I.V.M.P. Criticised

< Animated GIF courtesy of www.mkthink.com )



[ Excerpt from "Growing Pains" By Drew Mackie, SB INDEPENDENT, March 15, 2007 ]

Embattled I.V. Master Plan Nears Completion

... Adequate parking, uncongested roadways, and housing for people of varying income levels were among the concerns that drew together such entities as the I.V. Project Area Committee/General Plan Advisory Committee (PAC/GPAC), UCSB, the I.V. Recreation and Parks District (IVRPD), and several neighborhood organizations in 2000. The PAC/GPAC presented the groups’ proposals for community improvement to the Redevelopment Agency, which was established by the county Board of Supervisors in 1990. Seven years’ worth of meetings after PAC/GPAC’s original presentation, the Redevelopment Agency is close to finalizing an I.V. Master Plan which, according to its proponents, compiles these findings to represent the community’s best chance of reinventing itself and improving its residents’ lives.

The first of three hearings on the Master Plan was held on March 7, allowing the public to give feedback to the Redevelopment Agency before the plan is taken to the Board of Supervisors for approval. Jamie Goldstein, Redevelopment Agency deputy director, said he was proud of the efforts made so far. “This is the most progressive plan the county has ever put together … . There’s not ever been as serious a look into such a relatively small area before,” he said of the document, which includes plans to turn I.V.’s central Pardall Road area into a “downtown” district with more commercial space.

According to Goldstein, outside input during the development of the plan yielded both positive and negative changes...

Many criticisms lobbed against the plan at the March 7 meeting revolved around the prospect of creating housing units for an additional 4,300 I.V. residents. “The biggest issues have to do with land use,” Goldstein said. “People are concerned with changes in population density.” Indeed, the meeting gave rise to concerns that are older than talk of a Master Plan. “You can’t add more population than the services can accommodate,” said Florence Klein, an I.V. resident since 1998. “They need to acknowledge our biggest problems are safety regarding fire and police, then traffic and the lack of parking, and the density of the population that is already here.” Klein, who attended the meeting bearing fragments of her dynamite-exploded mailbox, said she felt police and rescue services were already overtaxed moderating drunken student revelry. Goldstein explained new residences were a necessary trade-off the Master Plan included to meet county mandates for affordable housing.

Other meeting attendees — mostly business owners and longtime non-student I.V. residents — worried that redevelopment could hurt business and that restructuring I.V.’s central Anisq’Oyo Park could ruin a sense of historic preservation. Goldstein said some opposition was expected but maintained that the plan represents I.V.’s best hope for improvement. He also pointed out that only three of the speakers at the meeting spoke in favor of halting the plan altogether.

Ken Warfield, an IVRPD boardmember, defended the process that led to the Master Plan, saying, “Everybody who has had something to say about this has had ample opportunity to say it. … I.V. is going to change. It’s going to be built out and a number of additional people will live in I.V. How that growth and change is going to happen really needs a Master Plan so that it doesn’t become hodgepodge higgledy-piggledy nonsense that other communities have experienced.”

Klein remained unconvinced, noting that she and others will express their dismay at the next meeting on March 19, in the county’s Planning Commission Hearing Room. “We don’t know anybody here who’s really for this,” she said. “It’s madness in the name of greed.”


To read the full article please go to:

SB Independent :: Growing Pains

I.V. Plan Faces Opposition

More about the I.V. Master Plan and the first of three meetings to discuss it with the Santa Barbara Planning Commission.

Meetings 2 & 3 take place on March 19 and April 4:

Long-Term I.V. Plan Faces Opposition at Community Meeting

I.V. Master Plan @ SBPC

The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission will consider the adoption of the Isla Vista Master Plan at a public hearing today to discuss the future of affordable housing, transportation and land use in I.V.

The meeting, which will be held in Santa Barbara, will be the first hearing focused on adopting the master plan...

