Santa Barbara City Council · District 6
State Street, housing pressure, public safety, small business, parking, homelessness response, permitting, and city finances all meet here.
District 6 needs a councilmember who can understand the whole operating system and stay grounded in what residents, workers, businesses, renters, and visitors experience block by block.
The District 6 operating test
This is the district where local decisions become visible, measurable, and personal.
Know the district
Use the City of Santa Barbara’s official map to verify a specific address and view the adopted district boundary.
A district line determines which councilmember represents your neighborhood. It does not change the fact that downtown decisions affect the entire city.
The daily tests
District 6 should be judged by what people can actually experience: whether they can stay, move, work, open, recover, and trust that public decisions will reach the street.
01 · STATE STREET
State Street needs daily standards for cleanliness, safety, access, activation, maintenance, and business vitality—not another cycle of drift.
Result: more reasons for locals to return, stay, and spend time downtown.
02 · HOUSING
Rent pressure, older housing, downtown conversion opportunities, public land, and workforce access make housing delivery a district-level operating issue.
Result: more completed homes, stronger tenant stability, and a clearer path for future renters.
03 · HEALTH & SAFETY
Residents, workers, visitors, people in crisis, outreach teams, and first responders all need clear standards, care pathways, presence, and fair enforcement.
Result: humanity and order working together.
04 · SMALL BUSINESS
Lease risk, tenant improvements, permit sequencing, inspections, fees, and unclear timelines can consume savings before a business serves one customer.
Result: a clear route from idea to open doors.
05 · ACCESS
Parking, walking, biking, transit, deliveries, emergency access, disability access, and wayfinding must work as one practical system.
Result: fewer confusing trips and more repeat visits.
06 · FISCAL TRUST
State Street, parking, tourism, sales activity, public assets, maintenance, and safety costs all carry a fiscal shadow.
Result: honest costs, protected services, and public assets producing public value.
What City Council controls
A councilmember does not personally manage departments or privately move individual applications. A councilmember can build a majority, adopt policy, approve funding, authorize contracts, set public standards, and require visible reporting.
Zoning, public-space rules, permitting standards, vending, business rules, and other laws within local authority.
Appropriations for public safety, streets, cleaning, programs, infrastructure, and the people needed to operate them.
Outreach, shelter, maintenance, crisis response, events, partnerships, leases, and interagency coordination.
Parking, land, facilities, leases, and other City-controlled assets that should produce clear public value.
City Administrator and City Attorney oversight, plus appointments to boards and commissions under the Charter.
Owners, timelines, fiscal notes, service expectations, progress reviews, and outcomes residents can understand.
Alexander's District 6 agenda
Each priority has a plain meaning, a Council action, and a result the public should be able to see.
Assign clear responsibility for lighting, cleaning, restrooms, vandalism response, public-safety presence, outreach, emergency access, and recurring hot spots.
Name realistic downtown and central-city housing opportunities, identify blockers, clarify adaptive-reuse paths, use public assets strategically, and report completed homes rather than announcements.
Connect outreach, shelter capacity, behavioral-health response, public-space standards, fair enforcement, and City-County handoffs through named responsibilities and outcome reporting.
Give first-time operators one intake, an early fee and permit map, consolidated correction letters, clearer tenant-improvement timelines, and a named City guide.
Connect major downtown promises to startup cost, ongoing cost, funding source, staff owner, deadline, reserve impact, and a result residents can measure.
A district is more than a map
Alexander's job is to hear the experience, identify the lawful City lever, and report back what can move, who owns it, and how the public will know.
Housing cost, noise, parking, safety, maintenance, public space, and whether daily life still feels workable.
Question: What has become harder?
Commutes, schedules, housing reach, service reliability, staffing, and the conditions required to remain local.
Question: What would help you stay?
Foot traffic, permits, insurance, tenant improvements, security, vacancies, maintenance, and predictable rules.
Question: Where does the system stall?
Shelter, treatment, outreach, recovery, accountability, public-space impacts, and handoffs between systems.
Question: What path is missing?
How voters will know
A District 6 dashboard should translate City reports into a small set of public results without pretending one number explains everything.
State Street
Cleaning completion, lighting repairs, vandalism response, restroom reliability, events, repeat visits, and vacancy direction.
Housing
Priority blockers removed, permits issued, homes completed, affordable homes delivered, and existing housing activated or preserved.
Public safety
Response times, repeat calls, visible patrol activity, incident hot spots, complaint patterns, and community-facing reporting.
Crisis response
Bed use, successful handoffs, placements, exits, repeated returns, outreach outcomes, and clear contract responsibility.
Small business
First-intake response, tenant-improvement timelines, consolidated corrections, permit completion, storefront openings, and closures.
Fiscal health
Program costs, stable funding, reserve direction, downtown revenue signals, public-asset decisions, and results before renewal.
Official resources
A campaign can explain the choice. The City and election officials remain the source for boundaries, agendas, services, and voting procedures.
Use the City of Santa Barbara's official district map and District 6 PDF for boundary information.
Open the City mapReview official meeting schedules, agendas, staff reports, public comments, and recordings through City channels.
View Council meetingsUse the City's service-request system for maintenance, infrastructure, and other official operational concerns.
Open the service channelQuestions people ask
District 6 is one of Santa Barbara's six City Council districts. It covers much of downtown and surrounding central neighborhoods as shown on the City's official boundary map. The official map—not a campaign summary—is the source to use for a specific address.
District 6 contains or directly experiences many of Santa Barbara's most visible civic systems: State Street, downtown businesses, housing and rent pressure, parking, public safety, homelessness response, public spaces, permitting, tourism, culture, and important City revenue activity. Decisions here affect citywide confidence and service capacity.
No. A councilmember represents district residents and votes on ordinances, budgets, contracts, programs, appointments, and policies affecting Santa Barbara as a whole. District representation shapes the listening obligation; the governing responsibility is citywide.
One councilmember cannot unilaterally direct departments or pass a law. A serious councilmember can build a majority, introduce policy, negotiate budgets, ask public questions, set measurable expectations, approve or reject contracts, and hold the City organization accountable for implementation.
No. Small business matters because it supports jobs, useful storefronts, culture, activity, and City revenue. The district agenda also centers housing, renter stability, public safety, crisis care, public spaces, parking and access, public assets, fiscal honesty, and neighborhood quality of life.
As parts of one local system rather than opposing camps. Residents need stability and usable public spaces. Renters need protection and future supply. Businesses need fair, clear rules. People in crisis need a real path to care and accountability. Public policy should protect current and future residents together.
Use the campaign's Share Your Priority form to describe the issue, location, lived experience, and what you believe City Hall should understand. It is a campaign listening channel, not an emergency line or official City service request.
Use official City and County election sources for candidate filing, registration, ballots, deadlines, vote centers, and district eligibility. The campaign's future Vote Center page will link to verified official information, but election administrators remain the source of truth.
Clear priorities. Fair rules. Named responsibility. Honest costs. Results people can see in the places they use every day.
