An impassioned crowd of more than 400 filled SBCC’s Garvin Theatre this Wednesday for a mayoral debate cohosted by the Santa Barbara Independent, KCRW, and the SBCC Foundation. Though the event — one of the last public appearances by the five candidates before one is crowned the winner next month — retrod many of the same topics and information covered in previous debates, it also featured new and pointed questions of each contender.
The Independent’s Nick Welsh set up the first direct question by joking that babies born at Cottage Hospital receive birth certificates printed with the phrase “Santa Barbara, the birthplace of the environmental movement.” How, Welsh asked Hotchkiss — a far-right Republican and climate-change nonbeliever — could he represent a city with such different environmental sentiments than his own?
Hotchkiss responded that predicted climate-change catastrophes — such as the forecast that much of Santa Barbara would flood should the Greenland ice caps melt — “have not come about for various reasons,” and that policies like Santa Barbara’s initiative to go fossil free by 2030 are based on political opportunism, not sound science or smart economics. His statements drew audible grumbles from the crowd. Hotchkiss was similarly rebuffed when asked about the city’s affordable-housing shortage. “I wish I could be more hopeful to those who want to stay here, but honestly, you probably have to go elsewhere or find a way to make more money.”
