URBAN COUNTY: If you put all of...
URBAN COUNTY: If you put all of Ventura County’s cities together, you’d have a metropolis the size of San Jose. Thousand Oaks alone is larger than San Francisco and almost as big as Long Beach. And Ventura has more land than Santa Barbara. . . . The county’s pecking order may soon change: Moorpark is talking about annexing the Messenger property, which would put it ahead of Camarillo. But a proposal to expand Ojai to include the entire Ojai Valley is on hold. . . . One city is certain not to grow: Port Hueneme. It’s surrounded by Oxnard and the Pacific Ocean.
FLASH POINTS: Could those flashing signs at the Ventura and Oxnard auto malls cause an accident? The CHP says no (Street Smart, B1). . . . In any case, the signs bring in business, dealers say. “Everybody who passes on the freeway sees your advertising,” said George Yazbeck of Mazda of Oxnard. “And they’re all people who drive.” . . . Unlike Ventura’s mall, the Oxnard center has no blimps beckoning customers. Yazbeck said it’s not a matter of aesthetics. “We’re too close to the Camarillo Airport.”
SETTLING IT: If you don’t care to wait five years for your lawsuit to be decided, Ventura County courts have an alternative: mediation (B1). . . . First step: “Getting people to give up the notion that there has to be a winner and a loser,” said Alice McGrath of the Ventura Center for Dispute Resolution. What’s in it for mediators? “The same satisfaction that any volunteer gets. You give people an alternative so they don’t have to fight to the death.”
PAPER PUSHERS: Finally, some good economic news: While Procter & Gamble cuts 13,000 jobs worldwide, employees at its Oxnard plant are safe, spokesman Robert Paulger said. The Oxnard plant doubled its size and hired 220 people in the past 18 months, for a total work force of 600. . . . It takes that many to keep the western United States supplied with the plant’s two products: Charmin bathroom tissue and Bounty paper towels.
Bright Lights, Big Cities
Size of Ventura County cities, in square miles. Thousand Oaks: 49.6 Simi Valley: 38.8 Oxnard: 24.4 Ventura: 20.5 Camarillo: 18.4 Moorpark: 12.3 Santa Paula: 4.6 Ojai: 4.4 Port Hueneme: 4.4 Fillmore: 2.6 Source: California Cities, Towns & Counties, 1992
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