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Santa Barbara Passes Living Wage Ordinance
http://sbpueblo.blogspot.com/2006/03/santa-barbara-passes-living-wage.html
PUEBLO immigrant rights forum
http://sbpueblo.blogspot.com/2006/03/immigrants-rights-become-focus-of.html
Living Wage debate heats up, heads for vote
http://sbpueblo.blogspot.com/2006/03/living-wage-debate-heats-up-heads-for.html
Immigrants gain the pulpit
http://sbpueblo.blogspot.com/2006/03/immigrants-gain-pulpit.html
Advocates applaud affordable housing funding
1/28/05
By JOSHUA MOLINA
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
In a major policy shift for the Santa Barbara City Council, the panel on Thursday agreed to set aside $8.6 million for below-market-rate housing projects.
Council members also approved $4 million to buy property that could be used for affordable housing down the road.
Members of the affordable housing activist group PUEBLO described the decision as a win for the group and working-class people.
After the meeting, Councilman Das Williams said: "What a huge victory for affordable housing. It represents a paradigm shift."
Nearly 100 people packed the David Gebhard Public Meeting Room, with several standing on the side and in the back. About 20 members of PUEBLO waved pink signs reading "Prioritize Affordable Housing."
The group, known for organizing people to turn out at public meetings, said the city's redevelopment dollars have made downtown beautiful, but that has come at the expense of poor people who have been squeezed out of the housing picture.
Harley Augustino, the group's executive director, offered a clear message to the council members, three of whom are running for re-election in November: Iya Falcone, Roger Horton and Mayor Marty Blum.
" We'll be watching very closely how you prioritize our precious last redevelopment dollars," Mr. Augustino said.
PUEBLO sent out press releases the day before the meeting. The three local television news stations covered the meeting, along with Univision, a Spanish-language station -- a rarity for the City Council. PUEBLO members also blasted the council for holding the meeting at 9:30 a.m. on a weekday, when so many people are working.
Representatives from several groups all looking for funding also put the pressure the council. In one way or another, they all painted themselves as central to what makes Santa Barbara special.
From arts and historic preservation groups to Westside activists and beachfront property owners, they tried to get a slice of the pie.
" We have a lot of holes in the sidewalk along Cabrillo Boulevard," said Tony Romasanta, owner of the Harbor View Inn. "When people come to Santa Barbara, they look at the harbor area. It's not fresh. It's not as good as it could be. Let's talk about the things that don't cost a lot of money but will really improve the gem of Santa Barbara."
Chad Stevens, owner of Chad's on Chapala Street and the waterfront Sambo's Restaurant, agreed. He said he has to close Sambo's at 2:30 p.m. because there's no one in that area in the evening.
In the end, nearly all the projects on the table got some sort of funding.
A handful of nonprofit organizations seeking community grants were shut out for another year. With the city's redevelopment agency having to give $1.3 million to the state to help with its deficit this year and next, the council decided to hold off on grants to the nonprofits until fiscal 2007.
But the remaining $388,500 of a $500,000 grant to the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum -- pushed by Ms. Falcone in 2003 -- was spared.
The housing proposals that secured funding include a Santa Barbara Mental Health Association project. Plans call for a mix of units for downtown workers and people with mental illness; a downtown "urban village" on Chapala Street; and the setting aside of $2 million for a housing contingency fund.
The proposed projects left behind after Thursday include two parking lots near the railroad depot, a cultural arts master plan, lower State Street public restrooms and a pocket park next to the Granada Garage. These proposals may be revived in future years. The council, sitting as the redevelopment agency, left about $1.4 million in the bank for future projects. In the end, it was the housing that prevailed.
" Affordable and work force housing is what we really need," said activist Dan Ancona.
A new voice in S.B. politics, 8/2/04
By SCOTT HADLY
NEWS-PRESS SENIOR WRITER
In a modest apartment across from the Carpinteria railroad station, Marisol Moreno, a teacher and mother of three, hosted a small gathering one balmy evening earlier this month.
With the door slightly ajar allowing a soft ocean breeze in and the sound of the conversation out, Ms. Moreno and a few friends talked in Spanish about rising rents, stagnant wages and what, if anything, one person could do about it.
With her cane resting against her leg, Juanita Rios said she's been to plenty of meetings and all that ever happens is that people talk a lot. The former greenhouse worker said people say a lot of things, but "nobody ever does anything."
That's when 29-year-old field organizer Miguel Ramirez, a plaster contractor by profession, looked her in the eye. Maybe one person alone can't do anything, but together people can change things, Mr. Ramirez told her.
PUEBLO has, Mr. Ramirez said.
People United for Economic Justice, Building Leadership through Organization, or PUEBLO, has hosted about 130 similar "house meetings" in the past nine weeks. Last summer, the organization did a similar campaign and held more than 50 house meetings. Some local activists say the group's organizing in densely populated Latino neighborhoods has the potential to reshape the political landscape on Santa Barbara's South Coast.
The tight-knit young PUEBLO activists cut their teeth working on tenants-rights issues in Isla Vista, worked up to pushing for a "living wage" ordinance in Santa Barbara, and last year rallied to stop fare hikes on the Metropolitan Transit District's bus service.
Since the group changed its name from the Living Wage Coalition about a year ago, PUEBLO has begun organizing in poor and largely Latino neighborhoods. This kind of door-to-door activism -- a "neighbor to neighbor" model honed by the United Farm Workers -- hasn't been seen locally since efforts to pass rent control in Santa Barbara in the late 1970s. Some believe it could translate into a new political force.
