Nominations for BlogaBarbara Person(s) of the Year
It's that time of the year again. It's December and we are all looking back at what happened in the last year.
The criteria is the same as it has been since 2006 -- for better or worse, who had the most impact on our community in the last year?
Prior winners include the fired News-Press reporters and the Zaca Fire Firefighters. If that line didn't put you in the space to nominate who I would nominate, I'm not sure what would. Far from a fait accompli, please give me your suggestions as runner-ups have always been an important part of the BlogaBarbara Person(s) of the Year process.
The BBPOY will be announced within the last couple days of December and nominations will be taken until the 25th of this month.
The criteria is the same as it has been since 2006 -- for better or worse, who had the most impact on our community in the last year?
Prior winners include the fired News-Press reporters and the Zaca Fire Firefighters. If that line didn't put you in the space to nominate who I would nominate, I'm not sure what would. Far from a fait accompli, please give me your suggestions as runner-ups have always been an important part of the BlogaBarbara Person(s) of the Year process.
The BBPOY will be announced within the last couple days of December and nominations will be taken until the 25th of this month.
posted by Sara De la Guerra | 12/09/2008 08:00:00 PM
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21 Comments:
The City College Nine plus One. They had the biggest impact on this community this year.
the most impact? Santa Barbara gang members. They have whittled away the feeling of safety and security among so many, especially on the Eastside.
The Gap and Tea Fire firefighters and the officials involved in saving our communities from what could have been a lot worse.
Barack Hussein Obama, obviously and or the best run campaign ever.
Wendy McCaw for running a newspaper with so little local news as to diminish the quality of public understanding and quantity of participation in local government.
Gangs...
We eliminated the gang outreach in 2000, and they are back
I nominate the city bureaucrat that allowed Apple to gut that building they're going into and then further allowed them to add a third story.
Yes, let's nominate the dingalings who approved that Apple Store downtown which is going to drain the life out of all the small mom & pop stores which have been servicing Apple customers out here forEVER.
How about Bill Mahan and his friends behind the height limits ordinance. By gathering more than 11,000 signatures, they have brought the will of the people onto the ballot--and activated the entire development community against them. This is forcing much-needed showdown about the direction of SB in the next election.
Bill Mahan indeed would be a good choice, especially how he lead the charge to approve all these overly big buildings when he was on the city Planning Commission.
His buddies Brian Barnwell and Grant House also would be good, although Barnwell has been kicked around enough and that was last year.
As for House, he is ready for that Barnwellian role next year as he tries to get reelected.
Bill Mahan is a great choice because he finally is going to get the people and not the city staff to determine the future direction of Santa Barbara.
Thank you Bill for giving us all a voice the city is refusing to listen to. It will be a landslide for Bill's initiative because it will be a clear choice between more city staff folly and nonsense of huge growth versus the will of the people for small growth.
There is going to be a huge slate for change in the next city council election and it cannot come a moment too soon. We need to take our town back again. Not a single incumbent will survive. For anything.
They laughed last time and nearly all the incumbents came close to losing and one did lose. That was just the beginning. It is going to be a vote between the city unions and the taxpayer voters. Not even close when those lines are drawn.
Sadly, for the worse, gang bangers have impacted SB. Zero tolerance, all you officials! It's our town, remember?! Please - no more Boys & Girls Club approaches. No offense to that fine organization, but people who choose gangs and the life that comes with them are not interested. They are busy ruining our town.
Don't even get me started on the Tea Fire Ten.
I nominate the owner of the Tea House for letting this known nuisance go abated for decades and doing nothing about it. Had nothing but the best interests of Santa Barbara at heart.
Really, Bill Mahan is a serious nomination for Person of the Year.
He advocated for the Chapala One building bulk and then approved it and others like it during his long tenure as a Planning Commissioner. Now, he is the leader of the 9000+ city voter movement that successfully interjected a Citizens Initiative ballot measure into the November 2009 city election to not only screw up the Plan Santa Barbara process but also to dominate the public discourse during the city council election at the same time.
For all that civic engagement and simultaneous hypocrisy, Bill Mahan indeed meets the usual editorial standards as a significant person and certainly the first annual Blogabarbara Person of the Year!
All great suggestions -- I may do a survey monkey to facilitate these and other nominations.
Bill Mahan is the first to admit his approval erred on Paseo Chapala et al. Both these projects got crammed down our throats because a gun was to our heads with the new state legislation demanding zoning corruptions in exchange for a few "affordable" units tacked on to any massive development project.
Put the blame on the state legislators like Pedro Nava who let this reprehensible legislation sneak through compliments of the San Diego building industry. And the city council who was perfectly willing to sell this city's heart and soul if it meant they could brag about adding a few "affordable" units to the city's housing supply.
At least Mahan saw the errors of this type of social-engineering planning. He deserve credit for his candor and for that alone besides his heroic petition drive efforts as his personal tribute to undoing what the state has already done to us.
There is no hipocrasy at all here - Mahan like everyone else was trying to do the best they could under these new state mandates. And the city was pushing them along all the way. Save your condemnation for those who could have made a difference, and did not. Nava and the city council.
And most of the blame also goes to the city planning staff who is totally in the hands of the building industry and the city employee unions who have brainwashed them to sneak growth, growth, growth into every single planning decision because they see that translating as dollars in their pockets and life time job security for them, no matter what price they demand city residents to make for their own self-serving agenda.
The revisionist history of denial here all the more verifies my point about how Mahan, Barnwell, and House started this mess that two of them at least now pretend they did not start.
Maxx, you're brilliant; I nominate you. Barnwell got humiliated when he ran again, Mahan has flip-flopped, and House is determined to seek re-election. We'll see how that turns out for him with the electorate's mood and long memories.
I agree: Bill Mahan, for his role in leading the initiative to lower the maximum allowed building height in Santa Barbara.
Vote next November for the citizens height ballot initiative and not the developers alternative, which allows much taller buildings !
I agree that none of the incumbents are going to be re-elected.
Especially not "Helene, the queen of spin"
For sheer chutzpah, how about nominating Helene for sending out that holiday card with her Helene Schneider for Mayor on the back of it!!!
Ok, then state three instances of Helene Schneider and her "spin" and also make the them factually correct.
Well?
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