Tag archives: Jason Harris

Parklets To Remain Until End of 2023
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   February 1, 2022

The Santa Barbara City Council has adopted an ordinance that will provide an additional 22 months, until December 31, 2023, for businesses within city limits –including on Coast Village Road – to operate expanded outdoor business facilities and parklets. The ordinance also authorizes the continued closure of downtown State Street to vehicles while regulatory changes […]

Update on Parklet Time Extension
By Kelly Mahan Herrick   |   January 25, 2022

In response to our reporting in last week’s edition that the City of Santa Barbara is considering adopting an ordinance that would extend operation of restaurant parklets on Coast Village Road until December 31, 2023, we heard from several local business owners and Montecito residents, all with differing opinions, who said they would like the […]

Santa Barbara Mayoral Candidate Deborah Schwartz is Not Your Figurehead
By Nick Schou   |   March 11, 2021

It’s sometimes said that Santa Barbara, with its powerful full-time city administrator overseeing more than 1,000 city employees in ten different agencies, tends to leave the mayor as a figurehead, not much more than a glorified seventh city councilmember who happens to represent all constituents rather than those in one district. But don’t tell that […]

Pandemic Precipitates New Podcast
By Steven Libowitz   |   July 23, 2020

Speaking of stories, the Santa Barbara Public Library is launching its own virtual archive of aural adventures via a new podcast called Cover to Cover. Hosted by Norma Cervantes and Jace Turner – a library administrator and its Community Relations Librarian, respectively – the podcast is set to explore the spirit of Santa Barbara through […]

A Grand Reopening?
By Mitchell Kriegman   |   April 30, 2020

Years from now we may look back on the Santa Barbara City Council meeting of April 21 as a time capsule of how prepared or not we were during the economic collapse of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic. In that meeting, City Administrator Paul Casey introduced his new hire Economic Development Manager Jason Harris to the […]

The Importance of Building Bridges
By Gwyn Lurie   |   April 16, 2020

Thank you to Montecito realtor, Cristal Clarke, for sponsoring this week’s MJ home delivery. Bringing the MJ to your doorstep (or at least your driveway) is one way we are working to meet the challenges of this moment. Thanks to Cristal Clarke’s support, we are once again able to deliver. I’d also like to give […]

Santa Barbara’s Dire Pre-Existing Conditions and COVID-19
By Mitchell Kriegman   |   April 16, 2020

“Put it this way, the glass is more than half empty. Let’s just throw the glass out the window. Let’s forget it. There’s distrust. There’s disdain. That kind of baggage,” Jason Harris admitted. He’s Santa Barbara’s newly hired, first ever, Economic Development Manager (EDM). He’s moving his family from Santa Monica to Thousand Oaks, not […]