Being an outsider in San Benito County is a serious disadvantage
in any local political argument. It’s somewhere between having a
bad case of body odor and a communicable disease. Local people
think the word outsider is the ultimate insult.
Being an outsider in San Benito County is a serious disadvantage in any local political argument. It’s somewhere between having a bad case of body odor and a communicable disease. Local people think the word outsider is the ultimate insult. If they don’t directly accuse you of being an outsider, they just bring up their years in the county to show that they are the insiders – so you’ll get the message. Sometimes, when the arguments get serious, they use both tactics at once – then you’re in real trouble.
Both sides used those tactics during the appeal of Solargen’s conditional use permit and review of the final development agreement for the proposed Panoche Valley solar project. I won’t keep you in suspense. The appeal, which was probably a procedural forerunner for an environmental lawsuit, was denied. Meanwhile, the development agreement was approved with some minor changes. It was a done deal all along, but they have to go through the motions.
Except for the legal wrangling, Solargen can proceed with whatever plans they have, but I would not have missed the meeting for the world – as the old Cunard Line slogan so aptly put it, “Getting there is half the fun.”
One after another, people on both sides of the issue came forward to offer public testimony, but first they felt they had to prove they were not one of those nasty outsiders. Inevitably, they opened with a line something like this, “I’ve lived here for five-hundred-thirty-two years and I hope to live here my whole life.” Sometimes there was a bit of exaggeration. “My family started here as a seashell in the Pliocene Epoch 2.5 million years ago,” claimed one speaker. I think they were overdoing it a bit.
How could I top that? I’ve only lived here since 1996 although I worked here before that, the first time in the early 80s. I was thinking of claiming that my ancestors arrived just outside Tres Pinos as a part of a meteor shower during the formation of the earth, but someone would surely claim that their family was already here before that and sold my family the lava flow they landed on.
The valley residents opposing the project were upset that the “outsiders” were in favor of sacrificing the area and perhaps their livelihood for economic development. Many people from other parts of the county were upset that “outsiders,” who had bought land in the valley, did not understand our desperate need for money. They were especially dismissive of the “outsiders” from the environmental organizations trying to stop the project. At a previous meeting Solargen’s CEO was upset because someone said he was from New York – thus labeling him the ultimate “outsider” – but Solargen brought dollar signs and nothing will make you an insider faster than a dollar sign.
Personally, I never felt like an outsider anywhere in the nation. The military would ship us around, and wherever our butts landed, that was home. I always figured that what kind of person you are best defines anyone – not where you or your parents were born because you had no choice in those matters. However, that idea may be too old-fashioned, even for San Benito County.
No matter what happens I will never be able to open a speech by claiming to have lived here my whole life, but I’d argue that resident outsiders deserve some special considerations. After all, we picked San Benito County so we have a big stake in its future.
We are not here merely as an accident of birth.
Marty Richman is a Hollister resident.
