Isla Vista homeowner Bruce Murdock stood before the Local
Agency Formation Commission on a day in the fall of 1976. The
map of Isla Vista he was showing the Commission had Isla Vista's
West End colored red, while the rest of the town was colored
green.
After a short presentation, he cried out: "You've got to
save us from the people in the Green Area!"
The battle between the 50 or so resident-homeowners who make
up the membership of the Isla Vista Association (IVA) and the
community's elected leadership has raged almost since the IVA's
formation in 1969.
The
IVA has opposed all three attempts by Isla Vista residents to
secure an election on becoming a city (1973, 1976, and 1984),
the first Park Bond in 1974 (which failed 66-34% at the ballot--66.7%
is required for passage), the second $1.15 million Park Bond
in 1975 (which passed 67-33%), the 1988 $500,000 Park Bond (which
failed 64-36%), and the $10-per-household tax for park services
(which passed 71-39%) in 1984.
The IVA also favored the ban on open containers of alcohol on
the street enacted by the County in 1987 and the inclusion of
Isla Vista in a City of Goleta, which was defeated by area voters
2-1 in November 1987.
But no political campaign has so indicated the alienation of
Isla Vista's homeowners from the mainstream of political life
in Isla Vista, as did the 1976 attempt by these people to secede
from the Isla Vista. Recreation and Park District (IVRPD). What
made this effort even more painful was that the District, formed
in 1972, was one of the few community projects that most IVA
members supported at one time.
The Isla Vista Association
Most of the IVA membership is resident-property owners living
at the West End of town in the area zoned R-1 for single-family
homes. Although students and tenants are eligible to join the
IVA, long-time IVA leader Les Baird told a 1985 IVA meeting
that, "We've never had more than a half dozen student members
in the IVA since we started."
Although a majority of R-1 residents are usually renters, the
IVA has convinced most outside authorities that it is the IVA
leadership who are the representatives of that end of town.
Further, these same outside authorities view the IVA as the
representatives of the "permanent" residents of Isla
Vista, as opposed to either the transient students who make
up the majority of the rest of Isla Vista or the tenants who
make up 96% of all of Isla Vista.
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