The Garden and the Freeway

[ Emilio watering his parcel. Despite the loss of land, fruit trees and nopales, the Beach Flats Gardeners are committed to making the best of the 2016 planting season.

In the evening, at 7PM, the City Council will review what progress, if any, has been made towards our stated goal of saving the Beach Flats Garden. Unfortunately, the only obvious change to the garden is that the City of Santa Cruz bulldozed 40% of it, so as to return it to the Seaside Company, which owns the Boardwalk and most of the Beach Flats neighborhood. Seaside hosted the garden as a donation to the neighborhood for 25 years but now wants the land back.

For many of us, bulldozing 40% of the garden does not constitute progress towards "the goal of acquisition of the current Beach Flats Garden property" which was the language passed by the City Council unanimously on October 27th, 2015. I believe that the City staff and other Council members do value the garden, but can only imagine saving it by appeasing the Seaside Company. While I would also prefer a `collaborative approach' to saving the garden, this tactic does not appear to be working. The Seaside Company continues to state that the garden is not for sale, nor is there any reason to believe that they will sell any other property in the neighborhood. City residents, on the other hand, continue to clearly state their desire that the garden be saved, including a petition with 4000 signatures on it. While I appreciate the generosity of the Seaside Company, I think the proper role of our local government is to enact the will of the people, even if it means upsetting the town's biggest corporation. If I don't see another clear path towards a permanent garden at Tuesday's meeting, I will make a motion to begin the process of using eminent domain to acquire it. Please consider telling the City Council how you feel about the issue by coming to the meeting (at 809 Center Street) and/or sending us an email at citycouncil [at] cityofsantacruz.com.

Friends of Beach Flats Garden are organizing a march from the garden to the council meeting (leaving at 5:30PM). See http://www.facebook.com/BeachFlatsCommunityGarden for details.

As if that wasn't enough, the afternoon session also has two important items relating to countywide transportation. At 2:30PM, Metro Director Alex Clifford will give un update on the state of the Metro bus system, which is planning on major cuts to service due to many years of falling sales tax revenue (think internet shopping). Then, sometime after 4PM, the Council will consider whether or not to endorse a sales tax measure for transportation which would provide 72 million dollars to Metro and 68 million towards the rail trail, but also spend 100 million dollars on a highway widening project. The Campaign for Sensible Transportation is pointing out the fact that rerouting the Highway money towards public transportation would eliminate the need for cuts. To further explore their logic go to http://sensibletransporation.org. To get information about how supporting the sales tax will help the Metro, try http://www.sccrtc.org and go to the Transportation Improvement Plan link on the left of the webpage. Personally, I spent hours trying to figure out if the sales tax proposal is a net gain or a net loss for sensible transportation and then had the realization that I just don't have the stomach to get behind a transportation plan that continues the delusion that widening highways reduces congestion - and the Environmental Impact Report states it won't significantly help congestion. Come to the City Council Meeting for a lively discussion not just about transportation but about what constitutes incremental progress, principled compromise and straightforward communication with voters. Or weigh in via email: citycouncil [at] cityofsantacruz.com.

At our last Council meeting, I was able to persuade the developer of a housing project on 1800 Soquel to contribute $20,000.00 towards speed bumps and a permit parking program in the neighborhood. The project met all zoning requirements and included a requirement for 5 affordable units (out of 32 studio and one bedroom apartments). I included the $20,000.00 in the conditions for the project and led the Council in a unanimous vote of approval.

On the `personal' end of things, my exploration on building a permitted unit on my property is going well. Architect Greg Heitzler expects to submit initial planning documents next week, and we are hoping to do a community groundbreaking in the late summer.

Wrestling with big questions on the City Council,

Micah Posner