Education a Priority for Council Candidate Cruzito Cruz
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/101409_candidate_profile_cruzito_cruz/
By Lara Cooper, Noozhawk Staff Writer
The Santa Barbara native supports programs and collaborate efforts to help at-risk youths
Stressing education as the main tenet of his campaign, Santa Barbara native Cruzito Cruz is the 13th candidate in the race for three — possibly four — City Council seats.
A legal snafu called into question his signatures required for the race, but a Superior Court judge eventually ruled Cruz was a viable candidate. Despite the setback, when many candidates had been working for months and participating in forums, Cruz didn’t let it stop his candidacy.
He said his family has a tradition of public service, prompting him to try to get involved with local government.
“It’s always sort of been ingrained,” he said. “My great-grandfather, after the Mexican Revolution, founded his municipal district in the state of Guerrero.”
His family also pushed Cruz to pursue higher education. He studied at SBCC, and earned degrees in political science and Chicano and Chicana studies at UCSB.
“Education is the only way we can progress,” he said. “It costs more to incarcerate than to educate.”
Education overlaps with other Santa Barbara policy areas, such as gangs and crime, and Cruz said he would like to see more programs and collaborative efforts to reach out to at-risk youths.
“We shouldn’t ship them away for 15 years without providing a second chance or an opportunity,” he said.
Cruz advocates starting with kindergartners and continuing to work with them to help them realize that higher learning or vocational training is key to keeping children out of trouble and on the right path. Supporting “positive enriching programs instead of negative suppression, like gang injunctions, and costly programs that create political cleavages in our community” are key, he said.
The 36-year-old has lived his entire life in Santa Barbara, and he said the community has changed from when he was young. There are fewer “mom and pop” businesses, he said, and the building infrastructure caters more to the rich than the working class.
Cruz also said it’s important that inequalities in the community be addressed and that equal protection for renters, veterans and seniors should be a city priority.
He has experience as a bookkeeper and accountant, and he has some ideas for the city’s budget woes. He said conducting an analysis of the city’s assets and liabilities, the solvency of the city’s investment portfolio and re-evaluating current contracts the city has would all be in order.
Cruz said the city could generate several new streams of revenue by taxing medicinal marijuana and implementing a bar and drink tax on bars in the downtown corridor, which use a large amount of resources when policing is needed on the weekends. He said a tax could balance out some of those costs, and the extra could be put into anti-alcohol programs for children. He also supports an increase in the city’s bed tax.
“In the midst of a state and national recession, we can still think locally and create plans of action,” he said.
Cruz is a supporter of Measure B, which would cap building heights at 40 feet in Santa Barbara’s downtown corridor.
“Growing up, the biggest building that went up on State Street was Paseo Nuevo,” he said, adding that he supports keeping Santa Barbara a town of lower building heights. He said a cap on building heights doesn’t affect affordable housing downtown.
“If you look at the corridor, it’s Chapala One, and those homes are outpricing the middle class,” he said. Cruz, a renter, said he has lived in public housing all of his adult life, and that he’s had a good experience working with the city’s Housing Authority.
He grew up boxing at La Casa De La Raza. He remains involved with the nonprofit, teaching Aztec dance classes twice a week. He also volunteers with the program “Up 2 Us,” a group involved with youth sports outreach.
Cruz, who is bilingual and the only Latino candidate running in November’s race, said neighborhood redistricting of elections should be considered, and that they would help with a fairer representation of residents.
“Within the campaign, a lot of people have been talking about redistricting because it would allow accountability,” he said. “You would have community members from those neighborhoods reflecting those demographics, their language, their culture and the needs and services required of that community.”
At the same, it’s also important to serve as a bridge to the larger community, he said.
“I feel right in place, because my education permits me and my social service in the community gives me the confidence,” he said. “It allows me to walk steadfast and with temperance.”
— Noozhawk staff writer Lara Cooper can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/article/101409_candidate_profile_cruzito_cruz/