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 and happy.
In the 1940s, back east, many people died at the age of 62. So, here again, it delighted my optometrist husband when a 75-year-old woman came to be examined, and when she was finished she asked if he had time to examine her 95-year-old mother. All things considered, life was good then. People liked each other. Then came the university, and the educated elitists, and things changed. Some of the professors brought along their extended families, and once they came they wanted to close the gates of Santa Cruz. They also brought their new left philosophies and began to impose the same upon their students and the rest of us. Now, sometimes we endure vicious political polarization, and the fanatic left only have elitist sense. A community can function only with common sense. And the elitists do not like common.
So, they wanted to stop growth – all growth. Therefore, for the past 40 years, No Growth became the leaders’ agenda. They became business unfriendly, and we have been going downhill financially ever since. Our reputation in the country and the world has become totally negative – and we are totally broke – and now our elitist leaders want business to come back to Santa Cruz. How simplistic. Their arrogant, unreasonable restrictions and regulations have chased business away for decades.
By the way, I never gave our City Council or county supervisors the right to speak for me in the world arena by saying that ours is a Nuclear Free Zone and that peace is patriotic, whatever that means. These leaders were voted into office to fix the potholes and not wax global. And what gives them the right to say that the U.S. Navy is not welcome here in the Monterey Bay area on the 4th of July or at any other time?
For years, they having been hiring experts for large fees to come and evaluate our problems. Well, the latest expert came and was paid $50,000 just to tell the city that the trouble with Santa Cruz is that it is business unfriendly. Duh! Many of us who live here have been telling that to our liberal leaders for years. So this is the saga of foolish, misguided Santa Cruz political leaders. And about growth… It becomes more crowded here every day.
11
(November 2, 2005) The University of California, for the past 30 years considered among the finest schools in the nation, is no longer a true place of higher learning where the exchange of ideas in all disciplines