 |
 |
cont...
This line of thinking was echoed at UCSB, as students
enrolled in Environmental. Studies classes, a popular major first
offered at the campus in 1970. If exposure to these ideas wasn't
enough alone, Isla Vistans also had ample opportunity to experience
firsthand the effects of uncontrolled growth. With its special
SR (Student Residential) zoning categories, Isla Vista was created
unlike any other community in the county--and was a particularly
dire example of the evils of excessive growth. Isla Vista became
a natural breeding ground for no-growth/stop-growth voters.
Although the 1972 voter-approved ballot initiative that validated
the moratorium and established guidelines for alleviating the
water shortage would have won approval without Isla Vista's vote,
in future years Isla Vistans would play a crucial role in maintaining
environmentalist control of the Goleta Water Board.
In fact, the election of 1973 proved to be the last time that
environmentalist candidates were successful in gaining seats on
the five-member board even without Isla Vista's votes. The election
of 1973 marked a step in Bill Wallace's ascent to power in the
Goleta Valley, as the veterinarian and former Isla. Vista Community
Council (IVCC) member was swept to victory to the Water Board.
Together with slate-mate Linda Phillips, they won by a two-to-one
margin. At over 42%, turnout was high throughout the District's
boundaries, which stretch from Hope Ranch through Western Goleta.
The next Water Board election, in November 1975, followed a pattern
that was to be replayed over and over throughout the late '70s
and early '80s. Challenger Don Weaver, a UCSB professor critical
of the environmentalist slate, was the top vote-getter in areas
excluding Isla Vista, carrying 35 of 56 precincts. However, Isla
Vista lined up solidly behind the environmentalists. When all
the votes were tallied, the Sherman/Martinez/Al Wyner environmentalist
slate swept to victory, with an ample 822-vote margin between
Wyner (who received the least votes of anyone on the slate) and
fourth-place Weaver. Of 3,992 votes cast in Isla Vista, Weaver
captured only 550, while Martinez and Sherman took 3,556 each
(89%).
In 1977, two seats were up for election, and the pattern repeated.
Environmentalists Linda Phillips and Ed Maschke would have finished
behind challengers Don Weaver and Steve Jones if not for Isla
Vista's voters. As it was, Phillips topped the list with 7,400
votes, and Maschke nosed out Weaver with 7,016 to Weaver's 6,750
votes. Isla Vistans favored the environmentalists in margins of
up to 96%, although voter turnouts in Isla Vista were beginning
to decline, with only 22.6% of 12,089 registered voters at the
polls. In one dorm precinct where Maschke racked up 195 votes,
Weaver scored six, while his slate-mate Jones tallied three. Outside
of Isla Vista, only two precincts were carried by the environmentalists.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
home
|
|