

1. Bye-bye bicycles and cars on State north of Gutierrez and south of Sola Street. Re-create Anacapa and Santa Barbara streets from Sola Street to Gutierrez Street to fewer less car lanes (or parking) and some dedicated bike lanes. (We love to ride our bikes downtown to shop and dine, by the way.) Right now, electric motorcycles (“bicycles”?) operated by children are careening up and down State, and somebody is going to be maimed or killed.

2. Create a T-shaped set of routes for free electric trollies. One set of trollies would operate from Leadbetter to the Bird Refuge, or beyond yo the roundabout in Montecito. The other would operate from the very end of Stearns Wharf to Sola Street (bye-bye to most vehicles on the wharf). Both would operate in “funicular” fashion, with a “bulb” for the trollies to pass at mid-points. Think of the joy of riding the cable cars in San Francisco! This trolly path would also create the means to bring in emergency and service vehicles when necessary. It would also encourage visitors to move from the beach areas to visit the lower and middle parts of State Street — areas that are now somewhat blighted.

3. Make the parking lots and garages free. Take the money you save by not manning parking toll booths and use it to maintain and beautify the garages and lots. Downtown will become a shopping destination for locals.

4. Bye-bye to the homeless sleeping on the streets and on benches. For better or worse, the Supreme Court has now given us the tools to make our downtown a non-camping area for the homeless, and we should use this opportunity to pass and enforce a new set of ordinances. (We donate every year to causes that provide desperately needed services and new paths for the homeless, so no, we’re not “homeless haters.”)

Hope this helps.