City of Santa Barbara looking at Short Term solutions to help revitalize the State Street promenade

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – New ideas to change the look of State Street in downtown Santa Barbara with short term ideas comes before the City Council Tuesday.

They include more entertainment, small transit features, a shuttle and reinventing the outside dining look.

The city is also working on an “Create State” Master Plan with regular updates to the City Council.

"Anything we can do to bring more life to State Street to get people back to enjoying each other, I'm all for it," said Kevin Battles who works downtown.  "If we have four or five blocks with just entertainment and pedestrians that would be what I am in favor for."

A Ventura resident walking State Street and streaming on Tik Tok said, "downtown State Street is amazing whatever they want to do to make it better,  I'm all for it." 

Dennis Doucette sees Ventura's Main Street going through an ongoing review of its look in a similar way. He says State Street has a somewhat different draw for visitors. 

"If you come to Southern California, Santa Barbara is definitely a must visit . On the weekends it is beautiful out here, especially on Saturday and Sundays."

One of the ideas being discussed is to keep the trees but add more sidewalk dining. To do so there would have to be a redesign of the  landscaping.

More family friendly entertainment and street games have also been discussed.

In part that would slow down the bikes coming through. Speeding bike riders have been the target of multiple complaints in recent years to the point where some residents are avoiding the area.

"I think it would be great if bikes could be on State Street, it would be great to play games on State Street, I think it could be cool to have shuttles that were bike shuttles, like pedicabs," said Tanya Love as she hopped on her bike for a ride after doing some shopping.

The city is also working with different business groups and the Downtown Organization for more power washing on a regular basis.

The city is also looking at small transit options and even the return of the full shuttle which hasn't been running, in part because of costs.

There will also be be repairs to the brickwork which is uneven in several places. That is is scheduled to begin in March 2025 at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

As part of the tidiness of the area, broken newspaper racks are going to be taken out.

You can find the full City Council report here.