“Attention, students. Today’s lesson is about how to pave paradise and put up a parking lot. Lemons are currently $2.13 per pound. The average San Luis Obispo hotel room is $247 a night. Do the math. Or better yet, let AI do it. You’ll quickly discover Cal Poly can make more money running a hotel than a learn by doing, hands-on, teaching university with a silly little lemon grove. Now input some key words so ChatGPT can write your essay about this important lesson before you get lunch with your $4,200-a-semester meal plan and return to your $17K-a-year Cal Poly dorm room. Oh, and don’t forget to buy another $80 Cal Poly-branded hoodie. Go Mustangs!”
Poly is again raising the specter of paving over its lemon grove along Highway 1 to make way for a “transformative vision” of the “West Campus District,” where the university is contemplating building more student, staff, alumni, and senior housing; a hotel and conference center; retail spaces and restaurants; child care and elder care; research and development spaces; and parks and trails. Just a thought, but Poly’s going to need another parking structure. That will be $4 an hour, please.
Is it me, or does it seem like the school’s mission of being a teaching university has shifted toward being a moneymaking enterprise? All these businesses are controlled by Cal Poly Partners, formerly the Cal Poly Corporation, formerly the California Polytechnic Foundation, which was formed in 1941 and funnels all its “profits” back into the university to, you know, build and rent more student housing, sell more turkey sandwiches and sweatshirts, open up a sprawling retail store in downtown SLO, and pay all the salaries of the moneymaking pros at Cal Poly Partners. Cha-ching!
Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong tried to push this ag land plan about a decade ago.
“The pushback from students, alums, and industry partners was swift, loud, and sustained,” retired plant sciences professor David Headrick told New Times.
The lemon grove is on Class 1 prime farmland, and as Headrick noted in an Aug. 10 post on his California Insect Science website, “Once you build on it, you never get it back.”
On a geological timeline, it takes about 1,000 years for 1 inch of topsoil to form on Class 1 land. Is this Cal Poly’s once-a-decade trial balloon to gauge public reaction? According to school spokesperson Keegan Koberl, the university has spent a year discussing the idea with people across the campus community, but, “At this time, no decisions have been made.”
Poly’s actually arguing the development will lead to new learn by doing opportunities, but what are students learning? That making money is paramount? That ag land is less valuable than a hotel? That Cal Poly’s learn by doing philosophy is lip service?
“Kids, you’re here to buy a degree, so pay for four years and get out.”
One thing is abundantly clear. What locals want will have little effect on the outcome.
“The county does not have land-use or permitting authority over Cal Poly’s proposal, because the project is proposed on land owned by the state of California,” county Planning and Building Deputy Director Mark LaRue told New Times.
Lesson learned.
You know who else learned a valuable lesson? Probably not SLO City Councilmember Jan Marx, who really wanted to censure Mayor Erica Stewart over her much-publicized leak of the “Round & Round with Town & Gown” grand jury report to Cal Poly. When the SLO Personnel Board minus two absent members voted to not censure Stewart on July 27, Marx wasn’t done yet. She wrote a letter to the Personnel Board urging censure when they had all five members in attendance. It voted 3-2 not to censure, so yeah, this was all a time suck.
“I feel terrible for our mayor and for our staff who have all spent countless hours thinking about this, sifting through documents and emails to understand the chain of events, doing all the work it takes to support the Personnel Board through its process, and answering inquiries from both the media and the public,” Councilperson Michelle Shoresman said at the meeting. “It’s time to move on.”
Oh snap!
Marx, a dog with a bone, couldn’t leave well enough alone. She said the issue “has been a huge heartbreak to all of us” and continued making her argument, hoping to bring the City Council to vote to circumvent the Personnel Board, which led to City Attorney Christine Dietrick jumping in to warn Marx that making a full argument prematurely is “approaching a line that’s going to get us in trouble with the Brown Act.”
Oh boy. Amateur hour.
Speaking for local governance, did you hear Morro Bay is considering canceling its Nov. 3 election? Don’t freak out. It makes fiscal sense. If the number of qualified candidates does not exceed the number of open offices, Morro Bay can legally cancel the election. So instead of spending $25K or more on ballot printing and voter pamphlet distribution for an election with an already guaranteed outcome, the cancel cost is $250.
That makes a lot more sense than Chris Bausch running for reelection in Paso Robles after costing the city $840,000 in legal settlements. Politicians are weird. ∆
The Shredder is pinching pennies. Send a gift card to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Aug 20-27, 2026.
Why would The Shredder point to City Attorney Christine Dietrick as some sort of voice of reason? She, as well as the City Manager, are literally defendants in a whistleblower lawsuit alleging, among other things, that she was involved in “diverting revenue” and running an extortion racket based on building permit fees.
The Shredder’s clear bias is on full display here. Further, Councilmember Marx was the only member of the City Council that had any backbone and referred our crooked Mayor to the Personnel Board. Kudos to Jan Marx and shame on the rest of them!;