Yesterday’s New York Times has an interesting article about preserving China’s cultural heritage during an economic boom time. The former deputy director of the China National Institute for Cultural Property was quoted as saying, "The tension between economic development and conservation is everywhere, and it’s very serious … most frequently it’s the cultural site that loses the battle."

Although the analogy is exaggerated, the same could be said of Encinitas City Council’s decision to demolish Miracles Cafe in favor of a two story office building with underground parking.

As someone who considers himself to be politically active, I am ashamed to say that this week’s Encinitas City Hall meeting was my first. All those endless bar conversations muttering the hippie sustainability mantra – "act local, think global" – and yet this was the first time I had ever really acted at all. The threat of Miracles Cafe being replaced by a large development was old news to all Cardiff locals. The possibility had been thrown around since early 2002 when the property switched hands and Miracles Cafe, housed in a small beach cottage on the property, was offered a two year lease extension. In fact, there had been so much discussion about the peril of losing Miracles, so many rumors and constant inquiries that I had become numb to the subject. There were countless Sunday mornings with the line out the door when every other customer would ask, "so what’s the status now?"

"Same as yesterday," I would always answer trying not to become perturbed, "double latte, $3.61 please."

So when I actually caught wind that the issue was actually being discussed in City Hall, just three days before the meeting was to take place, I began to panic. There was nothing I could do I realized. These developers, already familiar with the city council members had months to prepare their case. They were professionals whose job it was to make their projects appealing (enough) to the city council while maximizing their property investments. ‘Oh well,’ I thought. I’ll take the Taoist approach I figured. I mean, change is happening everywhere, it’s something we have to get used to right?

Monday afternoon, just two days before the meeting, and I met up with Kevin at Gelato Vera. He’ll be starting law school at Georgetown this fall and we were discussing how hard it is to stay true to your beliefs after $100,000 of debt build up and professors constantly pounding into your head that law exists as an institution outside of your personal ethics.

Something clicked during that conversation. I realized I needed to act, that I wasn’t going to allow the destruction of Cardiff’s character without at least voicing my opposition. It was already 4 p.m. and the sun was low on the horizon, reflecting off the Boeing 747s below me at the airport. I packed up, sat through a little northbound traffic, and began to make an online petition as soon as I got home. I emailed it out to some local friends and urged them to do the same. Then I wrote an article on San Diego Blog to explain the situation and get the word out.

Waking up the next morning, there were already more than 70 signatures on the petition, many from names I had never heard of. It was an encouraging sign. I emailed all of the local media outlets, calling their attention to the petition and San Diego Blog article. Then I printed up some fliers to put up around town so that more locals would be aware of the following day’s city hall meeting and the online petition.

That night – Tuesday – I drove up to Miracles to meet up with long time friend Sparsh and put up the fliers. As I stepped out of my car I heard the gentle strumming of an acoustic guitar and the harmonizing vocals of local cardiff citizens. It was Open Mic night and familiar faces, neighbors, long time friends and customers, were all waiting their turn to play their newest songs or speak their favorite poetry. The atmosphere was filled with love and support; the sort of fraternity that draws so many into church. I was reminded of what I was trying to save and felt reinvigorated.

Sparsh and I walked around town putting up the fliers on sign posts and at local businesses. Only Subway told us that we couldn’t put a flier up.

By Wednesday afternoon there were already 180 signatures on the petition. I was overwhelmed by so much support, so many thoughtful comments. Maybe this will actually have an influence on the council members I told myself.

Most of the signatories said something similar to #182, Yvonne Hunt:

Our neighborhood’s and community’s flavor is defined by the places that welcomes neighbors to mix and mingle and to take part in the human experience. It is a shame that in the name of “progress” that we would wipe them out for the sake of leased office space.

But others like #98 Ted Overland thoughtfully added:

Miracles is a great, “cool,” alternative to drugs/alcohol/violence for young people.

He’s right. Over the years I have seen so many local kids come off drugs and alcohol in exchange for a nightly cup of coffee at Miracles. Some of them even started taking classes at Mira Costa and used their time at Miracles to study.

I printed out the petitions and headed to Encinitas City Hall. I couldn’t believe it; all the years I had spent living and working in Encinitas and this was my first time ever stepping inside. I asked the receptionist where the meeting was taking place and she pointed me down the hallway with a look that conveyed, ‘if you don’t know, you shouldn’t be here.’ Still, with those 180 signatures in my still-dry hands I was filled with confidence and asked, "will you tell me what I need to do in order to speak at the meeting?"

