At the northeast corner of N. Patterson Avenue and the northbound Highway 101 offramp, there’s a long pole with devices on the top and a flashing blue light at the base. What is it? —M.
That’s at 80 N. Patterson Avenue, where the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara is constructing Patterson Point, a 24-unit apartment building, for the former homeless and a manager. Here’s a rendering:
I got no response from the contractor, Vortex Construction, but I think the Los Angeles Daily News already answered the question, albeit about a different location. According to an article from August 2024, the pole is most likely a mobile security unit to protect construction equipment.
LVT, or LiveView Technologies, is out of Utah and has produced thousands of such trailers holding box-like containers and solar-power panels, each with a pole pointing skyward. […] There are cameras on them, so a third-party surveillance company or someone else can watch what is going on in real time. […] The goal isn’t to catch the riffraff—it is to let people know they are being watched and to behave or the police will be called. Hence, the continuous blue flashing light—a color used on law enforcement vehicles—to get the attention of passersby…