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Would a CSD calm down Isla Vista?

December 2, 2014

DeltopiaCalifornia Assemblyman Das Williams introduced a bill Monday that propose creating a community services district in Isla Vista, which currently remains unincorporated territory despite its dense and reputably rowdy population. [KEYT]

Williams, a Santa Barbara Democrat, cites recent sexual assaults, riots and a deadly shooting as justification for needing a form of local governance in the area. His bill, AB 3, states that the CSD could offer police and fire services.

Other potential responsibilities of the proposed CSD that are outlined in the bill are: infrastructure, utilities, garbage, parks, recreation, cultural facilities and roads.

Following recent unrest, which included a combined seven shooting and stabbing deaths in May and a block party riot in April, UC Santa Barbara formed a committee to analyze the chaos. The committee recommended that the state of California create a CSD with powers similar to what Williams is proposing.

Isla Vista borders the University of California Santa Barbara campus and its residents are primarily university students. About 20,000 people live in Isla Vista, which is Santa Barbara County’s most densely populated area that is not a city.

A previous attempt to create a CSD in Isla Vista failed when Santa Barbara County’s Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) rejected the proposal. The newly proposed district must pass the legislature, gain the governor’s signature and receive approval from LAFCO in order to take effect.


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Somehow I can’t see the vast majority of students in IV being at all interested in the routine operations of a CSD. I doubt that their voting percentage in a national election would surpass the off-year election percentages in communities with a more balanced demographic.


Which leads to questions: Who would run an Isla Vista CSD? A small group of political activists from the staff and faculty at UCSB? How would they raise the funds to pay for the services offered? Property taxes on the owners of all the apartment complexes there? Would they then try to drive those property owners into bankruptcy by denying them the ability to raise rents to cover increased taxes? If might be an interesting study in what happens when naive, ideological activists get the power to enact their beliefs.


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC0ac0mY4jE


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less politicos more Natl. guard


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With the majority of residents being college students I can only imagine how the election of candidates would go. The CSD would probably contract fie and police from the county changing nothing and creating another bureaucracy.


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Think…..Animal House!


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Governments answer to everything……. more government. Why is it never less government??


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As a UCSB Graduate, a CSD will be views as a Committe on Sexual Development…by the party goers in IV.


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A CSD!!! Just the thing college students have been longing for! Boy, Das Williams really knows how to get the young Democrat voters!


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Oh yeah! Look how well they’ve have served the communities here on the central coast.


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Another layer of government WILL NOT help the issues Isla Vista faces.


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