Parklets Demolished On One Block of State St. to Make Way for New Look

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - The morning started with heavy equipment in all directions, cutting tools and hammers  at work in downtown Santa Barbara where parklets were being demolished.

Crews were taking down the leftover parklets after business owners were told a new design was going in.

Notices went up on the remaining parklets in the one-block project area, between Cota St. and Haley St. Friday afternoon.   The deadline was 6 .am.

Some were taken out.  Some were left.

The parklets have been in place since 2020 for some businesses as a benefit seating area during the COVID crisis.

The city of Santa Barbara  is trying a new plan, just in this limited area.   It may be part of the overall Master Plan in the future.

A passerby Nancy Beaver said, "I  love it.  I do. I love it. They have to try it because the hodge podge was not attractive. I give them credit for at least trying because most of the time they just talk and then nothing happens."

She has seen them work before in other areas. "We have been to some places in Florida that have done this and it is beautiful and the restaurants are right out here and the sidewalks go out there and there's  trees and flowers,"said Beaver.

Pedlets are stacked up nearby to be installed on both sides of the street near the curb.  They will serve as the primary walking area for pedestrians.

The sidewalks will be used for tables, chairs and retail stands.    

In part, this will be easier on servers to bring food and drink right to tables without crossing over a pedestrian walkway.     

Howie Bao owns the Asie restaurant which had an outside parklet but he doesn't think he will lose seating with the new plan. "I think almost same. It is a bigger space. More comfortable and easy to service people and it's much better." 

A retail owner of Tribal Rugs said the plan will not help him. "The rugs are something that when you display them,   people see them, on the fence. It was much better to display. Now they are stacked.  I can display some but not like before," said Nasood Azizi. "The way that I had it before I liked it.  It was separate but it had a lot of space."

The pedlets will be in full use on Thursday.

The city's cost is $580,000 for this trial project.