Now it was total disapproval. But with an almost sympathetic resignation she sighed, "look, you need to be here 45 minutes before the meeting starts to fill out a speaker’s slip, but if you rush in and fill out the pink slip and hand it to the City Clerk, she may still let you speak." Waiting outside of the meeting room was Derek Tarr, waiting for a good time to enter the room. It was reassuring to see a familiar face and I asked him what was going on. He doubted that they were already talking about the resolution as it was agenda item number eight, but as we sat down and got comfortable we learned that indeed they had already began discussing the issue and hearing from speakers.

They were discussing the particulars, only the particulars: pedestrian accessibility, increase to local traffic, the bulk and mass of the building, whether the city would be able to use the two levels of underground parking on the weekend. Completely altering the character of the town seemed much less a detail than where the delivery trucks would park. From the way the council members were questioning the architects and Planning and Building employees, it was obvious that their minds were already made up. Anything I could say in favor of letting Miracles remain would serve only as a romantic obituary to a cafe that was the soul of our town.

But then, the new property owner and lead developer of the office building that was to take Miracles’ place got up and listed three reasons why the city council should approve his permit application:

1. The building that Miracles Cafe is currently in is dilapidated beyond repair and is a public safety threat.
2. The new office building will have restaurant space where Miracles can move into, where it will continue to be the cultural center of Cardiff
3. He had no economic interest in the development, but rather was doing it for the good of Cardiff

That got my blood boiling and I bounced up to the City Clerk, handing her my pink speaker’s slip. She looked down at me with squinted eyes over her glasses and told me that I wrote down the wrong agenda item. But then she said she’d let me speak and so I gave her a relieved smile.

I hadn’t prepared anything to say. Initially, I figured I would simply hand the council members the petition just like evidence was turned into a court on Matlock. I had to come up with something quick; there were only two speakers ahead of me. I came up with four points:

1. This decision, more than anything else in Cardiff’s recent history, marks two very different models of development that we can take. One is a typically suburban, Orange County-like model where Cardiff blends into the rest of Southern California’s stucco landscape. Or we can preserve our unique character and heritage by not allowing our landmarks to be torn down.
2. As someone who has worked at Miracles Cafe for the last four years, I can assure you that the building is in no further state of disrepair than the Leucadia Pannikin and Grounded, both of which have renovated nicely while maintaining local character.
3. Miracles Cafe inside a giant executive office building will not be Miracles Cafe at all.
4. All of the discussion I have heard has been about the small details of the new development, but what we really need to consider here is whether we want to completely destroy Cardiff’s small town feel in favor of yet another beach side suburban extension.

I kept repeating these four points in my head, hoping I would not forget them when I got up to the podium in front of the packed room. "David Saaaa-saaaa-keeee," the City Clerk called, horribly mispronouncing my name. The room was dead quiet as I approached the podium, my flip flops smacking against heels loudly. ‘Maybe I shoulda dressed nicer,’ I was thinking, ‘Okay, four points, four points, four points …’

"Thank you for the time …"

"Your name?" interjected council member Jerome Stocks with a look of you-don’t-belong-here.

"David Sasaki," I said and then looked at each of the five City Council Members, regaining my composure. Three of them were looking down at me condescendingly while the other two appeared disinterested, reading notes in front of them.

"Thank you for the time," I went on, "I would like to make some brief remarks …" And then I went through the first of my three arguments. As I went on speaking I could hear the room shuffling in stifled support of what I was saying and my confidence began to to increase. I pointed emphatically to the modern stucco design of the new office building when saying that "Miracles Cafe in that building is not Miracles Cafe at all. I heard muffled applause with the old white man’s equivalent of Amen Brutha and I felt wonderful. So wonderful that I forgot to make my fourth point, that we should be discussing Cardiff’s character as a town, not the details of building planning.

Another woman went up, presumably the wife of one of the developers and emotionally pleaded to the City Council, "you and I both know that no matter what there are going to be those who are against any building where Miracles is. They won’t accept any change in the community. We have spent months reworking the design and it’s time that it gets approved." She was very right: nearly the entire town is against Miracles being torn down for more unnecessary office space. Only a small minority of professionals and developers wanting prime ocean-facing office space are in support of the project. That small minority, however, all came to the council meeting to voice their support.

"The community is behind this project," said another of the developers. "Never before have I seen so much public outpour of support for something I’ve done and I want to say thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart." Then another of his co-workers got up and, in a tone usually reserved for funeral eulogies, said, "I had a whole list of points written down that I was going talk about, but you know, I really just want to speak straight from the heart. Cardiff is a community that I love. I grew up here. My children grew up here. I know many of the families from youth soccer. And I want to see Cardiff grow into something we are all proud of. This isn’t about making money, this is about doing something for our community. Which is why, with the proper safeguards, we are offering the parking spaces to the city on the weekends."

