••• “Santa Barbara County’s redistricting commission met for more than nine hours Saturday before choosing a final map [above] that splits the county into five supervisorial districts using 2020 U.S. Census data.” —Noozhawk (Note: “The redistricting commissioners [subsequently] made some modifications Wednesday. That map will be posted publicly later this week and adopted at a Monday meeting, according to the commission.” —Noozhawk)
••• Related: “The 3rd District underwent the most change, with I.V. removed, most of Goleta moved in, Lompoc moved almost entirely into the 3rd District from the 4th, and the Lompoc Valley swapped into the 4th from the 3rd.” —Independent
••• The Santa Barbara Airbus is now “picking up and dropping off passengers in La Cumbre Plaza on the side of the former Sears building at 3845 State Street” instead of behind the Mar Monte Hotel. “Pick up and drop-off locations for Goleta and Carpinteria remain unchanged.” —KEYT
••• “A new state law allows homeowners to split their houses into four separate units, but it won’t be legal in high-fire and extreme high-fire hazard areas of Santa Barbara’s foothills. The Santa Barbara City Council on Tuesday voted 7-0 to create an emergency ordinance making the homes in the foothills exempt from the law. In addition, any homeowner who splits the lot and rents the units must rent them at or below moderate-income levels.” —Noozhawk
••• “The Carpinteria Planning Commission unanimously approved a new multi-use path connecting Carpinteria Avenue and Santa Claus Lane, and filling a missing link in the 1,200-mile California Coastal Trail. The 0.8-mile path would stretch along the southern edge of Highway 101 from the intersection of Sand Point Road and Santa Claus Lane […] and it will include a ‘dedicated bike and pedestrian path’ scheduled to be completed in 2023. […] Santa Barbara County is currently in the process of approving its section of the trail, which extends about 820 feet of the trail on the Santa Claus Lane side.” —Independent
••• “Santa Barbara Mayor Cathy Murillo scored a significant rent control policy victory Tuesday night, but it’s unclear if it will hold up once mayor-elect Randy Rowse takes office on Jan. 11. The City Council voted 4-3 to kickstart an ordinance that would cap annual residential rent increases at 2% for apartments, plus an annual consumer price index adjustment.” —Noozhawk
••• “A magnitude 3.4 earthquake startled some residents on the south coast of Santa Barbara County Wednesday night. The earthquake was first reported around 10:38 p.m. about five miles southeast of Carpinteria.” —KEYT
••• “A sleek new culture hub [in Moscow] opened its doors on Saturday evening with an art event Muscovites had been awaiting for years. But the spectators at the inauguration of the vast new GES-2 museum had not come to see paintings or sculptures. They were watching ‘Santa Barbara.’ Every day through March 22, 2022, a team of 80 actors and technicians is carrying out the vision of the Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson by re-creating, filming and editing episodes of that American soap opera in front of a live audience at the museum.” —New York Times
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No Josh, Cathy scored nothing. I’m using my sarcastic voice as I write this. For the past ten, maybe twenty years the city has been doing studies of State street and how to revitalize it. But in one week Oscar and Cathy put on the agenda an issue that could impact every renter and rental property owner in SB. Wow, it passed, Kristen asked the right questions, but she still voted for it. That doesn’t make sense. And to council member Alejandra G. you were brilliant as the clocked passed 11:30pm.
Agree with Dan. We sure dodged a bullet voting Mayor Murillo out of office. Hopefully the city is better served by a political centrist in Randy Rowse.
Not that the two are particularly connected, but we continue to watch State St. continue its shameful decay. Walking down the street yesterday morning, I can’t find even a single stained brick or untended plant that’s been replaced on her term. On the other hand she used her energy to rush through a radical rent control policy that will be counterproductive to our housing problem in the long-term.
2% rent control in SB has the effect of making buildings here a worse investment for ANY owner – from a first-time individual to a megacorp – than the alternatives, like investing in property out of state, or putting that money into the stock market. Making investing in residential property less attractive will ultimately reduce supply as fewer dollars flow into building new housing or improving the stock that exists. We currently can’t house most people who work here let alone all those who want to move here – we are short on supply. Yes, we’re wedged between the ocean and the mountains with relatively little space to build compared to most cities. But, if you look around, there’s plenty of space that could be developed into quality residential units… that’s vastly less likely to happen with policies such as the one Mayor Murillo tried to ram though that are hostile to those willing to take a personal risk to build housing in this city.
Welcome Mayor Rowse, and I hope you’ll make better decisions for our city.