cont...
Also,
Regents Norton Simon, Fred Dutton, and William Mattson Roth made
stirring statements on behalf of cityhood for Isla Vista.
However, perhaps the most memorable comment was made by Regent
Glenn Campbell, head of the conservative Hoover Institute for
the Study of War at Stanford:
"What if there's another conflagration in Isla Vista,"
he asked shrilly. "We couldn't count on your fire department
to put it out!"
The Regents' final position was to oppose IV Cityhood in favor
of including the UCSB campus in the largest city government possible,
most likely a combined city with Goleta.
During both of these discussions, the IVCC had asked the Regents
to simply remain neutral, since what form of local government
Isla Vista (including the UCSB campus) might have was hardly an
issue of statewide concern.
At the end of the day, LAFCO again rejected the request for Isla
Vista residents to vote on establishing a City of I.V., with Jim
Slater again the only vote in favor. The majority of LAFCO members
stated they felt that a City of Isla Vista would probably impose
rent control and they were personally against such an approach
to landlord/tenant relations.
LAFCO members also stated that the proposed city was not "financially
sound," but Isla Vista representatives at the time felt that
the real reasons were political, since Isla Vista looked as good
on paper as any other city in this county. In addition, on both
occasions the membership of LAFCO was 4-1 Republicans at a time
Democratic voter registration in I.V. was over 80%; Slater was
the only Democrat on LAFCO.
Slater was elected to a judgeship representing Isla Vista, Goleta,
and Santa Barbara the next year. Although he won only 11 precincts
outside of Isla Vista, his nearly 90%-support in Isla Vista was
enough to give him the election by a handful of votes.
The Dos Pueblos Years
After the second attempt for an Isla Vista cityhood election was
killed by LAFCO, another proposal was prepared by the IVCC in
1978, but it 
wasn't
submitted. A strong push for a combined city of Isla Vista and
Goleta by newly elected County Supervisor (and I.V. resident)
Bill Wallace accounted for the inaction. Following a suggestion
from Isla Vista, Wallace called his proposed city Dos Pueblos,
Spanish for two towns. This was in deference to the well-known
difference between the middle-class homeowners in Goleta and the
young renters in Isla Vista. But the name had some historical
value, in that most of it was the Dos Pueblos Land Grant in the
Mexican Period; it was also the name of the high school that served
both communities.
Although LAFCO agreed to be put this plan on the ballot, Wallace
withdrew it without a citizen-vote because of some conditions
not to his liking that were imposed by the rest of the County
Supervisors.
For several years, the movement to bring city government to Isla
Vista languished. It returned, however, with a vengeance as the
result of the November 1982 IVCC plebiscite on local government
options.
But before we leave the 1970s, there are a few more stories to
tell.
pages 1 2
3 4 5 home
