Creator withdraws lightblueline project

BY ERIC LINDBERG
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

With Santa Barbara residents split over the lightblueline art project and an appeal of its approval by the Historic Landmarks Commission filed just days earlier, the creator of the project announced yesterday he is dropping the idea.
Proponents for the project felt it would invoke a discussion of the potential effects of global warming. Critics said it would waste money, have a negative aesthetic impact and devalue property.

“The whole idea of lightblueline is to foster an informed conversation about our local vulnerability to future sea level rise due to climate change,” creator Bruce Caron said in an e-mail to the Daily Sound. “This public conversation requires a local media that can sustain a civil discourse. At the current time, a certain local media outlet has poisoned the flow of information to its public.”
Caron said he sent a message to City Administrator Jim Armstrong withdrawing the project, adding that while he will continue to work with local environmental groups to foster public awareness of climate change science, he has no plans to paint the line on Santa Barbara streets.
“As we are not confident that the artistic and scientific message of this public awareness project will be fairly, even if critically, considered,” Caron said, “we see little value in continuing to plan for the proposed Santa Barbara project.”
The Santa Barbara Taxpayer’s Association, which had come out against the lightblueline, announced its support of Caron’s decision to withdraw the project.
“We remain convinced that the city hadn’t thought this policy through and were unprepared to deal with the important questions their blue line raised, not the least of which is the affect [sic] it would have had on local property values,” Association Director Tobe Plough said in a statement.
Plough said the association never opposed the idea based on the message that it intended to communicate about global warming.
“In fact we welcome that discussion and encourage the community to look for new and effective ways to reduce our carbon footprint,” Plough said. “This blue line idea, however, was simply the wrong approach.”
Following a 5 to 2 vote of approval by the Historic Landmarks Commission (HLC) earlier this week, Jerry Beaver and a citizens group called Stop the Blue Line also announced their opposition to the project and filed an appeal of the HLC decision.
The appeal stated the HLC did not determine if the project would be historically appropriate in the El Pueblo Viejo Landmark District, did not adequately consider public comment, or take into account the city’s sign ordinance, street marking ordinance, pollution laws and graffiti ordinance, among other issues.
Caron’s project proposed painting a one-foot wide strip of blue waves across the center of the street at 68 locations throughout Santa Barbara along with circular medallions on adjacent curbs, depicting a seven-meter rise in sea level, an impact most scientists say will result from the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.
Mayor Marty Blum voiced her support for the lightblueline when City Council initially approved it by a vote of 6 to 1 on July 3 and called its withdrawal a shame, but added that the uproar over the project was not productive.
“I didn’t expect the kind of conversation that was happening,” Mayor Blum said. “I was expecting a smarter conversation.”
Councilmember Helene Schneider, another strong supporter of the project who even raised $12,000 to silence critics who said the project would waste city money, also expressed her disappointment that the project has been pulled.
“I respect [Caron’s] decision,” Schneider said. “The divisiveness that was in town for whatever reason clouded the true intention of the project. I hope the issues surrounding climate change and the discussion can continue in a positive manner.”
Mayor Blum agreed, saying, “I hope we can be more constructive. People are starting to say maybe we should just do a chalk line for Earth Day.”