Restoring SB's Green Luster

[ SBN-P Editorial, 4/17/2005 ]:

Restoring Santa Barbara's green luster

Voice From Santa Barbara: Travis Armstrong


You hear a lot around Earth Day about Santa Barbara being the birthplace of the modern environmental movement, but we have a city government that doesn't do enough to live up to the legacy.

Santa Barbara is a city with a planning process that delves into the color of paint on buildings, but as planners focus on the details, the streets have grown more congested and our quality of life heads south.

What's the city plan when it comes to transportation and mass transit? How are different departments and citizen advisory panels working together on it?

As activists Harley Augustino and Ariana Katovich wrote on Tuesday: "While Santa Barbara has been a leader in opposing oil drilling off the coast, our city must do much more to reduce our dependence on oil. . . . A strong public transportation system will entice people with cars to get on the bus, thus reducing oil consumption and pollution.

"Unfortunately, the city has spent more public funds making it easier to drive, instead of supporting mass public transit."

Santa Barbarans, sadly, ought to lower their expectations that City Hall will be the leader in pushing a truly green agenda. Das Williams is perhaps the only member of the council who embodies the spirit of the environmentalism spawned in 1969. But other council members marginalize him. Just watch their body language when he brings up creative ideas or facts the staff ignored.

Environmental stewards will need to be the first ones to promote causes, as they've done in the past by forcing the city to set up creek and ocean water-quality programs and a pesticide-reduction strategy.

Some groups are leading the way. Getting the city's attention and cooperation are the Community Environmental Council through its Fossil Free by '33 program and the Santa Barbara Contractors Association through its Built Green efforts. The activist group PUEBLO vows to launch its Green Santa Barbara campaign to get the city to increase mass transit.

These are great. It's a shame, though, that we can't count on City Hall more often to lead and innovate so Santa Barbara just isn't the environmental movement's birthplace but also a continual incubator.

WHITHER SBCANT?: An outfit known as the Santa Barbara County Action Network began as a vehicle for Pedro Nava to use during his run-up to the state Assembly. It's mission also has appeared to be about getting reporters to quote its former manager David Forston and providing its favored politicians cover.

A recent report described the group as an environmental nonprofit organization. If that description is true, it's a sign of how far environmentalism has fallen in Santa Barbara. This group approves of giving developers guarantees to build denser or bigger projects -- in effect sometimes changing zoning -- on randomly sited parcels in the county. This subsidized "workforce" housing, done through piecemeal planning, benefits well-paid households and comes on the backs of the working poor.

Now that Mr. Nava has been elected and the county Board of Supervisors is controlled by a new majority that basically ignores the group, will this "action network" just wither away?


Travis Armstrong is the editorial page editor of the News-Press.

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Restoring Santa Barbara's green luster ]