Brent - “Fuck.”
This is a real conversation that has begun and ended in similar fashion many times in the past two years.
For those who don't know, Isla Vista is a small community adjacent to the campus of UC Santa Barbara, where I went to school. My reaction to the friend’s opening sentence of conversation is naturally negative, because I’m now trained to react to any recent news emerging from Isla Vista in such a manner. What normally follows those two lines of dialogue is never positive, such as:
“Remember our virgin friend Reynold? He got laid out there by 18 Harvard-educated women!”
Or
“A big balloon of M&Ms popped and it's been raining candy for eight hours!”
Instead, what follows is typically:
“A few people got stabbed, there were nine fights and a crowd of rioters started crushing cars.”
Fuck. That's the only word to respond with.
I’m greatly anticipating the day when the small neighborhood town of Isla Vista becomes a place I’d be happy to visit again, instead of a location I dread going back to for literal fear of my own life. I heard there was a shooting tonight in IV – a place I called home for two years in school – and the saddest part of hearing that news was I wasn’t surprised. It seems like ever since I graduated from UC Santa Barbara I’ve been hearing more and more horrific stories of crime and violence, from robberies to stabbings to full on riots in the streets. I can honestly say that neither my friends nor I remember this type of community decay going on within the IV borders while we were enrolled at UCSB. My initial reaction to hearing tonight’s news is that I hope with every ounce of energy that nobody was harmed. My second reaction is the same I have every time I hear of the next violent crime that occurs in Isla Vista – when will it end? A better question would be: HOW CAN it end? With people coming in to IV every weekend from out of town, we're witnessing a breeding ground for disruption and misconduct forming on a weekly basis. Those looking for a scapegoat often air vague accusations toward “gangs” from neighboring cities like Lompoc, Oxnard and Ventura. Some people are quick to blame the “wild and crazy” UCSB students themselves, which make up more than 80% of the population in this one-square-mile plot of land. The latter accusation unfortunately gets bestowed upon students because of UCSB’s reputation as a ‘party school,’ with its annual ranking on “best party colleges” lists online and in magazines (Princeton Review, Playboy Magazine). Personally, I think a mixture of the two groups: out-of-towners (not necessarily gangs) looking for a good time and willing to go to any lengths to get it, mixed with UCSB students, will lead to nothing but danger for everyone in the near vicinity. This has become quite clear.
It’s important to remember that the culture of Isla Vista is peaceful. It’s organically and fundamentally friendly, and it’s been that way since it grew into a college community in the 1960s. Will it ever go back to that? CAN it ever go back to that? I wrote for the Daily Nexus for two years while at UCSB, and I remember reading statistics about how the vast majority of arrests and crimes committed within Isla Vista throughout the course of an average weekend can be majorly attributed to out-of-towners. I also remember there being zero shootings. A while back there was a rule instated that no music can be played in excess after 12am. What’s the next rule? That rule may have curbed the partying, but obviously there need to be more restrictions or else Isla Vista will literally implode on itself. What’s next? Shutting down the borders every weekend to IV similar to closures that happen each Halloween in the town? Should residents ID everyone who walks into their parties, making sure their guests are all students? Should the 12am rule be changed to 10pm, or even harsher at 6pm, to guarantee no late-night partying? Should we force every out-of-towner crossing IV's borders to don a clown costume, so we can be on alert when they walk by? Should the city take massive control by buying out various Isla Vista properties and converting them into additional student housing facilities, regulated by UCSB staff and security? That last one would take an insane amount of time, money and planning, I know, but we’re just throwing ideas into the breeze here, people. I believe that the community of Isla Vista alone, even partnered with local law enforcement, student organizations and individuals teaming up together to solve this problem of consistent violence, is not enough support. I’m looking forward to what the government within Santa Barbara county does next to help prevent these types of incidents from occurring. I don’t know what the next step is toward reviving Isla Vista’s peaceful, friendly atmosphere, and I don’t claim to know what it should be, I just hope there is one, so that no one has to witness or experience the same amount of shit that happened out there tonight.
This entry is a random assortment of thoughts and ideas from my own brain, free-written into opinion-piece form for this post. To follow the best legitimate coverage of the events unfolding in Isla Vista, from the people who are experiencing it firsthand, go to www.dailynexus.com.
