Editor, Daily Nexus,
Thank you for your coverage of local affairs in Friday’s article “Board Takes No Action on Park Sale, Director” (Daily Nexus, Feb. 18). The article discussed the meeting of the Isla Vista Recreation and Park District Board of Directors that took place last Thursday. I would like to add a little more information that I believe was missing from the article. You mentioned that about 30 people attended the meeting – quite a lot for a Park Board meeting – but you did not mention that most of them were there to show support for the Isla Vista Community Center. Several members of the public, including UCSB students and Isla Vista teens, spoke eloquently on the need for this community center and asked the park board to support it.
During the course of the meeting, local politicians made two promises in favor of the community center. Kris Miller-Fisher, a representative of 3rd District Supervisor Brooks Firestone, said that Firestone is personally committed to raising money for this project. Craig Geyer, chair of the Isla Vista Project Area Committee and General Plan Advisory Committee, said that he would support PAC/GPAC making an early release of some of the money it had already promised to the community center, in order to keep the community center project going.
It is one thing for politicians to make promises in a room full of people supporting a certain issue; it is another thing for them to follow through and keep those promises. I sincerely hope that, in this case, the promises were genuine. I also hope that the public will hold these two politicians accountable. The future of the Isla Vista Community Center depends on it.