For my friends interested in turning streets into fun, outdoor spaces for people to play, here is a short thread for how it's goin' over here in Santa Barbara so far.

Last Thursday, the city decided to close State street, one of the two main commercial streets in downtown by Friday at 4pm. Close to cars, that is, and open to humans doing human things! This all happened super fast and on the fly, in a place where not much ever really changes.

The idea of turning State Street into a pedestrian mall/promenade thingy has kicked around city planning for YEARS. Like Lucy yankin' the football. The long-timers around here, they don't really like change -- and there's quite a lot of people who love their cars.

Then, the internet put retail under pressure and fewer people came downtown to shop. Income inequalities in California grew, and the homeless population grew, too. Even fewer people wanted to come downtown to shop.

Over the past few years, empty storefronts have increased noticeably. Rents remain high -- and some property owners choose to take the tax write-off rather than lower rents to find a tenant (that's a whole other story).

Then came Uber and Lyft. Instead of parking in one of the city lots and walking to their destination, people took an Uber/Lyft directly to their restaurant or bar and directly home. No window shopping, more car traffic, but fewer people on the sidewalk

Long story short, even before Covid came along, what to do about State Street, was an ongoing question around these parts. Covid forced the issue, because without people downtown, without outdoor space the bars and restaurants that employ a solid chunk of people would all close

So far, it's fucking awesome, you guys. More people are out walking around than I've seen downtown in aggggess. Outdoor seating is still a work in progress for restaurants, who learned in the space of like two days that they could open and could have sidewalk seating.

But on Saturday evening when I rode by, people were eating and hanging out, and looking super stoked with the setup. A few restaurants had tables in the road and sidewalk, but most were sticking to the sidewalk. For now.

One thing that's been essential: California's liquor board waived certain rules and made it simpler for restos to serve outdoors. In fact, a lot of this outdoor dining stuff would be easier if Americans had fewer hang-ups about where and how we can drink.

Most cross-streets to State are still open all the way through with stop-signs -- but it seems like it might work better to close a few of them. Also it's currently no rules -- pedestrians, bikes, skateboards, all in the same space. Fun, but maybe not workable over the long term.

Okay, that was more than y'all wanted to know! tl;dr Fewer cars is super rad. I keep looking at other streets and spaces, like, what if we made that pedestrian only too? (evil laughs) Anyway, the new car-free State Street is hella rad and I hope we get to keep it forever!

As a postscript to the State street story: the city is also allowing restaurants to build small patios they're calling "parklets" into what would normally be parking spaces. The first one popped up today -- I'll snag a photo when I can. It's super fun!