QUALITY NEIGHBORHOODS by Lark Jursek

By Lark Jursek

There are many definitions of the terms "quality neighborhood" and "quality downtown", but I think that there are few people who would not agree that Holliston, Massachusetts was both 50 years ago, and still is both today. I agree with my daughter when she says that the opposition of the people to big industrial and retail development was the main factor in keeping Holliston, as a "special place". We can do the same thing.

I believe that I know what a quality neighborhood is. I believe it is a neighborhood that is like the one that I lived in with my family for many years in Holliston, Massachusetts over fifty years ago. It was there that my four children were raised.

I have four wonderful children, and they have given me eleven even more wonderful grandchildren. I believe that one of the main factors in the raising of children is the quality of the neighborhood in which they are raised. Many parents today are having a great deal of trouble with their children. I believe that one of the main contributing factors to the problem is poor neighborhood quality.

One of my daughters recently told me that Holliston is still a city of quality neighborhoods. I like to believe that it is because the people of the City have refused to allow the commercial planners and developers to have their way. And I expect that the economy of the City is as strong, if not stronger, than the economy of many cities that have let the urban planners and developers have their way. And I am confident that the people of Holliston do not worry about bringing in new industry every few years to take care of unemployment or to increase the tax base.

One of the main elements in the deterioration of the quality of neighborhoods is the tremendous increase in traffic congestion and population density that occurs during the working and shopping hours of the week. A typical example is Chorro Street where the traffic congestion is caused, not by the residents, but by the people passing through the neighborhood. The treating of the problem with "bumps", traffic lights, traffic islands, etc. is dealing with symptoms, and does little to get at the cause of the problem.

The cause of the problem is the rapid commercial growth of the City. Why do cars stream through our neighborhoods, at an ever increasing rate? To find a big part of the answer, we need only watch the stream of cars coming into the City every workday morning:

(1.) Traffic from Morro Bay coming in on Route 1.

(2.) Traffic from Los Osos on the Los Osos Valley Road
(3.) Traffic from the Five Cities on Route 101 and 227.
(4.) Traffic from Atascadero and Paso Robles On Route 101.

In order to save the City of San Luis Obispo from further destruction to the quality of neighborhoods, there must be a change of direction. City planners and developers have looked upon our city as the geographical hub of the County, which it is. But it does not necessarily follow that therefore the best thing for the County is to make San Luis Obispo the industrial and retail hub of the County.

I believe that, for the good of the County, the cities of Paso Robles, Atascadero, Morro Bay, Los Osos, and the Five Cities in South County should begin to plan on commerce in their own cities for jobs and shopping for most of their residents. I believe that for San Luis Obispo to compete with these cities for goods and services that they can provide for themselves is harmful to the County as a whole.

This tremendous increase in the daytime population of the City is being caused by those city planners and developers who want San Luis Obispo to be the commercial center of the County; the place where people from all over the county come to shop and to work. They argue that we need the status of being the industrial and retail hub of the County. They argue that we need more industry and retail businesses in San Luis Obispo in order to be healthy financially. I do not believe that either of these premises are true.

Not only is industrial and retail growth at the root of the problem of quality neighborhoods, but there are strong efforts being made, with the approval of the County Board of Supervisors, to greatly increase the commercial development of the area within the Urban Reserve Line of the City. This will further increase the parking problem, population density and traffic congestion during working hours.

I believe that the quality of any city should be in the hands of the people. A common picture of Government is a pyramid with the people at the top of the pyramid. It looks good on paper, but the truth of the matter is that we have very little to say, for example, about how rapidly Cal Poly grows, or how big it gets. I believe that the time has come for the people to take back the City.

I believe that one of the things that we need is a City Council that will not only halt the destruction of the quality of neighborhoods in San Luis Obispo, but that will also institute measures to reduce the destruction that has already occured.

There are very few things more important than providing quality neighborhoods for our City.

There are many definitions of the term "quality neighborhood". For 25 years, I lived in a place that I am sure many people would agree, was a "quality neighborhood".
Even though the character of a neighborhood changes drastically with a change in population density, traffic congestion, etc. I believe that there is a sense in which we always dwell in a " quality neighborhood", if we dwell in the "perfect love" which is always available to everyone.

Please vote for Lark Jursek for City Council on November 7th. Thank you.