Reflections on 2007

As we reflect on the year now drawing to a close, what can we look back on?

Last January, the Council confronted a daunting schedule of controversial development issues: the downzoning and draft code for Thompson and Main; a final vote on the 300 apartment unit "Sondermann-Ring" project in the Harbor; a new draft code for the Victoria Corridor; and a final vote on the 120 unit Citrus Place project on the city’s eastern edge. All brought forth passionate public comments – yet in each case, a majority of the speakers supported moving forward with smart growth.

We continued progress for the rest of the year as the first Class A office building in a generation broke ground Downtown; a Target store was approved for the Mall; the WAV project won State tax credits; we re-purchased the parking structure next to the refurbished Crowne Plaza; and adopted the final Thompson and Main code as the year ended.

There were other highlights: the reopening of the Olivas Links golf course; the dedication of the Water Treatment Plant improvements; groundbreaking for the State Veterans’ Home; completion of Povar Plaza across from the Pier; and the occupation of three floors of 505 Poli by City staff.

The City Council had a productive year: adopting regulations of short-term rentals; resolving the employee medical retirement issue; approving the Countywide 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness and allocating $100,000 to pilot programs; tackling the beach sand management controversy; approving the Jobs and Investment Fund partnership and a new high-tech business incubator; and hiring an outstanding new City Attorney.

Ventura focused on thinking globally and acting locally. A comprehensive inventory was done on how well we measure up against our own General Plan goals as well as best practices nationally and internationally. We partnered on a great Earth Day celebration at Mission Park and the City Council unanimously endorsing and adopting what’s already been done and a 10 point priority list for moving forward.

The City moved forward with the implementation of our new financial management computer software system. We took the first real steps toward aligning how we budget with our strategic visions and performance measures. By asking the “four questions,” we made some hard choices, including no longer responding to unverified alarm calls during daylight hours and pushing back a number of planning efforts. As a result, we were able to augment resources for our key priorities, including adding six additional police officer positions and supplementing our regular fire station coverage during peak hours of demand with a new “40-hour engine” staffed by a new three-person crew.

Our efforts earned recognition far beyond our city’s borders. The State recognized our leadership in energy with a “Flex Your Power Award” and Civic Engagement won three “Savvy’s” from 3CMA. Mayor Morehouse was recognized by both the Central Coast and the California chapters of the American Planning Association with awards for his leadership and our Downtown Specific Plan won the award for best planning effort on the Central Coast. Business Week Magazine highlighted Ventura as one of the 10 best cities for artists nationwide.

All this progress was ratified when Ventura voters convincingly re-elected incumbents Christy Weir, Carl Morehouse and Bill Fulton – and approved C7, the updating of the telecommunications share of our Utility Users Tax.

These were some of the big issues, achievements and highlights of 2007. But there were so many more memorable moments and contributions. Our goal of weaving art into everyday life blossomed on our streets with the artful painting of utility boxes and the installation of artwork in our new bus shelters. Streets Supervisor Chris Palmieri rescued an infant who had slipped out of a Laundromat on all fours and reached the middle of busy Ventura Avenue by blocking traffic going north and flagging down a mail truck to do the same for southbound cars. Our IT crew worked around the clock to overcome a computer glitch triggered by the late arrival of daylight savings time. Our firefighters were regularly dispatched around the Southland to battle the firestorms induced by the long drought. Adult recreation broke participation records with 187 teams competing this fall. We began our largest ever neighborhood pavement project in Midtown, fixing streets, curbs and sidewalks and replacing trees. Our PD painstakingly put together cases against two gang members for the shotgun slaying of unarmed Ryan Briner outside his parents home in 2004, tracking down one suspect in Wisconsin, the other in New Mexico and winning first degree murder convictions. On July 29, the Ventura SWAT team peacefully resolved a barricaded suspect situation, when an off-duty Oxnard officer committed several felonies and refused to exit his home.

For these and so many more acts of heroism, dedication and creative initiative, we can look back on the passing year with pride.

As the year comes to a close today, I reflect back with gratitude for the leadership of the City Council, the dedicated work of City staff and the vibrant volunteer efforts of so many in the community to achieve the Ventura Vision of a greener, safer and more prosperous city.

P.S. -- If you're not involved (or want to expand your volunteer horizons) make a resolution for 2008 by logging onto our Volunteer Opportunities page:

http://www.cityofventura.net/volunteer

Democracy and representation

So what’s the matter with giving the voters a chance to vote on ______? (Just fill in the blank with whatever particular cause you support, such as lowering taxes, supporting education, or protecting views.) After all, shouldn’t the people be allowed to decide?

One needn’t look further than Sacramento to see the perils of “democracy without accountability.” Since 1978, California voters have voted again and again to spend money (for K-12 education, transportation, school construction and housing bonds after-school programs, mental health care, parks etc.), and at the same time, they’ve repeatedly voted to cut or restrict taxes (Proposition 13, Jarvis-Gann Limit, Proposition 218 etc.). The result is a $14 billion mismatch between spending and revenues – and scrambling by the Governor and Legislature to once again raid local government and transportation revenues to postpone the day of fiscal reckoning.

