Growth Answer to Economic Woes

It hit me like a sledgehammer. First, a B1 story about how our beautiful Channel Islands don’t get enough visitors. Next to that a story about John K. Flynn and some of his developer buddies who want to “open up” our county by side-stepping the environmental regulations which have been established to maintain our quality of life. The message seemed clear enough: Growth is good, growth is necessary, growth will save our foundering economy.

Then on B11 the clincher. L.A. County is now charging people $35 a year to go hiking. If growth is good and leads to prosperity, why is the most overgrown county in California forced to the Orwellian extreme of making hikers pay for the privilege of walking the last few open spaces in the county? For that matter, why is L.A. County so broke? And if growth is so beneficial, why is our overgrown state so bankrupt?

Oxnard has grown tremendously over the years, but thanks to moronic spending habits, it continues to go deeper and deeper into debt. This debt is used to justify further growth. Desperate people want to believe that growth can save us from our economic problems. Unfortunately, it’s a lie.

MITCH YOUNT

Oxnard