Board Hearing To Examine I.V. Master Plan

Isla Vista Rampage

UCSB's DAILY NEXUS has reprinted the original EL GAUCHO "Chronology of Events" from the night the bank burned down, 37 years ago. The chrono was prepared by reporters: Jeff Probst, Cindy Heaton, Larry Boggs, Mark Aulman, Becca Wilson and Denise Kessler:

Isla Vista Rampage; Bank Destroyed by Fire

Coal Oil Point

Beach Shelters Wildlife, Inspires Art

By Katie Miserany / Daily Nexus Staff Writer
February 21, 2007, Issue 79 / Volume 87


The crumbling wall known as “the jail” stands watch over Sands Beach at low tide. The heavily decorated wall features graffiti art from many local artists, lending some color to the brown sand that covers the shoreline. Local legend has it that The Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison spent an acid-addled evening on Sands Beach staring at the lights of nearby oil platform Holly, which inspired the song “Crystal Ship.”

The same view prompted former UCSB student and musician Jack Johnson to write the environmentally conscious tune “The Horizon Has Been Defeated.”

Indeed, Sands’ beauty has a history of inspiring both environmental activism on behalf of the animals that call it home, and art celebrating its sublime vistas. The surrounding area is also a productive petroleum field, home to a former opulent estate that was later transformed into a scandal-plagued mental institution and the vulnerable yet adorable Western Snowy Plovers.

( Image of "The Jail" courtesy of Rickey Mizuno / Daily Nexus )


History

Sands Beach was originally part of a Mexican land grant awarded to cattle rancher Nicholas Augustus Henry Den in 1842. Following his death in 1863, his heirs divided and sold most of the land, which included the area adjacent to Sands Beach. The land, including Sands, remained one of the only areas in Den family possession after Col. William Welles Hollister, for whom Hollister Road is named, purchased the land from the family.

Remnants of the beach’s past still exist, including a memorial gravestone to Colin Powys Campbell, a retired British army officer who built a major estate on the land when he purchased it in 1919. Many of the original buildings from the Campbell estate are still present at Sands today, including the access road, barn and the family’s mansion, currently the main building of the Devereux School for children and adults with developmental problems.

Part of the Campbell family’s former beach house, located at the base of the cliff, currently serves as the site of a display of brightly colored aerosol murals. Commonly referred to as “the jail,” the walls of the crumbling beach house are coated with layers of spray paint that have been documented by UCSB art studio professor Michael Arntz in a series of photographs on display in Davidson Library.

According to the description accompanying the display, Arntz said he wanted to capture the ever-changing artwork because it incorporates a wide community of artists into a continual process of cultural production.

He said each individual layer is not as important to him as the entire evolution of the murals through the different reevaluations and revisions of each separate artist’s additions.

The area has also historically been involved in oil production. Venoco Inc.’s offshore oil drilling operation near Sands’ coast may seem to mar the beach’s beauty, as Johnson suggests in his song, but according to Venoco’s website, the natural oil seeps present in the Santa Barbara Channel would make the beach virtually unusable if the oil rigs were not present. More than 1,200 natural petroleum seeps have flooded the channel with tar for centuries, which provided local Native Americans with a highly valued resource for caulking boats, waterproofing and other domestic and maritime tasks.


Beach Bums

In order to preserve the Sands ecosystem, the adjacent Coal Oil Point Reserve was formed with a mission to inform the public about the various species inhabiting the beach, restore coastal habitats and conduct research on human environmental impact in the area.

With their khaki safari vests and ample sunscreen, the Snowy Plover Docents have been a permanent fixture on the beach since 2000, when the reserve launched the program to monitor a fenced enclosure - the birds’ nesting area - that stretches along the reserve’s 150 acres.

Third-year environmental studies major and Snowy Plover Docent Coryl Dolfin said the Western Snowy Plover is a species similar to the Sandpiper, and is naturally attracted to the coastal environment at Sands.

The program, which has affectionately nicknamed the Plovers “Beach Bums,” aims to lure the birds back to the beach environment they abandoned in the 1970s due to increased human presence.

The Endangered Species Act currently protects the Snowy Plover, mandating that Coal Oil Point Reserve and the university encourage the species’ growth. Volunteers work a minimum of eight hours each month in two- to three-hour shifts to educate beachgoers about the Snowy Plover and to encourage bird nesting on the beach.

The docents say the program has seen great success - the plover population has grown from just one nest and one chick during the initial 2001 mating season to 57 chicks last year.

