URGENT CALL TO ACTION - Tell City Council to Keep State Street Car Free!

This Tuesday, September 17th the Santa Barbara City Council will make critical decisions on the short-term and long-term future of the State Street Promenade. We need to speak out to save the promenade.

We’re thankful that many of the City’s proposals for State Street include the safe and thoughtful incorporation of cyclists, pedestrians, and public transit in a permanently car-free promenade, designed as a Santa Barbara-style “Grand Paseo.”

However, city staff and some council members are pushing to exclude the Arts District from the Grand Paseo vision, removing the blocks north of Carillo St. from the Promenade and subjecting them to unnecessary and counterproductive car traffic.

In July, the same idea failed to earn the support of the State Street Advisory Committee.

We must show up for our Promenade and local small business owners on the 1100 and 1000 blocks. Call on the City Council to keep the Arts District car-free.

Santa Barbara locals and visitors love the car-free 1100 and 1000 blocks of State Street. Incredible ‘moments of joy’ like the Riviera Culture Club Music Night at Satellite, where Santa Barbarians dance in the street every Thursday, are at risk of being permanently replaced by car traffic.

Which would you rather have?

We have already seen this idea fail when the city put cars on the 1200 block, leading to regular misuse of the street at the expense of local businesses:

“Owning a business on the 1200 block has afforded me a first-hand impression of the ‘temporary’ introduction of cars to State. It’s been an abject failure, and has created an unsafe, confusing, and bizarre layout.” 

- Local business owner

The evidence is clear; our car-free State Street is in a stronger economic position than before the pandemic, and the blocks where cars have stayed or been reintroduced are doing worse than the car-free blocks.

We’re so close to realizing a permanent promenade for State Street from Victoria to Haley Street. We can’t afford to lose another 3 blocks to cars to appease political interests. 

Just last year, 5 of our 7 City Council members voted to keep State Street car-free until 2026 at least. Let’s respectfully remind them to honor that commitment to the community.

Please show up, Zoom in, or write a public comment to the City Council that you support a car-free State Street and want the Arts District included in the Grand Paseo Vision.

Learn more about Strong Town’s Santa Barbara’s vision for State Street here, here, and here.

We’re not going back.