Bench Ventura’s Stadium Proposal

Re: baseball stadium in Ventura.

You have reported on the circumstances of the origins of this convoluted project. I believe it went as follows:

A former major league baseball player called one city councilman and asked if he knew anyone who could help establish a minor league ball club in the city and was referred to another councilman. As the first councilman said, “The rest is history.”

This is really amazing. The needs, rights and preferences of a hundred thousand fellow citizens were completely irrelevant, and they were stunned to discover that few of these fellow citizens shared their callow, adolescent adulation of the pro “athlete.”

Adding insult to injury, a majority of the council has now crafted a capital improvement program around this daft, high-risk scheme, and instead of killing it in the face of overwhelming community opposition, now seek to place it on the ballot for approval or rejection.

What is even more galling is the fact that not a moment’s thought has been given to a sensible, minimal-risk capital improvement plan since this harebrained idea was first advanced. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t relish being governed by the knot-hole gang.

WILLIAM BOGUE

Ventura