NEWS of the WEEK CONT’D TRANSPORTATION
Some Wheel Good News for S.B. N IC K WELSH F I LE PHOTO
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he City of Santa Barbara finally made it onto the League of American Bicyclists’ officially designated list of 496 “Bicycle Friendly Cities,” winning a silver medal designation along the way. By contrast San Luis Obispo won gold, and Ventura took home a bronze. Last year, Santa Barbara didn’t make the list at all, and this year, 1,900 communities applied. The designation reflects the increased investment City Hall has been putting in new bicycle infrastructure, most notably the new Class III bike lanes—which separate cyclists from cars. The biggest—which cost $20 million—runs from Las Positas Road to the end of Modoc Road with an option to snake across the Arroyo Burro Creek and wind up at Arroyo Burro Beach. In addition, City Hall is creating a new bike “paseo” connecting the city’s Westside with downtown by building a bike boulevard along Sola Street; it’s extending that one from downtown Santa Barbara to the Eastside by Santa Barbara High School. Bike lane buffers or extensions are also slated for Chapala and De la Vina streets as well. By creating these new specifically designated bike lanes, the thinking goes, additional riders will be enticed out of their cars
and onto their bikes. Right now, about 3.9 percent of all Santa Barbarans commute to work via bike; statewide, that number is 5.1 percent. Santa Barbara’s number of crashes—485 per 10,000 commuters—is nearly double the statewide average of 287. But for 2021, Santa Barbara’s number of fatalities per 10,000 miles was zero; statewide, it was 2.2. Also winning recognition from the nationally based bicycle advocacy group was UC Santa Barbara, which has been winning platinum honors for several years running. Likewise, Deckers, Sonos, Telescope Network, Service Objects, and Dr. J’s Bicycle Shop won awards, as did the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition, which won platinum honors for organizational advocacy.
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cottagehealth.org/urgentcare N IC K WELSH
HOUSING
GROUNDBREAKING: Last Wednesday, 15 high-ranking public officials broke ground on the Vera Cruz Village housing project.
Vera Cruz Village Breaks Ground
C
ity Housing Authority director Rob Fredericks was displaying an unusual degree of swagger last Wednesday morning at a ground-breaking ceremony featuring 15 high-ranking public officials—including Santa Barbara Mayor Cathy Murillo—all of whom were wearing white hard hats and wielding golden shovels. The occasion was a grip ’n’ grin event to kick off the construction of a new affordable housing project next door to Vera Cruz Park, right across the street from the Cota Street parking lot where Saturday’s farmers’ market takes place. The property had initially been slated—Fredericks pointedly pointed out to a small crowd of City Hall insiders, assorted news media, and affordable housing players—to be developed into 15 units of highend housing. But when that project failed, the Housing Authority managed to snag the property before any other developers could. As a result, the Housing Authority will be building 28 units of capital-A affordable studio apartments for people so poor that many
of them would otherwise find themselves either homeless or close to it. For Mayor Murillo, the event afforded an opportunity to address an issue near to her heart—housing—in the waning moments of her mayoral term. Murillo did not waste the moment. “Housing is everything,” she proclaimed. She recalled the handful of years she served as council liaison to the Housing Authority board. Speaking of the boardmembers she served with, she said, “When I stood in their company, I felt like I was standing next to a source of light,” she said. “A source of heat.” Making this deal possible was what Fredericks called “a layer cake” of public and private financing partnerships. The total cost is projected around $17 million, with support from City Hall, and $10 million in stateapproved tax credits. The project would also provide a myriad of services to help people succeed in getting off the streets. Fredericks estimated construction will take 18 months —NW to complete. INDEPENDENT.COM
DECEMBER 23, 2021
THE INDEPENDENT
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