Good to be King
By King Harris
When he was a young lad living in Carpinteria, Nick Franco, spent many a day cavorting nearby on the world’s safest beach, and by the time he was 17, he was hooked on the status of the State Park folks who were responsible for keeping up the scenic area.
So he became a park aide, and has been involved with parks ever since. As of February of this year, Franco left the State Park System and is now the man responsible for all the parks in San Luis Obispo County.
“I love this county,” Franco said, “so I wanted to stay here, and I get to keep working with parks.”
Franco has been all over the state as a ranger and a superintendent — from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Oceano Dunes to the Big Basin Redwoods, San Juan Batista, even Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay.
“One of the highlights of my working for the State Parks System was my experience on that remote but spectacular island,” he recalled. “There were no more than 20 employees living there in buildings once used by the military. There is so much history there.
“For example, in the 1970s, they were going to demolish a lot of the old mothballed structures, when one ranger discovered there were a huge amount of carved Chinese poetry on the inside walls. The poetry was written by Chinese detainees who weren’t allowed to immigrate because of the Chinese Exclusion Act in the late 1880s, the first of its kind to be based on race.
“If the walls could talk, there would be stories of what it’s like to be excluded. Those are powerful statements and say a lot about our history, and I love passing that on to travelers who visit the island. Needless to say, the structures remained so all can see the heartfelt writings.”
Franco left Angel Island to come to San Luis County, where he has been district supervisor for nearly 12 years. “It’s the longest I’ve been anywhere in my life.”
I asked him how state parks will be different from county parks? “I think the County is in better financial shape,” he said. “One of my biggest disappointments while with State Parks was the proposed closure of all the parks due to budget concerns. That riled a lot of people, so the State kept them open, but not without a fight. Parks are very popular, especially when there’s an economic downturn or recession. Not only that, they are very important for the economies of the state and our county. Tourism is a huge business here, and without travelers coming to our parks, local businesses would suffer greatly.
Other than that, the politics and methods may be different between the County and State, but it’s all about maintaining and modifying the parks for those who visit.”
Franco will be in charge of the large parks like Lake Lopez and Lake Santa Margarita, to the smallest trails that wind through our hills. Perhaps Franco’s biggest claim to fame was the notoriety created by Lady Gaga coming to Hearst Castle.
“People still ask me about that experience almost every day,” he said. “I’m simply amazed that you can Google ‘Nick Franco Lady Gaga’ and have us both come up on the same page. I never thought that would happen in a million years.”
During negotiations between Lady Gaga, the parks system, and Hearst Castle, Franco was put on administrative leave for a while, incommunicado. The way I’ve heard it, the entire bru-ha-ha began when Lady Gaga, who is into the art scene, approached Ann Hearst, who is also an avid art lover, and asked if she could use San Simeon as avenue to record music and a video.
The Hearst people liked the idea because she would reach out to those younger folks who otherwise wouldn’t know about the legacy of William Randolph Hearst. One of the wrinkles in the project came about when she wanted to fill the outdoor Neptune Pool at the castle while we were in the middle of a drought. Eventually deals were made to satisfy everybody, including State Parks.
“My mom and dad were worried at the time,” Franco said, “but I told them everything was fine and I’ll be OK. I wasn’t disciplined or anything like that. And it’s funny to think that younger visitors did start appearing after Lady Gaga’s video. So everything worked out. But I will miss the castle. It was always a delight to see the amazement in people’s eyes when they first glanced upon the castle.”
Franco’s tenure with the County may not be as glamorous and celebrated as his work with the State, but our local parks will be better for it.