There is an organizational chart of Encinitas’ local government which puts the citizens at the top of the pyramid, implying that the council members are populous representatives of local sentiment. That of course is not how the council members perceive themselves. In the council members’ minds they are the local leaders pulling their community into the future. That is true of many governments, both local and national, and modernization often wouldn’t be possible without such a perspective. But in this case, Encinitas’ City Council, ignoring the public outcry, chose to radically redefine the character of the community and the model of future local development.

Public statements had ended and the Council began to question the developers regarding the particulars of the weekend parking offer. Then, one by one, the council members explained their positions and which way they would be voting. Council member Jerome Stocks reminisced about his daughter playing soccer in Cardiff, commented about how "change is difficult" and then said he was impressed with the new building design and would gladly approve it. Deputy Mayor Dan Dalager discussed new building restrictions that would be put into place starting January first that the office building would not meet, but concluded that it was not January yet and "law is law. I’ll approve." Longtime council member James Bond recalled fondly how he bought his first piece of local art at Miracles, but then went on to say that he liked the new design and thought that it would complement Cardiff’s new library nicely. Council member Christy Guerin was the only one to acknowledge the considerable opposition to the office building: "Regarding the, uh, Save Miracles Cafe Petition," she started, making it sounds like a high school government class project, "I appreciate the effort, but …" Her voice trailed off and then, without offering her reasons, said she would support the new building. That left only Mayor Maggie Houlihan who repeated that downtown Cardiff was in desperate need of public parking and how wonderful that this new development would offer that.

The vote was unanimous, 5-0. I looked around the room at all the loyal Miracles customers who had come to show their support. Dejectedly, we filed outside City Hall to convene in a high school-like circle in the parking lot. We all agreed: the new design was terrible, the building was too big, Miracles would never be the same if it moved in there, Cardiff would forever be changed.

Some Reflections:

More than anything else, we failed to save Miracles Cafe because it was too little too late. And I can only blame myself for not staying more up to date on local politics. (I have since signed up for several of the cities’ emailed newsletters – though I wish they were available in RSS format) Had I two or three months to prepare for the City Hall meeting, I could have created a more professional petition and gathered thousands of signatures. Given more notice, hundreds of local citizens would have come to the City Council meeting in opposition against the new office building.

It also hurt that Miracles’ owner Brigitte Menges spoke in support of the new office building, saying that the the current building was beyond repair. As much as I love Brigitte as a person, friend, and employer, Miracles’ run down condition is largely due to her neglect and lack of investment. A few minor repairs would completely revitalize the cafe. Brigitte’s impressive dedication to sustaining Miracles, despite the local threat of Starbucks, has not incorporated the rest of the community. I’m afraid that Brigitte approaches Miracles as a money making investment which is why she accepted its destruction with such passivity and is considering moving into the polar opposite environment of the new office building.

After leaving the speaker’s podium, several old time locals called me over thanking me for speaking in defense of Cardiff’s character and heritage. North Country Times reporter Adam Kaye, clearly looking for a juicy story, asked me if I wasn’t afraid of losing my job. It wasn’t something I even considered; Brigitte would never fire me for standing up for what I believe in. If anything, she would encourage me to. Kaye, however did not ask about the petition that I presented to the Council, nor how I thought the development would change Cardiff’s personality. His Thursday article included little of the opposition’s arguments. I still have yet to see any of the other local media pick up on the story.

Finally, I was struck by the sense of exclusivity at Encinitas City Hall. I would have imagined that the City Council and their support staff would be welcoming and encouraging to locals engaged in community issues. Instead it seemed that they were out to purposely intimidate speakers and maintain a sense of ‘we are higher than thou’ from their elevated platform. They either belittled or ignored what I (and many others) felt were serious issues regarding Cardiff’s future. Such a condescending and exclusive attitude could easily marginalize local citizens from becoming engaged with the issues that effect them, but I know for myself, the experience will only serve as inspiration to stand up braver and louder in the future. The destruction of Miracles Cafe for a two-story office building will radically redefine Cardiff’s essence. When our local musicians are practicing in their garages on Friday and Saturday nights instead of performing for their neighbors; when our local artists have no space to show their work; when our citizens – once so comfortable sitting together on Sunday mornings to discuss the surf and local paper – begin to forget each other’s names; I hope we are reminded how important it is to protect our local cultural and community institutions and landmarks. I can only hope that we will learn from this mistake to make more intelligent and informed development decisions in the future.

This is probably the longest post I have written on my website. For those of you who made it all the way down here, I thank you for your time and support.