Editor, Daily Nexus:

Transform a seaside community/college town into a college town/seaside community, and what do you get? More drunken fights and rudeness, loss of neighborhood quiet zones, more apartment fires and more traffic accidents. Isla Vista went from 40 percent students/60 percent locals in 1980, to 50/50 in 1990, to 60/40 in 2000. I hope the redevelopers and U.C. officials take note that 50/50 works best, was the most fair and should be permanently restored, if possible. I am a nonstudent, longtime I.V. resident, and this is my first public opinion on the Isla Vista redevelopment project, although I’m the local activist who first exposed the problem of mass evictions (in a letter to the News-Press), which led to the whole process and to the Tenants Union as well. I am disgusted that the county has not given us the sidewalks and streetlights long overdue, before starting a gigantic process that further delays these basics. Thus, I have chosen to abstain from the process, except for this letter.
BRENT BAKER