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Yahoo!Isla Vista is kind of like that pile of ever-growing stuff at the end of your kitchen table. You come home at the end of a long day and set down whatever is in your hand, fully intending to get a look at it later, but never quite getting the chance. The stack gets bigger and bigger until somebody finally decides to clean it up.
I’m not saying that I.V. is the county’s dumping ground. What I mean is that businesses, apartments, parks, and the like have been built in I.V. throughout the years, and after they’ve been constructed, they’re sometimes ignored, especially when it comes to the parks. Every once in a while, the Isla Vista Recreation and Parks District has to do a little cleaning, which means things that have been standing since the 1970s have to come down.
Eye on I.V.
The latest I.V. staple that had to been removed was the lath house, located at Little Acorn Park at the south end of the Embarcadero loop. Little Acorn Park was originally a nursery in the 1970s and the lath house was built to provide shade for whatever plants needed shelter from the sun, said IVRPD ground supervisor Jay Scheidemen. IVRPD General Manager Carol Belser cited safety reasons for why the lath house had to be torn down—which, by the way, cost $10,000, according to the minutes of the June 5 IVRPD meeting. Had IVRPD not taken the lath house down, nature—especially termites—would have gotten to it first
Scheidemen said when he and the other grounds members began to tear the lath house down on July 22, they had to call the Isla Vista Foot Patrol because some locals were getting vocal. Sergeant Erik Raney, however, said there was only one older man who was angry because he didn’t feel there was proper public notice about the project. There were no other significant disturbances.
However, other community members were more than perturbed the by removal of the lath house. Kelly Pritchard, an IVRPD Board member and IV resident since 1964, posted a video on YouTube expressing her disappointment with IVRPD’s decision. Her video, which is the first on her Isla Vista News channel, shows the maintenance crew tearing down the lath house while she narrates, at one point bitterly saying, “IV Parks and Rec… this is the rec part.” Pritchard is typically the dissenting vote on the board because she believes the IVRPD is taking down “everything that is a cultural reminder of her generation.”
Henry Sarria, who has been living in IV since the mid-1980s, understands Pritchard’s side of the argument, but also sees that there were safety reasons for the lath house’s removal. Now that the lath house is down, there is greater visibility throughout the park, making it safer for people to walk through. Belser said that while IVRPD initially received many complaints while the lath house was being torn down, they have since heard many thank yous from community members — especially women. Sarria said that the bottom line is that if the removal of the lath house increases safety for IV residents, then it had to be done. Pritchard, however, never thought of the lath house as a place for predators to hide; to her, it was a “place to get out of the sun” and hang out.
Neither Scheidemen nor Belser was unaware that they were taking down an I.V. icon. Belser sounded a bit remorseful on the phone, and said it was a “sad day” when the lath house was torn down. However, Scheidemen said one of the guys taking down the lath house was actually on the crew that put it up, and even he recognized that the structure was on its way out.
While I’m no wood decay expert, I’ll agree with IVRPD when they say the lath house was on its last legs. Pieces of wood were jutting out of place, nails were coming loose, and I wouldn’t have been surprised to see the lath house collapse in on itself at any moment. But I’ll admit something to you: I loved that thing, and a little piece of me imagined walking through there barefooted in my wedding dress toward my groom. Anytime something is knocked down in I.V., somebody complains that the culture is disappearing, just like anytime you throw out that pile on the kitchen table, your roommates complain that you threw out something important. Upsetting as it may be to the long time residents, the face of I.V. is ever-changing and will never be the hippie-haven it once was.
Anyone with ideas about what to do with Little Acorn Park now that the lath house is gone is invited to a meeting on August 10 at 6 p.m. at the park itself.
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