Many Officials Call for Bigger Investment...

Back when she was still a lifeguard and Girl Scout, Donna Landeros would wander beneath giant pepper trees on her way to a summer reading club at Santa Paula’s creaky, columned Blanchard Library.

She was the beneficiary of schools that worked, libraries that were open late and recreation programs that were free.

“It was almost too good to be true,” recalled Landeros, 47, now city manager in Ventura. “That community really supported its kids.”

Today, in Santa Paula and around Ventura County, Landeros sees a society that has stopped taking care of its young.

“I think we’ve kind of failed as a generation of leadership,” she said. “It’s almost as if we expect our kids to grow up without the investment financially. . . . Our focus has been on the older generation, and we’ve forgotten the kids in the process.”

Landeros’ perception is common among public officials in Ventura County whose jobs involve helping children.

“A lot of folks talk about family values and how important children are,” said County Supervisor Susan Lacey, who specializes in social issues. “But [we’re] not doing well by our children.”

And Dixie Adeniran, head county librarian, said, “We need to be paying more attention to providing a nurturing environment for our children. Ventura County has much more potential than it’s using.”

This county talks a good game, the officials say, but when it comes to paying the price for quality children’s services, it falls short. For instance, school bonds fail repeatedly, with Camarillo’s elementary school district trying for the fourth time this fall to pass a $55-million measure.

In this politics of children, part of the problem is that kids don’t vote.

And neither do many of their parents, especially those in the county’s poorest and most heavily Latino cities--Oxnard, Santa Paula and Fillmore--where public services are needed most.

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The typical Ventura County voter is “older, whiter and more affluent” than most local adults, county elections chief Bruce Bradley said. And older voters may not have as keen an interest in children’s activities.

What that means can be seen in Oxnard, which is heavily Latino and has the youngest population in the county. There is just one registered voter for every three Oxnard residents, about half as many as in Ventura. So a small minority of residents who vote can control elections that affect the large majority.

“The unfortunate reality is that people who have kids here don’t vote,” said Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez, who faced recall in the mid-1980s after supporting a utility tax used in part for libraries, parks and recreation before it was eliminated.

Nearly half of all Oxnard elementary school students speak limited English, and many of their parents are non-citizens without the option to vote.

So in his city, Lopez said, only the foolhardy would propose a new tax to support recreation programs or to lengthen library hours.

“If we went out for a parcel tax, the likelihood of it passing is very remote,” the mayor said.

Other factors also argue against the success of special taxes and other funding initiatives for children.

The county embraces its younger children, but finds its teen-agers noisy and obnoxious, say many parents of adolescents and the teen-agers themselves.

Colleen Briner-Schmidt, a Thousand Oaks mother of a 14-year-old son, recalls a scene at a public meeting to discuss the economic revival of Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

“Probably the most disturbing thing I heard was people saying, ‘Why are these kids always out there. Why don’t they stay home?’ ” she said. “I’ve heard people complaining because kids are making noise in parks or playing soccer or baseball.

“Well, folks, you either include them or you make them outsiders,” Briner-Schmidt said. “And outsiders don’t care if they trash your community. Outsiders don’t care what you think.”

This view of teen-agers as a sort of untidy nuisance has entered the public debate in several local communities.

In Camarillo, where skateboards are banned from shopping centers, backers of an in-line skating and roller-hockey rink dropped construction plans two weeks ago because of noise complaints from a nearby church.

When Oxnard completed three new parks last summer, its first ones in years, the city left out restrooms, barbecue grills and sport facilities because neighbors feared they would draw unruly youths.

In Ojai and Simi Valley, officials have exiled skateboarders from busy shopping areas and public places. Last spring, when the Ojai City Council refused to quickly fund a skateboard park, parents tried to force the city to spend more money on recreation, but lost in court.

And the Ventura City Council purged skateboarders from a new $800,000 oceanfront plaza after residents angrily complained about damage and pedestrian safety.

At a recent Ventura council meeting, in fact, downtown shop owners pressed the council to ban skateboards and bicycles from downtown sidewalks altogether, allowing pedestrians only. Skateboarders don’t shop, they said.

Council members said they would not consider such restrictions until the city gives the skaters an alternative, a skateboard park expected to be approved within the next month.

But some frustrated Ventura residents point to the city’s long-delayed aquatic center when citing examples of how a youth project can languish for years for lack of a powerful constituency.

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About $4 million was set aside for the Olympic-sized community pool in 1988, but the project has gone nowhere because officials cannot decide where to build it or how to pay for its operation.

So when Ventura youngsters wanted to cool off last summer, they chose between a very limited program at Buena High School or a dip in the ocean.

“The children in this community are being shorted on recreational facilities,” John Correa, a member of the Ventura Community Affairs Commission, said.

Landeros, city manager in Ventura for less than a year, said the community pool is a top city priority this year. But she also said much more needs to be done in her new hometown and communities throughout the county if officials really want to help families live a better life.

From her city position, Landeros said she will work with other community leaders to see what they can do to help parents raise their children.

Work schedules can be changed to limit the number of latchkey children alone after school, she said. “As an employer, I can do that.”

Citing a Times Poll that found more than one-third of county families cannot afford recreational activities for their children, Landeros said Ventura should do more to subsidize fees and let parents know about the subsidies.

The city should also work closer with the school district, setting up after-school programs on campus and bringing library services to the schools, she said.

The City Council has also lent its support to the November library initiatives.

“Right now I see a real lack of community support for youth: Swim programs barely limp along, libraries are on the brink,” she said. “But if we as voters finally decide to invest in children, we can turn things around.”