If beachgoers get too close to the enclosure or violate any of the other reserve regulations, docents are instructed to politely inform them of the reasons behind the rules and to ask their compliance. Dolfin said the Docents’ main goal is to further assist the plovers in repopulating, not to bother surfers.

“You can come look at the plovers, walk along the beach and stop periodically,” Dolfin said. “We just don’t want to do anything that would prohibit the plovers from feeding on the bugs in the seaweed on the shore, like leaving a bag or sunbathing near the enclosure.”

Dolfin said the program welcomes visitors to have a positive experience while they spend time at the beach.

“We want people to continue using the beach,” Dolfin said. “People think we aren’t connected to nature, but we are.”


Save the Whales

“So far today we’ve seen a lot of surfers and dolphins, but no whales,” environmentalist Michael Smith said during one windswept afternoon at Sands as he scanned the horizon for a glimmer of a gigantic gray whale migrating through the Santa Barbara Channel.

As Gray Whales Count Project Coordinator, Smith and his team of volunteers will be a common sight at Sands as they hope to collect data about population growth in the threatened species by counting the number of whales that migrate through the channel.

This year’s count began in late January, and will run for 15 weeks.

The project is an outgrowth of a joint effort by Coal Oil Point Reserve, the American Cetacean Society and the Cascadia Research Collective to conduct research and educate anyone interested in the once-endangered species. Though whale sightings are scarce at the moment, Smith said they will soon increase.

“In the spring they will pass by a lot closer with their calves.”


Catching Waves

Visitors to Sands are rewarded with great surf and a positive atmosphere. Frequent Sands surfer Taylor Ernst said the beach is one of his favorite places in Santa Barbara for the sights, waves and human interaction it affords.

“I can walk to it and I consistently have people I know there,” said Ernst, a fourth-year history of public policy major. “And, now and then, you can find yourself sitting next to a professor who taught you religious studies last quarter, and you can talk about the afterlife in between catching waves.”


Beach Shelters Wildlife, Inspires Art - Daily Nexus

Master Plan Failure

[ Opinion piece published in the SB INDEPENDENT, December 7, 2006 ]

How the Isla Vista Master Plan Fails the Community

by Carmen Lodise, a community activist in Isla Vista for nearly 30 years. During the ’70s, he served on the Isla Vista Community Council and the Isla Vista Park Board. His Isla Vista: A Citizen’s History is available at islavistahistory.com.


Isla Vista got hosed again two weeks ago, after getting hosed pretty good last June. Both of these are follow-ups to the Big Hosing of about 40 years ago.

Ever wonder why I.V. apartments are packed together, with little off-street parking, and some structures are built so close to the bluff they’re falling into the ocean piece by piece? Back in the ’60s, a couple of UC Regents owned large properties in or near Isla Vista. Decisions were made to leave I.V. for private development and to maintain UCSB’s enrollment at 25,000. This set off a building boom in Isla Vista, which was mostly financed by a Goleta-based savings and loan with a board of directors that included agents of these landowning regents and the UCSB chancellor. The county did its part when the supervisors created zoning allowing shorter setbacks and fewer parking spaces per bedroom than anywhere else in the state.

The university and county fought like cats and dogs to keep Isla Vista under each of their iron fists, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to fend off three widely supported campaigns throughout the ’70s and ’80s to form a City of Isla Vista. An elected city government, you see, would likely force absentee landlords to keep up their properties, police officers to treat all residents humanely, and an auto-centered transportation system to be mostly replaced by a bike-centered one — all things offensive to the local ruling classes. For example, one supervisor at the time was a Ford dealer. All three campaigns to hold an election on establishing a City of Isla Vista were defeated 4-1 by a county panel that was 4‑1 Republican during an era when more than 75 percent of Isla Vistans voted Democratic.

It was never clear why the university fought Isla Vista self-government so fiercely. But what does it say about an institution that doesn’t trust the brightest young people in the state to govern themselves in a small town of 20,000 people? Especially since the university/county cabal was doing such a lousy job. After all, the UC Regents’ own study of the causes of the traumatic civil disturbances of 1968-70 blamed the university itself for “failing to create a viable university community.”

