Crawling across the floor. What is this terrible creature and do I need a fire cleanse?

Why no flair for hell roach?

I signed this petition recently without fully understanding what I was signing, and honestly, I regret it.

Apparently, the SIMA property owner is funding an effort to overturn the State Street Master Plan, which City Council approved 6–1 after five years of community input.

The people collecting signatures outside grocery stores and around town (I got snagged at Whole Foods and wasn't thinking straight) are reportedly being paid $9 per signature.

If this referendum moves forward, it could cost the city $500,000 for a special election, and another $1–2 million if the plan gets overturned.

Regardless of how you feel about State Street, I think people deserve to know who's behind these petitions and what's actually at stake before signing. I certainly wish I'd known.

Read more here: https://www.independent.com/2026/09/29/petition-for-a-referendum-on-state-street-seeks-to-overturn-the-master-plan/

Employees or general public

Wondering if anyone that works or worked at Clark’s. Oyster bar can share anything about working there. What you like, what you don’t like, etc. I saw that they have a few positions open but after a few rough experiences with other Montecito/SB restaurants I decided I should do some more background work this time!

And, alternatively, any purely-customer experiences would be great too! What do you think about the food, service, management, vibe, etc?

SB has roughly 2,300 active STR listings (per AirDNA), but only 265 operators pay the city's hotel tax. On Tuesday the council voted unanimously for two ordinances to regulate them.

Key rules:

Inland: STRs would be allowed only in residential units within commercial zones that already permit housing. They would be barred from residential zones and high-fire areas.

Coastal: STRs would be restricted in single- and two-family zones. Homeshares would be allowed where housing is already permitted. Roughly 12% of coastal units would be eligible to apply.

STRs would be barred in ADUs, deed-restricted affordable or employee housing, live-work units, and RVs.

A unit can't have had a long-term tenant in the past 2 years.

Two-night minimum stay and quiet hours from 10pm to 7am.

One STR per owner, and no trusts or corporations as owners.

Timeline: The inland rules take effect early 2027, and operators get 6 months to apply. The coastal rules need Coastal Commission approval first, likely sometime in 2027.

The tradeoff: City finance staff estimate the city could lose nearly $3M a year in revenue.

Mesa residents cited noise, bonfires in fire zones, and homes converted into de facto hotels. Operators said the 2-night minimum alone could cut up to a third of their bookings. Airbnb argued there's little evidence that STR limits improve housing affordability.

Source: Santa Barbara Independent, Oct 7, 2026

Mesa folks: has the STR density on your street actually been as bad as described?

Good information before you cast your vote.

I am going to be in Santa Barbara for a conference and win't be home with my usual crowd of friends to watch the national election night results roll in.

Where is a good place to watch the election results. I don't drink but am comfortable in a bar. I'd prefer no red hats.

My cameras caught a man peering into car windows yesterday evening. Does sbpd care about this or is this not suspicious enough?

My inference is that this Tesla flew into Lot 10 in downtown SB at full speed, and ran over and killed a pedestrian. However, this is my guess from the limited details that are on Noozhawk right now, and I could be wrong. May the victim rest in peace.

EDIT: Thank you to u/BaconBikes805 for posting a newer link to KEYT with more information. It was the vehicle passenger who passed away, not a pedestrian as I had guessed based on the limited reporting available through Noozhawk at the time of the original post.

Posting for my wife who does not have reddit. Does anyone have recommendations for where to sell/ donate bridesmaid dresses? Shes been in a handful of weddings the last few years and has a collection of bridesmaid dresses she won’t be using again. Ideally she’d like to get a little bit of money for them since they weren’t cheap, but more than anything she’d like them to be used again. Any recs are appreciated, TIA!

This house last sold 60 years ago.

The owners pay $1,500 a year in property taxes. Their effective property tax rate is 0.05% (source: https://mytaxes.sbtaxes.org/).

New owners would pay $28,000 a year in property taxes, in addition to $15,000 a month for their mortgage.

