January 29, 2017 Ventura

Sunday, the day of rest, so no visiting colleges today…. instead I was on my way to visit my brother and his family.  Sunday is also a day of faith and currently I have tried to have faith that these road trips will all work out and that without predetermination or a fixed rigid itinerary the world will present to me things I need to see in regards to my life and the role of the community colleges.  I was rewarded for this faith today when instead of taking the direct freeway route I chanced to go down Ventura Boulevard instead.  This route took me directly by Ventura College, a campus I had planned on visiting next week.  Before even reaching the campus it was clear there was an event going on with street parking being taken up for blocks.  The campus was packed with more people than on a normal instructional day so I had to stop and see what was going on.

            Turns out Ventura College conducts a massive swap meet style market on their main campus parking lot on Saturday’s and Sundays.  This event appears to have grown beyond a simple farmers market to a massive event with produce, food trucks, rows and rows of vendors selling everything from tools and herbal remedies to wonder cleaner polish and the latest fashion.  There was even a pony ride with real ponies for small children.  The sign of a good swap meet is you find things you didn’t know you were looking for.  I wandered the isles looking for nothing, as the bike does not have enough cargo space for impulse buys.  I still came away with a small inexpensive socket tool that I can adapt to fit the front axle in case road repairs are needed.  And left thinking of ways to get a beautiful mission style rocking chair home on the bike?

I was giddy as I toured the market, where the predominant language was Spanish, because it was eminently clear that the market itself was a product of the people and the community.  There was no entrance fee, no Wells Fargo sponsorships, and all the vendors appeared to be local and independent.  The market itself was a living breathing being, that was thriving in a community college parking lot.  The college provided parking lot space and access to open bathrooms.  The campus made an excellent setting for market customers to enjoy their lunch.   Shoppers parked at the lots on the far side of campus (any anywhere else they could) and wandered the grounds with their purchases.

At City College I have heard talk for years now of trying to establish a farmers market on the main ocean campus.  I have also noticed a few residential garages near the college that open as mini stores every weekend, as homeowners try and sell low cost Asian import goods directly from their garages to the cars speeding by on busy Geneva Ave.   The community is there….  The college is there…  ??? 

Why does CCSF not put the two together?  I speculate it could have something to do with infrastructure and our fear of putting the college and the community together.  Instead of seeking out opportunities to use what we have to serve the community, we have been engaged in an extensive facilities planning process to decide what the college itself will need in the future.  Instead of offering our current parking lots and facilities to the immediate community, and others for more community oriented events that would populate the college on weekends and down times, we have been engaged in transportation demand studies to determine if we still need to have parking lots.  (A further reflection of the current, if we remove it, they will come philosophy?) 

Let’s face it a college reflects the values of the community and in SF that community is dominated by politics where very little grows organically and the emergent force is conflict, not cooperation.  Evidence supporting this opinion can be found in our own main parking lot which has been on the defense for the last few years to the city planning department which has been actively working to take it away from CCSF and give it to private developers for housing.  Having wasted many wasted hours at “Citizens Advisory Committee” meetings, devoted to developing the CCSF Balboa Reservoir parking lot, it was inspirational to wander among the vendors on the Ventura College parking lot and experience what a parking lot could be when filled with community members.  I only wish I could have had the entire leadership of CCSF and the City of San Francisco there with me to share the inspiration.

By the way community involvement is not an either or proposition.  Out of all California Community Colleges, Ventura College holds the largest percentage of their annual operating budget in reserve (over 30%).  So they must be doing something right with the business of running both a college and a swap meet at the same time.