Weldon Dump

In the article, “Writer Pens Critique of County Project,” urban planner-essayist William Fulton argues for creating strong individual communities, stating that “communities need to be self-contained on the neighborhood level, yet connected in an effective way to the rest of the city.”

I cannot reconcile this understanding of our basic human need to feel connected to our cities and our county with Mr. Fulton’s support of the proposed dump in Weldon Canyon. He suggests the dump should be approved because “You can get riled up about saving one canyon, but if we’re going to generate trash, we have to figure out how to deal with it.”

Mr. Fulton, we have a way to deal with trash; the recycling centers being built in Oxnard and Ventura. Moreover, an ill-advised, unwanted and outdated dump, which--to be economically viable---will have to import millions of tons of garbage from outside the county, directly threatens the “sense of place” that Fulton hollowly praises. Furthermore, it strikes me as antithetical to Fulton’s “vision” to pit the different cities of Ventura County against each other (a tactic, by the way, being employed by the out-of-county corporation bankrolling the Weldon Dump initiative).

I urge Mr. Fulton to get out of his ivory tower and visit Ojai and Weldon Canyon on a beautiful day when the air is scented with orange blossoms. He’ll see that we already have a sense of place, and that we do care about our community, and our neighbors in the Ventura County area.

STEPHANIE QUINN WESTPHAL

Ojai