Time to Think Globally/Act Locally

It's almost election day and the Santa Paula City Council has convinced itself and the city that it must make hard, grizzly choices to balance the budget.  In the past two months, each city council meeting sees a dizzying number of agenda items raised, voted on and/or tabled often without the benefit of adequate information or thought of consequences. Items come up, items disappear. And if money, or the lack of it, is the only determiner of what action to take we are in for some heartbreak. If you've been following the council meetings you will have noticed that even though they are conducted in slow-motion, we are left confused. Is selling off the city's assets, and cutting the city's workforce the only way to balance the budget? And what do we really know about the sewer bill?  But, don't despair. Look objectively at money, and you'll see that computerized transactions of financial capital total nearly 4 trillion dollars a day. No shortage of money in the world. So let's prioritize what needs to be done, and rally boldly and creatively to generate revenue. My recommendations are:

1. Contact our esteemed Congressman Gallegly, and ask (beg, implore?) him to bring stimulus money for one or two public works projects to Santa Paula. (Whether we like stimulus money or hate it, it's out there.) One project, for example, would be to build a retaining wall along the south side of the Santa Paula Freeway.  Residents whose homes are alongside the 126 have said they are not adequately protected against highway traffic accidents with only a chain-link fence separating them from the constant traffic. I agree. The second project could be to use the funds in a public/private partnership to restore the Tower theatre as a cultural venue for film festivals and music concerts.  There are many worthy projects out there and as voters, we will happily reward our congressman's concern for our city.

2. Woo American multi-billionaires so they step up to the plate in the style of their Rockefeller and Carnegie predecessors. Their capital and ours are inextricably meshed. A win-win outcome is their loosening the flow of capital to small business, and to thoughtful development. In a public and private partnership, private interests can invest and profit without owning every bolt and screw. In turn, the city can woo small business with incentives that make living and working in Santa Paula a most attractive option.

3. Where is today's Mies van der Rohe?  Experiment fearlessly to expand the middle class with ONE cutting edge, environmentally sound, small-scale development. Example: Take a minimum acreage of land and build 100 architecturally innovative prefab houses that take about 19 days each to build, that harmonize with the natural landscape, and that will appeal to young professionals in technological, scientific and engineering fields, and their families.

May this coming year see a city council with a little panache. How else can we win for Santa Paula?