climate because they wanted to enjoy the ocean and the more varied lifestyles that are often found in coast communities.

Although the Abbotts may have had some fleeting thoughts about a quiet retirement by the shores of the beautiful Pacific, it wasn't long before they became actively involved in saving Santa Cruz from further decline. As a photographer for much of his life, Chuck Abbott saw great potential in Santa Cruz, especially in many of its older Victorian style homes and public buildings. However, the City was busy removing many of these structures because they were substandard or beyond their economic life or because their location was needed for a parking lot.

dying retail area of the City. When Chuck Abbott started his effort to bring back the retail core of Santa Cruz, about 22 of the shops were vacant and business was poor.

After months of the unique Abbott hard sell, the downtown merchants organized an ambitious program aimed at creating an outstanding shopping environment. This led to the development of a beautifully landscaped shopping mall, with off-street parking and extensive remodeling of individual stores. The results have exceeded the most optimistic projections. Today, there are no retail vacancies in the retail core (a recent report showed a $2.2 million increase in retail sales).

The first step was to dissuade Santa Cruz from destroying its best path to recovery. To do this, Chuck Abbott mounted a two-pronged attack. On one front, he formed Community Associates and began to talk to anyone who would listen about the need to preserve the original character of Santa Cruz.

The success of the downtown mall almost resulted in the loss of the old and historically significant Santa Cruz County Court House. As the retail business improved, there were demands by the merchants for more parking and a proposal was made to tear down the then vacant Court House and use the land for a parking lot. This conflicted with Abbott's concept of preserving the original

On the second front, Abbott set out to show what could be done with some of the old Victorian houses in the central district. He acquired a group of row houses in his neighborhood, arranged the necessary financing, put together a work force of interested students from the University of California at Santa Cruz and retired construction workers, and set out on an extensive rehabilitation program. The result was the restoration of some of the City's "classic" residential structures at rents that retired people and students could pay. Some of the units rent to senior citizens for under $50 a monthwithout a subsidy.

Restoring the Retail Center

This effort clearly demonstrated to Santa Cruz what could be done with a little imagination and much dedicated, hard work. But Chuck Abbott did not waste any time moving to his next objective-the

RIGHT-Conversion of the Old Santa Cruz

Courthouse is still going on, but the artist's sketch shows what the exterior will look like. Inside will be shops and restaurants.

BELOW-After

redevelopment, there are no empty stores on

Pacific Garden Mall and retail sales have increased 25 percent. Two years ago there were 22 empty stores on Pacific Avenue, nine in one block, and $60 million in retail sales annually went over the hills to San Jose shopping centers.

charm of old Santa Cruz, so he decided to do something about it. Abbott won a reprieve from the bulldozer, and then was instrumental in putting together a complex of small art and gift shops and a few restaurant operations. Today, the old Court House is the central attraction in downtown Santa Cruz, with a group of colorful shops and a very successful restaurant and wine cellar.

Additional Challenges

In less than 10 years, Santa Cruz has undergone a major renaissance in appearance and spirit largely through the efforts, imagination, and perseverance of Chuck Abbott. However, as he approaches his 80th birthday, Abbott is about to undertake his most challenging project. He has formed a group called Private Redevelopment of Downtown (PROD), and has developed a master plan for the entire 50 block central district, from the ocean to the freeway. Based on his successful experience in residential rehabilitation and commercial rejuvenation, Abbott is sure that the entire area can be brought back to serve the tourist and recreational and commercial needs of the permanent population. Although PROD may seek some Federal funds for resiIdential rehabilitation, the renewal of most of the area is to be privately financed. This will include major redevelopment of the beach area, development of a convention center with assistance from the Economic Development Administration, major water and sewer public works, consolidation of the City's auto dealerships, and rehabilitation of a number of residential areas. Abbott plans to complete the plan with a maximum of cooperation from all affected and a minimum of government red tape. This will not be an easy task, but given the events of the last 10 years, no one has yet dared to say, "It can't be done." -Barney Deasy San Francisco Office

in print

Property Power: How to Keep the Bulldozer, the Power Line, and the Highwayman Away from Your Door, by Mary Anne Guitar. Garden City, N.Y., Doubleday, 1972. 322p. $6.95

In 1967, Redding, Conn., was suddenly presented by the State Highway Commission with a plan to run a highway through the middle of the town, "chewing through much of the most scenic and historic areas" surrounding it. The highway was to connect with a proposed traffic interchange that would have sent 3,000 cars a day through the town in addition to rezoning adjacent areas for business. It would have destroyed "the town's most precious artifacts-cemeteries, pre-Revolutionary buildings, churches, the Library," as well as many houses.

