Bob Kennedy
Catalina’s mayor talks up the island’s romance
Only 22 miles across the sea, Catalina Island has remained a popular getaway for those on the mainland looking to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. Purchased by William Wrigley Jr. (yes, that Wrigley) in 1919 and turned into a resort destination for Angelenos in the Roaring Twenties, it remains a popular attraction, drawing about a million visitors yearly.
In addition to being a pleasure center for summer sloth, Catalina is also home to an ecosystem found nowhere else on earth, including six endemic species of plants, the rare island fox, bald eagles, and even a small herd of bison brought over in 1924 for the filming of The Vanishing American. Today, 88 percent of the island is under the management of the Catalina Island Conservancy and has remained in near-pristine condition since the Wrigley family deeded the island to the group.
Now serving his second term as mayor of Avalon, Bob Kennedy has called the island home for 27 years. He spent a few minutes to talk to CityBeat about running and maintaining a small community, ecotourism, his own scuba operation, and the recent survey by Heal the Bay that found the dirtiest beach in Southern California is his very own Avalon Harbor Beach.
–Carman Tse
CityBeat: Given the small size of the community in Avalon, it doesn’t seem like there’s much going on there every day.
Bob Kennedy: We have a ton of things going on, to the point where it’s verging out of control. We’re an old city, so we have infrastructure issues. As far as a destination, the marketplace is very competitive, so we have to be on the cutting edge. We wear a lot of hats in this community.
What spurred you to run for mayor of Avalon?
I think as a community member you get involved because you get tired of complaining about the way we do things. Step up and do something about it, or shut up. I ran for a City Council position, left it two years early to run for mayor, and re-ran unopposed just last April. To my knowledge that has never happened before. Either I’m doing a really good job or nobody else wanted the target on their back. My term is up in two years. We’ll see [about running for another term]. If I am able to get some things done, it’s worth the time and effort.
As mayor, what are some of your ideas to improve the community that you’ve implemented during your tenure as mayor?
We’re making a lot of progress in trying to make Avalon a sustainable community. Our community is dependent upon desalinized water. Although we have a reservoir, it doesn’t supply enough; it was designed for 1,500 year-round residents. We have a saltwater sewer system that requires a bunch of maintenance and repair, and we’re trying to work out a way to turn the effluent and our waste treatment into biodiesel to power the generators that Edison uses that provide us with electricity, and to power the desalinization plant. Whether that has a positive effect on the environment or not, it’s a good economic model for communities to follow.
Especially since it’s such an isolated community.
Exactly. We’re trying at great lengths to fulfill that goal. The town was built in the early ’20s, so the infrastructure we’re standing on is failing. We’re spending millions of dollars improving infrastructure and baywater quality. Although, you may note, we were finally rated No. 1 as the dirtiest beach in Southern California! We have challenges there. We’ve had numerous biologists involved, and we may be the precedent for the way water sampling is done in the state of California.
How many of the millions of visitors that visit Catalina every year would you say are there for ecotourism?
Currently a very small percent. It depends on how you define the “ecotourist.” Once we’ve gotten through to the Baby Boomer group, the group that we are focusing on targeting now is the group that cares about the environment, enrichment, and history.
Would you say that given the whole awareness of the public to the environment, especially with global warming, there has been a growth in the ecotourism sector of the island’s economy?
I don’t know that it’s been driven by global warming or any scientific movement. It just seems to be what they’re looking for. As a destination, we’ve shifted toward that philosophy.
You also run Catalina Scuba Luv in Avalon. What programs do you offer for visitors?
We offer everything from a snorkel tour, a first time scuba experience, all the way to instructor-level scuba training and education. If it’s an education-based desire or any environment-interaction desire, we have those available for visitors. So as an eco-tour type destination, we’ve been doing those programs for 30 years.
Would you say that things are going well with the ecosystem of Catalina?
Things are moving forward at a good pace. The funding mechanisms are there to continue that process. The invasive plant species are very difficult to deal with in our environment due to some of the remote locations. The Conservancy is doing a phenomenal job in trying to restore the plant life. There are a few controversial issues they’ve undertaken – eradicating goats and pigs – that had some of the island community upset. But they’re making progress.
The buffalo are still there, right?
The buffalo are still here and they don’t plan on removing them from the island, and we still have a very large deer population. In fact, the population is so large they’re talking about opening up the hunting season for archery a couple months early. They’ve also done real well with the white sea bass fishery on the island. The white sea bass restoration project has been very successful, so there’s an abundance of bass wranglers as well.
Has tourist season kicked in yet?
We’re off to a bit of a slow start of the year. The May 10th wildfire of last year took a pretty good hit on visitor counts. People didn’t know if Avalon proper didn’t burn to the ground. Whenever you get negative press like that, I think there are some growing pains. The economy hasn’t been as strong, and the marketplace in which we compete has become quite competitive.
Competition such as what?
Gaming casinos. They’re very proactive in filling their resorts. Our ferry transportation system has been inundated with huge expenses from the cost of diesel fuel. That’s been trickling down to the ticket prices. That’s making it tough. We’re trying to get the state and federal government to recognize the channel as part of our highway system, much like they do in the Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest. That will allow some of the operators some fuel tax relief, allowing them to reduce ticket prices. One of the problems that the island has had historically is giving itself a label. We’ve had the “Island of Romance” theme and the “Just Get Away” theme, and I don’t know if you can put a label on it, because it’s many things to many people.
But things are looking good for Catalina?
Things are looking good for 2008. We look forward to improving our quality of services to our visitors.
Published: 05/28/2008
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