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Neighborhood/Community OrganizationsLast updated: Saturday, October 11th, 2003 (added links a series of articles on various neighborhoods in the County to Neighborhood section)The City and County of Santa Cruz have a thriving and diverse assortment of community and neighborhood organizations working to help shape public policy in our community. These groups (and their role in the public policy process) often do not have much of a profile among activists and community members other than those working on issues they deal with. This page is an attempt to change that, to help public policy activists in our community obtain a better understanding of which groups are involved with what issues, to translate the mental "map" of the city's human civic infrastructure that I carry around in my head to a document that can be shared with others. I'm sure I'm missing quite a few groups: those that don't involve themselves with City Council campaigns (as this list was originally developed in that context), those that don't have an Internet presence (and thus are hard to find if you don't already know about them), and those who specialize in an area of public policy I'm not involved with - and of course, those whose profile is so local that very few people have ever heard of them (other than veteran City Councilmembers, whom I'm sure have heard from everyone at one point or another). As well, given that one person cannot be an expert at everything, or be connected to everyone, this will reflect my personal and political biases - for instance, I'm sure that cultural institutions play a much more significant role in forming and mediating public policy than this list would ever indicate... and I have limited familiarity with those institutions that fall on the "conservative" side of the political spectrum (including business organizations). I'm sure there are a lot of groups in these areas that I'm unfamiliar with (feel free to email me information about them). In some cases, I don't bother to list individual organizations unless they have a strong profile apart from their collective representatives; one example would be the county's non-profit social service agencies, which definitely influence public policy, but who tend to act through the Human Care Alliance (HCA), their "trade group"... within that sector, CAB (the Community Action Board), tends to have a high profile and occassionally take positions that are at odds with the HCA's official stance (such as CAB's stand on the Living Wage issue as related to non-profits). Another would be individual labor union locals, who typically (with a few notable exceptions) endorse via the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council. If you have any suggestions for groups I might have missed, write me at thomas@thomasleavitt.org. Thanks! Note: this list will tend to be biased towards groups active in the City of Santa Cruz, where I live. AnalysisQuality of life is the number one political issue in local politics. How does that translate into issues? One word: traffic. Nothing pisses off people more than to be stuck in it, or to have lots of it flowing down their once quiet residential street - or the prospect thereof. People who would otherwise never dream of showing up at a City Council meeting and speaking, will turn out en masse to bug city officials and to speak at Council, when a development proposal in their area is put forth. Traffic is the product of land use policy (development or the lack thereof), so that makes development issues key to understanding the dynamics of city politics outside of single issue activist communities (whose issues often heavily influence and in turn are influenced by it).To put it another way: the more tangible and direct the impact of public policy is on an individual, the more likely they are to do something about it - thus, an out of scale development in a neighborhood that will induce traffic and create a visual blight will generate large turnout from that neighborhood, while a more generalized public policy proposal that may enable developments of this sort to occur will generate concern only among a small group of public policy advocates (with occassional exceptions, such as the Beach Area Working Group plan during the 1998 election cycle). Similarly, when the school board recently proposed closing two schools (thus creating a very immediate and tangible impact on people's quality of life), suddenly hundreds of people started showing up at board meetings, whereas before, only a few "regulars" (along with employees) would be seen. Index
Transportation"Alternative" (to the automobile at least) transportation has a big constituency in Santa Cruz.
EnvironmentalEnvironmental issues, which translate into basic quality of life issues in many cases, are big in Santa Cruz. This tendency is re-inforced by the ability to frame opposition to development issues in environmental/quality of life terms.Some of these groups may be more "political" than others and make endorsements, some may be more more "public policy" in orientation and stay out of electoral politics, others may be more "civic service" oriented. Also see the California Coastal Commission's Marin, Coastal and Watershed Resource Directory entries for Santa Cruz County (note to self: go through and pick out organizations I recognize).
Single Issue GroupsOrganizations and coalitions often develop around opposition to a specific project, and it's implications for the local environment or quality of life (traffic, etc.).
Neighborhood OrganizationsMany of these operate very informally and may only really pick up steam when a local development issue emerges (such as the MetroBase Bus Station proposal on the Westside during the 2000 election cycle) and then quiet down once the issue in question is resolved. A couple of these exist in my immediate neighborhood and are extremely localized (a block or two) - I'm sure there are others like them that I don't know about. Naturally, these are very focused on quality of life issues: traffic, street signage, crime, graffitti, problem residences, etc.
For something neat, although slightly off topic, see: The Riverside Neighborhood, a page put together by Linda Rosewood Hooper And here's a bonus - a series of articles on the various neighborhoods (some of them, I notice that Live Oak, for example, doesn't exist in this catalogue) and communities in Santa Cruz County, with coverage of the historical origin, climate and housing stock, and pictures of historical homes and other landmarks from John Terry photography, from Coastal Homes Magazine, published in 1996 and available on line via their site (stumbled on them looking for information about my own "banana belt" neighborhood):
A Tale of Two Valleys: San Lorenzo Valley and Scotts Valley (not part of the Sally Wing series, but appeared in the same issue) Business OrganizationsThese are very influential in the public policy process, although their impact on the electoral process is more muted - for example the "conservative" candidates favored by these groups in the 2002 election cycle, in preference to Green Party member Tim Fitzmaurice (an incumbent), failed to make a significant difference in the overall results. Many of them put substantial resources and attention behind support for Mark Primack in his race against incumbent County Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt - this resulted in a very close election, but one in which Mardi ultimately prevailed.
