No Child Left Behind and the rise
of charter schools have been the primary drivers of school reform in the past
decade. But while NCLB promise…
Sinclair Lewis would have smiled at
the unbridled boosterism of Carlsbad city officials featured in this year's
State of the City video. He'd be reminded of the self-satisfied city fathers of
Zenith, Babbit's fictional Midwestern hometown. But Carlsbad residents were
shortchanged if they expected to get more than a virtual pep rally from their
city's annual report.
Most of the video consists of city
council members taking turns singing the praises of high profile companies that
have made their homes in Carlsbad, stressing the importance of investing in
business-friendliness to keep them here and attract others.
After congratulating themselves for
keeping the budget balanced during the recession, city officials say they now
must find more ways to cut city services expenses, pointing to the loss of
state redevelopment funds and uncertainties about the state budget. A soothing
voiceover explains, "The city is working to transform itself to a new
model of government."
There's no explanation of what that
means. But judging from the city council's decision to seek contractors to bid
on outsourcing parks maintenance, the "new model" is apparently code
for privatizing.
The problem with all this talk
about business friendliness and city belt-tightening is the absence of
measurable objectives. How many new businesses have opened in Carlsbad since
last year? How many new jobs and how much additional tax revenue have they
brought with them? What are the costs of investing in business-friendliness?
Where's the cost-benefit analysis for outsourcing city services? To quote the
1980s hamburger commercial: "Where's the beef?"
Instead of hard data, we get
generalities and dubious claims. Carlsbad is "one of the top 50 exporting cities in the U.S.,
yet we're not in the top 200 in population," says the city's economic
development manager, Kathy Dodson. She doesn't cite her source.
Dodson continues, "Companies
are bringing their manufacturing back from Asia and producing here in
Carlsbad." We're left to guess the number and names of those companies.
When I asked her about those
claims, Dodson corrected herself on the city's exporting rank. It's the San
Diego metropolitan area, not Carlsbad, that ranks in the top 50. She promised
to "get that updated." And she could name only one company, San
Clemente's Lightsaver Technologies Inc.,
that has shifted its production from China to Carlsbad.
Here's a small sample of what else
was missing from this year's video: 1. The city's cultural and ethnic
diversity. 2. The arts. 3. Any concern about the two-year, $7 million budget
cut to schools. 4. Updates on the financial viability of the golf course, open
space acquisition, desalination, and the city's opposition to a second
ocean-view power plant.
