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MyspaceA closed-door meeting between Santa Barbara City officials and members of the Milpas Community Association (MCA) took place Thursday, November 11, at the Eastside Public Library. Media were not invited because, according to Mayor Helene Schneider, who initiated the gathering, she wanted participants to feel comfortable speaking their minds and not worry that their words would be misinterpreted in the press. In addition to Schneider, Councilmembers Grant House and Dale Francisco, heads of various city departments, and Santa Barbara Police Captain Alex Altavilla attended.
The tone of the meeting was “very cordial,” said Mayor Schneider in a phone interview afterward. And she hopes it was the first in string of conversations, not a one-time confab.
In the two months since its founding, MCA has managed to get the city’s full attention. It held a major press conference October 12, a State Street march and rally that made the front page of the Santa Barbara News-Press. The group represents businesses and residents who are mad about what they believe is the deteriorating condition of the Milpas corridor and Lower Eastside; a mushrooming of loitering homeless people, a spike in crime, public urination, and defecation, and two violent gang assaults top their list. They recently made an unsuccessful appeal to the City Planning Commission to modify Casa Esperanza’s conditional use permit (CUP) to somehow mitigate the shelter’s impact on the area. To read more, see homelessinsb.org.
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Comments
Wow! Technically not a quorum. But it is Fascism. This marriage of government, business and police, behind closed doors, is absolutely frightening. I pity the target group. This was a SBPD On Patrol "this is our town" closed door meeting. That means that no one else, including you, were allowed to attend!
DonMcDermott (anonymous profile)
November 15, 2010 at 6:10 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I understand the reasoning behind having a closed meeting but I think it gives a very bad message to the rest of us in the East side and West side neighborhoods. Especially, the East side: there are many more concerned about what's going on then are part of the MCA which seems largely business oriented. What about the rest of us ordinary residents; doesn't what we have to say matter?
I hope that this sort of closed door meeting will not happen again! And though I don't often agree with DonMcDermott I am completely in agreement here.
citti (anonymous profile)
November 15, 2010 at 7:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If one attended their march and rally, one can understand why a private meeting would be productive and an open meeting would be nothing but a rhetorical festival.
David_Pritchett (David Pritchett)
November 15, 2010 at 10:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Snarky as usual, Pritchett. For citti, there are residents on the board of the MCA, and they are very active in the group. We will do a large community forum within the next month to get the neighborhood watch going, launch a large community event, and talk through other things the neighbors have expressed interest in. If you want to be part of it (instead of sniping anonymously on the Independent) drop a line to info@mcasb.org. We'll make sure to include you.
downtownres (anonymous profile)
November 16, 2010 at 12:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
@downtownres, it's confusing when you make a "snarky" comment like:
"instead of sniping anonymously on the Independent"
... while posting under an anonymous name, to someone posting under his own name.
Does a snark cancel out a hypocrisy? Or arsy versy?
Chester_Arthur_Burnett (anonymous profile)
November 16, 2010 at 1:57 p.m. (Suggest removal)
A community forum and active Neighborhood Watch would be fantastic, constructive actions. The march and rally held a couple of weeks ago was almost entirely a one-sided political statement, which is fine as long as one admits that is what it was.
I like political statements as much as the next anonymous commenter, but events that attack some City staff and some elected Councilmembers tend to be far more divisive than unifying to get tough jobs done with highly limited public funds to do them.
How is that newly revived Police Beat Coordinator working out?
David_Pritchett (David Pritchett)
November 17, 2010 at 10:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)