As in years before, Earth Day 2012 was a fun and feel-good event. We thank the many volunteers who made the COAST booth a success:
Sarah Grant, Deborah Schwartz, Chris Sobell, Suzanne Michaud, Courtney Dietz, Eric Kirsh , Diana Blanchard, as well as Alanna, Kaytee, Juan and one more UCSB student whose name we don’t know, further Caitlin Carlson, Alex Pujo, Greg Janee, Mark Bradley, Lee Moldaver, Tracey Singh, Mickey Flacks, Dick Axilrod, Ken Hough, Doris Phinney and Eva Inbar. A special thank-you to Kim Stanley who organized our helmet program both days. If we missed anyone, please let us know! We fitted 65 helmets and gave out lots of information about COAST. For more photos,visit our facebook page.

Kids check in at school and receive a healthy snack, sticker, and enter their name in a raffle for a chance to win a big prize!

On Thursday, February 9th, Vieja Valley Elementary kicked off their monthly Walk and Bike to School Day! On the 9th of every month, kids, parents, and teachers will ditch their cars to walk and bike to school!

They had a great turnout this month, with loads of kids walking and riding their bikes to school. Many families who typically drive to school, rode their bikes instead. Some came from as far as the LaCumbre area, biking over the LaCumbre overpass and onto Modoc road, over a mile away! Families enjoyed the morning air and exercise, and it was a great opportunity to spend time with their kids before heading off to work!

Kids who participated in Walk to School Day got a healthy snack of granola bars and orange juice, a sticker, and entered their names in a raffle for a chance to win a big prize! The class with the highest average participation will also receive a treat.

We’d like to thank Sasha McGibben, a mom who organized the first event, and will be organizing all of the monthly Walk/Bike to School Days!

With the aid of the crossing guard, kiddos walk their bikes across the crosswalk to get to school!

In addition to Vieja Valley’s Walk/Bike to School Day, COAST’s Safe Routes to School Program is really taking off this year! We’re expanding into schools we’ve never been before  including those in Carpinteria. We also started pilot programs in Isla Vista Elementary and Franklin Elementary. We are so excited, and can’t wait to share our successes with you!

COAST would like to thank our newest council member, Cathy Murillo, who went out there herself to observe and spoke eloquently to the needs of the many walkers in the area.

We also want to thank all the people who e-mailed and called. Brittany Odermann Heaton, Robert Adams and Ed France spoke in favor of alternative 2A – thank you!

Through all of our efforts, we turned this around.

On January 11, representatives of COAST attended a very special ribbon cutting ceremony. It was for the footpath on San Ysidro Road leading to Montecito Union School that COAST helped bring about. MUS Superintendent Tammy Murphy and Supervisor Salud Carbajal led the ceremony together with all the students of the school. The kids actually cut the ribbon. They had placed thank-you notes on all the mailboxes on San Ysidro Road and left a sunflower at each one. Large groups of up to 50 children and their parents walked the new path to school that day. Later, when the kids were in school, dog walkers and joggers enjoyed it as well.

We thank Supervisor Carbajal who rolled up his sleeves and got things done. We thank our County Public Works staff, above all Matt Dobberteen, who worked hard on this. We thank all the parents who did not stop pushing for this. Most of all, we thank Stephen Murdoch for getting the ball rolling and for his generosity to COAST. He is still in London and so could not be with us on this special day, but his parents, Joan and Bill Murdoch, were present. Exactly five years ago, in January of 2007, Stephen and I first had coffee at Pierre Lafond’s in the Upper Village to talk about a path because he had no safe place to walk to school with his two young daughters. Afterward, we walked along San Ysidro Road together, clambering over rocks and tree roots. Now the path we imagined has become a reality. I hope that one day, Stephen will be back and walk to school on this path with his daughters. (Report by Eva Inbar)

Photos by: Lisa Valencia

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!

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.