Carmen Lodise was an activist in Isla Vista off-and-on from 1972 to 2004. In the ‘70s, he was elected to the Isla Vista Community Council and the Isla Vista Park Board where he was in the leadership of all three attempts to establish an election on Isla Vista becoming a city (1973, ’76 and ’84) and purchasing the town’s first $1,000,000 in parklands. During 1997-99 he published a weekly community newspaper, The Isla Vista Free Press.
Lodise came to Isla Vista in 1972 as a research assistant to cultural anthropologist Leslie A. White at UC Santa Barbara. He got involved in The Isla Vista Adventure almost immediately and was first elected to public office later that same year.
Previously Lodise studied and taught economics at the University of Houston, North Dakota State University, and Western Michigan University. Before he discovered economics, he spent three years studying chemistry, biology, and history.
After his work with White, Lodise became the director of the Santa Barbara Freedom Clinic then the economic consultant to the City of Santa Barbara’s analysis of down-zoning options published in 1976 as Santa Barbara: The Impacts of Growth. Over the years, he worked on community organizing projects for the IVCC, Bill Cirone’s Center for Community Education, and the local community action agency (1978-81 & 1999-2004). During the NAFTA transition (1992-95), he was the finance editor of Mexico’s English-language daily newspaper, The Mexico City News.
Lodise was born in Jackson, Michigan, July 11, 1939. He has a son, Genesis Augustine, born at home in Isla Vista in 1974, and grandson, Augustine Apolinario, born at a hospital in Berkeley in 2002.
He retired in 2004 and now lives in Barra de Navidad, Mexico. Most recently, however, he summited comments to the County's DEIR on Isla Vista.
For private correspondence: Lodise0711@hotmail.com
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11/7/06
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