Images by John 'K'

Wipeout, originally uploaded by Images by John ‘K’.

Yesterday evening I had my first experience of sitting in on (and speaking as a member of the public at) a local council meeting in the land that likes to think of itself as the home of democracy and entrepreneurship. I attended to support the Santa Cruz surf schools in trying to make the Santa Cruz City Council realize that the ordinance they were voting on would hurt more people than it would help.

Unfortunately the ordinance was passed unchanged, and as a result two local businesses will be losing their livelihood. Thankfully though the surf school that Camp Butano Creek uses will not be significantly impacted and the camp will be able to continue to use them in the coming years. So on a selfish level I was happy that my little world wasn’t really impacted, but on a bigger scale it was just another slap in the face for small business in the face of the rich and vocal!