Santa Barbara Talks E-Bikes Pedaling Toward Common Ground

The Westmont Center for Dialogue and Deliberation takes on the hot button issue of e-bikes at its next conversation on Thursday, Oct. 23, at the Community Environmental Council’s (CEC) Environmental Hub, 1219 State Street. The event, “E-Bikes: Balancing Freedom, Safety, and the Spirit of Santa Barbara: A Community Conversation,” is free and open to the public though reservations are required at tinyurl.com/ebiketalk or by emailing WCDD@westmont.edu.

“It’s incredibly relevant,” says Deborah Dunn, Westmont professor of communication studies and director of WCDD. “Social media, letters to the editors of our local publications, city council meetings, the Grand Jury of Santa Barbara — this is an issue on the minds of many Santa Barbara neighbors. There is a need for community members to come together to hear each other, to deliberate together about what kind of city we want to be.”

Instead of a panel of speakers, the event features students in Dunn’s Facilitating Ethical Communication course, who facilitate a community discussion at a table of other community members, who range in age, contexts, occupations and perspectives. Participants engage in an actual conversation, using a structured issue guide.

“As an example, some people complain about the younger teenagers riding at unsafe speeds, popping wheelies, and riding without helmets,” Dunn says. “These are legitimate concerns. It’s also true that these kids are enjoying fresh air, exercising, hanging out with friends and not glued to their devices and video games.

“As another example, some folks express the desire to have a vehicle-free, pedestrian only corridor, while others point out that this limits freedom for some and accessibility for others. In this conversation, neighbors look at a number of priorities and deliberate together the best choices for the community moving forward.”

Not only are the students learning how to facilitate healthy conversations, the center’s goal is to empower all of our neighbors to speak and listen well together, one conversation at a time. “We’d love to get community members involved in this work — showing up for conversations, but also learning some skills themselves,” says Dunn, who co-created the program in 2018. “Stay tuned, we are also hosting a workshop late winter/early spring, focused on these kinds of skills, using improv!”