"I believe they are without a doubt the most relevant force for economic justice in the last 20 years in this city," said Geoff Green, executive director of the Fund for Santa Barbara, a socially progressive nonprofit that helped fund the initial work of the group and is paying for some of the house meeting organizing.
DOOR TO DOOR
Not everyone is so generous with assessments. City Councilman Dan Secord, who lost a small skirmish with the group over funding for construction of the Granada parking garage, said its members tend to be articulate but have a very superficial understanding of issues.
One official at MTD said the group's success at stopping an across-the-board fare hike and getting a discounted bus pass hurt the Teamsters' current negotiations on behalf of bus drivers for better pay and benefits.
Commenting on the grass-roots organizing by the group, one city official said, "At first the grass gets green and then it just gets brown again."
But in the last year, PUEBLO, which will get about 75 percent of its $200,000 budget this year from local foundations and from donations by its 400 members, clearly has begun to flex its muscle on local issues.
Tim Allison, who's handled several local political campaigns and worked for a time with the Living Wage Coalition, said PUEBLO is creating what could turn out to be a whole new power base in the county.
"It certainly is unprecedented in this area to have someone do that hard door-to-door, voter-to-voter organizing outside of a political campaign," Mr. Allison said.
Because the effort isn't being pushed by a party or union and isn't focused on a specific political issue or campaign, Mr. Allison believes the organizing has potential long-term potency.
In some of the working-class Latino neighborhoods on the South Coast -- which also are some of the most densely populated communities -- voter turnout hovers around 20 percent. Until last year, many candidates largely ignored these areas.
Organizers with PUEBLO said their work isn't focused on elections, but creating new neighborhood networks of people who are both politically active and aware. They hope that both leaders and important local issues will bubble up from the work in the neighborhoods.
"They're really attempting to create a change in the political structure," said Mr. Allison. "It certainly is not easy, but there's a lot of potential there and I'm excited to see what happens."
The young field organizers who make up PUEBLO's nerve center believe they've worked up a formula for sustainable grass-roots commitment.
"The goal isn't necessarily electorial, it's to build momentum," said Harley Augustino, the 26-year-old executive director of PUEBLO. Mr. Augustino, who is also a member of the Isla Vista Parks and Recreation District Board of Directors and a co-founder of the Isla Vista Tenants Union, is one of three full-time paid staff members of the group.
JUNTA GRANDE
By August, the group expects to have enlisted more than 300 people willing to become neighborhood organizers to push for such things as affordable housing, better access to public transportation and child care, Mr. Augustino said.
Next weekend they are planning a "junta grande" at Casa de la Raza in Santa Barbara to gather the hundreds of people they contacted through the house meeting effort. Somewhere in that number, Mr. Augustino believes, new community leaders will emerge.
Using the new network of volunteers and neighborhood contacts, the group and its team of five field organizers also hope to register as many as 5,000 new voters on the South Coast before the November election.
Last year, Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams proved that tapping into the traditionally under-represented neighborhoods could translate into political success. He went after a universe of voters who typically didn't vote and were out of the so-called "golden triangle" of the Riviera, Mesa and San Roque neighborhoods that win elections for council members.
Mr. Williams was the second-place finisher last November, winning his seat without a majority in any of the major precincts in the golden triangle. His victory was cinched by support from the downtown neighborhoods.
Rafaela Cornejo, a 42-year-old house cleaner, became involved with PUEBLO late
last year in the living wage ordinance effort. A mother of three whose husband works in construction, Mrs. Cornejo said she's seen firsthand the group's potential.
During house meetings to discuss a proposal to get an ordinance passed by either the Santa Barbara City Council or the Board of Supervisors, people began talking about other issues. In her lower Eastside neighborhood, parents were struggling with the school district's plan to shut down an afterschool program at Cleveland Elementary. More than 30 families depended on the program, not just for child care but to help their kids, many of whom struggled with English in school, Mrs. Cornejo said.
Because she had already been organizing house meetings, the group had a network of people who quickly started to apply pressure on the school board and called Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson to help save the state-funded project. They raised money to help support the program, which ultimately was spared.
"There's confidence that comes from something like that," said Mrs. Cornejo.
"Also there's this trust that builds with the direct contact in small groups through house meetings. It lets people speak up and just say what's important to them"
"THAT'S A START"
The success at Cleveland and with the MTD fare increase have emboldened the group. Recently, Mr. Augustino and fellow PUEBLO organizer Lucero Marquez lobbied Santa Barbara city officials to back off spending any more redevelopment agency money on a planned $26 million Granada parking garage.
"We're asking you to prioritize affordable housing," Ms. Marquez told the council last month.
Showing sophistication about the process, the group lobbied behind the scenes and studied the finances of the garage project.
City Councilman Secord said the group unfairly characterized how the city and the redevelopment agency was spending its money. He said the group has simply brushed off the long efforts to use redevelopment money to build housing people coul d afford.
"The redevelopment agency has never turned down an affordable housing project and yet they say 'That's a start,' " Mr. Secord said in disbelief.
The redevelopment agency spends about 20 percent of its budget on affordable housing projects, he said. That's a couple of million dollars each year, but for that money to come in, redevelopment has to be successful, he said.
If you undermine efforts to improve the commercial downtown -- by not building Paseo Nuevo, for instance, or not fixing downtown sidewalks or not building parking garages for retail customers -- then you undermine the effort to bring in money for building more affordable housing, Mr. Secord said.
"It's the businesses that make the money and that's a problem for certain people," he said.
