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Seems Lookout’s name for the redevelopment area in downtown Santa Cruz south of Laurel Street, “SoLa,” is accurately pronounced “so L.A.”
The presumptuousness in naming part of our community – as a fait accompli without soliciting community input – is consonant with other arrogant expressions in recent redevelopment non-conversations.
It took Workbench co-founder Jamileh Cannon less than a millisecond to give a reflexive “no, it’s not possible,” to a resident’s question about whether the community might influence the proposed 16-story Clocktower Center.
Mayor Fred Keeley, enamored of Planning Director Lee Butler’s vision of 12- to 16-story buildings dotting the downtown landscape, dubbed the city council’s height, density and affordability numbers the cutesy “12/16/20 plan,” adding that he’s “mulling the creation of a special zoning district for the neighborhood” that would allow non-housing development currently prohibited under zoning regulations consistent with the general plan.
Perhaps the majority who supported Measure M envisioned it as a free ticket to hyper-YIMBY visions of laissez-faire redevelopment, which state law now mostly supports with respect to housing. Or maybe they thought it was a vote for more affordable housing, which developers will create as little as will pencil out.
So L.A.? Maybe not: Some leaders learn that leadership involves listening.
Mark (quasi-YIMBY) Stephens
Felton