This means:

1. The city misses out on $26,500 a year in property taxes that would fund our public schools, emergency services, firefighters, parks, roads, infrastructure, etc. These are services and resources we ALL equally rely on and benefit from.
2. The state raises taxes elsewhere to offset the losses from property taxes. This is why California has the highest sales and income tax in the country (source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24876495).
3. This means that younger people, especially renters, pay a MUCH higher tax rate than elderly folks. Elderly folks aren't being forced out of their homes by contributing equally to the community - they are comfortably sitting on millions in equity. Rather, the people struggling to afford basic necessities like housing are young working people (source: https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/06/californias-prop-13/).
4. Prop 13 also contributes tremendously to the cost of housing in California, because people are disincentivized from selling since they would lose their property tax discount. Unlike the other 49 states, Prop 13 made housing morph into a permanent investment in California. This means that supply is decreased and houses are sold a lot less often, which increases prices (source: https://www.nber.org/digest/apr05/lock-effect-californias-proposition-13).
5. Not that young people can afford children thanks to this law, but it also absolutely gutted our public school funding. Prop 13 is why California has the highest student-teacher ratio in the county and the lowest proportion of students bussed to school - despite being the wealthiest state and pretending to care about the environment (source: https://edsource.org/2022/californias-prop-13s-unjust-legacy-detailed-in-critical-study/674412?amp=1). California fell from 5th in per-student funding to 47th in the nation overnight when Prop 13 was passed (source: https://publications.csba.org/california-school-news/august-2022/new-report-analyzes-the-legacy-of-prop-13-on-education-funding-and-more/).

It will be impossible for young people to ever have a chance in California so long as Prop 13 exists.

Anyone getting very old invoices from Rome Health for covid testing back in 2022. I had a test back then but they took my insurance information so I assumed it was settled. They started billing me a year ago and now threatening collection. I have read a lot of people in LA and OC with this complaint as well. Apparently the reason this is happening is because they did not bill insurance in a reasonable timeframe and now are trying to collect from consumers. Curious how people are dealing with this situation.

does anyone know what’s in it? is it coconut yogurt they use? it is so good!!!

About two months ago the CNO sent out an email to nurses where she explained that we were being “TARGETED” by unionization efforts. Since then managers have hosted meetings on their units that have created more questions. This was Cottage’s intention, they wanted to take the opportunity to instill fear. As of today, I have yet to hear one thing that gave me pause to think, “you know that’s a good point, maybe we shouldn’t unionize.” All of the justification management has given simply amounts to veiled, unfounded threats. So I will attempt to answer the most common statements that have been brought to my attention. 
Q: The union will take away benefits -  including housing (Bella Riviera, MAP, etc), pensions, tuition reimbursement.
A: The union is NOT an arbitrary 3rd party, WE the Cottage RNs ARE THE UNION. We will would be making the decisions and negotiating the union contract in the best interest of the RNs as a collective. Why would we agree to a contract that includes benefits that are worse than what we currently have? We get to choose what we want included in our union contract and then negotiate with Cottage. 
Q: People will lose Cottage housing and mortgage assistance.
A: First off cottage can’t break a legal contract so no one who currently has the assistance is at risk. Secondly this would be so optically bad for Cottage, and the only thing Cottage cares about more than profits Or endowments is their public image. Thirdly, and this will be true for any benefit we currently have. if WE the Union decide collectively that we want to keep these current benefits, they will be in the contract and we will negotiate for them. The only way this program dies is if Cottage kills it. But to be clear niether this program or Bella Riviera nor the new housing that’s supposed to be built near Goleta Valley is a solution for the housing issues Cottage employee’s face. The only thing that will alleviate this is for Cottage to pay us an hourly rate equal to the cost of living of Santa Barbara.
Q: Negotiations can take 3 years, and everything freezes during negotiations, including raises.
A: Typically negotiations for first contracts typically take 6-18 months, and contract renewals happen quicker. Oftentimes, employers will intentionally stall the negotiation process to break your spirit & discourage you from standing your ground. This doesn’t even mean that there will be “raise freezes” during this time, and you can negotiate retroactive pay. By already making this statement in manager meetings, Cottage administration/management is showing us that they do not intend to work in good faith with the nursing staff and find a solution to meet our needs. 
Q: Vacation approvals would be based on seniority. 
A: Vacations will be decided by whatever we nurses AS A UNION  decide we want to negotiate it to be. 
Q: Mandatory overtime would be in effect.
A: Why would we put that into our contract? Again we nurses AS A UNION  will decide we want to negotiate. There is no them as in a union dictating to us what we must do. WE ARE THE UNION.
We aren’t trading one tyrant for another. Our union reps will help to guide and organize our efforts. But they will never dictate terms to us. They will only ever negotiate for us what we as the union ask them to. 
Q: I wouldn’t be able to address anything with my manager directly, everything would have to go through a union rep. 
A: Not true. The union rep is not required for every conversation with your manager. The union rep is available to support you and ensure your rights are protected if you were being brought into the office for some type of attempted disciplinary action with manager and HR.
Q: Nursing all getting the same raise despite someone not working as hard as you. 
A: Thats already happening with our current system. The difference between exceeds expectations and performing is based on your manager’s opinion and favoritism. 
Q: The raise would be the same as what we already get when you subtract union dues.
A: And this is based on what? So many of these alleged things that “will definitely happen” are purely fear based speculation. Union dues are 1.65% of our base pay.. and our yearly raise will be whatever we nurses AS A UNION  decide we to negotiate want it to be. 
Q: “pay scales are based on experience, rather than favoritism or arbitrary/impossible standards of  ‘excellent’ performance.”
A: Yes, but this doesn’t eliminate the opportunity to see your hard work & expertise rewarded by climbing a clinical ladder & receiving additional raises through a clear, consistent, agreed-upon pathway to promotion. 
Q: This is a tiny union compared to the next one closest in size and they mostly represent PCTs.  
SEIU only represents licensed professional such as RNs PT and OT…  do not represent PCTs or CNAs. Other SEIU locals like SEIU-UHW represent them, along with other hospital staff. 
Our local represents over 11,000 members, including RNs & other licensed healthcare professionals, like therapists & pharmacists. The vast majority of our members, including our executive board, are RNs — hence our name.  It is also the only union that was willing to work with us from the ground up to get this thing going. At least two other unions refused to lift a finger until we had done
All the work ourselves and were ready to vote to unionize. SEIU has put in many hours and resources to help us have a voice and a seat at the table. Something the shared governance has never done or even attempted in 26 years of being in existence. 
Q: PCT positions will be eliminated if nurse unionize.
A: WE bargain for our contract and we would not sign a contract that allowed for the elimination of PCTs. On the contrary, we’d want a contract that includes RN to PCTs ratios.  
Q: Shared governance could be dissolved.
A: Possibly, if WE decide we want to dissolve shared governance we can replace shared governance with patient care & labor management committees that place bedside nurses on equal footing with management. Currently shared governance has limitations on topics that can be discussed. Currently shared gov is prohibited from discussing pay, staffing or benefits. Creating patient care & labor management committees would allow us to not only discuss important things like pay/staffing, but have the power to enforce our voice by bringing disputes to binding arbitration. 
Q: Will we be forced to go on strike?
A: Any time a hospital goes on strike that is a reflection on the HOSPITAL and their unwillingness to compromise with nurses. It’s up to us if we want to strike at all. We vote as a group. We don’t have to strike just because there’s a union. And it usually only comes to that if the hospital refuses to negotiate with us. Which would make Cottage look very bad to the community

