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Rushed RV Ban on Tuesday City Council Agenda
City Council's reactionary majority is likely to pass a measure likely to further expose the already unhoused population whose current home is their vehicle. The after-midnight oversized parking ban on "oversized" vehicles is a redo of Richelle Noroyan's failed 2016 nighttime RV ban which failed to meet Coastal Commission standards.
My opposition to this ordinance is substantially for the same reasons that I opposed the 2016 law, which I outlined in "RV Nighttime Parking, 'Littering', Street Vendors Again on Chopping Block Today at Council" at https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2016/06/28/18788253.php.
The situation has been made worse both for the unhoused and housed community by the COVID pandemic and the increased gentrification of Santa Cruz the last half decade.
The token public comment taken in at the September Special Session where this ordinance first appeared indicated there was little public outreach. There has been no examination by the ad hoc committee supposedly created by City Council and no public hearings that I've heard of by them.
The measure was publicly opposed by Rafa Sonnenfeld and Serg Kagno of the Council's own CACH committee as well as the Santa Cruz Homeless Union, Food Not Bombs, and other progressive groups.
The City Attorney had no particulars regarding the increase in RV storage since 2016. The Association of Faith Communities boss phoned in to complain city staff was misstating facts.
I found myself wondering if this was simply a placeholder ordinance to please certain Westside and "Soquel Strong" constituencies as well as allow reactionaries on the City Council to flex their muscles.
While the Coastal Commission may have veered right in the last five years (unclear to me), the concerns raised back then were certainly not addressed in any specifics other than the usual reassuring verbiage so beloved of some city staffers.
I appealed this law last time, and will do so again if it passes.
What the community must do is form protective connections with RV dwellers, and assist in documenting police harassment, illegal signage, improper ticketing, etc.
There is also the prospect of Direct Action, when several dozen community members some months back successfully defending the RV's parked on Riverside from police tow.
I encourage folks to write to the City Council, zoom in, or bang on the City Council doors (since they refuse open meetings) to demand real support for folks in RV's regarding assistance with repair, registration, sewage dumps, etc.
The bill is item #15 on the October 26th agenda. It will need a second reading before being passed after the Tuesday vote and will then "become law" a month after that.
Considering there's no established places for the majority of RVdwellers in town --just the familiar "good intentions"--and the Coastal Zone access hasn't been worked out, the rush to pass this law looks more ideological than logical.
The situation has been made worse both for the unhoused and housed community by the COVID pandemic and the increased gentrification of Santa Cruz the last half decade.
The token public comment taken in at the September Special Session where this ordinance first appeared indicated there was little public outreach. There has been no examination by the ad hoc committee supposedly created by City Council and no public hearings that I've heard of by them.
The measure was publicly opposed by Rafa Sonnenfeld and Serg Kagno of the Council's own CACH committee as well as the Santa Cruz Homeless Union, Food Not Bombs, and other progressive groups.
The City Attorney had no particulars regarding the increase in RV storage since 2016. The Association of Faith Communities boss phoned in to complain city staff was misstating facts.
I found myself wondering if this was simply a placeholder ordinance to please certain Westside and "Soquel Strong" constituencies as well as allow reactionaries on the City Council to flex their muscles.
While the Coastal Commission may have veered right in the last five years (unclear to me), the concerns raised back then were certainly not addressed in any specifics other than the usual reassuring verbiage so beloved of some city staffers.
I appealed this law last time, and will do so again if it passes.
What the community must do is form protective connections with RV dwellers, and assist in documenting police harassment, illegal signage, improper ticketing, etc.
There is also the prospect of Direct Action, when several dozen community members some months back successfully defending the RV's parked on Riverside from police tow.
I encourage folks to write to the City Council, zoom in, or bang on the City Council doors (since they refuse open meetings) to demand real support for folks in RV's regarding assistance with repair, registration, sewage dumps, etc.
The bill is item #15 on the October 26th agenda. It will need a second reading before being passed after the Tuesday vote and will then "become law" a month after that.
Considering there's no established places for the majority of RVdwellers in town --just the familiar "good intentions"--and the Coastal Zone access hasn't been worked out, the rush to pass this law looks more ideological than logical.
For more information:
http://www.huffsantacruz.org
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