Cat Neushul
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
There are some things about Isla Vista that make it an exciting – though some might call it a sketchy – place to live. One of these is the cliffs that line Del Playa. If you take a walk down this street you’ll see parks overlooking the cliff, some with no barriers. One step too many and you would plummet over the edge. I’ve had many a nightmare involving a crumbling edge, and a falling victim. Many years ago I held my breath as I watched my dog fall over the edge of the cliff near Devereaux. (He landed on sand and was fine, but it was terrifying) There are similar open spaces in Santa Barbara with high cliffs — for example, the Douglas Family Preserve. While at least one dog has careened over the edge, it’s rare to hear of any other serious injuries.
Cat Neushul
Just recently a UCSB student named Noah Krom died after falling off the cliff on the 6600 block of Del Playa Drive. Lt. Brian Olmstead of from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department’s Isla Vista Foot Patrol, said the case is still under investigation, but an update should be released soon. Krom was one of seven people who have fallen off the cliffs during this past school year. Olmstead said two fell during Halloween, two during Floatopia, and two earlier in the year. Some had broken bones, others were unhurt. “This was out of the ordinary,” Olmstead said. He said that some years there are no accidents. “There is no pattern,” he added. However, he said a majority of the cases have involved alcohol.
What makes I.V. cliffs a little more dangerous, than, say, the Santa Barbara cliffs, is the type of people who live on them. Many are newly away from home, and they are exploring alcohol and other types of drugs. Ask any UCSB grad and they are sure to have a “cliff story”. I have two in particular that made an impression on me. One of them involved an acquaintance who fell off the edge of the cliffs, sustained brain damage, and spent years in rehabilitation. Another was a little more entertaining. It’s a story about a student who dropped acid, thought he was Superman, and proceeded to jump off the edge of a Del Playa cliff in his underwear. His roommates watched in horror out their living room window as they ate their cereal. After he had landed safely, he made his way back up the cliff, charged over to the edge, and was getting ready to make his second leap. Luckily, his roommates stopped him.
There’s no easy way to prevent accidents involving the cliffs. Even where there are fences along the edge, this doesn’t guarantee there won’t be accidents. Some of the falls have involved people who have climbed over, or around, the barriers. One way to prevent the accidents may be to do more student education. Maybe if students are told at the beginning of the year that the cliffs and drugs or alcohol don’t mix, it might help. Maybe posters or public service announcements might work. It’s hard to say. I’ve been terrified of the cliffs ever since I visited from Los Angeles and almost rode my bike over the edge along Del Playa. But alcohol may dull this natural fear.
The second peril of I.V. is the fireworks fun. While other parts of Santa Barbara and Goleta are woefully quiet on July 4, except for the city sponsored events, I.V. is a hotbed of firework activity. With the recent fires, any sort of incendiary device seems really, really stupid. But guess what? Some I.V. inhabitants didn’t hear about the fireworks ban. On July 4, and even before that night, people were setting off cherry bombs and rockets. Even in broad daylight, you could hear the boom of fireworks. I returned home one night to a beautiful fireworks display above the apartments at the end of Los Carneros Road.
But July 4 was the worst. I heard explosions that came one after another until early in the morning. It sounded like were in some type of war zone. The next day I found a used rocket in my yard. As I walked down a nearby street I found a trash can in shreds that had been used as a receptacle for cherry bombs — fireworks placed in plastic trash cans make a booming sound that is horrifying — and the refuse of many other fireworks.
Olmstead said there were at least four citations issued in I.V. for fireworks. He said that the types of fireworks I’d heard on July 4th were not the “safe and sane” version people could get from nearby Fillmore or Santa Maria, but the “bought-in-another-country kind” — not so safe, and not so sane. When I suggested a firework patrol specifically to target my neighbors, who had kept me up all night, he explained that budget concerns were a factor.
Maybe a neighborhood fireworks watch is in order. I’ll take first watch.