REFERENCE: “Perhaps to dream ….” That is a beautiful line – perhaps a little too much of it wistful melancholy – but who the hell said that?
I’ll tell you who didn’t. Noah LylesThat’s who.
Currently, Lyles is the the fastest man on the planetafter winning the 100 meters at the Olympic Games five thousandths of a second. It was really that close. It took a camera that shoots 40,000 frames per second to confirm the results. At first even Lyles thought he had finished second. When he found out the opposite, he exclaimed: “My goodness, I’m incredible.” Shortly thereafter, he let loose his now celebrated cry: “Why not you? Why not me?”
If we ever needed a mantra for a bumper sticker, this is it.
Or as a former park czar Michael Pahos he told me as he fought for his political survival against an angry boss who was trying to destroy the park administration: “First you have to Start with the dream.“ A rather unexpected statement from Mike, since he was known as bureaucratic samurai who could have eaten Machiavelli’s lunch and Sun Tzu’s dinner and spit both out for breakfast.
Pahos survived. Of course. He had a dream. His superior did not. He just wanted revenge.
What all this reminds me of is the cup of coffee that I did not share this week with Karl Huttererformer director of the Natural History Museum and now Minister without Portfolio in the Big Dreams Department. We met at Dune on Cota Street, but somehow neither of us got around to ordering anything. We just talked.
Personally, Hutterer is an enviable 84-year-old, slim and lively. If he were a wine, you might notice that he A touch of graniteThat is, when Hutterer has ideas, things have a Habit of happening.
His latest big idea concerns the empty US bank building at the corner of State and Carrillo, once ground zero for what is now downtown Santa Barbara. Karl and some friends, Dennis Allen And Paul Reillyhope to give this corner a new lease of life by transforming the bank building – currently a sprawling, two-storey box with the obligatory red tiled roof and coated iron that looks like pulled toffee – into an enclosed Addition to the Santa Barbara Farmers’ Market.
For those just tuning in, the popular Saturday Farmers Market will be moving from its longtime location in the Cota Street parking lot over the next few months and will be located on this wide, tree-lined section of Carrillo from State Street to Chapala Street. The trigger for this high-stakes musical chair dance is the alleged impending construction of the brand new police headquarters on the Cota Street property.
Maybe I’m being hasty, but I think the idea is great.
For the past five years I have heard the words “Experienceis bandied about by everyone who talks about solving the problems of the inner city. In all this time, no one has ever explained what an experience-based idea might look like.
Given that State Street already has a Axe Throwing Emporium and a dirty bookstore I am not sure how much more “experience” we can actually handle if we work in the same building longer than everyone else. But I am willing to Try it once.
The landlord of the bank building is a retired engineer who has lived in Santa Barbara County for about 50 years. According to a real estate agent Greg BartholomewHe is not only interested in the idea; he is positively excitedBut Hutterer has not yet made radio contact with the farmers market operators, so we are not even in the first date phase yet.
Santa Barbara is rich in deluded spinners who know how to save the world. But Hutterer is different. Most recently he was the main initiator of the new oyster bar which has just opened at Stearns Wharf, in Moby Dick Banquet Hall in which no one has ever held a banquet.
Santa Barbara has never remotely figured out how to appreciate its seafood assets, and Moby Dick has long stalled despite its starring role as a backdrop in the 1966 classic film. Batman with Adam West. (Don’t tell me you haven’t seen it yet!) So the new oyster bar is a much-needed step in the right direction. Personally, I’m only mediocre when it comes to oysters, but the steamed mussels they were really great.
From its founding to its opening, the oyster bar took about six yearsThe fact that Hutterer has successfully persevered suggests that this expansion of the farmers market could be more than just a passing dream. It would be, as the saying goes, “liven up the street.” A lot. There’s one like that in Santa Fe. One of my sisters lives there and she raves about it.
If and when Paseo Nuevo is replaced by 500 new apartments — as we are told — these new residents would Keeping the Hutterite dream alivestormed up the street in a Gourmet frenzy. Nothing against Ralph’s – even in the neighborhood – but it’s not exactly user-friendly.
If nothing else, it would be nice to see “experimental” in action. It could also capture some of the soon-to-be-missing atmosphere of Products from three districts at the foot of Milpas, which will soon become a much-needed housing project.
Maybe dream? There are not maybeJust ask Noah Lyles, right now the world is the most charming, exuberant show-off“Oh my goodness, I’m amazing.” Maybe we all can be. “Why not you? Why not me?” Good question.
