Few people know or appreciate that the park-like lawn area in front of Fess Parker DoubleTree Resort (DoubleTree Hotel) actually is public open space with no restrictions on access. This site lies along Cabrillo Bl. at East Beach in Santa Barbara. The hotel cannot exclude people from passive recreation and picnicking there, as a legal condition of approval from when the hotel project was planned 1979-1981 and approved by the City and California Coastal Commission.
__This history and the joys of the public open space are explained in this video by David Stone, the Founder and Visionary of Take Back The Park, an annual event celebrated there during an afternoon each July since 1987. This video was recorded from Take Back The Park XX (held 07 July 2007), with additional content from a June 2008 interview with Dave Davis, the Santa Barbara City Planner for the hotel project at the time.
__An OLPA Short-Leash Subject (3 minutes) on this also is available at YouTube. This full OLPA episode debuted 23 June 2008, and replayed 9 times on local cable TV-17.
Watch the Video of this show!! (44 minutes, including bonus content of Park Party Animals, Rotunda ruckus, and the full interview with Dave Davis) For the video host at Vimeo, select the Episode title atop this post.