Union OrganizationsGenerally, from my understanding, only UTU Local #23 (Bus Driver's Union) and SEIU Local #415 make endorsements independent of the Central Labor Council (CLC) - however, when candidates have personal relationships with particular unions, that changes (as can be seen from the 2002 election cycle, where AFT union member Mike Rotkin ran on an informal slate with Cynthia Mathews, and Greg Lopez, a contractor, was endorsed by his union).
Educational Advocacy OrganizationsUntil the school closure issue emerged, these were almost invisible - although proponents of "alternative" education have historically been very vocal in protecting their interests and expressing their concerns, and when school specific issues develop, parents will make their voices heard. The Parent/Teacher Association does not have a unified local council here, for example. Note: each individual school has a Site Council, which is responsible for making recommendations for the allocation of various "categorial" (special purpose) funds and also tends to serve as a general purpose advisory resource and communications channel to parents for central district staff and school administration (for example: members of School Board advisory commissions are often selected from among these folk).
Affordable HousingHousing affordability is one of the most burning issues faced by workers and employers alike, Santa Cruz's service sector/student/agricultural economy, combined with its temperate coastal climate, natural beauty and adjacency to Silicon Valley, ecologically minded regulation and patterns of development and planning policy that have favored low density, high value housing, make for a vast disjunct between the ability of most people to pay, and the prices for available housing (Santa Cruz is one of the least affordable housing markets in the entire nation). Therefore, many people are putting quite a lot of thought and energy into trying to figure out how to effectively address this problem.
Partisan and Non-Partisan Political Public PolicyEven though local races are officially non-partisan, these groups still have a substantial impact. For instance, it is highly unlikely that you'll see a Republican elected to City Council anytime soon. In some ways, the major endorsements among progressive organizations (SCAN, Green Party, Democratic Party organizations, Unions) operate as an informal primary for sorting out which candidates have the connections and support to mount a credible campaign. Some of these may be moved to other categories as I learn more about them.
Non-profitsThese, of course, never get directly involved with politics, but they do play significant roles in public policy debates and pushing various issues. CAB, for instance, served as the umbrella organization for and provided office space to the Living Wage Coalition during its campaign to get Living Wage ordinances passed in Santa Cruz City, Santa Cruz County, and Watsonville.
ReligiousThese organizations, of course, don't directly involve themselves in partisan politics, but their social justice elements can be involved in advocacy for specific causes (such as the Living Wage, or advocacy for the homeless, civil rights, peace, etc.). They don't play as prominent a role in Santa Cruz as they do other places, but the groups below (in particular, the Quakers, in my personal experience) have definitely been engaged on various issues - this may also take the role of groups of unofficial involvement by members of these groups.
VenuesSanta Cruz has a wealth of affordable meeting locations available for rental (or free) to social justice and other groups. Some of these, in particular, tend to host events which relate to public policy one way or another. I've listed the ones I know are available to folks outside of the owning organization and which have hosted events I've attended. There are probably others.
CulturalThese are generally non-political, but may get involved with non-partisan, non-candidate related measures when funding issues are at stake (such as with Measure P, the utility tax repeal initiative, in the fall of 2002) or public policy affecting their specific interests.
GovernmentalThese instutions serve as forums within which the various groups listed on thie page work out policy differences. There are dozens upon dozens of these, but this list is intended to highlight those institutions which I've heard about repeatedly. This list will tend towards regional/inter-governmental bodies, because unlike your typical city commission, these are not advisory bodies, but entities with actual decision making authority (and often substantial budgets as well) - which is really where the rubber hits the road, as far as public policy goes (money and power). The people who sit on these bodies are typically elected officials, usually one or two per jurisdiction.
OtherAd Hoc groups and individual organizations may play a role in the public debate, especially when individual members of such groups are highly motivated to take action.
MediaThe media, of course, play a huge role in shaping discussion on public policy. Especially the newspapers, which have wide circulation and tend to cover lcoal issues in far more depth than other media, as well as reach more people. Skip Spitzer does a better job of tracking this than I could ever do, therefore no details here.
Media that endorse in Santa Cruz City Elections:
Historical Archive of Articles on Major IssuesYou can't really understand Santa Cruz politics today, unless you understand what has happened in the past. This archive of articles is intended to provide the aspiring activist with some basic knowledge of "what has gone before". I make no claims to being able to credibly critique any newsmedia coverage of issues I was not involved in, so take everything you read with a grain of salt. Also, the articles are not in any particular order (at the moment)... just how I came across them, basically (more later).
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