The Santa Barbara City Council approved funding for the first stage of the Santa Barbara Public Library Plaza renovation project during yesterday’s meeting.
The council accepted three recommendations from the city’s redevelopment agency report including allocating $68,478 for the project, approving a $159,280 contract with Campbell and Campbell Architects for concept and preliminary design ideas and consenting to $15,928 in variable costs. In addition to the funding, the council permitted a $ two million loan agreement between the city and redevelopment agency to finance the project.
According to Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider, the project will help revitalize the area around the library.
“We want it to be a lovely open place and this plaza is a central part of it,” Schneider said. “I think this is the appropriate step in moving towards that way.”
Despite attendees’ concerns over the impact the loan will have on the city’s budget, Santa Barbara City council member Randy Rowse said the project will fuel the local economy.
“These are dollars we are going to spend in town, this is almost like a mini-stimulus,” Rowse said. “It is not that I do not trust Governor Jerry Brown, but I do not think sending our money back to Sacramento is the best way to use those dollars.”
Santa Barbara City council member Grant House said the project qualifies for the redevelopment agency’s financial resources.
“We really have a chance to make this beautiful … and I enthusiastically support this project,” House said. “These are the types of projects the redevelopment agency funds are meant for.”
Funny how the city always has enough money to blow on these social engineering projects as long as they involve sweeping the poor out of sight of the fine progressive, educated, compassionate folks in SB and of course, the tourists. SB can’t seem to manage to keep the gangbangers, drunk college kids and yuppies off the streets, but they can sure find the money to sweep the homeless out of sight. Not into jobs and housing, but into programs that promote endless dependency and endless paychecks for their executives who are contracted by the city to keep the poor out… Read more »
If you were at the library on any kind of regular basis you might understand the problems better. As one who is there a lot, I can tell you that going into a public library, where millions of dollars are spent to buy and maintain a great collection of books and lots of other resources, and to pay hard-working and competent staff, it is a shame that the environment is so often degraded. There’s the stench of seriously alarming BO, guys passed out in the corners inside and out of the building, bundles of personal effects strewn around, people bathing… Read more »
Holly says it best. Whenever I see a selfish comment such as Mary C you can rest assure that Holly will be around for rebuttal. For God’s sake Mary. Perhaps you should consider yourself lucky that you don’t have to use the library as the only shelter that gives you warmth, a place to sit to rest from the streets. I’ll just bet you have a lot of money, two or three cars and a nice warm Santa Barbara home so you don’t have to ever know what it is like to live like the people who go without. People… Read more »
@Nancy, I am Actually glad to hear from Mary, because she illustrates very clearly the mindset of a vocal segment of SB society that believes homeless people are the CAUSE of all that ails, rather than a SYMPTOM of much deeper problems than she, and others like her, realize. She gives us a chance to address and have dialogue about the issues that concern us all as human beings today. Until we stop looking at the surface, and focusing on the sense of entitlement that SB residents (and indeed, Californians in general) are conditioned to possess, we will continue going… Read more »