Ken Porter. AUCTIONEER

In any city you'll hear endless bemoaning of the sad, inevitable closures of beloved mom & pop stores. Downtown Santa Barbara, in particular State St., has been rapidly losing these businesses, especially given that both giant booksellers are barely hanging on to their precious real estate. However, here is some evidence of home-grown businesses past (and a pretty specialized one at that):

Garden St.

Ken Porter reminds me of another business I've seen downtown but is harder to track down: a bright yellow van (i.e. a rapemobile) with a giant printed sign in the window stating "NOTARY."