End Government of, by and for Developers
Ventura has a pro-growth City Council--Monahan, McWherter, Drake, Crew and Sullard. They’ve appointed a bunch of cement-loving Chamber of Commerce yes-men to the various boards and commissions, particularly the committee to review Ventura’s future. The pro-growth forces should not be allowed to plan for the future at the expense of everyone else’s--it’s like letting the Bloods and Crips rewrite the penal codes.
Keep in mind this whole update scenario began in response to growing public dissatisfaction with rampant development, all this traffic and all this concrete. That’s why the council’s decision to allow 25,000 new Venturans is such an outrage.
The underlying assumption for all this is the inevitability of growth. Well, that which hasn’t happened yet certainly is not inevitable. Growth certainly is not inevitable in Ojai or Santa Barbara--two cities where local government cares for its citizens and its quality of life.
The question is simple. Everyone in L.A. wants to live here, so are we going to let them? I say hell no!
This is not a time for compromise, ladies and gentlemen; this is war. It’s the Ventura City Council and their buddies, the developers, against the rest of us. Local government of the developers, by the developers and for the developers has gone on long enough.
BILL LOCEY
Ventura
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