Longtime Isla Vista activist Carmen Lodise will launch a website version of his book Isla Vista: A Citizen’s History from Chumash Times to the Present.

Originally published in1990, the UCSB Bookstore refused to put the 64-page booklet on the shelves. It recounts the days of joint rolling contests and burning banks.

“The town was much more mellow back when the drug of choice was marijuana instead of alcohol,” Lodise said.

Lodise said his work is the “only real history of I.V.”

“Only three copies of the original 3,000 remain, and this is a way to pass on the information so that it is available to everyone,” he said.

The website features over 100 photos and graphics, links to documents about the 1970s anti-war protests, a link to the site for the Perfect Park Peace Monument Committee and a biography of Lodise.

“What we had in the ’70s that doesn’t exist now is the incredible reaction against the war and a culture of oppression,” he said.

Incorporation is I.V.’s best option for responsibly directing its future, Lodise said.

“The next step is I.V. becoming a city of its own or it will never make sense. The county and the university have had 35 years of dysfunctional rule over I.V.,” Lodise said.

The web address is www.islavista.org. Lodise will host a free and open reception for the website’s launch today from 7-9 p.m. at The Leather Guild, located at 6529 Trigo Rd.