Santa Barbara News, Views, & Hyperlocal Information
According to Mayor Helene Schneider, record levels of construction will take place in Santa Barbara in 2012. From the harbor to the downtown library, a $90 million infusion of construction activity will be paid for by Redevelopment Agency Funds. Local government leaders across California are hurriedly spending RDA funds before a state move to abolish redevelopment and redistribute unspent funds.
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{ If I had to choose between Landecker and any of the other three pre-endorsed Democratic candidates - White - Hart - Alley - I would... } – May 23, 5:25 PM { Be sure to hold all the other candidates to the same fiscal scrutiny - proven track records managing business enterprises, and not leaving new management... } – May 23, 3:36 PM
{ Yeah...here's the kind of financial management we can look forward to under a Landecker Council: http://www.keyt.com/news/breaking-neighborhood-clinics-need-urgent-care-to-stay-open/-/17671600/20260792/-/oap5ys/-/index.html Though one commenter had it right...if he could only... } – May 23, 10:28 AM { I worry more about any candidate who still wears the fig leaf of environmentalism and social utopianism today as their leading credentials, than what exonerated... } – May 23, 9:42 AM { Cheating when one did not need to -- that remains troubling. } – May 23, 9:08 AM { Sounds like ol' Dave's resume of failures doesn't start and stop with a little 5 finger discount http://www.keyt.com/news/breaking-neighborhood-clinics-need-urgent-care-to-stay-open/-/17671600/20260792/-/oap5ys/-/index.html } – May 23, 8:40 AM { David, your disgrace is the defining gaffe in Santa Barbara politics. It's Bill Buckner letting a ball roll through his legs in game 6 of... } – May 23, 6:05 AM { At least the Parks and Rec commissioner has a degree in finance, a business background and a public record as a current civic volunteer in... } – May 22, 6:30 PM { Sorry you can't claim broader credentials than supporting failed uber-liberal agendas in this town that have put us in trouble we are today trying to... } – May 22, 6:26 PM { I was in my 20s at the time of your "disgrace". At the time, it was pretty big news to break through my political apathy,... } – May 22, 4:07 PM { Ah, the old magical, mysterious disappearing comments trick. Oddly, it only happens to comments in this column. } – May 23, 1:37 PM { Thats a great story. Here's to health 
} – May 23, 10:26 AM { Horton lives on the Riviera. Barnwell might have lived in San Roque, along with Michael Self? Isn't Bendy in upper Riviera - Los Canoas? Francisco... } – May 22, 9:53 PM { And then there was Grant House who lived in the lovely confines of the Riviera during most of his time in office, while voting against... } – May 22, 8:08 PM
{ The Mesa had Iya Falcone for years and Marty Blum for even more years. As for San Roque, I'd be surprised if there have not... } – May 22, 8:00 PM
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Of course. “Use it or lose it” is one of the rotten to the core principals of government that create so many problems.
The Governor is right to take them away. Our kids and schools would make better use of these millions
And Michael Self is the only one voting no on these projects. Ironic. I thought there were 4 fiscal conservatives on council, 5 if you count Bendy White’s claims to be so.
Not all our tax money should go to schools. There are a lot of municipal construction needs and I am glad tax dollars are towards them rather than to the schools, where tenure and teachers’ union dominate quality.
PS I don’t see anything in that link for the harbor, only the West Beach Pedestrian Improvements, underway for years. And as for Michael Self, I think she voted against the $150K concept phase of the library plaza planning, not all the redevelopment funding.
The rare situation is an incentive for RDA funds due to this highly unusual situation in California. It is not a “principal of government”. You would be a more effective critic of the elected officials you appear to so dislike if you would take a more fair and balanced perspective. To say they are “rotten to the core” sounds like you have been exposing yourself to hours and hours of talk radio. Have you read any good books lately? Seriously – you have good decent ideas but express them with so much animosity that you scare people away from lending you support. It would not be so bad if your viewpoint was more widely accepted if it was not married to such a tone of antagonism. You might think that Michael is a better leader than Helene, but no one thinks she is “rotten” and no one doubts that she works hard and cares for this city.
Thanks Pops. You do know this is the Internet, right? This site has one of the last true journalists in town, dozens of insightful articles and commentary and ain’t nothing getting better because the people who can change things don’t care about anything we have to say, “antagonistic” or not. At least let the kids have fun trying to smear a little of the rose color off of our city’s shiny glasses.
To clarify, “use it or lose it” mentality is a basic guiding principal of a governmental department’s yearly budget allocation. Every year, at all levels of government there is a flurry of spending a project approval at the end of every fiscal year just like the RDA orgy happening now just as people are catching on to how wasteful these programs are.
It is generally not the officials who are “rotten” rather the system of false choices and twisted disincentives that they operate within. I’d argue that most politicians have truly good intentions, but the very thought that they know better what is good for us leads them quickly down a path to wasteful and burdensome laws while true problems go unsolved.