But by the 1990s, the jig was up. With encouragement from UCSB, the county declared Isla Vista so “blighted” that it established the Redevelopment Agency (RDA) in I.V. with a long-term budget of nearly $80 million. Many student and community leaders saw this as an opportunity to greatly improve the quality of life for generations to come. But what actually happened? The draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the I.V. Master Plan came out last spring, with public hearings set during Dead Week (the week prior to finals). How insulting to a community that’s roughly half students! Adding insult to injury, the proposed final EIR came out just before Thanksgiving, with hearings set to continue through Dead Week and finals. We can safely assume that the Planning Department of a City of Isla Vista would better accommodate student schedules.

Even more appalling is that the draft EIR studied only car-friendly options and dedicated 60 percent of the redevelopment money available during the first few years to adding parking structures — this in a town that has long supported auto-reduction as a major community goal. Because of this, several former elected officials in I.V., including myself, officially requested the final EIR include an auto-reduction alternative. Some of our suggestions — which eliminated at least 10 of the two dozen negative environmental impacts of the plan — included closing off the downtown district to auto traffic, keeping open the east-west streets to serve it, and opening up the eastern streets to Ocean Road on the UCSB Main Campus. We also suggested banning undergraduates from having cars, as many universities already do, and a wider use of speed bumps in the 6600 blocks.

In this era of global warming, Isla Vista is the perfect place to teach people how to get along without the automobile. After all, the town is only one-half square mile in size; has a mostly college-student population, 70 percent of which is between the ages of 18 and 24; and is a place where traffic on bicycles greatly exceeds that via cars and where about 95 percent of private property is absentee-owned. All of this has been true for more than 35 years and will most likely remain true for the next 35.
Our requests have been ignored in the proposed final EIR. A chance for the county to finally get it right in Isla Vista has been squandered for the benefit of propertied interests rather than the wider community. That’s why the county doesn’t want the vast majority of Isla Vista residents to see what it’s doing. These hosings will continue until Isla Vista becomes a city.





( Photo courtesy of UCSB )


Article as it appears electronically at the SB INDEPENDENT (including comments from readers) can be found by going to:

The Santa Barbara Independent :: opinions :: I.V. Autonomy

SBI: Eye on Isla Vista

The SANTA BARBARA INDEPENDENT now has an Internet-accessible-only section to the newspaper stictly dedicated to Isla Vista. It's at:

The Santa Barbara Independent :: online onlys :: Eye on Isla Vista

Two I.V. Yahoo Groups

Many of you already know about the two Isla Vista Yahoo Groups. For those of you who do not, here's some basic info:


Isla_Vista_Community Yahoo Group

"This as a place where current and former Isla Vistans can meet up with old friends and talk about what IV meant to us.

"We’re interested in IV in the years 1970-1988 (from the Burning of the Bank of Amerika to when the Isla Vista Community Council disbanded). These were the community-building years, a period of social and political activism, experimentation and idealism.

"What was it like being part of or close to those events? We know there are some great stories out there that aren’t widely known and we’d like to begin sharing them. In the process, we’re hoping to create a new archive of institutional histories, photos and documents.

"We also see this Group as a means to reconnect with old friends and catch up on what we’re all doing now. You can share PHOTOS (both past and present), get information on what’s happening with those you’ve lost track of and much more.

"We’ve established a few GUIDELINES for making the Group a rewarding and safe place. Please read these before you begin posting messages; they’re in the FILES Section. We have also prepared “Help with Using the Group,” which may be useful for members and can also be found in the FILES Section.

"We also recommend you visit our DATABASES Section, which has:
• FAQs, with answers to most questions
• PERSONAL, where you can insert stuff about yourself
• WHERE ARE THEY NOW, with info about other former Isla Vistans you've kept in contact with
• RIP, containing obits and tributes to friends who have passed away
• SEARCHING FOR information describing people with whom you'd like to reconnect.

"We hope you’ll enjoy and contribute to this Group. If you have suggestions about other features we should have, or problems with the Group or a fellow member, please contact us at
Isla_Vista_Community-owner@yahoogroups.com."

