FAR OUT: For what was a unanimous vote, it was about as disagreeable as things could get.
Little wonder.
The hot debate at this week’s Santa Barbara City Council was over housing. Specifically, it was over proposed development rules designed to entice private developers to build rental housing on State Street — and throughout the whole central business district — with unprecedented earnestness. In exchange, we are promised, 10-15 percent of those new units will be made “affordable” to moderate-income households. In the process, we are told, Santa Barbara’s long-struggling urban core will be re-galvanized as hundreds — if not thousands — of new residents begin to live, breathe, work, play, shop, and pray downtown 24/7.