By Sharon Byrne
This letter was submitted by a local resident and restaurant entrepreneur. He owns restaurants on both lower State and lower Milpas, which gives him an unusual perspective on how we handle the homeless here. He sees a linkage between the operations of Casa Esperanza on Milpas, and effects that flow along the beach to State St, from a very personal perspective.
What’s also interesting about this letter is that it highlights the strange way in which Santa Barbara treats business owners and residents. To update a building requires navigating a lengthy planning process, where tiny details can send projects into tailspins. The ABR took a political stand, as we saw last week, against a business.
Contrast that with the daily experience of business owners with a population that sometimes exhibits very antisocial and even criminal behavior, for which there is seemingly no repercussion from the city at all.
I overheard this once at a Planning Commission hearing:
Welcome to Santa Barbara, where we welcome the homeless, and harass the home-owners.
Coastal cities like ours often create difficult planning processes to preserve the area, and prevent over-crowding and haphazard development. Sometimes the processes such a locality erects feel like keeping others who want to come here…out. Or at least make it incredibly challenging for them.
There are some in our city that say once you’re here for one day, you’re a resident, and entitled to help. Some feel that we do indeed welcome the homeless, and put no expectations on them, while putting the rest of us through incredible hassles just to live and work here. Randy Alcorn’s column this week in Noozhawk taps into that sentiment.
But these conflicting experiences lead to the question of what kind of city, exactly, is it that Santa Barbara really wants to be?
His letter:
Question to the City of Santa Barbara:
What about us? Our small retail business community helps make Santa Barbara feel like it is still the quaint, seaside paradise it once was. Many days, I start work at our Milpas store location and work my way over to our State Street location. At Milpas, we clean up feces on our property and brace ourselves for a long day of dealing with Casa Esperanza’s clients. Will it just be panhandling today? A disturbance? Or an assault? We’ve had 3 this year. At our store on State Street, I find some of these same individuals disrupting the most vital retail corridor, the crown jewel, where most of our retail sales tax revenue is generated. This is disturbing to me. While I try to make a living, they are wondering: should I go panhandle the Milpas corridor on my way to the beach, or should I try my luck on State Street where it’s thriving with business and tourist activity?
To make matters worse, the City of Santa Barbara, where I have done business for the last 32 years, makes the process of building anything both immensely frustrating and very expensive. Not only is it a lengthy process, but I have to stand before the HLC and ABR while they nit-pick tiny details – should the gate be wrought iron or copper, how about a different doorknob to present a better aesthetic, etc. It takes months to get a simple change approved to a building, but our city allows transients to disrupt our business community daily instead of standing up for small business.
Let’s face it: our town is going to hell. There is not a business owner on Milpas or State Street that doesn’t feel that we as a community can do better. Contrast this with New York. It feels safer and cleaner than Santa Barbara. We should give credit to the former mayor, Rudy Giuliani. He turned his city of 8 million people around, facing the same issues on a much bigger scale. If they could do it, why can’t we?
While Casa Esperanza management is quick to give numbers and stats about the lives they are having a positive impact on, and the lives they save, it’s not a complete picture. What about their “clients” that just come through the revolving door looking for the free lunch and then stumble back into our neighborhood, wreaking havoc? The truth is that about 90% of them don’t want to change their lives. The problem I have with Casa Esperanza’s program is that clients can drink and use drugs and still, yes, receive a free lunch and services. As a result, we all pay an extremely heavy price. We get to deal with the same repeat nuisance offenders everyday with no relief or help.
Over the years I have had many conversations with the police, our firemen, as well as members of the business community and it is unanimous, we all feel the same way. It’s time for a change, City Hall. Don’t turn your back on our small business community while you throw hundreds of thousands of dollars through the revolving door.
Sincerely,
Bruce Reichard
bravo bruce! right on!
Okay, right on, but how about some specifics that you, as a local business owner dealing daily with the challenges of homelessness, think would make a difference? And, at the same time, help those who truly need (and can accept) help?
Anyone who has patronized Bruce’s businesses knows that they are both located in the absolute worst 2 locations for homeless disruption. If you want a specific, go sit on the brick bench next to the State Street Habit or even within the restaurant itself on Milpas and could on your fingers how long before you see something that probably get a person arrested anywhere else in the county. I love the Habit, but only eat at the one in Goleta for these reasons…ironically, the Goleta location in run down downtown is free of all homeless problems.
not to mention the ability to get a chili burger at the Goleta location…mmm.
