Watch: Randy Says Contentious Plan is "Very Best Option" for Paseo Nuevo; Rent Control, State St., Budget, Campaign...

In a new "Ask the Mayor" episode of Newsmakers TV, SB Alcalde Randy Rowse tackles questions, criticisms, and skepticism about the city's most urgent controversies and conflicts.

The new plan to transmute Santa Barbara’s faded Paseo Nuevo downtown mall into a sparkling residential-retail Elysium has debuted to decidedly mixed reviews.

In September, the Historic Landmarks Commission assailed the project’s design and height, before members of the city Planning Commission last month expressed “shock” at key elements of its financial scheme.

But Mayor Randy Rowse says it’s the best deal the city is going to get.

“This appears to be…the very best option that we have to get something done,” the mayor said on Friday’s “Ask the Mayor” edition of Newsmakers TV. “The idea is to get what we want…(W)e want housing, we want smaller retail, we want some affordable housing. All those things are part of the mix.”

In advance of a crucial Dec. 2 City Council hearing on the contentious Paseo Nuevo development, Rowse acknowledged that the city’s existing 40-year lease for the 1990s-era mall, held by an East Coast investment company, makes any transformational project an extremely complicated challenge. However, he said he believes the deal negotiated by Administrator Kelly McAdoo’s office, which would include more than 300 units of new housing, represents a major win for the city (Save the date: McAdoo and members of her development team will join Newsmakers TV to discuss the project in depth and detail next Friday).

“If we can get housing downtown, especially that much housing, plus the affordable housing,” Rowse said, “that will be a light switch that helps us turn on the State Street light that has been pretty dim for the last five years.”

In a wide-ranging conversation with Josh Molina and the genial host that touched on the city’s biggest debates, Rowse also discussed these key matters:

Rent control. The mayor extended his attack on a rent cap scheme, pushed by council members Kristen Sneddon and Wendy Santamaria, as a politically performative and divisive proposal that would run up huge legal bills and administrative costs and yield unintended consequences that damage landlords and tenants alike. “I don’t know what (new spending) this would take, but I do know it’s a lot of resources and it hasn’t worked anywhere,” he said. “Yeah it’s expensive to live here, and people hate to hear this, but it’s always been expensive. The market is a cruel task master, but it always wins, and it will win in the end.”

State Street. Rowse defended his vote to authorize an additional $343,000 in spending on consultants for the State Street master plan, and expressed optimism about his hobby horse crusade to re-open several blocks of State Street to auto traffic. “I’m hoping, hopefully sometime in the next month or weeks, to start having conversations about, let’s at least get it open on some level, whether it’s one-way, two-way, I really don’t care,” he said. “This is silly — it’s a street, it’s part of our downtown, it’s part of our circulation element…It’s not about cars, it’s about people. Turns out that cars bring people…Let’s get it open, let’s light it, let’s clean it.”

Budget. The mayor expressed frustration over current forecasts that show the city facing a $5.9 million shortfall next year and $11.4 million the following year, but dismissed as “couch change” several proposals from colleagues to raise taxes for libraries, on cannabis sales, hotel stays, or vacation rentals. He said further tax increases would not address City Hall’s underlying economic problem: “That’s not going to generate anything but more angst and more assessments. We need to support businesses — businesses is where taxes come from. We need to get downtown open and vibrant again, get our - at one-time - top sales tax-producing area back up to speed and quit screwing around.”

La Cumbre. Rowse agreed with those who loudly panned the initial design for a 443-unit housing project at the old Sears site at La Cumbre Plaza, saying developers would be well served to bring a local architect onto their team: “Yeah, I was disappointed in the design…architecturally, I wasn’t thrilled with the first iteration I saw,” he said. “I think the first, initial reaction was - oh man, that’s a big hunk of plaster.”

Campaign. Rowse acknowledged he has discussed next year’s mayor’s race with his close ally, council member Eric Friedman, but reaffirmed his intention, first expressed publicly in his last appearance on our show, to seek a second term next year, “Yeah, whoever jumps into the pool to swim, that’s fine…Right here, right now: that’s what I’m planning — to run for re-election.”

Check out our complete conversation with Mayor Randy Rowse via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. Our podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, or on Soundcloud here. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 5 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on weekends.