A Fair Perspective: The Domino Effect of Closing the Speedway

I am pretty fired up about the issue of closing and how this could also mean the closure of the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. I wonder if we are all aware about what this could mean for our community.

First of all, looking at it from a parent’s perspective, I can tell you that the fair is a huge benefit for families. Not just because we attend the fair for fun and games, but many adults and children in our county enter items into the fair each year as well. Whether they enter with 4H, or to show their collections, display items made from their kitchen or home or grown in their garden, it is a learning experience for all of us. This is community at its best, showing the heritage and history of our most exceptional region of the world.

At the fair, our school always has a display and my family has always taken advantage of the free school days (which is not offered this year due to budget cuts, but we will still go) to see the agricultural, historical and cultural displays. These are hands-on and visual experiences with live animals, interactive displays, and experienced people and historians to teach you and your family about life in our county, past and present.

What my kids have learned is priceless, something they do not see in these modern technological times. It is a history lesson that showcases what our small county brings to the rest of the country proudly, and that is our agriculture. I have friends all across the U.S. who regularly tell me that they eat strawberries and produce from Watsonville. Whenever my out–of-state friends tell me they just bought the most delicious strawberries they ever had, I ask them to look at where they were grown and packaged, knowing that they most likely came from here. They are usually surprised to see "Watsonville, CA" on the package. I even have a friend who has parents in the UK who recently bought and enjoyed strawberries that were grown and packaged in Watsonville. We have a rich agricultural history here, and the fair showcases that like nothing else can. It brings it to our children, and teaches them about heritage as well as the history and culture of our very own, very special region. Nothing in a Social Studies book could ever do that.

Secondly, I also see this from a different, very unique perspective. I have seen the consequences and the domino effect that could happen to a community from closing a speedway. This is like déjà vu for me; I have lived through this before.

I was born and raised in Fremont. In the 1970's, I lived about a mile—maybe two at the most—from Fremont Speedway, Nimitz Drive-In Theatre and the Fremont Airport, which also had a glider airport. All of them were together in the same area in the southern region of Fremont. They held flea markets or events on weekends and it was a community gathering place, a fun time for all. However, we heard the same issues. People complained about everything there: noise, pollution, having airplanes so close and they will surely crash, people being rowdy, litter, etc. The citizens pushed and pushed to have it all stopped. Sure enough, one by one, they were all closed. Behind the citizens, there was also the backing of developers and people with business interests. Maybe they stood on the sidelines and silently cheered, but maybe they had their direct hand in it, too. There was no doubt they would benefit by having the property vacated. Like I said, I lived 1 or 2 miles from all of those things. Did the noise bother me? No. Did I hear it? Yes I heard it, but barely and I really had to listen for it, and it wasn't blaring in my house and it wasn't excessively late. I could go outside and hear it, and if I listened closely, I could barely hear the crowd. But it never kept me awake or bothered us. I know that everyone has different tolerance levels, but can’t there be a compromise discussed without such drastic measures and consequences?

The main road in Fremont to get to the speedway, drive-in and airport, used to be called Durham Road. Now guess what the road called? It has since been renamed Auto Mall Parkway. I am sure by the name you can probably guess what happened. Yep. All those old venues are gone and now the properties are mostly car dealerships, with some of the biggest names in Fremont. Along with dealerships, there is now an In-and-Out Burger at the corner, other fast food restaurants, businesses, office buildings, etc., and they encompass the entire span of the western portion of Auto Mall Parkway off Highway 880 in Fremont.

We used to keep our horses out at stables at the end of Durham Road. They tore it all down for car dealerships. Pollution? Yes, now there is probably even more pollution from all the people who are driving to the dealerships and businesses there. Was there a lot of pollution from the speedway? I am not an expert, but I would say nothing in comparison to now. Is there anywhere for the community to go that is similar? No, in fact that is why I moved from there to here 20 years ago. That feeling of heritage, history and a tight knit community was gone. I remember in the past, taking a glider ride over Mission Peak from the airport, I remember going to the flea market with my mom, and going to the races, to the drive-in movies, all of it was clean family fun with neighbors and citizens.

These were memories that you can't get elsewhere. We have that here in Watsonville and in our county. These special things can be chipped away one by one until they are completely gone, and what do you have in its place? Car dealerships, office buildings, strip malls, etc. What does that bring? It might bring in money, especially for developers and for the city, but at a cost to community. It is something you can't replace. My experience in Fremont didn’t include losing a County Fair, but yet, it did a lot of damage to the heritage of a city in my opinion. Can you imagine losing our County Fair?  

My point is this: We have to really stop and think about what we are doing and what it is that we want. If the Santa Cruz County Fair loses the funding it gets from the speedway, it will most likely close for good. It could, quite possibly, be replaced with something similar to what happened in Fremont over the past 30 years. The closing of the old, and ensuing new development doesn't usually happen quickly; it happens slowly, whittling away, bit by bit...until before you know it, it is all replaced and completely developed along with pollution, noise, and all of the things that were being disapproved of in the first place. So, if you fast-forward over a span of 30 years, you might then wonder where are all of those people who were against the speedway now—are they pleased with the outcome? Well, the neighboring citizens know they aren't hearing race cars anymore, but some of them might be reminiscing about the fair. However, because time will have gone by, people will think it was closed due to other reasons and the memory will be distant, while the developers and people with business interests went to the bank. As for the citizens who used to go to the speedway, Santa Cruz County Fair, and other events at the , they ended up losing a big part of their community. Was it worth it? Absolutely not, and I say that with the voice of experience.

If you would like to help keep the fairgrounds open, there is an online petition that can be signed to keep the speedway open that was posted by another Watsonville Patch blogger and you can find it . Hopefully, there will be more rallies and meetings, so please look for those as they come up, or maybe consider starting one of your own.

Thank you!