It was the failure to achieve cityhood that caused Isla Vistans
to lose the momentum created in the early 1970s. Advisory-level
government can be sustained for only so long!
First,
Isla Vista needed cityhood to get access to the resources required
to implement the many plans prepared and to support expansion
into new areas. Instead, Isla Vistans still have to go to the
County and to UCSB to ask for the scraps off their plates. And
if the people making the requests are elected leaders, their
requests are discounted in favor of the recommendations of a
tiny minority of cranky homeowners.
Secondly, Isla Vistans needed cityhood in order to be treated
as equals in the give-and-take required for a healthy relationship
with UCSB. Instead, Isla Vista remains just a company town.
Finally, Isla Vistans needed cityhood to show ourselves what
we know innately--that self-government produces collective responsibility.
Instead, the police treat us without respect and we feel little
urgency to conform to rules we don't make.
What does it mean when the County and University don't trust
a coalition between the brightest 18-24-year-olds the state
has to offer and a 20-year tradition of caring community activists
to govern the town they live in--especially when the County/University
cabal has repeatedly demonstrated its incompetence to do it?
This is a mind-boggling indictment of the American educational
system and governance traditions. It's no wonder less than half
of U.S. citizens register to vote and only half of those who
do register bother to show up at the polls.
Recently, a County official justified an appointed (rather than
elected) advisory board to the new Isla Vista redevelopment
agency by saying: "If you have elections in Isla Vista,
you get the kind of people you have at the Park District."
Is
there something inherently wrong with elected leadership in
Isla Vista? While I often disagree with specific decisions of
people elected to the Isla Vista Park Board, through the years
they have been some of the most caring and thoughtful persons
I have ever met. It is the Park District that gave land to the
Southeast Asian refugees for their gardens, who give shelter
and support to I.V.'s homeless, that is providing space for
ESL classes for the town's new Latino residents, and that allocates
crucial assistance to the town's youth-serving agencies--while
tending a steadily expanding and improving park system (where
almost none had been provided by the County). And its the Park
District that keeps the live music playing in the center of
town.
What's more, the Park Board listens to their opposition, usually
affording them a lot more courtesy and respect than is returned.
What Isla Vista needs is more democracy, not less. But this
will be difficult to achieve unless there is another great conflagration,
or unless its leadership can grab the magic ring--the transformation
of Isla Vista into city.
Can the County and the University keep inventing new programs
they think will repress and control the vigor of this youthful
population, or will they finally realize that Isla Vista self-government
is in their best interests, too?
Even though Isla Vistans have been denied a greater destiny
so far, Isla Vista is still a place where people care more about
ideals than money, and whose residents would like to give more
to their community if afforded the opportunity.
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