by Jeffrey Harding | Jun 27, 2021 | Santa Barbara |
The City of Santa Barbara is letting the heart of their town, State Street, die. Empty stores, a struggling mall, and the homeless are the symptoms. The homeless are using the street as their crash pad: intoxication, panhandling, sleeping, urinating deter shoppers from enjoying this public space. It can be fixed but the City needs to show some leadership and rethink their approaches to the problems. They seem to be unable or unwilling to do that.
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by Jeffrey Harding | Mar 16, 2020 | Better living through capitalism, Santa Barbara |
Santa Barbara’s liberal City Council voted to delay the implementation of 5G wireless service in the city in the hope they could kill it. They are doing this because they fear the “dangers” of electromagnetic radiation (aka, radio waves). Yet the overwhelming scientific opinion is that 5G radiofrequency radiation is harmless. These science-denier tin-hatters fail to understand this issue. People want 5G. Why don’t they let their constituents vote with their dollars and see if they want it.
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by Jeffrey Harding | May 5, 2019 | Rent Control, Santa Barbara, Social Justice |
Just cause eviction ordinances have more to do with politics than “justice”. The unforeseen consequences in tight rental markets in California will be to reduce housing opportunities for poor tenants as apartment owners with less control over their property will be much more selective in choosing tenants.
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by Jeffrey Harding | Mar 25, 2019 | Santa Barbara |
An eccentric 104-year old woman left her $100 million Santa Barbara mansion to a foundation to “foster the arts”. Instead of benefiting many deserving existing arts organizations, her fortune will be tied up in a money pit property which will end up as a tourist attraction. The property should be sold and the income generated from its endowment used to foster local arts organizations.
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by Jeffrey Harding | Feb 16, 2018 | Santa Barbara |
It happened here, not somewhere else. This was the shocking thing about Montecito’s tragedy. It’s easy to watch disasters unfolding elsewhere and you think, “Oh, those poor people”. We’ve lived in Montecito for 40 years so there isn’t a lot I haven’t seen on our South Coast. There have been fires and deluges and floods and wind, but no one was expecting these twin disasters. (more…)
by Jeffrey Harding | Jun 28, 2017 | Better living through capitalism, Santa Barbara |
A Letter From Santa Barbara
My wife and I attended the Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West’s Academy Festival Orchestra’s performance of Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring. We were dazzled. I am not a critic, but I thought they were spectacular. To think that a local, but famed, music organization can gather here in Santa Barbara the best and brightest young musicians from America and the world and hone them into a world-class orchestra in a matter of week is, well, world-class. (more…)
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