••• “Parking fees may increase in the City of Santa Barbara lots, with hourly rates rising from $2.50 to $3 and the initial free period dropping from 75 minutes to an hour.” This is despite the fact that “after hourly parking increased from $1.50 to $2.50 last year.” Good luck trying to make sense of the rest of the Independent‘s article.
••• Santa Barbara might be getting an air show. —John Palminteri
Santa Barbara may be seeing the David Schultz Air Show over the ocean off Leadbetter Beach in the fall of 2024. The Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Foundation says it has been approached to make a presentation. The estimated crowd would be 50,000. (photos: https://t.co/IRlhvqOu7y ) pic.twitter.com/r6ZJ818lOT
— John Palminteri (@JohnPalminteri) May 10, 2023
••• “A YouTuber pilot [from Lompoc] has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge for obstructing a federal investigation by deliberately destroying the wreckage of an airplane that he intentionally crashed in Santa Barbara County to gain online views, the Justice Department announced Thursday.” —Noozhawk
••• Another important update from Melinda Burns about how the cannabis situation is broken. —Coastal View News
••• “Santa Barbara Humane has erected storey poles at their Santa Barbara campus [on Overpass Road in Goleta] to detail upcoming construction and renovations.” —Edhat
••• More on DignityMoves’s proposal for a 90-cabin homeless community on Hollister Avenue—and neighbors’ concern over it. —Independent
••• Buried in a Noozhawk item about Open Air Bicycles‘s move to Carrillo and Santa Barbara Street is the news that its former building (1303 State Street) “was sold and the new owner has plans for a toy train station.” So I guess the Bosse Toy Train Museum is expanding into the space next door—and, according to its website, it’s finally open, if only for “private groups for viewings by appointment only.”
••• Trail update from Noozhawk: “Several of the most popular trails are still closed,” due to storm damage, “including Inspiration Point, the upper San Ysidro Trail and the Romero Canyon Trail. There are no estimated reopening dates for the San Ysidro or Romero Canyon trails. ‘Romero is teetering on the edge of just being lost,’ [U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Andrew] Madsen said. […] Signage along the roadway states the Tunnel Trail will be closed through May 19 for repairs.”
••• “Offshore Wind Energy Project near Vandenberg to be West Coast’s First [….] Four wind turbine generators floating in Pacific Ocean could generate electricity to power 16,300 households.” —Noozhawk
••• The Victorian Mansion bed-and-breakfast in Los Alamos has themed rooms: “There’s a 1950’s suite, a gypsy suite complete with a caravan wagon as a bed, or if you’d rather sleep in a chariot, there’s the Roman Suite. Or you can harness your inner Jack Sparrow in the Pirate Suite, or your inner-artist in the French suite. ‘If you stepped into the shower, you see dimensional dancing girls coming at you,’ said [owner Rod] Rigole. He explained that each suite also has its own unique fragrance.” Below: the Cadillac is a bed. —KCLU
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How about the city of SB fires some of the dozens of highly overpaid do-nothing middle managers who suck up millions a year in compensation while producing absolutely nothing in return instead of reducing our series and raising our fees and taxes?
We literally have the lowest performance per employee of any city in the state. We also have the highest number of city employees per capita. And they STILL CANT DO ANYTHING RIGHT.
Total budget / # of employee = output per employee
Total city population / # of employees = largest % in the state.
Instead of reducing the public’s services. Cull the dead weight. We could lose hundreds of people and not even notice a reduction in services.
The city is so poorly managed it’s only a matter of time before its insolvent. Remember, these people give themselves raises and more time off every year while exporting their duty to Consultants and outsourced entities and reducing every aspect of what they are supposed to provide. On every measure, a failure.
Okay, fair. Thanks for the formulas. Can you plug in the actual numbers for us so we can see? If it’s a big story – which it very well may be – then let’s get the details so we can actually hold someone accountable.
It’s not even the spending on salaries on current employees, it’s the spending on the pensions for people who have only ever sat behind a desk. Save pensions for fire and police. Make desk workers get 401ks like the rest of us.
Alright let’s all relax. In the town, they could ask $20 hr, and you could still have to circle the block to find parking.