Tight U.S. Senate race in Arizona
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CAB objects to parklets Cars Are Basic says it’s time to remove them from Coast Village Road By NEIL HARTSTEIN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Retailers have had their say about the parklets lining Coast Village Road in Montecito.They want them gone so they’ll get lost customer parking spaces back. Restaurateurs with parklets have had their say, too. They want the parklets to stay to seat patrons who prefer outdoor dining to being crammed indoors while COVID-19 lingers, and to earn enough money to ensure they keep operating. Santa Barbara city officials have added their input, stating on the record that they’re working on a timeline for removing the parklets while enforcing parking rules in the meantime to keep CVR as clear as possible. And while pedestrians and bicyclists have not chimed in yet, there have been reports that mothers have had to guide their bike-riding kids into traffic because some parklets are blocking painted bike lanes. But what about motorists? Who speaks for them? Enter Cars Are Basic, a Santa Barbara nonprofit that supports motorists, fighting policies that might favor others at drivers’ expense. Scott Wenz, CAB president, said the group stated almost a year ago that, with pandemic restrictions concerning indoor dining and pandemic masking gone, there was or is no need for on-street parklets. “For almost six months now it is clear that Coast Village Road
DAVE MASON/NEWS-PRESS
Regular gas sells for $5.279 a gallon Sunday at the Fuel Depot station on Fairview Avenue in Goleta.
Gas prices continue to drop By DAVE MASON NEWS-PRESS MANAGING EDITOR
DAVE MASON/NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
A car is parked next to a parklet at Jeannine’s Restaurant & Bakery on Coast Village Road in Montecito. Restaurateurs have said they need the additional seating, but Cars Are Basic, a Santa Barbara nonprofit that advocates for motorists, would like to see the parklets removed and parking spaces restored.
businesses have rebounded in a strong way as well as Upper Village,” he told the NewsPress. “Starting in June with the tourist trade back, customer traffic is back, and the always difficult parking on weekends is back to ‘normal’” — i.e. get there early or walk.
“Parklets and the loss of precious parking interferes with the neighboring retail trade and ‘sit-down’ restaurant trade,” he said. He supports the petition submitted by most of the businesses on Coast Village Road to have the city of Santa
Many people dine Sunday at parklets along Coast Village Road, including this area outside the Coast & Olive restaurant.
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Barbara remove the parklets. Although considered part of Montecito, CVR is actually part of Santa Barbara and thus governed by city policies and regulations. “Those objecting are businesses that have a bonus at the expense of their neighbors,” Mr. Wenz said. “Does this sound familiar? It should. This is an identical microcosm of State Street in Old Town Santa Barbara!” While city officials have turned their attention to Coast Village Road for now, he said, they should also consider removing the parklets on lower State Street. “When do the businesses that were created and operating before the pandemic get back their parking and operating expectations?” Unlike Montecito, he said, the ease of freeway access and expectation of street parking attract customers to Santa Barbara. Keeping lower State Street closed to motorists, possibly for years while the downtown master plan and resulting construction are completed, “discourages locals and retail from trying to survive,” he said. “CAB calls for the council to remove the parklets,” Mr. Wenz said. “Will the businesses wanting the parklets survive? If so, this is the perfect answer to State Street closing … It is time to return to normalcy.” email: nhartstein@newspress.com
Gas prices continue to fall across the U.S. and in California, but prices remain up from last year. Nationally and locally, motorists are approximately paying an average of $1 more per gallon than they did last year. California, which consistently has seen higher gas prices than the rest of the country, saw an average of $5.37 a gallon Sunday — down from $5.46 one week ago, $5.99 a gallon one month ago but still above $4.40 a gallon a year ago. That’s according to the American Automobile Association. Santa Barbara County has been slightly above the state average. On Sunday, the average was $5.53 per gallon, down from $5.61 a week ago and $5.99 a month ago.
It wasn’t too hard, though, to find stations below the average, sometimes right next to each other. On Fairview Avenue in Goleta, the Chevron station was selling regular gas Sunday for $5.49 a gallon while the nearby Fuel Depot station was selling it for $5.279 a gallon. Still, motorists are missing last year’s prices when the average in Santa Barbara County was $4.34 a gallon. In Ventura County, the average Sunday was $5.44 per gallon, down from $5.55 a gallon one week ago and $6.05 a gallon a month ago. Still, as in Santa Barbara County and everywhere else, the price hasn’t fallen to what people paid last year at the pumps: $4.35 a gallon in Ventura County. San Luis Obispo County continues to have the highest Please see PRICES on A4
Carp City Council to discuss remote meetings By NEIL HARTSTEIN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
The Carpinteria City Council will hold a special meeting today to authorize continued remote teleconference meetings of the council and other city boards, committees and commissions for the next 30 days. The special council meeting is necessary because the council has canceled its regular Aug. 22 meeting. As befitting the only item on its agenda, today’s meeting will be held virtually. It starts at 5:30 p.m. From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 through June 2021, the council and other city boards, committees and commissions held their respective meetings solely by remote teleconference (i.e. Zoom webinar/meeting) under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive orders, staff noted. Since June 2021, hybrid meetings have been held, where the public may participate in person or virtually. The governor later signed into law an Assembly bill that allows
public agencies to continue using teleconferencing without complying with certain Brown Act provisions, staff said. (The Brown Act is California’s open meetings law.) “The purpose of this agenda matter is for the council to consider making certain findings necessary in order to authorize continued teleconferencing meetings …,” staff said. Under the Assembly bill, the city may use teleconferencing as long as there is a gubernatorial proclaimed state of emergency, and either state or local officials impose or recommend measures that promote social distancing or the legislative body finds that meeting in person would present an imminent safety risk to attendees. In addition, every 30 days, the council must make the following findings in order to continue the teleconferencing option: The agency has reconsidered the circumstances of the state of emergency, and that it either Please see COUNCIL on A4
INSIDE
L O T T E RY RESULTS
Classified................. B4 Life...................... B1-2 Obituaries............... A4
Saturday’s SUPER LOTTO: 1-12-25-42-45 Meganumber: 9
Sunday’s DAILY 4: 4-8-4-4
Friday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 23-24-50-54-64 Meganumber: 3
Sunday’s FANTASY 5: 7-18-29-33-38
Sunday’s DAILY DERBY: 07-10-05 Time: 1:45.26
Saturday’s POWERBALL: 19-24-35-43-62 Meganumber: 2
Sudoku................... B3 Weather................. A4
Sunday’s DAILY 3: 8-9-4 / Sunday’s Midday 6-7-4