Santa Barbara City Council Election

Lars Poulsen - 2026-09-13 [Policy]

I live in the fifth district of the City of Santa Barbara. This year, we have an election for mayor, and as our current city council member, Eric Friedman whom I have been very happy with, has reached his term limit, he is running for mayor, so we have to elect a new city council member.

As the election nears, I have been reading candidate statements and reports from the candidate forums. Each of the 3 candidates seem reasonably competent and sympathetic, and we would probably be well served by any of them. However, each has pointed to policy areas that they think deserve attention, and nobody has touched on all of these aspects. I would dearly love to hear their views on all or most of these.

And I think we should know more about what our state and federal representatives think about these also.

Transportation

How well do you think the MTD serves the South Coast?
What are the problems with it?
What would you like to see changed? (short term and long term)
What improvements do you see possible in the next 3-5 years?
What should we do with e-bikes?

Housing costs

Do you think the rising cost of housing are a small problem, manageable problem, a huge problem or not a problem?
Is the rent control initiative helping or hurting?
Will restricting short term vacation rentals of housing stock help or hurt?
Is the "affordable housing" mandate on developers helping or hurting?
What are some ideas that you think could have a major impact on the cost of housing in Santa Barbara city and county?
Is it even possible to have affordable housing for our workforce and our middle class in an area as attractive as Santa Barbara?

Income inequality

Is deep income inequality inevitable in this country?
What kind of income and wealth distribution would you think is "right"?
If you want to reduce the current (and growing) inequalities, what do you think would be good steps to take? (Nationally, at the state level and locally)? Can *anything* be done locally?
Do Americans pay too much or too little in taxes?
What is the best way to get towards balanced public budgets?

Small Business

What problems do you see affecting small businesses here?
What can be done to help small businesses?
Local independent retail?
Construction?

Education

How would you assess the quality of our public schools, statewide and locally?
Do you have or have you had young children while living here? If so, which schools did they attend?
What could/should be done to improve our schools?
Why should people who do not have school age children care about our schools?

Other quality of life issues

State street as a pedestrian mall?
Are malls irrevocably dead?
Should we be more car-friendly or favor walkability and public transit?
Do you see our homeless as victims or an eyesore? Either way, what is the best way to have fewer of them?

Candidate contact information

Ian J Baucke

ianforsb.com
BauckeForSB@gmail.com
Stated priorities:
Affordable Housing
Sustainability and Resilience
Safe Streets

Cevin Cathell

CevinForCouncil.org
info@cevinforcouncil.org
Stated priorities:
Affordable Housing
Fiscal Responsibility
La Cumbre Plaza
Environmental Stewardship
Community and Neighborhood Quality of Life

James G Zurlinden

jamesforsb.com
jamesforsb@gmail.com
Stated priorities:
Fiscal Responsibility
State Street
Environment
also
E-bike Safety
Flock Cameras
Homelessness
La Cumbre
Smarter Regulation
Infrastructure

Eric Friedman (for mayor)

Campaign@VoteEricFriedman.com
805-564-5320
VoteEricFriedman.com