UCSB Study Debunks CalTrans

Ummmm, several day old news but the just-released UCSB study discredits the CalTrans proposal to install so-called suicide prevention barriers on the Cold Spring Bridge -- or is it now the Chumash Highway Bridge, doh!

"there is no evidence that a suicide prevention barrier on the Cold Spring Bridge would save lives,"

It seems more important to me to carry forward carefully-considered, facts-based, and effective suicide prevention measures and also consider any traffic calming techniques that could save lives from driving towards the casino as well. A newly-formed citizens group is calling upon CalTrans to withdraw its proposal to spend up to $1,000,000 to install such barriers. What do you think?

WWTT? Chumash Highway? OMG from SYV...

It's a bit too easy to get fodder for my "What Were They Thinking?" installments. I got the following from a reader and could hardly believe what I read:

OMG,

I just learned that I’ll be telling family and friends to take the “CHUMASH HIGHWAY ” to visit me at my home in the Santa Ynez valley.

WTF? Who made the decision to rename Hwy 154/San Marcos Pass the “CHUMASH HIGHWAY ”? Did the tribe “buy” the naming rights? Does our legislature think the casino is in jeopardy of failing and needs more public assistance?

Honestly, I’d rather live on the blue side of the “blue line” than at the end of the “CHUMASH HIGHWAY ”. Talk about property devaluation. We might as well rename Santa Ynez “CASINOVILLE” and call the valley “CHUMASH VALLEY ”. This irritates me.

Sign me, “Citizen Stringer” from Los Olivos

Well, we'll make that a lower case CS....The Lompoc Record reports that it was a unanimous vote. Without even getting into whether our representatives were on the floor of the Assembly and State Senate at the time, I have to ask why they didn't come to the residents of the Santa Ynez Valley to ask what they thought about their traffic inducing build-a-lot neighbors at the Casino getting the historic 154/San Marcos Pass renamed right after the Zaca Fire almost destroyed all that they know.

This is what Chair Vince Armenta had to say to the Record about the smoked filled room decision:

Travelers taking the scenic route from Santa Ynez to Santa Barbara cross a journey that the Chumash people have traversed for thousands of years,” Armenta said in a statement. “I'm elated that this fact was recognized by the California Legislature with their highway naming project.”

I'll be interested to see what Pedro Nava and Tom McClintock have to say about this....in the mean time, I say it has Wilcox Property written all over it. How many of you will change what you call San Marcos Pass?