Keep the Lemon Tree Building

Oxnard city government needs to establish a more thorough agenda in regard to the Lemon Tree Hotel situation.

It appears that the basic plan is to tear down the building and pave over it for city parking as quickly as possible.

Parking will be an ever-present problem in downtown Oxnard just by the growth of the city alone. The city shouldn’t give up on looking for solutions to better Oxnard. But if the alternatives that are taken set back the potential solutions to more severe problems in the city, then there is a need to look at alternatives.

There is a homeless problem in Oxnard. It may not be as severe as in San Francisco or Los Angeles, but it is a problem of this city, and it is an issue that needs to be recognized. The position city officials are taking can lead one to wonder if the city’s officials are more interested in whitewashing a problem than in truly working to solve it. The Lemon Tree building can be used for low-income and emergency housing.

An argument advanced for demolishing the Lemon Tree is that the hotel is a haven for crime. The way to take care of the crime problem in any given area is to enforce the law, and that’s the job of law enforcement officers and, most of all, the citizens themselves.

To destroy the building because of crime is a cop-out. Tearing the Lemon Tree down sends a message that city authorities are unwilling or unable to fully protect its citizens. As a longtime resident of Oxnard, I don’t see this as true, but what I do see is a lack of foresight in city administrators to use sources that are available to help Oxnard.

DARRELL B. HARVEY

Oxnard