Measure A Sparks Debate Over Growth and County’s Future

One of the reasons I so love reading your Letters column is to see the number of people who accuse you of being “anti-business.” Your editorial support for the little guy against corporate interests has always been your hallmark.

Alas, your opposition to Measure A (the countywide slow-growth initiative), neither well-reasoned nor convincing, suggests you have abandoned your mandate to protect the common guy.

Your own paper points out that contributors to the “No on A” campaign are, primarily, those who will profit from continued development. These are the same clowns who brought us the traffic mess we’ve suffered with for years.

Your point (that “using the initiative process for local land-use planning is a poor approach”) suggests that democracy is slow, inefficient and “inflexible.” Democracy is slow. It is unwieldy. It is, as Churchill said, the worst possible system--except for all others.

You also say that the measure would jack up housing prices. Wake up! Those prices were high in the 1960s and ‘70s and they’re high now--the highest in the country, in fact--without Measure A. Are you really convinced that the developers are suddenly manifesting a touching concern for those unable to purchase a home?

If every Orange County resident follows your advice and votes against Measure A, local officials will derive a simple message: In Orange County politics, don’t cross the development community.

TAKESHI ARAKI

Orange