past year UCSC has been the recipient of a windfall of donations of $35 million from alumni and others. They used $5 million of that endowment to purchase a large industrial building in Westside Industrial Park with significant acreage for future buildings. Does that also mean that the university is exempt from paying property taxes? If so, We the People will have to pick up the slack.
Haven’t we also lost the former Holiday Inn to the public and visitors? It was either purchased or leased to house UCSC students. When the University of California system in the 1960s received the 2000-plus acres from the Cowell Foundation to create a U.C. campus, the plan was to build housing for students and some for faculty on campus. That happened in the early years, but now it appears that the entire west side of Santa Cruz is being inundated with students and their cars. Parking is becoming a problem, rents are higher, and residential neighborhoods are crowded and deteriorating. Clearly, the university on the hill is opting to continue to grow but build minimally on campus and keep it pristine, and instead buy or rent facilities in Santa Cruz. Doesn’t one get the uneasy feeling that UCSC is gradually taking over our city?
8
(February 25, 2005) Weighing in on the Santa Cruz Coast Hotel project, any real estate professional would agree that the three most important qualities in any real property are location, location, and location. The proposed site for this $100 million plus hotel and convention center I believe is wrong, skimpy, and in a crowded funky area with an overabundance of constant traffic. The one piece of land worthy of this expensive expenditure is Lighthouse Field. Had we proceeded 30-35 years ago with this same plan at Lighthouse Field, our city would have had a beautiful and profitable addition costing a fraction of what it costs today. However, the powers in charge, then spearheaded by attorney Gary Patton, local activist for Agenda 21 of the U.N., squelched that idea in favor of keeping Lighthouse Field pristine for strollers, bicyclists, and dogs.
Now, decades later, we have a large parcel of very valuable land overlooking gorgeous Monterey Bay full of scrubby weeds, careless pedestrians leaving garbage, and all sorts of dogs urinating, defecating, and fornicating – and that’s pristine? It’s malignantly stupid.
Michael Rotkin, UCSC instructor and City Council member on and off for many years, promised decades ago that he would make Santa Cruz into a socialist city, and he succeeded well in doing just that. Now, he urges that We the People of Santa Cruz must go forward with this project quickly, mainly because ten months have already been spent on researching this project, and that seven hours of public opinion input has been given, and that’s enough. That’s nonsense.
A $100 million expenditure deserves much more than seven hours input if that’s what the public wants.
Since many city residents are polarized on this important issue, the logical solution is to have a special election no matter what it costs. It will be a pittance compared to wasting $100 million on a wrong location. So I say we should try to use Lighthouse Field for people and not for dogs.
Realistically, in view of the politics generated these last 3-1/2 decades in Santa Cruz by a relatively small group of well-meaning extremists, our area, like Berkeley, is viewed by the entire country as being eccentric, business unfriendly, weird, and scuzzy. One wonders if a fancy hotel can be viable and profitable in this environment. Will any business want to come and give us money?
So, if the project proceeds with a special election, several issues should be considered:
1 Should there be a $100 million hotel and convention center in Santa Cruz?
2 Should Lighthouse Field be the best location?
3 Should the Dream Inn be demolished and replaced by the new project?
Here’s a reality check: Do we expect that out-of-town businesses and corporations will even want to have their conferences in an area that has literally chased business away for many years? Wouldn’t they opt to go to business-friendly Monterey instead? Are our leaders prepared to make a fundamental change and invite new business here?
9
(May 17, 2005) Last month, on April 6th, I felt a sense of revulsion at the extent to which our country and Canada, and now all of Europe, have been poisoned by the intrusion of political correctness. That day last month, the front page headline in the Sentinel was “Student Protest Disrupts Job Fair”. Two hundred UCSC student protestors loudly demanded that the military recruiters lawfully participating in the job fair on campus be forced to leave. University administrators actually validated the undemocratic student protest and forced the military recruiters to leave. What should have happened, at the very least, is that the protestors should have been forced to leave; at best, all of them should have been expelled. The loudmouth pipsqueak inmates are being encouraged to run the asylum, which We the People pay for.
In Sunday’s May 15th Sentinel, we learned that our own twice-time mayor, Mike Rotkin, longtime UCSC instructor, and much too longtime Santa Cruz political activist, publicly complimented the student protestors for evicting the military recruiters. Is it any wonder that new businesses will no longer dream of locating in Santa Cruz? And is it any wonder that we are in a constant budget deficit, and our roads are full of potholes because of Mike Rotkin and his ilk running the show for so long?
This Saturday, May 21st, our city will have its first armed services parade initiated by parents of Vietnam veterans and all other veterans. Michael Rotkin, the mayor, has agreed to attend. Mayor, if you have integrity, you can’t have it both ways.
Back to the student protestors. You should know that their behavior against military recruiters is being condoned and encouraged in all of the UC campuses where 85% of the professors are liberal and 15% are conservative. This is a fact. University instructor recruiting is in the hands of the left. Political indoctrination has no place in institutions of higher learning where all sides of issues should be permitted and encouraged in a mutually respecting environment. Our schools on all levels are now being highjacked by liberal extremists who among other things are brainwashing young fertile minds totally and irrevocably against any preparation for our country’s defense. How many of these loudmouthed one-sided teachers and professors of military age will scurry to Canada if we are forced to initiate the draft again? Probably many of them: the same ilk which defends criminals and evildoers and ignores victims’ rights and hates the U.S. but enjoys the benefits therefrom.
Finally, kudos to the Sentinel for describing fairly and in detail this deplorable situation where military recruiters continue to endure spitting and even bodily injury by student protestors. Why is this behavior permitted? Because not all, but many, high school teachers, university and college professors condone and encourage these actions and have the students do their dirty work for them.
10
(July 21, 2006) So when my husband and I, and our two little cherubs, came to Santa Cruz to live in 1947, my husband had recently been released from the U.S. Navy at Treasure Island. Coming from New York, this little slice of heaven was unbelievable, peaceful, and beautiful – a welcome bit of culture shock after life in the Big City. The then two-page Sentinel News delighted us, because the most exciting item of news was that Mrs. So-and-so went over to San Jose yesterday. What a great place it was to raise a young family.
MZ was born three years later, virtually with a radio in his little hands. He has always loved radio. At that time, many homes had intercoms in their rooms, and I would wake the children with KGO, one of the early trailblazers of interactive newstalk radio.
The population of the city was 12,500. People from the very hot valley used to come here to retire and finally die, but they did not die easily because our climate was so moderate, and life was peaceful
