The city of Santa Maria is becoming known as a Hispanic community throughout the Central Coast, and with the negative profiling that is associated with the illegal immigrants, the social and racial tensions are unfortunately escalating.
It is getting to be whenever any negative incident occurs, the fingers point to our Hispanic community. By reading our local newspaper, it is easy to reach this conclusion. Unfortunately, this type of negative profiling is grossly unfair to the many law-abiding members of this community.
The greatest adverse impacts of negative profiling are to the young Hispanic students. Our local schools’ ethnic makeup is largely of Hispanic ancestry—and they represent the future of Santa Maria. They are not responsible for the current conflicts related to illegal immigrants, but they are inevitably affected by them.
I can understand the cause for frustrations as single-family homes are being compromised by the conversion of homes to farm-worker boarding houses. The traditional American dream of home-ownership is diminished by this incompatible use.
I am concerned about the porous borders that allow people to enter our country illegally, but until our government addresses this issue in a prudent manner, communities, such as Santa Maria, must assume the negative impacts. Facing this reality, what are the options available to us?
First, we must tone down the rhetoric and seek constructive solutions.
I attended the Aug. 4 Santa Maria City Council meeting to express my concern over a project that would hire 400 agriculture workers. The project in itself is a great one, however, it would create lower-paying jobs that cannot sustain the affordable housing or the market rents, thus placing additional pressures on our residential areas.
Mayor Larry Lavagnino responded to my concern by stating that the 9,500 acres of strawberries in the county jurisdiction are the cause of the dramatic changes in our demographics and proceeded to approve the project. It was disappointing that he did not take the initiative to have a joint meeting with the county supervisors to present the concerns of his constituency and seek solutions to these problems.
Santa Maria was once a major contributor to our food supply, however, with the conversion of vegetable fields to strawberry production (9,500 acres), it became a tremendous magnet for additional farm workers for this labor-intensive crop.
I have recommendations for a solution:
1) The City Council and county supervisors meet to discuss the issues for solutions, such as requiring strawberry growers to provide housing and transportation for their workers.
2) Create a citizen committee to open dialogue on social, racial, and economic issues for recommendations to our elected officials.
3) In addition, the huge strawberry acreage around the city of Santa Maria is fumigated with toxic gas called methyl bromide. This use should be investigated to determine whether there is any nexus to increasing cancer cases and/or other illness in Santa Maria. The mayor and city council can request the appropriate health agencies to investigate this health hazard.
Santa Maria’s great quality of life is being challenged. I realize this is a sensitive issue; it is time for our elected officials to assume responsibility and address this pressing issue.
Toru Miyoshi is a former Santa Maria city councilman and Santa Barbara County supervisor. Send comments to the executive editor at rmiller@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Aug 20-27, 2009.