The L.A. Times reports:
The scruffy lot with the golden weeds and the lonesome palms wouldn't rate a second glance if it were in, say, Los Angeles or Bakersfield. No one would think twice about these two flat, empty acres if their ZIP Code placed them in San Jose or Stockton.
But this is Santa Barbara, a built-out city hemmed in by the Santa Ynez Mountains to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the south and politics in every possible direction. And this is believed to be Santa Barbara's last vacant lot big enough to hold a housing development.
Not, however, just any housing development. The City Council is considering whether to use the property to build affordable housing, a condominium complex called Los Portales for families earning up to $160,000 a year.
Now, "it's hard to get sympathy for people making $160,000 a year if you're down in Texas or something," said Bill Watkins, head of the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project. Any household with that kind of money is in the nosebleed section of American earners, and "most of the country would think, 'You're going to subsidize that person's house? You're kidding me.' "
Why is housing so expensive in Santa Barbara?
The tallest building here is the eight-story Granada Theatre, built in 1924. It could never be replicated today, in part because the City Charter strictly limits buildings to 60 feet, about four stories. And even four stories is a hard sell.
Zoned out.If you aren't the "politically connected" you aren't going to get that subsidized housing.Santa Barbara just doesn't like middle class people.