Concerned citizens formed a Citizens Actions Council, which, acting in concert with the residents of the next town, Ridgefield, not only prevented the building of the interchange and highway, but also initiated positive action to help keep certain areas of the town safe from future despoliation. This they accomplished by incorporating themselves into a nonprofit, privately funded, development company, Redding Open Land, Inc., which raised enough money to buy for Redding part of a huge privately owned tract that was for sale.

Redding's hard-fought success in saving its character is only the most detailed in a series of accounts of other citizen action groups from Maine to California who have fought the "highwaymen and developers" often to a standstill, sometimes to plan modification. From these accounts it is obvious that it is necessary to have strong feelings about the value of one's environment in order to sustain, sometimes for years, the energy and determination to "educate" local, State, and Federal government agencies, as well as private interests, to an appreciation of those values; to discontinuing the bulldozing approach to land use.

As Mary Anne Guitar points out, "we used every trick in the book, becoming quasi-experts on arcane planning and zoning and sanitation techniques. . . learned to estimate the seepage rate on hardpan, and understood the difference between Charlton and Paxton soils." She also notes that there are many ordinances and laws on proper planning which are flouted regularly by both officials and businessmen, and it therefore behooves the concerned citizen to pay attention to obscure notices in the newspapers, and to note the trends of business activity.

For those wishing to engage in activism in their own towns or sections of cities, she provides a detailed account of the organizations and individuals, notably the

conservationist groups, who are happy to supply ideas and personnel to help a group get organized.

But what of the needs of a growing population and growing economy? Guitar, along with other conservationists, does not advocate only being against new projects and growth. She quotes Elvis Stahr, president of National Audubon Society, who says, "There are better and worse ways of doing nearly everything; we therefore try to insist that alternatives be studied before irrevocable choices are made."

Helen S. Boston, Bibliographer HUD Library and Information Division

U.S. Government Printing Office publications:
Environment and the Community: An Annotated
Bibliography, compiled by the HUD Library. 1971. 66p.
$.65.

Environmental Quality, The second annual report of the Council on Environmental Quality, $2.

Annual Report to the President and to the Council on Environmental Quality, by Citizens' Advisory Committee on Environmental Quality. 64p. $1.25.

Stockholm and Beyond: Report of the Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment. 1972. 152p. $65.

Recent Books

The Complete Ecology Fact Book, edited by Philip Nobile and John Deedy. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., Inc. 1972. 472p. appendixes. index. $10.

Architect and Community: Environmental Design in an Urban Society, by Geoffrey Spyer. London, England: Peter Owen. Distributed in the U.S.A. by Humanities Press, New York. 1971. 158p. bibliog. index. $11.

The Office Industry: Patterns of Growth and Location. A report of the Regional Plan Association, prepared by Regina Belz Armstrong; Edited by Boris Pushkarev. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press. 1972. 166p. ills. bibliog. index. $15.

American Space: The Centennial Years: 1865-1876, by John Brinckerhoff Jackson. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc. 1972. 256p. ills. reading list. Index. $7.95.

Industrialization: A New Concept for Housing, by C.A. Grubb and M.I. Phares. New York: Praeger Publishers. 140p., appendix, bibliog. $12.50.

Housing Investment in the Inner City: The Dynamics of Decline; A Study of Baltimore, Md., 1968-1970, by Michael A. Stegman. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press. 275p. bibliog. index. $12.95.

Urban Law Annual, edited by the Undergraduates of the School of Law, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. 1972. $5.00.

In 1970 Robert Grey, City Clerk of Boulder, Mont., attended a housing seminar in Dallas, Texas, where HUD officials explained housing aids available for low-income people. Grey returned home determined to put through a housing program to meet Boulder's needs. A chronic shortage of housing had been aggravated by the building of the new Boulder High School and the addition of teachers who were commuting from Butte and Helena over 125 miles distant.

A Rotarian, Grey persuaded the Boulder Rotary Club to sponsor a housing project. The Club organized the nonprofit Big Boulder Housing Corporation, and appointed a committee consisting of Grey, Rotary president John Sanddal, and vicepresident Robert E. Rux. They applied to HUD's Montana Insuring Office in Helena for aid to develop a project under the Section 236 rental

housing program. Approval for the project was obtained and construction started in May 1971.

Completed in April of 1972, the project's 50 units were 100 percent occupied by May 1-less than a year after construction started. The project is unique for its modular construction-the first such project in Montana. The modules were fabricated in Billings and trucked to the site in Boulder.

The project is comprised of five two-story buildings, containing 20 one-bedroom units and 20 efficiency units. Ten single-family, threebedroom residences located several blocks away will become available for homeownership assistance Section 235. The single-family residences now rent for $136 a month, the one-bedroom units rent for $104 a month, and rent for the efficiencies is $89 a month.