For more than 30 years now, Santa Barbarans have been bickering among themselves about whether cars should be taken off State Street and downtown’s main drag be converted into a pedestrian promenade. Now, in a bid to give the city’s economy a desperately needed shot in the arm, what’s long been heralded — and derided — as a pipe dream could finally come to pass.
And maybe as soon as this Memorial Day weekend.
Sparking the absolutely unprecedented speed with which City Hall is now moving is the unprecedented global pandemic that’s left a path of more than 80,000 dead across the United States and a trail of economic ruin 3,000 miles wide. Although the South Coast has thus far escaped the horrific body counts that have ravaged such places as New York City, City Hall finds itself about $33 million in the hole with most businesses — shut down under Governor Gavin Newsom’s orders for two months now — dying on the vine. “Businesses are slowly failing before our eyes, and we don’t even know it,” declared Jason Harris, the city’s new — and first-ever — economic development czar. Harris assumed the post just as the pandemic struck, having left a similar position with the City of Santa Monica, famous for, among other things, its car-free Third Street Promenade.