Santa Barbara Young Democrats recently interviewed candidates for City Council.





"The purpose of the meeting was to give the local Democrat candidates a chance to introduce themselves, and hopefully earn SBYD's eventual endorsement.

"The format was simple. Each candidate was given a few minutes alone with the YD's to introduce themselves, pitch, and answer some brief questions. Any other candidates vying for the same position were asked to wait their turn outside the door...

"Candidates in attendance were Helene Schnieder, Grant House, Iya Falcone, David Pritchett, Dianne Channing & Olivia Uribe. Das Williams was there in his capacity as a young democrat...

I have made up some ratings for each candidates web-savviness based on whatever I could (easily) find..."

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Please click on post title to go to full text at City2.0

Labels: 2009, elections

[ From: "Barkin’ Loud, Biting Nothin’," Angry Poodle Barbecue column, February 12, 2009, by Nick Welsh ]


"CONGESTION INDIGESTION: Next time the Santa Barbara Council sets out to do absolutely nothing, maybe they could not spend four hours and 15 minutes not doing it. I’m sure there were other things I myself could have not done in that time, like not alphabetizing my CD collection.

But for more than four hours, our mayor and councilmembers dithered over the fate of the intersection of State Street and De la Vina  —  which clearly needs serious help  —  before executing the ultimate political dodge...

For a brief instant, it appeared Councilmember Das Williams  —  a seriously practical guy underneath all that flamboyant idealism  —  might snatch action from the jaws of delay. He figured out that adding a green right-hand turn arrow to the stop light at the proposed new intersection would let most cars continue down De la Vina Street virtually unimpeded, though they would have to slow somewhat to execute the new right turn. If, however, cyclists or pedestrians were nearby, automated street sensors would turn the green arrow to red to allow safe passage. The technology exists. Wiring for the green arrow, it turns out, was included in the city’s current plans, but the green arrow, somehow, was not.

Mayor Marty Blum and Councilmember Grant House were with him. Yet Councilmember Roger Horton fretted about the finances, exaggerating by 100 percent how much City Hall would have to put up in order to match the state grant, and Councilmember Dale Francisco, the automobile’s best friend in City Hall, has been reviling this project since his council campaign. Had Schneider not been deploying her defensive campaign moves, I’d bet a thousand donuts she’d have provided the fourth vote. But her strategic objective was to allow no sunlight to shine between her position and that of Falcone. Given how late into the night the meeting went, I’d say there was little risk of sunlight intruding anywhere...

Labels: 2009, mayorial election, traffic circulation