State Street, what next? – Santa Barbara Independent

State Street as we knew it before, the thriving retail heart of our city, no longer exists: the time of death mid-March 2020. The traditional walkable city center, which has survived a devastating earthquake and withstood more than the competition of suburban malls, each time adapts and improves on Himself, he suddenly became completely different.

Downtown Santa Barbara in essence follows a colonial city plan developed and refined by the Spanish, originally for the purpose of conquering foreign lands. After the earthquake of 1925, local and importing visionaries were able to implement the ideas of the “beautiful city” on a large scale that had been seeping in for decades elsewhere. These changes cast past the Victorian era and added consistency to the city center, making Santa Barbara the iconic place we know.

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When regional malls became so outraged, our city leaders deftly responded with redevelopment projects that added comfortable parking, street improvements, and ultimately an integrated mall. The result of those improvements was a vibrant, activity lane that was more attractive than traditional shopping malls. With the passage of time this success achieved more success with higher rents. What was once a traditional city center was increasingly an underground mall with restaurants, entertainment, and offices, but very little housing. The traditional urban mix was skewed.

Over time, online shopping has affected the city center. The business has closed and the level of activity has decreased. The retail core is now too big to last, but Downtown has been on a slow downward path, reluctant to adapt. The epidemic has provided momentum for change. Finally, there is consensus that our way forward is to follow a more traditional urban trend with housing and taller buildings in the heart of the city center. These changes will transform the urban mix and support more activity by adding local housing and service businesses.

Changes of this magnitude take time, so how do we get there successfully? Closing State Street has been a very successful way of adapting to the demands of social distancing that we are currently facing. Reactivated where she was missing. What works in the summer or on the weekend may not be enough to support the business during the winter or during the week. Pedestrian areas require a critical intensity of activity to thrive.

In 10 years or so, after building new housing and adapting the business mix, it would be great to dedicate sections of the pedestrianized state street similar to city centers in Europe. In the 1960s and 1970s, communities across Southern California closed streets in an effort to compete with malls; Most of them were unsuccessful due to a lack of activity. Places like Burbank and Montrose sought to revitalize their central business districts by adding landscape improvements, but had the opposite effect, disrupting sight lines and frustrating vitality.

The path forward revolves around encouraging activity of all kinds, block by block, from month to month. New designs are not enough. What is needed is a flexible approach to design, policy and regulation that can adapt over time and encourage companies to take the initiative to invest and attract clients.

Every day, the Santa Barbara Independent employees work hard to sort the truth from the rumors and keep you informed of what’s happening in the entire Santa Barbara community. Now there is a straightforward way to enable these efforts. Support freelancers by making a contribution directly or by subscribing to Indy +.

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