[Written for UCSB's Beat Reporting course in March of 2021.]
It’s after 1 a.m. on a Wednesday in February. Strobe lights flash and a bass beat pounds from a backyard on the 68 block of Pasado Road in Isla Vista. Dozens of enthusiastic voices, both women’s and men’s, can be heard over the thudding speakers. Friends shout to one another while others holler along with the booming music as Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” blasts at full volume. Bottles clink, crash, and clatter; the ground pulses with the heavy beat.
This scene is not atypical for Isla Vista. In fact, Isla Vista’s square mile of beachfront, home to
roughly 20,000 college students, might see such an event on any average night during any average year. But this year, that shouldn’t be the case. This year, over 500,000 Americans have lost their lives to the COVID-19 virus, according to recent data from The Atlantic, and the pandemic continues to rage on at full force.
And yet, so does Isla Vista’s party scene. Three weeks ago, the UCSB Office of the External Vice President for Local Affairs reported 111 new positive COVID cases in Isla Vista – the highest single-week total to date.
Large, rambunctious gatherings in Isla Vista did not stop when the state of California went into lockdown time and time again. In fact, a look around the college town, especially on a Friday or Saturday night, would make one believe that the public health crisis is over when it is anything but. Del Playa Drive – commonly referred to by Isla Vista residents as “DP” – has had hundreds of partygoers at a time roaming the street between house parties. Three-day weekends have proven especially rowdy throughout the past two months. Isla Vista Community Services District Vice President Catherine Flaherty reported observing house parties so packed that lines of people spilled out the doors and down the driveways, awaiting a turn to get inside to socialize, drink, and dance in purposeful ignorance of a grim reality.
Unsurprisingly, Isla Vista has become the worst community in Santa Barbara County for the spread of COVID-19. According to SB County Public Health, 1.4% of the Santa Barbara population has contracted the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic; in Isla Vista, this number is more than four times greater, with 6.2% of the population having tested positive for the virus.
In an effort to prevent large gatherings from becoming super-spreader events, the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department enacted an ordinance in October to impose fines on party hosts, yet the Isla Vista social scene doesn’t seem to have taken a hit in the months since. Meanwhile, many Isla Vista residents who continue to take all precautions against the spread of the virus grow increasingly frustrated with what seems to be mismanagement by community law enforcement and a lack of accountability for partiers.
One such resident, UCSB senior Alyssa Heisen, is angry that parties continue uninhibited in the community. “They’re big, no one’s wearing a mask,” she said. “It’s super frustrating. You can see who there cares and who doesn’t.”
The Isla Vista Community Services District has pursued a community-wide educational campaign about the dangers of COVID thus far but has seen little to no effect – the community still saw a 49.5% increase in positive cases from December to January, according to public health data reported by the UCSB External Vice President. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department insists that education is the way to move forward, though, as the department is concerned about infringing on residents’ privacy. Sr. Deputy Justin Schroeder, who oversees Isla Vista community resources, noted such concerns at an IVCSD Board of Directors’ Meeting on Jan. 26. “I know we’re in a pandemic, but we’re also not out there able to violate people’s rights,” he said. “We really are trying but it’s a tough thing on the ground…post-pandemic, we also don’t want to be looked at as being heavy-handed.”
Lieutenant Dave Millard of the UC Police Department’s Community Outreach division said at this meeting that he, too, believes educating partygoers is the community’s strongest approach. He said that community service officers have set up tents on Del Playa from which to pass out hundreds of masks to passersby. “[Trying] to give some more educational opportunities to folks that maybe are not interested in it or are not complying and [trying] to get that compliance – that’s what’s going to help us all out in the long run,” Millard said.
Meanwhile, concerned Isla Vista residents want to see parties shut down and hosts fined by law enforcement. Yet, the only serious degree of accountability seems to come from within Isla Vista’s student population itself. A local Instagram account, @UCSB.Party, has taken to exposing photos and videos of parties in Isla Vista in order to hold residents accountable for dangerous behavior, even going so far as to directly tag the personal Instagram accounts of the individuals pictured.
The owner of the account, who refuses to share personal identification information with interviewers in order to remain anonymous, listed a number of grievances against residents’ recklessness. “People throwing parties, completely ignoring the pandemic…housing complexes hanging out with all the units in their complex, police not holding people responsible and zooming past parties…there’s just a focus on individualism,” they said. Worse still, they suspect that the frustrating lack of intervention might be purposeful. “Likely local law [and] county officials fear that local businesses won’t be able to make money if I.V. doesn’t have a party reputation,” they said.
Another Isla Vista resident and fourth-year UCSB student, Azalia Urena, feels her health is being threatened by her neighbors. “You’ve got to look at the bigger picture,” she said. “Why put yourself in that situation?”
Urena is concerned about something that many young people have not been paying much attention to: the long-term effects of contracting COVID-19 despite being a low-risk group. Though the college-age demographic sees only a 0.2% fatality rate among people ages 20 to 29, according to Dr. Laura Polito, Medical Director of the UCSB COVID-19 Response Team, young people can still suffer from serious long-term repercussions; among them are cardiac effects like chest pain even months after recovery.
Polito also said that 80% of people who have contracted the virus, regardless of age, show structural changes to the heart. Additionally, more than half of COVID cases among young people are asymptomatic, which exacerbates how quickly and easily the virus spreads. “It’s hard to connect, ‘I feel fine,’ and, ‘The worst this ever feels is like a common cold,’ to someone telling you, ‘The ICU is full,’” Polito said.
Isla Vista government district president Spencer Brandt reported last month that Isla Vista’s “concerning” social scene jeopardizes Santa Barbara’s ability to reopen its small businesses and send its elementary, middle, and high school students back to school. And after observing partiers lining up on driveways, Vice President Flaherty fears that with the arrival of UCSB’s spring term, Isla Vista’s annual “Deltopia” celebration will pose a major threat to the health and safety of the community.
In past years, local media such as UCSB’s The Bottom Line have reported a rambunctious first weekend of the spring quarter, typically with thousands of people flooding Del Playa Drive in order to attend beachfront house parties. While participating in Deltopia this year is clearly a bad idea, Flaherty fears that this is a risk many in Isla Vista are willing to take. “People have weird, false senses of confidence,” she said. “You really hope that people remain accountable.”
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