Ventura is caught in the same vise. SOAR and Measure “A” votes clearly indicated that local voters don’t want to sprawl onto surrounding farms and hillsides. But a small group of activists have gathered enough signatures to force a vote that will shut down development in most of the City until they can write a “view protection” ordinance to restrict future infill projects. That may not be inconsistent (a majority of voters might not want much development anywhere – or at least anywhere near them). But it is unaccountable – because it leaves to the dreaded “government” or “politicians” to figure out how to still provide needed housing, obey State laws, spur reinvestment in older urban areas and protect the environment through smarter land use.

We’re in the same boat fiscally. While 62% of Ventura voters want more police officers and firefighters (and were willing to pay higher taxes for them), a solid one out of three voters vehemently opposes higher taxes or fees. Under the complex rules adopted by a majority of California voters, that one-third has a virtual stranglehold on fiscal resources. Once again, “democracy without accountability,” leaves “government” and “politicians” to reconcile the conflicting desires of the electorate – and leaves voters free to castigate others for failing to “carry out the will of the people” to make everyone happy.

This blurred accountability is not, of course, a new problem. It’s why the founders deliberately chose Roman representation over Athenian democracy as their model back in 1789. But when the legitimacy of representative government was undermined by corruption (in the days when railroad barons controlled our State capitol), California adopted elements of direct democracy as a check against abuse of power.

What started out as a reform to curb abuse, however, has now become a way for voters to “have their say” on a flurry of State and local issues. It has also given narrow viewpoints and special interests direct access to making law. Courtesy of the mercenary “rent an election” industry of professional signature gatherers, enough voters can be persuaded to sign almost anything with a catchy title and an appealing sound bite. If enacted, these increasingly deceptive and surreal propositions override the delicate balancing act of governing. Enshrined as “the will of the people,” these simplistic initiatives cancel out the common sense and sound judgment of the people those same voters elect to public office. This bewildering patchwork of overlapping and contradictory signals threatens to make government unworkable – ironically spawning even more half-baked initiatives to “solve” problems.

On any given day, “the will of the people” shifts with the way the pollsters ask their questions. It may be that we are headed toward governing our nation, state and local community the way we select “American Idol” winners. That is certainly the conclusion you would come to by reading the daily expression of public opinion on the Ventura County Star website. On the other hand, the increasingly intractable problems with “democracy without accountability” may finally restore legitimacy to representative government. It’s not a perfect system. But holding elected leaders accountable for making tough choices has proven itself over a far longer time than the current mania for resorting to the ballot box (or courts) to address our challenges.

Traffic and the future

The LA Times story on anti-traffic initiatives in Oxnard and Thousand Oaks has drawn statewide attention:

http://californiacitynews.typepad.com/ californiacitynewsorg/2007/12/taking-the-init.html

Of course, Californians all hate traffic. But is shutting down development within five miles of a congested intersection the best -- or only answer?

In Ventura, we're working on a whole range of solutions -- it's called a Mobility Plan and it's just getting under way to reduce congestion and make public transit, walking and biking more attractive and safer in our community.

Two recent publications have highlighted the growing national trend toward "walkable communities." One, by the Brookings Institution, rates major metro areas for their "walkability" and claims that diverse walkable urban communities are popping up in and around major metropolitan areas like D.C., Denver, and even car-dominated cities like Los Angeles and Detroit.

Another is a new book by one of America's most prophetic writers about our changing landscape, Chris Leinberger. He says that this new trend is being driven by demand from Gen Xers, empty nesters, never nesters and singles looking for neighborhoods where cars are not absolutely essential-as opposed to what Leinberger refers to as "drivable sub- urban" developments characteristic of the American landscape since the 1950s.

"As demographic trends and consumer preferences take hold, the nearby suburbs of many major cities are changing to meet the pent up demand for this new way of life," Leinberger says. "The American Dream, as laid out on the ground, is changing."

Leinberger points to reactions all across the nation to the unpopularity of suburban growth that has resulted in geometric increases in land consumption compared to population growth, a host of social ills, long commutes, and increasing rates of obesity, asthma and accidental deaths and injuries from over-reliance on car and truck transportation -- not to mention increasing our dependence on oil from unstable and/or hostile nations and contributing to global warming.

Leinberger also says the improved quality of life in walkable areas draws the kind of educated workforce that drives job creation in knowledge-based sectors such as science and media that drive local economies. He believes that growing demand for walkable urbanism has resulted in a large gap between the current limited supply and much larger pent-up demand, boosting per square foot premiums for walkable urban residential, office and retail space from 40% to 200% of the comparable drivable sub-urban product in the same market.

Recent research in selected metropolitan areas shows that 30% to 40% of households want to live in walkable urban communities, but only 5% to 20% of the housing supply is walkable urban. Because of the relatively small amount of new supply that is added each year to the built environment, the supply of walkable urban housing, office and retail will not catch up to demand for a generation.

In Ventura, the General Plan vision of gradually replacing the vacant lots and strip centers along corridors like Thompson and Main is being pursued with the recent adoption of an Interim Code to ensure that new development fosters the kind of walkable streets that Leinberger advocates. In the long run, that may be a better safeguard for our future quality of life than initiatives that shut down reinvestment without solving the underlying problem of our dependence on cars.