We only eat at the downtown Habit – a long-time favorite – when the sidewalk in front isn’t swarming with smoking yoaches and panhandlers – bypass otherwise. They’ve lost at least 30% of the business we used to give them because it’s often unpleasant to sit on the patio. Last visit we sat down only to be subjected to a guitar-playing vocalist who arrived complete with mic stand and a battery powered amp. He wasn’t as bad as some, but we wanted to eat in peace, not to be subjected to his uninvited concert. Merchants don’t own the sidewalks, but they shouldn’t be victimized by them, either.
Raging on edscat is the other side of the city and small business controversy that shows what can happen if there are no regulations. An ugly old black painted school bus runs party trips for hire or booze shuttles to Cold Spring tavern and uses the Mission residential area as their private storage yard for this 38 foot bus emblazoned with marketing ads when not in use.
The city has no operating laws that prevent this misuse of residential streets for this grotesque and incompatible commercial operation. Seeing this massive and ugly black bus stored right next to the Rose Garden is not exactly what makes Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara either.
So while ABR regulates the life out of what color a door knob should be, the city cares nothing about what sort of commercial vehicular monstrosity gets parked at the curb of that very house.
The ultimate irony is while there are laws on the books preventing any bus from parking more than 2 hours anywhere in the city, Homeless Inc has this ordinance tied up in the courts as discriminatory against the “poor” who continue use our city streets as RV camp sites so the ugly black bus intentionally exploits this current legal limbo and misuses the streets around the Mission as their own private commercial storage yard.
Score another one for Homeless Inc.
That is false. That ordinance is not tied up in courts. 10.44.200 A and B are still enforceable. in fact, (B) prohibits buses from parking overnight on and street from 2am to 6am. Document everything, and demand enforcment,
Neighbors have repeatedly called about violations of the 2 hour black bus parking ordinance SBMC 10.44.200 violations. Police claim their hands are tied and can’t enforce it. Black bus folks claim they are doing everything legally.
Where does one go next in the chain of command? (Police chief, city council, district attorney, grand jury?)
Looks like they might also be violating city sign ordinance how they use their displays on public streets.
Facts: Black bus is 38 feet, designed for more than 19 passengers, over 5 tons, used for commercial shuttle operations and for private hire, and parks over 2 hours and overnight on public streets in a residential area.
Agree, document the abuses under SBMC10.44.200 etc and then see why this ordinance is not getting enforced. Sounds like there is a lot of misinformation being put out on an ordinance, that looks so clear and specific on the city website.
Proving yet again, you can write all the laws you want but it they can’t be enforced or won’t be enforced nothing is accomplished except waste of time, money, trust and community goodwill.
City Hall won’t change anything unless the people demand it. It’s letters like these and neighbors standing up, that can eventually make a difference. We the people need to demand that City Councilmembers make positive changes for our community. It’s sad to see our city council not really put the effort into finding solutions. We as a community need to find ways to make city council take action that has impact.
One letter may not change anything, but the cumulative effect could make an impact. For example, all the information shedding light on the ABR — like the FPPC ruling showing a conflict of interest by an ABR member, 5 ABR members abstaining from voting due to some saying personal/political beliefs, etc. One incident hasn’t made a huge impact, but when they’re all added up, it’s made the city look at the ABR. Maybe they’ll actually be forced to make changes. Same goes for the Milpas area problems. Kudos to Sharon, the author of this letter, and others for standing up, telling the facts and asking for changes. I support you!
Past progressive SB city council attitudes enabled vagrants and itinerants which made Santa Barbara a magnet for this continued destructive activity. The lack of legal will to fight these issues in the courts is the missing link, so that all communities in California are subject to the same legal interpretations.
Take some of the millions wasted on Homeless Inc every year and get a CA Supreme Court rulings on these matters so all localities in the state have to abide by the same rules, instead of other communities cracking down on their own while sending their detritus to Santa Barbara.
Past city council actions and lack of legal will left us disproportionately vulnerable to this continued exploitation. Time for a new city council majority who does have the political will to get this situation decided once and for all in the state’s highest court. Leaving this matter in the hands of city attorney Whimpy Steve Wiley has to stop.
