We note with sadness the passing of Tom Stone, who was able to thwart the efforts of Isla Vista’s absentee landlords to block the formation of the Isla Vista Recreation and Park District nearly 50 years ago.
The IVRPD is Isla Vista’s first formal unit of local government. That is, one which has taxing authority and which I.V. residents — and only I.V. residents — elect its board of directors.
In 1972, the town’s ad hoc representative body — the I.V. Community Council — took a plan to form a special district for recreation and park services to county authorities requesting an election to establish such an agency as is allowed under state law. At the time, I.V. had only one county park and that existed solely to qualify the county for $75,000 per year from the state because of I.V.’s proximity to the offshore oil drilling operation, Platform Holly. Enterprising local residents documented that the county never spent any of the $75,000 in I.V., a shameful practice that continued throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s.