The old steel drums are lining up on the Chamber’s parking lot along with ice machines, port-a-potties, and storage units. During one of the peak tourist months of the year, their parking lot is looking like a salvage yard. That means it’s time for Santa-Cali-Gon!!! Urban Renewal, a program cursed by new generations of city planners, has left us with a community that’s just perfect for Santa-Cali-Gon. During this 4-day festival (an event that originally celebrated our historic trails history), parking lots and empty space become much more valuable than our historic built environment. Have you noticed the abandon parking lot across the street from the Chamber at the NW corner of Osage & White Oak? It was tagged for code violations for excessive weeds (see photo above). This lot usually gets cleaned up only once a year. Did you know that it has been owned by Bank of America for many years? US tax payers recently committed $52.5 billion to this financial institution to keep them in business (more support than even General Motors). Even after this level of public support, they are still having trouble maintaining this small lot. A few years ago, the McCoy Neighborhood asked the bank to use this lot on a single Saturday morning to stage a neighborhood clean-up project. BofA declined to participate “due to existing sponsorship commitments and current marketing and business priorities.” If you’re planning on attending some of the festivities during Santa-Cali-Gon (or looking for bank), please patronize those organizations and institutions that are good neighbors. And if you see folks associated with the Chamber of Santa-Cali-Gon, wish them success for their big 4-day event, but ask them to promote the redevelopment of open spaces and blighted asphalt for the other 361 days of the year. If they look outside their windows, they’ll see what we’re talking about.
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