Viewpoint Article

by Dave Romero

 

When I first started in 1956 as San Luis Obispo City Engineer and Public Works Director, it was a time of great growth in California. Many returning servicemen had decided to settle and raise their families in the land of opportunity. Many other people came to California for its wonderful climate. The state, the counties and cities, San Luis Obispo among them, embarked on many Public Works programs – statewide water systems improvements, new freeways, new schools and universities, upgraded local street systems, flood protection projects, new shopping centers and lots of new housing. It was a heady time for engineers, there was money to build things, people were grateful to see all the new projects come on line, and the process was straightforward in getting projects designed and built.

 

During that time San Luis Obispo participated in the construction of Whale Rock Dam, built a new water treatment plant, new feeder trunk water mains from Whale Rock to the treatment plant and in to the city, constructed a water and sewer system to serve the developing Johnson Avenue area, with a large water storage tank on Terra Hill and large sewers leading to an upgraded sewer plant. We built a sewer and water system to serve the Laguna Lake area, built Johnson Underpass and the nearby bridge at Pismo Street. We widened most of the major streets in the city, and started aggressive programs to improve local streets with curb, gutter, sidewalk and street improvements. For a young engineer those were the best of times.

 

In the 70’s attitudes in California started to change. People began to question the wisdom of the ‘Engineer’s Approach" (the most cost effective), and insisted that other qualities such as aesthetics, effects on neighborhoods and the environment are equally or more important. Decisions became a great deal harder, sometimes impossible when competing interests can’t be resolved. With the passage of proposition 13 and subsequent legislation, and state appropriation of property taxes during their hard times, cities have become more and more strapped for funds.

 

As the years went by, the consensus building, funding struggles, environmental reviews, and complicated city process meant that most of my staff’s time and effort were spent on preliminaries to a project, with the smaller portion spent on actual construction. I’m sure, all long-time engineers agree it was just not as satisfying as the "Good Old Day," when all we had to do was solve "engineering" problems. It just wasn’t as much fun any more.

 

When I ran for City Council in 1992, one of my principle goals was to help shepherd a number of public works projects through the system. Some of the main ones were: a solution to our long term flooding water needs, a solution to periodic downtown flooding, a solution to the ever-increasing traffic congestion on Santa Rosa Street northerly of 101, completion of the widening of Higuera St. between High and Marsh, traffic congestion relief of numerous intersections in San Luis Obispo, and annexation and improvements in the Airport Area.

 

The last 7 _ years have been an education for me – if anything it’s harder to get major projects accomplished form the political side than it was from the staff side. Now I have to get two more votes just to get us pointed in what I believe is the right direction. Despite my continuing efforts we haven’t achieved even one of these top goals, though several are progressing at some level. I’m very impatient that we move ahead on all of them, because they will become more difficult to solve and more expensive the longer we put off resolving them. These do not require growth-inducing solutions, and their resolution will have little adverse effect on the environment. I believe these are quality-of –life issues for all of us.

 

Where do we go form here? It’s ingrained in my makeup to try to solve these problems, so I’ll have to just keep pushing for them as long as I can. Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll get to see every one of them accomplished.