How do you kill businesses, especially the small shops with store front operations? You take away the parking; you force people to carry the good they buy via walking or by bike. You limit the number of people that can visit your shop by taking away parking spaces so visitors to the community are unable to park their cars and buy at your store.
“After more than five hours of discussion and debate, the vote was 5-2, with councilmen Frank Hotchkiss and Randy Rowse opposed, to remove the parking, as part of a vote on the bicycle master plan.
“We need to make Santa Barbara safer for bicycle transportation,” said Councilwoman Cathy Murillo. “I take responsibility for the pain my decision will cause you.”
Own an art shop in the area and your customers will be walking or biking—unable to take home many purchases—now you need a costly delivery service, making your products more expensive. Think someone is going to stock up on office supplies is they have to be carried or biked home? Great way to provide for urban renewal—eventually this area will become a memorial park, a memorial to business and jobs that government killed.
Santa Barbara Council Agrees To Remove Parking on 4 Blocks of West Micheltorena
Huge crowd shows up at City Hall for contentious debate over updating city’s bicycle master plan
By Joshua Molina, Noozhawk, 2/24/16
Micheltorena Street is going green.
In what was possibly the largest crowd ever assembled at Santa Barbara City Hall, the City Council voted late Tuesday night to remove parking on four blocks of West Micheltorena Street to make it safer and more convenient for bicyclists to pedal downtown.
After more than five hours of discussion and debate, the vote was 5-2, with councilmen Frank Hotchkiss and Randy Rowse opposed, to remove the parking, as part of a vote on the bicycle master plan.
“We need to make Santa Barbara safer for bicycle transportation,” said Councilwoman Cathy Murillo. “I take responsibility for the pain my decision will cause you.”
About 130 people filled out speaker slips for the standing-room-only meeting. Attendees stood in the aisles, overflow rooms and in the hallway outside of the council chamber.
Some of them held signs that said “Micheltorena Lives Matter” and “Parking is Precious.”
On the surface, the debate was about whether to remove parking on four blocks, but the proposal spotlighted a variety of deeper philosophical tensions and divisions in the community.
The meeting at times erupted into attitudes about global warming, childhood obesity, healthy vs. sedentary lifestyles, youth vs. age and government vs. business control.
Some of the parking advocates pointed the finger at cyclists, saying they don’t obey the rules of the road, they don’t wear helmets, and that they lack an overall regard for motorists.
Many of those in attendance brought signs to express their opinions. (Joshua Molina / Noozhawk photo)
In the end, the council was convinced that bicyclists deserve more respect on the road.
“Streets are a public good,” said Hillary Blackerby, a member of the city’s Transportation and Circulation Committee. “Streets are for all of us. Removing parking on Micheltorena is hard, but it is the right thing to do.”
Eight city planners and 10 consultants from Melendrez, a Los Angeles-based planning firm, put together the bicycle master plan, which calls for painting bike lanes and the removing 85 parking spaces on both sides of Micheltorena between State and Castillo streets.
The four blocks are just some of the many other changes in the plan update, most of which the City Council agreed unanimously to support.
Santa Barbara is attempting to “close the gaps” in bicycle lane connections all over the city, including painting green lanes on State and Haley streets, as well as shared bicycle and car lanes on Canon Perdido and Cacique streets.
The total cost of all the projects in the bicycle master plan is about $50 million.
The proposal was met with fierce opposition from residents and businesses, many of whom spoke Tuesday night. Many bicyclist advocates also spoke.
When looking at many of the flagship meetings at City Hall over the years, whether it was the original adoption of the city’s living wage, or vacation rentals or debates over off-leash dogs, Tuesday night’s meeting trumped all of them in terms of numbers, drama and intensity.
Mayor Helene Schneider said the meeting was the most people she’s ever seen at City Hall.
Bicyclists said that removing the parking makes it safer for cars and bicyclists and offers a quick way downtown. Many of the residences along Micheltorena lack off-street parking, and some of the driveways along that stretch are old carriage driveways, not deep or wide enough for cars.
Most of the houses are multifamily dwellings.
Several businesses have said that removing on-street parking will have a negative effect on them because customers won’t have anywhere to park to patronize their services.
Councilman Frank Hotchkiss said the bicycle plan needs to work for everybody.
“This has got to be a Santa Barbara plan, not a San Francisco plan, not a Long Beach plan, not a Los Angeles plan,” Hotchkiss said. “To say you have to suffer and give up your business is ridiculous.”
Bicycle advocate Ed France said removing the parking on Micheltorena “is great.”
“This is a bike plan for everybody,” he said. “If you drive, this bike plan will benefit you.”
Councilman Randy Rowse, however, was unconvinced. He said that there’s a monetary value to street parking and that the city shouldn’t just scoop that away because it is unfair to the businesses.
“Government is at its worst when it takes a policy and drops it on a neighborhood,” Rowse said. “I can’t support the Micheltorena part of the plan.”
The City Council is expected to formally approve the master plan and the removal of the parking at its March 15 meeting.
In the meantime, the city plans to review transportation engineer Rob Dayton’s contention that the plan doesn’t need to undergo California Environmental Quality Act review. Some of the speakers insisted Tuesday that the city dropped the ball by not forcing a CEQA review, and hinted at a lawsuit.
”Additional concerns were raised yesterday and today that we have to look at,” City Attorney Ariel Calonne said.
Councilman Harwood “Bendy” White was upset over all the discontent. He called it “the most contentious issue” he’s seen in years.
“I do support the master plan,” White said. “I don/t do it easily or lightly.”
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