Year: <span>2011</span>

Year: 2011

Mesa Architects win COAST’s Barry Siegel Award at 2011 Fall Gathering

This year’s Fall Gathering was COAST’s best event ever! An enthusiastic crowd of COAST members, community leaders, and elected officials enjoyed an evening of wine, drinks, and fun for the October 27th event.

COAST was proud to present their annual Barry Siegel Award, given to members of the community who have made outstanding improvements to modes of transportation in the Santa Barbara region, to the Mesa Architects. The Mesa Architects have been integral in making neccessary changes to Cliff Drive, and worked with CalTrans and the City Council to reach a (very rare) uninamious decision to restripe Cliff Drive. This road diet will slow cars down and make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists to cross the street safely.

The event was sponsored by MTD, Cottage Health System, CEC, AFSB, Martha Siegel, and Roger and Eileen Horton. Thank you to our sponsors! And thank you to everyone who came!

City Council Candidates on Transportation

The Community Environmental Council, the Santa Barbara Bicycle Coalition, and COAST have teamed up to develop a questionnaire for candidates running for Santa Barbara City Council. The questionnaire focused on current transportation issues, such as the attractiveness of alternative transportation and the jobs vs. housing imbalance.

We asked the following questions:

  1. Do you agree with the City’s Circulation Element vision statement, “Santa Barbara should be a city in which alternative forms of transportation and mobility are so available and so attractive that use of an automobile is a choice, not a necessity”? If not, how would you improve it?
  2. Given that dangerous walking conditions that exist in Santa Barbara’s Eastside, what might you do to make the Eastside a safer place to walk – more lighting, re-pavement of crosswalks, speed bumps, more police enforcement, or something else?
  3. Is it the City’s duty to improve the jobs/housing imbalance in Santa Barbara? If so, what would you have the City do to accomplish this? If not, how can this imbalance be best addressed?
  4. Please list three specific things you would prioritize to improve our regional transportation. How would you pay for them? How long would it take to accomplish them?
  5. Do you support the State of California’s goals for new and retrofitted “net zero energy” buildings that generate as much energy as they use? If so, how can the City be a leader and help its citizens meet this challenge? If not, why?
  6. Given projections of increased traffic levels in Santa Barbara, how would you best mitigate our upcoming street congestion?

And here are their responses, by candidate:

Sharon Byrne
Iya Falcone
Dale Francisco
Jerry Matteo
Cathy Murrillo
Randy Rowse
Deborah Schwartz
Michael Self

Remember to register to vote if you haven’t already. This election is also entirely vote-by-mail. Here upcoming dates of interest:

Monday, October 10: Voter Information packets mailed including pre-paid postage for returned ballots
Monday, October 10: Vote-by-mail period begins
Monday, October 24: Last day to register to vote
Tuesday, November 8: Election Day – Last day City Clerk’s Office can receive vote-by-mail ballots. There will be also be five drop-off centers throughout the City, allowing voters the option to vote in person
Three City Councilmember seats are on the ballot.

For more information, visit www.SBCityVote.org.