HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-19-2016 Public Comment, Ayralf'
COUNCIL MEETING: O t l-Ld (o RECEIVED
ITEM NO.'_!i'y�a�t �,.Dv►�vv!4- SRN 1 9 2016
SLO CITY CLERK
To: Mayor Marx and Council Members John Ashbaugh, Dan Carpenter, Carlyn
Christianson, Dan Rivoire
Subject: Petition to the CSU Trustees
Date: January 18, 2016
Please find enclosed a petition to the CSU Trustees. it is addressed to the Trustees, with
separate copies sent to Ex Officio Trustees Edmund Brown, Gavin Newsom, Toni
Atkins, Tom Torlakson and Timothy White. This petition is supported by all the
neighborhood associations: Alta Vista, Monterey Heights, NNOF and RCN, whose
members have signed it, and a few procrastinators may still add their names to it.
I will come to the Council meeting of January 19th and ask you to place this item on the
next agenda, and I hope you are going to support our efforts.
Sincerely,
t
Odile Ayral
Trustee Officers Edmund G. Brown, President; Lou Monville, Chair; Rebecca D. Eisen,
Vice Chair; Framroze Virjee, Secretary; Steve Relyea, Treasurer
Trustees Silas H. Abrego, Kelsey M. Brewer, Adam Day, Douglas Faigin, Debra S.
Farar, Margaret Fortune, Lupe C. Garcia, Lillian Kimbell, Hugo N. Morales, J. Lawrence
Norton, Steven G. Stepanek, Peter J. Taylor, Maggie K. White
c/o Trustee Secretariat
401 Golden Shore, Suite 620
Long Beach, CA 90802
Dear Trustees of the CSU,
As Trustees of the CSU, you share a big responsibility toward students, but you also have
an important responsibility toward the cities that host the CSU campuses. This is why we
are asking you to look at the following figures that compare the size of several CSU
campuses with their host cities (figures are from 2015)
Comparison of CSU Campuses with Host Cities
Campus
Population
Students
Ratio Residents/
Students
(CP) SLO
45,119
20,944
2.2 to 1
Cuesta at SLO
6,850
CP + Cuesta
27,794
1.6 to 1
(CP) Pomona
149,058
23,966
6.2 to 1
Long Beach
462,257
37,430
12.3 to 1
City College
31,563
LB + City College
68,993
6.7 to 1
Sacramento
466,488
30,284
15.4 to 1
City College
24,242
Sac + City College
54,526
8.5 to 1
Chico
86,187
16,140
5.3 to 1
Monterey
31,898
7,102
4.5 to 1
(Seaside)
Sonoma
167,815
5,414
17.8 to 1
(Santa Rosa)
As you can see, most cities have a reasonable ratio of residents to students, except for San
Luis Obispo. If you add Cuesta Community College to Cal Poly, (a large number of
these students are not local) you have one student for 1.6 residents. The same situation in
Sacramento would increase its student population from 54,526 to 291,500. The same
situation in Long Beach would increase it from 68,993 to 288,900. We are sure we don't
_need to explain the adverse impact it would have upon these two cities.
San Luis Obispo is crumbling under the weight of students. We like most students just as
we like most children, but we would not think of adding new children to our households
every year until our homes collapsed. Therefore, please, ask yourselves why you are
trying to pack so many students on the same campus -- especially when you provide
lodging for only 36% of them. There are many other good CSU campuses in California,
and students who wish to attend fields other than architecture and engineering would
receive the same Quality of education in these universities.
We are concerned residents who have lived in SLO for decades. During this time, we
witnessed the transformation of our city from a well - maintained family community to an
alcohol - consuming venue for large numbers of students. For 33 years, President Kennedy
and President Baker kept increasing the enrollment without building any dorms. More
recently, a third bunk bed was installed in dorm rooms built for two. With insufficient
on- campus housing, more and more students moved into the city, and as they moved in,
long established families — distressed by noise, blight, and waves of drunken crowds
every weekend —moved out. The final stroke was brought by outside investors who
focused on profit and aggravated the deterioration of our neighborhoods. Owner-
occupied homes now represent only 35% of our housing stock, with at least 15,000
students living in the city. Five, eight, even ten of them share small three - bedroom run-
down houses and pay very high rents because there is not enough available housing
anywhere in San Luis Obispo.
A few years ago, Santa Cruz found itself in the same predicament as San Luis Obispo,
and fought back. Santa Cruz eventually got the UC trustees to cap the number of
students at 17,500 in 2015 (less than one student for 3 residents), build more dorms, and
give compensation for extra water, transportation and police assistance. We are asking
that the CSU Trustees take the same responsible measures regarding Cal Poly:
1) Cap the number of students at one student for 2.5 residents. This is a very modest
request considering that this ratio is considerably higher than other CSUs, and does not
include Cuesta College students. One student for 2.5 residents would mean 18,000
students in 2017, and 20,800 in 2035 when San Luis Obispo's population is expected to
grow to 52,000.
2) Build enough dorms to house at least 2/3 of the students. 'These two measures would
help return San Luis Obispo to the pleasant - -and affordable - -city it once was.
Respectfully yours,
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, p. 3
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