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Mayor Randy Rowse talks about challenges for downtown Santa Barbara in News-Press interview DAVE MASON/NEWS-PRESSThe Santa Barbara City Council has delayed action concerning the parklets on State Street.
Clearly frustrated at the slow pace of the Santa Barbara City Council decision-making regarding the future of lower State Street and the pedestrian promenade, Mayor Randy Rowse says his administration is taking steps to address security, homeless and vacancy issues in the downtown area.
Mayor Rowse told the News-Press Wednesday that efforts will begin this summer to provide deep cleaning, supplemental lighting and an increased law enforcement presence downtown to corral wayward skateboarders, deter graffiti, and stop speeding bicyclists and high-powered electric bike riders from colliding with pedestrians.
“There are a few things in the works right now,” Mr. Rowse said. “The first thing is cleaning and lighting.”
The latter “will take care of a multitude of sins,” he said. “Things happening in the dark don’t happen in the light.”
In addition, Mayor Rowse said the city is “actively recruiting” a supplemental police presence dedicated to increasing public safety downtown. He noted that while they will not be sworn officers with the power to arrest, “we’ll be expanding our professional staff down there to provide an authoritative enforcement presence.”
Perhaps most important is that they’ll be able to keep an eye on skateboarders who are not even supposed to be on the street and bicyclists who ride outside their marked lanes.
KENNETH SONG/NEWS-PRESSMayor Randy Rowse, shown above at his election victory party in November, said he wants the city of Sant Barbara to move on to solutions for State Street.“Right now it’s like a little bit of Wild West out there,” Mayor Rowse said. “Any time you get a uniformed presence out there, things get better. People don’t always have to be arrested.
“There are a lot of nuisances that don’t rise to the level of arrests.”
Mr. Rowse, who was elected mayor in November, said he had no problem with the rental e-bikes available downtown, noting they’re “a really cool way to explore downtown State Street,” but the high-powered bikes were not anticipated by the California Vehicle Code.
“We need some type of movement on those. I’d like to see us paint definitive lines marking lanes,” he said.
NEWS-PRESS FILE PHOTO“There are a lot of chronic people we see who need to be housed,” Mayor Randy Rowse said. “It’s not just a problem for another day. Sooner than later something needs to be done.”Regarding the vagrants who line downtown State Street, Mayor Rowse said that dismissing them as a single group called “the homeless” is “simplistic.”
“There are a lot of chronic people we see who need to be housed,” he said, “It’s not just a problem for another day. Sooner than later something needs to be done.”
Mr. Rowse note that the “Dignity Moves” project is designed specifically for transients to “invite” them into housing and that those who need it will be contacted by appropriate social services personnel.
Another approach involves posting police authority letters on the windows of vacant storefronts, which will give police the authority to go into adjacent alcoves, which technically are private property, and clean them out of anyone who shouldn’t be there, including those who set up camps.
The mayor said he’s also been talking with individual State Street building owners on reducing high rents whenever possible, not just for existing businesses but to bring in other businesses to take up space in vacant storefronts.
“I don’t know if government has the power to do anything about that,” he said, adding that he doesn’t like imposing ordinances or taxes on property owners. “When the government tries to step in and put a cap on, it works exactly nowhere,” especially “when we’re not doing our part cleaning up the city.”
KENNETH SONG/NEWS-PRESSPeople navigate through the Farmers Market on State Street. Mayor Randy Rowse told the News-Press Wednesday that efforts will begin this summer on improvements in the downtown area.Besides, he said, most of the landlords he talks to have rents below market rates, even though they’re having to deal with ever-changing, uncertain conditions than the ones that existed when they bought and leased their properties. “They’re not being bad guys. They don’t know what the future looks like.”
He said the city and landlords need to work together. “It’s not a one-sided deal. They need to cooperate with us, and we need to cooperate with them. Let’s work as if it’s a lump of clay, and we have to form the statue together.”
Similarly, Mayor Rowse said it’s unfair that restaurants with outdoor dining parklets continue to face uncertainty when it comes to regulations, rents, parades, portability, cleanliness and stormwater issues, and criticized the ad hoc committee for not doing its job by providing concrete proposals and performance timelines based on ideas generated by staff.
“There were a certain amount of things we wanted” presented at the last city council meeting, he said. “They brought back nothing. The motion for action did not take any action. There was nothing to vote on there. They got the bones but not the meat.
“In my heart of hearts, I do not think the council should bounce around concepts. We’re supposed to receive and ratify and modify those concepts, not brainstorm.”
The council voted 4-3 to send most issues concerning the downtown pedestrian promenade back to committee, and Mayor Rowse said there’s no date set for when the issue will return to the full council.
“Here’s my deal. I don’t want to hear any stories or excuses,” Mr. Rowse said. “I heard the problems. Let’s move to what we think we can do. Let’s move on to solutions. Continuation of the status quo does not make any sense to me.”
email: nhartstein@newspress.com
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