Gary Patton is one of the environmental and planning heroes of Santa Cruz, city and county. As a 26-year-old lawyer, he helped a group of concerned citizens save a 38-acre coastal meadow from development as a high-rise hotel and condominium project. He realized that nobody except the city council, developers, and business leaders wanted construction. (As one of the last open headlands in any California urban area, Lighthouse Field is now a State park. It also holds California’s first surfing museum.) He wrote the successful ballot measure that removed city funding of the proposed development, and the then-new California Coastal Commission rejected it as well.

In 1974, when he was 29, he was elected to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, and was re-elected four times, serving five terms, to the age of 50. As he wrote, “The local newspaper named me as one of two persons who had the most significant impact on Santa Cruz County during the Twentieth Century. That doesn’t mean the newspaper approved of that impact, by the way! Luckily, the voters did!”

Gary Patton:

 

Let’s not wait around for someone else to tell us what has happened to us, and about the history has been made in our names.

 

Let’s talk to our neighbors, and friends, and get to work.

 

We have challenges and opportunities to confront, and it’s not “the government” that is supposed to do things.

 

WE are supposed to do things.

During the 1970s, Santa Cruz was growing at an annual growth rate of 4.6 percent. There were city leaders in Santa Cruz who wanted to see the town grow from ~35,000 to 500,000, as an extension of San Jose and the SF Bay area. To put that in perspective, Arcata and Humboldt County have been growing at an annual rate of 0.25% to 0.5%. The current projected growth of Arcata from ~19,000 to ~27,000 over the next 20 or 25 years — which seems massive to me — is around 1.4% to 2.0%. 

Gary’s actions, and the actions of hundreds of Santa Cruz residents — and the votes of thousands — helped keep Santa Cruz from becoming a vast metropolis. Over the past twenty years, unfortunately, with the pressures from university growth and the not-distant Silicon Valley tech industry, the problems to human existence from excessive growth have returned. Plans for a 17-story building in a 4-story-max neighborhood has been working its way through the public outrage. Current rents (May, 2023) for studio / 1-bedroom apartments in new buildings are in the $2,500-$3,500 range — 

Gary still maintains his Environmental Law practice, writes a daily blog, and maintains a strong presence against what can be regarded as current unplanned growth in Santa Cruz.

From Gary Patton’s website, gapatton.net 

We Live In A Political World

We live, simultaneously, in two different worlds. Ultimately, we live in the World of Nature, a world that we did not create and the world upon which all life depends. Most immediately, we inhabit a “human world” that we create ourselves. Because our human world is the result of our own choices and actions, we can say, quite properly, that we live, most immediately, in a “political world.” In this blog, I hope to explore the interaction of these two worlds that we call home.

Friday, May 5, 2023

#125 / The Business of Citizens is …

Katha Pollitt, pictured here, writes a monthly column for The Nation magazine. In the March, 2023, issue, her column was titled: “For Women’s History Month, Let’s Make History.”

I liked the column, which made me think that when we talk about “making history” we are really talking about things that WE do. “We” make history by doing things, both individually, and by acting in cooperation with others. We are both “individuals” and part of a greater whole, which includes all of us.

“History” is generally seen as occurring at the level of the “collective,” but it is not some abstract “collective” that actually takes action and makes changes; it is not “the government” that is supposed to do things to face down our challenges and to realize our opportunities. WE are supposed to do these things. “Government” is a tool we can use as we set out to do things, together, that will, indeed, “make history” and change the world.

I had another thought, after reading Pollitt’s column. Most of us can remember a famous quotation from American history, though there is a bit of controversy about to whom this statement should be attributed:

The Business Of America Is Business

I have never been much of a fan of the idea that our “business,” as Americans, is “business.” In my view, that phrase is definitely not the sum and substance of what we are all about, here in the United States. I would put it quite differently. Consider this, for instance, as an alternative formulation:

The Business Of Citizens Is Self-Government

Let’s not wait around for someone else to tell us what has happened to us, and about the history that has been made in our names. Let’s talk to our neighbors, and friends, and get to work.

We have challenges and opportunities to confront, and it’s not “the government” that is supposed to do things.

WE are supposed to do things.

To read Gary Patton’s blog, click here.
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“For Women’s History Month, Let’s Make History” on The Nation’s website. This requires a sign-up with your e-mail address, with 3 free articles per month.

Image Credit:  https://www.thenation.com/authors/katha-pollitt/