This year’s Santa Barbara City Council race offers voters in districts 4, 5, and 6 a challenging abundance of thoughtful, smart candidates. We selected those we believe will bring the most energy, independence, smarts, and creativity to a wide range of urgent issues.
Some issues, such as housing, are hardly new. How do we maximize the affordability of new housing? How can we do this while preserving the character of adjoining neighborhoods? And how do we protect economically vulnerable tenants from the city’s escalating gentrification?
And yes, the drought is over, but not really. We’re just one dry year away from being back in the frying pan. Major water decisions that must be made in the next two years will affect our lives beyond the foreseeable future.