Discouraging Business

I am writing about your recent articles concerning the exodus of businesses from Ventura.

As a middle-class, working property owner in Ventura, I cannot observe the shenanigans of the City Council any longer without commenting.

I maintain that the council’s current policies will ultimately do more to harm the quality of life and the environment in Ventura than to help them. I would like to ask Councilman Gary Tuttle how “the bicycle will become the preferred mode of transportation” if there are no viable employers left in Ventura. Working people who choose to live here will never be able to pedal to jobs in Oxnard, Thousand Oaks or the San Fernando Valley.

Is Ventura to become a city in which only rich or retired citizens are welcome and able to live? I certainly hope not! I submit that the diversity of the population is almost as important as the climate in providing the high quality of life that we enjoy.

As much as I would hate to see Ventura become “like the San Fernando Valley,” becoming “like Santa Barbara” could be just as undesirable. As long as the present City Council continues policies that make it impossible for the middle class to make a viable living here, the “snobbing” of Ventura is a frightening possibility.

Middle-class and poor Venturans, frightened by the propaganda circulated by an elite corporation, prior to the election, have been sold a bill of goods. Council members Tuttle, Todd Collart and Cathy Bean have only the interests of the affluent minority and one corporation at heart. One can only hope that we will be more informed in time for the next election. We can only hope that by then it won’t be too late.

NEAL McHENRY

Ventura