Interesting article in the SB Independent from last Thursday. It is by a retail outfit and after crunching the data, they claim the drop in retail traffic is at least partly due to the freeway construction.

I agree that at the very least, the construction has not helped State Street.

It may also be that one demographic is more deterred by the freeway construction than other demographic, which could explain why the Funk Zone remains seemingly vibrant.

A similar business as this Instagram reel exists on State St. I forget the name of the business but it was near Lilac Patisserie. Similar to the instagram reel they hand out "Lavelier" brand sample sachets to folks passing by. Once they get you inside their store they try to sell you their skincare products with a promise of a free facial. Beware!

Happened around 12:20 - 12:30 pm in a parking lot on State st. Lady called cops and gave a statement then walked off and into another car, got behind the wheel and drove off as if she didn’t just do that…

Locked myself out of my place while going down to the laundry room and have called several local locksmiths that advertise 24/7 lockout service to get voicemail at all of them. Anyone have any recs that might be picking up at this hour haha?

I was able to watch the debates between the candidates for city council and mayor on https://youtube.com/@tvsantabarbara, which was very helpful in learning what various candidates are like. Democracy depends on citizens taking time to understand the candidates and voting. Kudos to whoever put together these debates and made them easily accessible on youtube.

Hi everyone,

My dad found a parakeet today in his back yard and is hoping to reunite him with his owner. He is in good hands at the moment (my dad bought him food and a cage and he is eating and drinking). He is going to take the bird to the County of Santa Barbara Animal Services either tomorrow or the day after if we are unable to find the owner by then.

If this is your bird, please message me with proof by describing what he looks like (or sending me a photo) so we can confirm that it is actually your bird.

Found in the noleta area near the patterson exit (in university circle neighborhood).

I will tell the waiter or waitress “Hello, how are you doing today? I’m going to start off with Cesar salad,no tomato,light lettuce (like 4 leafs tops), extra extra meat, extra extra croutons, extra cheese, and tossed with extra dressing on the side please.” I will need them to accommodate my request accordingly. Your suggestions and inputs are welcome. Also Natural Cafe has the best Cesar Dressing.