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 ut of a total of 45 endorsements
made by the San Diego Sierra Club and the San Diego League of Conservation
Voters applying to San Diego County, we won 26 (a respectable 57%) which
tells you absolutely nothing but there it is. On the 33 strictly local (not
statewide) endorsements, we won 18 (54 percent) which is also not too shabby.
Good political consultants have told me that, at best, even they run at
about 50/50.
 In general, the grass roots campaigns
got killed. The main exception is in Encinitas, where pro-environment candidates
Dennis Holz and Christy Guerin ran successful campaigns. Also, Diane Rose
and Pat McCoy won in Imperial Beach, and Betty Rexford won in Poway.
The arguably two most important races,
Prop B and Jerry Harmon, both went down to large defeats. Environmentalists
opposing big, well-funded developers (B, D, V, AA) lost. The projects the
Sierra Club and other environmental organizations worked on with big developers
(K and M) passed, but by a close margin.
The best local victory is undoubtedly
saving Carmel Mountain via Prop M a hard fight over many years and, unfortunately,
a deal, not without its detractors; some felt environmentalists should not
even consider endorsing projects of this kind. There is, however, no question
that without the Sierra Club and community leaders' endorsements and support,
both K and M would have failed or would never made it onto the ballot.
Now the challenge is to work with
both those projects to secure the gains, make sure they are implemented
as promised, and work to take those standards and have them applied to projects
city-wide, which is a real possibility. |
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It could have been worse. Much worse. It usually is. As
a matter of fact, things are about to get better for environmental policy
and politics at the state level in California. How refreshing it will be
to have gubernatorial appointees with a more serious commitment to environmental
regulation and enforcement. The prospects of good appointments to the myriad
of State Boards related to environmental protections including the State
Resources Agencies, Regional Water Quality Control Boards and Coastal Commission
have local activists looking beyond their losses.
Environmental activists may not have
found the right combination of popular measures to curb urban sprawl here
in San Diego, but there was a clear consensus on the need to deal with growth
more effectively than in the past. Everyone seems to understand that another
million people with another million cars simply will not fit and we cannot
trust elected officials to handle it on their own. Voters want to have a
say.
Locally and throughout the state,
and even across the nation, growth was a hot topic. Nationally, initiative
measures were approved to purchase more than $7 billion of land or development
rights. Voters in Florida, Rhode Island, Oregon and other states approved
measures aimed at sparing rural lands from development. Locally, voters
approved a wide range of projects and also supported measures that will
allow them to vote on future projects. People may differ on the solutions,
but there is a consensus that we must determine how to deal with growth
by providing adequate infrastructure.
Escondido and Solana Beach voters
overwhelmingly passed measures requiring future public votes on growth.
Ignored in the monetary competition for attention, but not ignored by the
voters, Prop E passed with a two-thirds majority in the City of San Diego.
Future projects conferring private benefits and requiring expenditures of
more than 10 percent of the City's General Fund must now be put to a vote. |
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I can definitely understand why "ballot box planning"
is an anathema to rational people and just about anyone at the mercy of
the system. The political arena is a lot like a gambling casino where you
can spend a lot of money and never win. And, you don't even get the benefits
of having fun while you're taking the risks! Since a key drive
of developers is to reduce risk, elections run counter to their liking.
Elected officials don't like putting things to a vote because it robs them
of some of their power. They like to think that they were elected to make
decisions, not to put things together and then have it judged by the people.
Professional planners dislike the oversimplification required by the process
that only lets someone vote "yes" or "no" on matters
that take months or years of experience to understand.
But ballot box planning is here to
stay. While elected officials, professional planners, landowners and developers
will always rail against it, this election shows not only that the voters
like it, but that they also can discriminate among different kinds of measures
and projects.
Big money, more often than not, did
translate into success. At the same time, projects which fail to negotiate
seriously with community leaders and volunteer environmental groups risk
losing. It's terribly ironic to me that the projects that were the most
progressive (K & M), featured the best designed infrastructure, and
were the best deals for the taxpayer had the hardest fights to win. |
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What will rise from the ashes of the Prop B (Rural Heritage
and Watershed Initiative) failure? Now we all go back to the day-to-day
work of attempting to solve problems and conflicts through the regular political
processes.
Elections are great learning experiences,
especially about the people involved with the issues, their beliefs, their
tactics and style. Elections are all about winning and losing with the broader
public-at-large on a controlled time line. Winning and losing can bring
out both the best and the worst in people.
Eric Anderson, past President of
the San Diego Farm Bureau and a staunch opponent of Prop B, was gracious
in victory at election central. He expressed his willingness to work toward
more acceptable means of dealing with the conflicts between the environment
and agriculture. Even while winning, he acknowledged that fighting at the
ballot box was extremely difficult, expensive and basically a waste of resources
on both sides. "There must be a better way and maybe we can work together
to figure it out," he said.
Pam Slater, Board of Supervisors,
with much less style, couldn't resist gloating over her victory by lording
it over me. "Boy, you sure picked the losing side on that one! Didn't
you?" Ungracious in both victory and defeat, she then proceeded to
rail at me about how she was totally opposed to putting in "high density"
projects such as were being approved under Props K and M. My pointing out
that 2-3 units per acre overall was not high density fell on deaf ears.
It was one of those rare political moments where you got to see an elected
official's real feelings about something and what they feel about the people
who disagree with them. In this case, it was not a pretty sight. Amazingly,
the following day she then led the charge and voted to allow the 4S Ranch
project to go in with comparable densities in the same area. Go figure.
There was also a high percentage
of people who would like to see growth just stopped at least in their area.
is real, alive and understandable. If they would only understand how to
help deal with it responsibly, rather than just opposing it and contributing
to urban sprawl, we could make real progress here for the environment and
quality of life.  |
.Carolyn Chase is Chair of the San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club, Chair of the City of San Diego Waste Management Advisory Board, and a founder of San Diego EarthWorks and the Earth Day Network