Journal Article 04/04

By Dave Romero

Trouble In Paradise

With approximately 100 unreinforced masonry buildings, San Luis Obispo is one of the most at-risk cities in the state. Had the earthquake of December 22nd been nearer to our City, I believe we would have had a disaster to deal with. There would probably have been several buildings in each block of downtown severely damaged, with probable loss of life, injuries and major disruption of downtown traffic and shopping for many days and weeks. We dodged a bullet this time, but next time we might not be so lucky.

Shortly after the earthquake, the City (under my signature as Mayor) sent a letter to the owners of all unreinforced masonry buildings within the City asking that they consider a speed-up in their required seismic retrofit. We also reactivated the Chamber Seismic Task Force, asking this committee to move with some deliberate speed to re-examine the City ordinance requiring retrofit prior to 2017, and recommend measures which will result in acceleration in the leisurely pace of building retrofit which has occurred over the past few years. I'm pleased to report that the committee is hard at work, and it is my hope that the City Council will receive their recommendations this summer, so that the City can make necessary modifications to its ordinance by Fall.

The Mardi Gras celebration and parade has been a well-organized fun event in the City for about 25 years. In recent years, however, Mardi Gras has become a catalyst which has attracted many outsiders for partying, drinking and general hell-raising - very similar to that which occurred at Poly Royal, Palm Springs and Ft. Lauderdale. City costs to provide police protection have been in the magnitude of $100,000 per year. Several years ago, the City finally refused to issue a permit for the parade. A subsequent court ruling was issued that said that the City could not ban the parade if the organizers met standard conditions which apply to all parades, such as proper street closures, barricades, cleanup and direct City costs in carrying out the parade itself. The parade was shifted to Sunday afternoon and the City carried out an extensive campaign in the months leading up to the event to discourage the inappropriate behavior which is centered near student housing projects at California and Foothill.

The near riot on the night of Saturday, February 21st, has partially undone many years of work improving relations between students and the City, and has projected a terrible image of our City to the rest of the county. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt and property damage was relatively minor. It could have been much worse.

I have come to the conclusion that there may not be a reasonable way to prevent such actions in the future unless we eliminate the catalyst that gives an excuse to start it all. Therefore, I am reluctantly asking that the organizers of the parade consider the cost and harm to the City that comes with the parade event, and cease holding the parade.

Do I still think we live in paradise? Oh, yes! We'll deal with these "troubles in paradise" and continue to be the best city anywhere!