Saving Pacific View- A Morality Play

June 17, 2014  - updated July 12

Addendum for those doing the survey:  This is to links of Peak Democracy's Open Town Hall critiques. The following is my argument against going forward with the current contract to purchase this property.  Contact me at alvrdb.brt, for specific questions and further details

Reason rarely has a chance against group emotion,  as it feels good to be part of a movement for something that everyone agrees is to be desired, such as "supporting the arts" or from a different realm, "spreading democracy."  The two realms have been conflated just a bit when the creator of the "Save Pacific View" movement posted on one of his emails that there is still a chance of someone "sabotaging" the goal.  That was a strong word, drawing from hatred of the "enemy," defined in this case as someone making the case such as I'm doing in this article.

I happen to believe that it's when a movement has gathered group momentum that its exactly the time to interject reason into the mix.  Reason implies presenting propositions, not to be embraced, but to be evaluated; first checked for veracity of the facts,  and then to be considered fairly looking at all possible outcomes.  In other words, exactly like the political culture is in our country--as the kids used to say for emphasis....NOT!  We no longer work that way in our democracy,  as spelled out in the recent report by the Pew Research Foundation on political polarization in America.

Just as the time before the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to spread democracy to the middle east,  very few of either party had the courage to challenge the premise, to state that rather than democracy we could unleash chaos once the established order was upended.  Oh, this was discussed in think tanks with no media coverage, but few in public life other than old Senator Robert Byrd were willing to stand and publicly state the obvious.

Now in a tiny microcosm of this dynamic, we are about to "Save Pacific View" something I put in quotes as it was part of a brilliant campaign by the organizer Scott Chatfield that began with the name, which implies salvation rather than transformation of the site which would have raised the question of "to what?"  When we are asked to save something, or someone, we don't ask what will happen latter; we pull out all stops to keep it from dying, or in this case a fate worse than death which would be turned over to "developers."  These are the bad guys, even if like in other cities they create developments that provide public spaces that are more secure and widely used than those of surrounding public parks.

We happen to have such a park that does provide for enjoyment of grassy landscape and even running natural water called, "cottonwood creek" which is maybe a half mile away.  And for gazing at the ocean, which will not be possible from Pacific View,  it can be at an area overlooking the coast about a five minute stroll away, from which you can even walk right down to the beach.   And just as the unspoken dark side of our Iraq invasion, (O.K., "liberation" if you like,) finally has come to pass at this very moment in time, so too city ownership of Pacific View could be a millstone around the neck of a future Encinitas.

This article  "Taboo Subject: Homeless in the Park"  from the journal of the National Recreation and Park Association dares bring this subject into the light.  Although now there is only a small chance that this will occur, it should not completely be ignored:  Will this space with a large open parklike area increase the probability of thrusting Encinitas  into the most searing issue of our times, the vast difference between those with the least living among those of us lucky enough to reside here?  Will there still be funds to build a homeless residence for those who may flock to this city once we are known as "friendly" to the indigent, or will we be be included in the category of "mean cities," those who by various methods, legal or otherwise, keep such people away.

Right now we are not engaging in any dialogue on actual palpable choices when we own this land.  We have identified the good guys, "lovers of the arts," and the bad guys, other than myself probably a majority of residents who don't follow local issues at all.   Somehow included in the contract that was signed last month we still have about forty days (until July 28)  to identify actual, rather than ethereal, uses of this three acre parcel, and first decide whether it's even possible.  Any sizable performance space, the most common suggested use, will probably be ruled out based on the authority of the Coastal Commission to reject any structure that will decrease availability of parking for beach goers.  

There is a parcel (Link to Video Below) that is available to us at Encinitas Town Center, Leucadia and El Camino Real,  that including available public parking has as much useful area as Pacific View.  Rather than a cost for the the land of ten million dollars this is owned by the city, and actually could legally realize the ideal of performance spaces along with teaching facilities.  This would be both a benefit for this broad area called New Encinitas which would be in closer proximity to more moderate priced housing for undiscovered artistic talent.

Our city has a long list of approved unfunded capital projects, some designed to prevent pedestrian and driver casualties, others with different benefits.  Yet, in the course of a few months, this purchase was elevated to the front of the list, with plenty of generated emotion and impassioned emails from perhaps one percent of the citizens of this city.

While at times analysis can lead to paralysis, as stated by one member of the council who will no longer be there when we close on this property next year; usually analysis is valuable.  It would have been useful when a handful of people in Washington were fomenting public thirst for a war that now, a decade later, is unleashing the homicidal rage of a billion people in that part of the world.    And on an infinitely smaller scale, this deserves the appropriate analysis of real choices and consequences that is still possible in the five weeks left to actually consider all aspects of this purchase.

Video of Performance parcel at Encinitas Town Center

Article on details of pacific view sales contract with link to council discussion