Program’s Site
The City of Santa Barbara has began the process to update its General Plan
with an extensive public outreach to gauge the pulse of the community. This
process (”Plan Santa Barbara”) is expected to generate major policy changes.
Four public workshops were held at the beginning of the summer with a second round planned for the fall.
In order for a community to make shared decisions, it must be in possession
of shared FACTS and not proceed from misunderstandings and prejudice. That
is the message that COAST forwarded to City representatives at the May 17
presentation. How do you elevate the discussion from the usual rhetoric
(i.e., “Preserve the quality of life”, “Live within our resources”) to more
concrete topics?
Policy questions should be focused and informed instead of asking about
people’s “feelings”. COAST requests that the City provide updated
statistical information about population and development patterns as
background for these discussions. The community needs factual information
to evaluate how our population and region are evolving.
~To see COAST’s comments to City Staff click link below~
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SBCAG UNANIMOUSLY SUPPORTS VANPOOLS FOR FARMWORKERS
Thursday, January 18
Betteravia Government Center, Santa Maria
In front of a packed room, cameras rolling and reporters covering every
move, the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) voted
unanimously to expedite delivery of a van pool program for agricultural
workers in the Santa Maria Valley.
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Monday, October 9th at 7pm
Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara Public Library
Informational discussion with panel of prominent city residents and employee including Mayor Blum, David Landecker of the County Steering Committee for Yes on Measure D and Jim Kemp who is the Executive Director, Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG)
Please join us for a great opportunity to learn more about this initiative; what projects will be funded with its passing and what is at stake if it fails at the polls
Admission is free
Discussion is co-sponsored by COAST and SB CAN
This morning’s Memorial Ride for Jake provided an outpouring of sympathy from our bicycling community to the family of Jake Boysel who was killed while biking to school. Over 100 bicyclists formed a half-mile stream along Calle Real and State Street, filling the lane in Downtown Santa Barbara.
Jake Boysel’s family attended and was moved by this expression of sympathy from their community. The ride ended in De la Guerra Plaza where County Supervisor Susan Rose, City Councilmember Helene Schneider, and COAST representative Eva Inbar spoke for greater efforts to make sure all children are safer walking and biking to school.
More evidence of everybody’s concern over this sad loss is that our web site has had over 1000 visitors in the past 5 days — more than double our record weekly total. People care, they are disturbed, they are looking for safer conditions. Today’s ride wasn’t the end of action, it is the beginning of a challenge to us all to energize our collective abilities and make sure that this tragedy will not happen again. We can, indeed we must make it so.
~~ Ralph Fertig, President
~~ Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition
“Jake’s death demonstrates the tragedy that follows careless and aggressive use of the roads and may sober some folks up on their own behavior, but what a price to pay to accomplish this.”
Curtis Ridling
A capacity crowd filled the meeting room at La Colina Junior High on the night of Tuesday Sept. 12, when fifty to sixty people gathered there to honor 12-year-old Jake Boysel, who was killed while biking to school the week before. The overwhelming message that came out of the meeting was this: We can and must do more to make it safer for children and everyone else to move around on foot and by bike. We will compile the many good ideas proposed at the meeting into a plan and follow up with those who are interested. If you would like to be involved, please contact Eva Inbar at eva@coast-santabarbara.org.
September 6th & 7th from 10:30-1:30
Be sure to stop by our table to learn more about our current projects
The Coalition for a Fair Measure D’s first phone bank session was a success. The session was sponsored by COAST. We thank our wonderful volunteers: Kate Bechtel and friend Lee Babcock, Beth Cornett, Rebecca Gutierrez, Sheila Kamhi, Sandy Stites, Kelsi Boyle, Dennis Story, Mark Bradley, Alex Pujo, Dick Axilrod, Eva Inbar. We appreciate our Coalition partner SEIU for letting us use their office space.
We will have these events weekly from now on and one of our partner organizations needs to step up to the plate. We have always said that grassroots organizing and supplying volunteers would be our strength. Now is the time to make good on our promises.
