Measure U forbids social service organizations from operating in the central business district of Fort Bragg "under any circumstances" unless that organization was already there before January 2015. Proponents are engaging in a classic case of Not In My Back Yard, as known as NIMBY. They don't want to see the members of their community who are suffering or who are disadvantaged. They want to close their eyes to the homeless, the disabled, and the poor and pretend that Fort Bragg is still a vibrant small city with more jobs than people.
In addition to the NIMBY aspect of Measure U, it's a very expensive temper tantrum. Proponents of the measure fought against the city giving grant money the Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center for the purchase of the Old Coast Hotel building; they lost the argument. Granted, Fort Bragg's city government gave the community a short shrift in meetings, but that is not the Hospitality Center's fault. And yet, Measure U targets the Hospitality Center because of its mission to work with the homeless and plans to use the building for that purpose.
Proponents would rather the Old Coast Hotel building sit empty in perpetuity than have a business use it for helping people in need. It is intellectually inconsistent to target social service agencies because of their clientele, but not the drinking establishments that do actually contribute to social disorder. Social service agencies such as Hospitality Center serve the better angels of human nature while bars serve booze.
If the issue is how the City of Fort Bragg government, including City Manager Linda Ruffing and the city council, handled community concerns, the awarding of the grant to Hospitality Center, or the Old Coast Hotel ownership's willingness to accept less money for a private nonprofit instead of a private business, those are separate issues that must be the focus of a different initiative, referendum, or recall process. They don't need to result in a discriminatory law targeting those people in the community who might cause Measure U proponents to feel uncomfortable.
Measure U is an attempt to address the wrong issue with the wrong method. It completely misses what's wrong with the city; supporters are making Hospitality Center into a straw man.
The arguments in favor of Measure U are filled with even more fallacies. Proponents argue that the measure "...insures the preservation of our Historic Downtown business district-north to Pine Street and South to Oak Street, from Main Street to McPherson." While this may be the central business district, it is not a cohesive historic district. Indeed, it is not actually a registered historic district in the strictest definition. Visitors to the coast would have to travel to Mendocino to find an actual historic district. The central business district is a hodge-podge of historic buildings and contemporary structures. Buildings from the 19th century are nestled against others from the 1920s and later.
Measure U proponents want voters to "Vote Yes if you want to preserve the historic use and structure of the Old Coast Hotel." The logic is untenable. The hotel was sitting empty. Community members who wanted to acquire the building and use it commercially were rebuffed by the property owner unwilling to negotiate on price; yet those same owners negotiated a deal with the City of Fort Bragg. The historic Oak Hotel across the street from the Old Coast Hotel is a seedy-looking collection of apartments once a notable lodging establishment comparable with the long-gone Piedmont Hotel. There is no hue and cry to restore the Oak Hotel to its historic use.
In addition, supporters of Measure U argue in the voter information pamphlet that "...the city's rich history should be celebrated and business's [sic] allowed to prosper." Fort Bragg's "rich history" is one of industry and jobs. It was a mill town with a thriving fishing harbor. The city has always been the commercial and economic center for the Fort Bragg-Mendocino Coast. If proponents truly wish for business to prosper, it needs to find ways to become collectively competitive with inland businesses. They need to fill the empty stores on Franklin Street and offer basic affordable necessities, instead of junk antiques and specialty boutiques.
Fort Bragg is not the town it once was. It is part of an area that is losing businesses and professionals. Cottage industries are not filling in the void left by the closing of the mill nor are they refilling the coffers of the schools that made this area so attractive to professionals with young families. If the business and property owners in the central business district want to better help the city, they need to address the issues that have contributed to the vacant storefronts on Franklin Street and the inability of the area to either build or attract large-scale employers.
It is not the purpose of public law or the initiative process to target specific groups or industries unless the case can be made clearly that the law will benefit the greater good. Laws that are exclusionary need to be so to serve the greater good, such as limitations on what businesses or individuals can be within a certain distance of schools. Measure U does not serve the greater good. It only serves the venal impulses of our human nature. It is in the same group of proposed social controls as excluding all Muslims from the United States or making law enforcement stops of people based on skin color.
I encourage voters in Fort Bragg to vote "no" on Measure U.
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