OPINION by Chris Nava, VP for Political Action

Chris Nava

Some members of the Escondido City Council appear to have their heads permanently stuck in the sand. The news that plans for the Escondido Hotel are now back on the city council agenda for October 28^th is evidence of a total disregard of well-documented evidence that occupancy rates in area hotels have been steadily declining in the last year, thus making the proposal to build a new hotel risky at best.  A report in the Union Tribune, “More local hotel owners fighting for survival” (Sunday, October 25) lends further evidence of the sobering situation in the hotel industry. And yet some members of our council choose to ignore the harsh economic realities that our country and our city are facing by bringing discussion of the hotel back into the agenda. 

Let there be no doubt that there have already been private meetings with developer C. W. Clark, and  the fact that the item is on the agenda for the city council meeting set for October 28 is an indication that Clark is making progress in his pursuit of approval.  It does not matter that the people of Escondido have loudly protested the hotel. It does not matter that there is general agreement that this is the wrong time to be investing our declining tax dollars in a hotel. It does not matter that Escondido faces critical budgetary problems.  It does not matter because our City Council has chosen to ignore the people in favor of a developer.             

Escondido residents deserve better.  Our police and fire fighters, our schools, our library, our infrastructure need to be priorities of this city council.  This is what citizens have voiced time and time again at city council meetings, letters and blogs.  Why is it that the voices of Escondido citizens go unheard in favor of a developer?  Let us not forget that our elected members of the City Council took an oath to serve Escondido and its people, not developers.