Month: May 2025

Jarrod Zinn

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Temperatures are climbing, and so are fire hazards, especially in the wilderness areas of the Central Coast.

Fire authorities dealt with multiple brush fires last week, and at least three of them started in the Santa Maria Riverbed.

While some of last week’s Santa Maria Riverbed fires were possibly started by people in encampments, officials at multiple agencies say the brush in the countryside is at it’s maximum height after the annual rains and now it’s drying up, providing extra fuel for wild-land fires.

“Most of your municipal departments and obviously some of the county departments that we’re in kind of our hazardous fuel reduction program window right now. We’re doing the weed abatement, hazardous fuel reduction inspections, make sure that the property owners are in compliance with creating the defensible space,” says Scott Hallett with Five Cities Fire Authority.

Both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties contain large portions of wild lands with residences and other properties interspersed throughout.

“We kind of pull the northern resources from San Luis Obispo County, southern resources from Santa Barbara County to get these contained and anytime we start having resources directed to one specific area, it has a potential to cause a threat to other areas if new fires were to start,” says Hallett.

Officials encourage residents of these areas to follow the guidelines for defensible spaces, making sure to clear any debris, and also make sure you’re signed up for your county’s emergency alert systems.

“Any time we are dealing with a vegetation fire here in the county or most of California, it’s dependent on a lot of things. What the weather’s like, the topography. California’s a lot of steep terrain, so fire can move uphill. Much faster and then a lot of it’s wind driven,” says Scott Safechuck with Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

“These more sustained longer periods of dry, hot weather just kind of exacerbate the fire season starting. And then once again, the ability for, you know, kind of fires to sustain themselves,” says Hallett.

The next 2 to 3 weeks serves as the transition into high fire season, and June 1st is the deadline in both counties to have defensible spaces clear.

And finally, officials say to remember that when your county’s public alert system gives an evacuation warning, it’s best to pack belongings and make plans for leaving.

An evacuation order is issued when your life is in jeopardy and it’s time to go.

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John Palminteri

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – A new small shuttle system is about to be rolling in downtown Santa Barbara. It will be called the State Street Loop.

It is a project that’s been months in the making after many suggestions to help those who can not comfortably walk from the waterfront to the top of the promenade district around Victoria Street.

SWEEP SB, located in the Funk Zone, is providing the vehicles under a limited contract.

The funding is coming from the City of Santa Barbara’s special tax called Measure C, designated for infrastructure improvements. Also from a driving force with planning, promotion and funding is the group Friends of State Street.

“We want people to get from Victoria Street down to the waterfront and back and experience State Street all along and all of the great things it has to offer,” said State Street Master Planner, Tess Harris. She was standing by a cart at the Farmers Market Saturday answering questions from the public.

“It is a more open-air feel,” she said. “It is just an exciting experience in and of  itself.” At the same time, “the MTD shuttle will still run on Anacapa and Chapala Streets and down to the waterfront,” said Harris. That seasonal program runs Memorial Day to Labor Day from Friday through Sunday each week.

Sharon Rich with Friends of State says three electric golf carts will start the service with some trials this week, but the official start will be next week.  It will run Thursday through Sunday.

“It has five seats for passengers and one for the driver,” she said, for a total of six. “This will be going very slow, it will go 7-8  miles an hour so we can share the location.”

The shuttle options were looked at across the country and this system was right in the city.

They are small enough and narrow enough to fit “in the bike lanes,” said Rich. It will go slow and “follow all the rules of public transit.”

It will be in a shared space on the streets.

“It allows people to move around this corridor, this historic corridor,” said Rich. She expects people to use it more than once, sometimes in a day, and you will really get to know downtown State Street,” she said.

Business owners on the top end of the promenade have, in many meetings, encouraged ways to get the public from the waterfront to the blocks around the Granada Theatre, Arlington Theatre, library plaza and the blocks around the courthouse.

Harris says a shuttle system is a top priority in many similar downtown areas. “A lot of downtowns have these golf carts or shuttle trolley systems and we are excited to bring it to Santa Barbara and it time to try something a little bit new and exciting and and we hope you hop on and enjoy the ride.”

The stops for the Loop riders will be marked on the ground, not on pole signs.

Some of the features include:

FREE Rides for all passengers.

Electric shuttles with accessible boarding

Continuous loop service along designated stops from Cabrillo Boulevard (Dolphin fountain) to Victoria Street

Service Hours: Thursday – Sunday, 12pm-7pm

Estimated Loop Time: 15-20 minutes roundtrip

For more information go to: Friends of State Street

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