By Cheri Rae
I don’t know when red-tiled roofs gave way to red brick sidewalks, crosswalks and planters, but suddenly bricks are everywhere in America’s Riviera, where they’ve never been before. Apparently bricks are the latest fad in urban planning, and Santa Barbara has embraced them in a big way.
We’ve reacted to the roundabout and rebuffed the bulbout, but now we now have a whole new kind of corner to cope with: the red brick blob.
Where one might expect a colorful grouping of California natives, or even some Santa Barbara daisies, we have a bunch of oddly shaped cement curb configurations filled with bricks meticulously cut to fit.
They give a whole new meaning to the term “brick planter.”
I still haven’t figured out the point of planting bricks where greenery belongs, but I’m guessing it’s about the economy—because everything is about the economy these days.
But in the spirit of greening our city—the Most Important Thing in Santa Barbara—and softening our hard edges, I’d like to suggest an Adopt-A-Blob program. In spirit of cooperation and maybe even a bit of competition, individuals could be encouraged to transform these ugly brick blobs into tiny spots of beauty. Call them open space or pocket parks—little islands of nature in an increasingly overbuilt community.
Hillarious and totally agree. Put me down for a plot.
enjoyable read. thank you!
You really expect that plantings would survive in such a small space, isolated from water and subject to smashing from feet and tires?
Notice the black skid or swipe marks on the side of the curb, showing how dumb and/or drunk drivers hit the curb anyway regardless of whether it bulbed out or not.
I am with Average Joe. Unless neighbors adopt these little potential planters, they won’t survive. It would take daily maintenance to prevent them from becoming little patches of bare dirt. I wouldn’t mind them being planted, but I just don’t think it is a realistic alternative without some “adopt a planter” program.
I’d go with adopt a blob and a planter. Good Idea! Don’t think the bricks are money well spent….
Depends on the neighborhood on whether they’d be watered or not. Take a look at the east side of Quinientos between Milpas and Alisos and compare it with the west side in terms of planting and care. The east side grows trash and graffitti while the west side now has a new planting of cact.
We should be glad the bricks haven’t been painted green.
What happened to the sloping ramps that the city used to build? These concrete islands look they are forcing us to stay within the mandated widths. Bring back the wide ramps, down with direction.
Stay in your appointed lanes, slaves. Dan has it right…the whole corner would be better with just a gradual slope to the street. Whoever plans this stuff obviously has never traveled with children, wheelchairs, etc and is likely either blind or a scion of a brick fabricating dynasty.
Do they pay extra to get the tire marks on the curbs? Seems like Santa Barbara is suffering from a lot of bad planning and wasted money. What does the new proposed General Plan say about doing more of the same?
I think the new corner ramp design has to do with changes in the ADA laws. I’ve seen them elsewhere lately, too.
Adopt a Blob is a nice thought. Olive and Sola roundabout and Blobs are usually dead flowers, weeds and dog pooh. Don’t know how practically it is to expect that it will be otherwise.