Critics of Proposed La Bahia Hotel Plan Rally
Size of proposed beach hotel and union labor contracts fuel Aug. 21 protest
Story by Curtis Cartier
Critics of the La Bahia Hotel project have scheduled a rally to shore up opposition to Barry Swenson Builder's grand plan for a seven-story hotel on the Santa Cruz waterfront. The event will kick off Thursday, Aug. 21 at 5:30pm at the beach in front of La Bahia and will feature irked union workers, peeved neighbors and slighted city commissioners.
The rally is being hosted by the Build A Better La Bahia Coalition, a local protest group whose slogan is “build a great hotel, not just a great big one.” Group spokesman Ned Van Valkenburgh said a wide variety of people are unhappy about the seven-story hotel and want a scaled-back version.
There are other demands, as well. One is a commitment to union labor—something Barry Swenson has been hesitant to make. Jesse Nickell, vice president at BSB and the local face of the Bay Area development mogul, said he’s met several times with construction unions and a service industry union but has hit a brick wall each time.
“We kept coming back to the same deal points, but no progress was made,” says Nickell. “With the construction unions we’ve agreed on a deal for 60 percent of hard costs going to unions, but they want 100 percent. I don’t have anything against unions, except when their attitude is negative–and they haven’t been very nice in public.”
Nickell said he thinks it’s still possible for a union deal to be worked out for both the construction and operation of the hotel but felt some of the unions had tried to bully the company into compliance.
Meanwhile, hotel workers union UNITE HERE spokesman Mark Weller counters that an agreement for union labor is the least BSB could do, since it’s asking for dozens of “special favors” from the city council and community.
“Our coalition is concerned that here’s a project that is in violation of nearly every one of Santa Cruz’s values,” says Weller. “They’re asking for changes in height limits, changes in zoning plans and changes in costal plans. Barry Swenson is basically thumbing their nose at the values of our community.”
Nuz could cut the tension between project supporters and opponents with a knife—but we wouldn’t want anyone involved getting a hold of a sharp object. Especially since there will be helium-filled balloons around serving a noble purpose.
At Thursday’s rally, the Build A Better La Bahia Coalition will attempt to physically illustrate how tall the building would be using balloons on strings. They’re also praying for no wind.
The move comes in response to Barry Swenson Builder’s reluctance to use “story poles” to show how tall the project will be (up to 70 feet from the sidewalk in some cases). Consisting of little more than a long pole with a bright ball on the end, story poles are erected–usually in smaller projects–to be a visual representation of a proposed project’s height.
Barry Swenson contends that building the story poles is just too difficult (because, well, they’re too tall) and has stood behind the digital representations used in its PowerPoint demonstrations shown at city council meetings and available online.
“Building story poles would not work. The logistics are just too difficult. I mean, how would you do it?” says BSB Vice President Jesse Nickell. “And even if they were built, they wouldn’t be as good as digital projections.”
“It seems like Barry Swenson’s favorite word is ‘impossible,’” counters Weller. “They can’t possibly show story poles, they can’t possibly sign union contacts, they can’t possibly build a smaller hotel. They seem to always have a million excuses.”
