Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Mesaure D Revived
SBCAG's south county committee met today trying to get Measure D on track once again. The key to success, they hope, will be going for only 1/2 cent increase to the sales tax this time around. This means less money over the projected 30 year term and less projects in the mix. So someone's got to lose. SBCAG won't consider alternatives to widening 101 through Montecito and the cities want to keep getting their 70% share. So things like transit are being lined up for the chopping block. There appears to be about $90M to cover $525M in projects.
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12 comments:
Another anonyblog regarding topics supposedly pertinent to Santa Barbara (yawn).
If you want to earn any credibility, why don't you add links? Or are you afraid that your readers can find out what you're really trying to say?
This is a pathetically thin description of the whole complex issue of Measure D.
I am sticking with Blogabarbara.
dear juan,
please tell your pals at SBCAG that this measure was already voted down, and to stop wasting our tax dollars trying to think of another way to package it.
yours in dollars,
senorita taxpayer
I think you made a valid points here. Good first post. I hope to see more!
Commuter busses are the only answer for 101 clogging. No need to widen it.
As long as Ventura commuters won't change their driving habits, they should just sit in the traffic because this is their choice. This is NOT Santa Barbara's problem.
If you are local, just avoid the freeway for the few rush hours which is a far better alternative than widening the road full-time for this short period of self-inflicted congestion.
How is the commute from Ventura "not Santa Barbara's problem" when the fact is people have moved to Ventura who can't afford to buy a home in SB ; SB's jobs/housing imbalance and lack of affordability is the very reason the majority of these people have moved to Ventura. It is very much "Santa Barbara's problem"...
responding to >>Simple logic
I know it is difficult for us to figure out who has the worst life on this planet. The problem could be that they're aren't enough jobs in Ventura and that's why people commute to Santa Barbara....to get jobs. Twisted logic to you I'm sure but none the less that is another perspective.
It is my beleif that those people commuting into anywhere, Santa Barbara for example, from the north or south are perpretrators as much as they are victims. If you live in Ventura, get a job in Ventura. If you live in Santa Maria, get a job Santa Maria. Now that's simple logic.
In case you hadn't noticed neither Santa Maria nor Ventura are considered "affordable" for housing either. Seems to me that this special class of commuters are driving up the price of real estate as much as anyone.
It is difficult for me to empathize with people who live in quaint little seaside communities from Carpenteria to Goleta, coastal Ventura and the small town feel communities of Lompoc, Santa Maria and then demand that the freeway be widened for each successive generation of poor, poor commuters. Transit is an option that works elsewhere and it can work here as well.
I voted for the last round of Measure D. It was a compromise for me because it would have funded both widening and transit. I actually don't want widening and consider it a waste of pavement and an environmental disaster for the communities that will get the widening. Who in their right mind would want a freeway running through their town let alone continuing to widen it? But I considered the compromise to be the best deal to be had and thought that perhaps one more lane and transit would fix the congestion problem once and for all for all eternity.
It was the Santa Barbara North County right wing anti-governement, anti environment, industrial and supposed taxpayer watchdog groups that sabotaged the compromise. Many did not want to pay to fix the problem between Ventura and Santa Barbara because they thought Ventura should chip in for that project rather than Santa Maria and Lompoc. At least that was the propoganda that hit the airwaves and resulted in a negative outcome in the North SB county.
Recently a co-worker, who lives in Ventura had the choice to work in Thousand Oaks or Santa Barbara. The choice was Santa Barbara because the commute is worse toward Thousand Oaks. So hopefully you'll understand that "It is very much "Santa Barbara's problem"..." is not accurate because this problem is occuring everywhere on this planet.
The commute to Ventura is not a problem unless you claim no commute should last over 15 minutes.
If people want to spend an hour commuting in single passenger cars that clog up the freeway and take and hour to go home, it is THEIR problem.
If they wanted to change the amount of time spent community, taking commuter buses would unclog the freeways and make the commute time shorter.
So since they demand it is their right to have a single car commute and a short time commuting and tell us we have to build them cheap houses in Santa Barbara, I say this is THEIR problem. Not ours.
If Ventura commuters don't want to spend the time commuting, then they are the ones who have to change their habits. That is all
All the houses in Santa Barbara are affordable, because they ALL sell. Just because they area not affordable by ALL people, does not mean they are not affordable for someone.
If they were not ALL affordable, they would not be selling at the prices they are getting.
So I just do not get it - all houses in Santa Barbara are already affordable. And all commutes to this city are okay to those choosing to keep doing them the way they are doing them.
There is no reason to artificially social engineer some goal that is not even appropriate, market driven or necessary.
We are doing fine here in Santa Barbara. Go away and leave us alone if you don't like the way things are getting done. We owe you nothing if you don't like our housing prices or your commute time.
Let's get on with the next issue, who is going to win the SB City Election/
If the only reason Highway 101 was not widened decades ago was the loss of too many trees through the Montecito section, why were no new trees planted decades ago that would have later allowed for this necessary expansion.
Start plantings some NOW so when they finally decide this 101 expansion is the one and only way to go, the new trees will be standing tall and pretty there, after the old ones get cut down to make way for the new lane.
Is this rocket science? No.
So Pedro Nava, get CalTrans to start planting tomorrow. Not a moment too soon. Worst that can happen is we get a few more trees. Best that can happen we can finally get rid of that stupid bottleneck.
Will Dr. Litton, Dr. Cooper and Hotchkiss be running as a neighborhood protection slate in the upcoming city council elections?
The last post on this blog was August 1st. Are we ready to close it down for lack of interest?
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