Fred Stang, IVCC 1974-75
David Pye, IVCC 1974-77
Carmen Lodise, IVCC 1972-73
Ed Isenberg, Co-Owner, The Town Crier

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Isla_Vista_Community/

-----------------------------------------


IslaVista Yahoo Group

"This is an open discussion of Isla Vista Past-Present-Future and just a place to get to know folks. I'm a 27 year resident of IV who truly loves the place and an experienced list owner and moderator (AUM and Autismlist at yahoogroups). The core group here are bank burners and IV community builders and founders. I'm originally from upstate NY but lived in my college town of Oneonta, NY until I was 31 when I moved here to IV. So I'm also an experienced hand at college towns. Please click on DATABASE / FAQ to read common questions and answers about our group. Please add your contact information (only as much as you want to share) by clicking on DATABASE / CONTACT LIST. You can also ask for information on non-members, and check what we already know, by perusing the other DATABASEs."

Tom Smith (QIM)

"PICTURE ON RIGHT is of the Isla Vista Oak tree which once was on the edge of the cliff in Dog Sh-t Park, officially called Isla Vista County Park. That Oak Tree is the symbol of Isla Vista but fell into the ocean during the El Nino storms in 1983. The picture is courtesy of Carmen Lodises' Isla Vista History Page at: www.islavistahistory.com"

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IslaVista/

IVRPD, Summer 2006

[ Excerpt from DAILY NEXUS, September 24, 2006, article by Lauren Crecelius: ]


Despite three resignations and what one former member said was a $30,000 setback, this summer the Isla Vista Recreation and Park District focused on creating a community center as well as ways to reduce gang violence.

Plans for the community center in Estero Park continue, and IVRPD hopes to break ground in fall 2007. As for gang violence, the board is considering placing a curfew on Children’s Park, which according to the I.V. Foot Patrol has had a recent upswing in gang-related crime.

Concerning the resignations, Bryan Brown and recent UCSB graduates Logan Green and Eric Cummings left IVRPD for differing reasons.

While Brown resigned because he is moving out of the area, former board member Cummings said he and Green resigned in frustration over actions taken by IVRPD concerning plans for the community center.

The board originally hired consultants from Culver City for about $30,000 to design the community center as well as various other facilities in Estero Park. The designers suggested moving the 32 plots of community gardens in the park across the street in order to fit a soccer field in the plans. However, several community members rejected relocating the gardens...

Cummings said he and Green both felt frustrated with IVRPD’s actions, which they voted against, and he said he did not want to work with the board anymore. He said the board recently appointed a new member, long-term I.V. resident Kellie Ann Prichard, who he said will not work for changes.

“I just saw the same battles coming up and I didn’t want to be a part of it,” Cummings said. “[Under the new board] the money for Estero Park will probably be wasted again.”

In addition to Prichard, another long-term I.V. resident - Arthur Kennedy - will soon join the board, said IVRPD General Manager Dale Sumersille.

IVRPD Board Director Kelly Burns said the board is also looking for a new director to serve up to a four-year term. Applications will be available Oct. 3.

Meanwhile, IVFP Lt. Sol Linver said over the summer officers saw an increase in gang activity in I.V. Linver said teenage gang members have been loitering in Children’s Park, on the 6600 block of Picasso Road. In May, several unidentified attackers stabbed a juvenile in the park.

“Over the past six months and over the summer, we’ve been having issues with Children’s Park,” Linver said. “There are two gangs that claim it and for the last six months there has been graffiti damage, drug issues and stabbing in the park.”

...

“We don’ t have an hours ordinance in that park [currently] so we saw that as a possible tool to get them to move out of the park,” Linver said. “The design is to take the parks back.”

... In other news, Sumersille said two programs IVRPD will be heavily encouraging this new school year are the Adopt-A-Block program and the Adopt-A-Box program. The Adopt-A-Box program will assign artists to paint murals on utility boxes and cable boxes to prevent graffiti tagging, and Adopt-A-Block will focus on cleaning up trash in I.V.

“We want to beautify the city,” Sumersille said.


Gang Activity Drives I.V. Park Improvement Plans - Daily Nexus Online

Free Speech Movement

The State of California has unveiled it's "Calisphere," a portal to eucational digitial content. Worth checking out. I took a look at it's doorway to the FSM:



To see more, go to:

Calisphere - A World of Digital Resources