The pendulum is swinging, as it should between enabling and enforcement. It is good to see people finally saying enough is enough and it is time to stop enabling more social disorder that has taken over our streets and is destroying local businesses.
The last city council election was a hiccup that stopped the swinging of this pendulum back to more social order, instead of the previous reign of social disorder. Clearly from the majority of posts on many of the local blogs, city residents are fatigued with these past city council policies that enabled the social destruction of our city. The Micky Flacks guilt card dealt its final hand and it was a bust. She can pack up her tent because no one is listening any longer.
There was no point and no net benefit for these misguided policies. We know this now. Just the opposite. Prior city council policies driven by the Micky Flacks crowd made problems worse, not better. We know this and see this now. We now know to vote accordingly.
Next city council election will bring in a new city council majority and the pendulum will yet again start swinging back to clearer lines of enforcement that will help preserve Santa Barbara for Santa Barbara, safe and appealing for its property tax-paying residents and not a magnet for hordes of exploitive vagrants and itinerants who have abused any social good will this city vainly tried to offer.
Read the preamble to the SB City Sign Ordinance which sets out what kind of city we want to be – one that remains (1) safe, (2) attractive and (3) supportive of our local tax base.
How’s the old saying go? “If you don’t like it, you can always go somewhere else.”
Amazing how the same people responsible for correcting the problem are always such shining example of good behavior, and yet every homeless person in this city remains so passive aggressive? I’m sure it’s something in those breakfast burritos they hand out at the Sally in the morning!
If I were Bruce, I would have hire some security a long time ago.
The problem is coming from “somewhere else”…these are generally not homegrown bums, then are imported and attracted by those who make their living off the dependency culture of modern homelessness.
Unfortunately, Rob Pearson of the Santa Barbara Housing Authority defines a homeless person as being a “local” if they have been in Santa Barbara for more than 24 hours. He’s done as much to ruin Santa Barbara as anyone with his crazy policies all intended to grow the homeless problem. By growing the homeless problem, he can claim he needs more money for his programs, housing stock, etc. The larger he grows those things, the easier it is to justify his overblown salary and unjustified compensation increases. Your tax dollars at work!
This is a sincere question. Which local person (SB/Montecito) who is NOT an elected official would have the most influence by visiting the Milpas corridor on a fact finding visit and then calling out Casa Esperanza’s failures?
The editor of the Montecito Journal.
Oprah.
When I joined the military, the D.I`s could sock you in the face if they were pissed, but while in, this changed to a more “cerebral” way of instruction….
So how did they punish us?…by hitting us in the wallet!…They could with-hold our pay & boy did we act right!…
So I propose the same for SB…disrupt the tourist dollar & watch how quickly city gov. acts right. What we need are leaders to head a protest march down State st. with signs that speak of vagrancy, gangs, assault, corruption etc… embarrass c-council into action.
I will happily lead.
We did that in October of 2010, with the Trouble in Paradise march. Dale Francisco even participated! But it didn’t change anything…well, maybe it got their butts moving on the gang injunction, but even that is stalled now.
I think those of us who are longtime residents and those who moved here for the idyllic Santa Barbara dream want a Santa Barbara that respects the small town business owners who help make Santa Barbara the unique “small town/city” that we have always been. These small business owners invest their money, time and lives to create their business dream which contributes to our city’s tax base. The fact that these owners are confronted daily by the disgusting actions of a portion of the homeless community is a sad testimony to what our town has become. I know we can do better. Wake up Santa Barbara!
Everyone virtually comes to this town homeless. Some choose to make it work and stay. Some choose to not try to make it work, but stay anyway. The latter should never be made the easier choice.
Praise GOD
YOUR ALWAYS going to have Homeless on Planet Earth –( Good & Bad )–
Help the BAD to get to KNOW their Good …….Then the Good will see YOUR Not being BAD to the BAD
When people choose to live on the streets and reject available social services, that is the end of any public obligation. They are the ones who have chosen the BAD lifestyle; not those who reject their demands for handouts.
They will have to learn to help themselves. And if this means stealing the tip jar at Starbucks, then they will also learn there are consequences for the choices they continue to make.
2Thessalonians 3:10
the whole town has been ruined by bleeding heart new- age nit-wits