Oxnard Shows You Shouldn’t Judge a Community by Its Cover Either

Oxnard ain’t a dirty word.

But it sure is an ugly one.

The name has been a butt of jokes almost since it was tagged to the new city in 1903 to honor the brothers who had built a sugar beet factory nearby.

Johnny Carson and Jay Leno have loved to poke fun. “What part of the ox is the nard, anyway?” Leno is said to have cracked.

Maybe that partly explains why, since my first days in Ventura County, folks have whispered about how I might want to move my family to the woods of Ojai or the hills of Ventura, even the red-tiled cul-de-sacs of Camarillo.

I should steer clear of Oxnard, they said.

The real estate agent who showed us around Ventura wouldn’t even take us to the wrong side of the river for a look.

“It’s the schools,” she said cryptically, meaning that Oxnard public education was not to be trusted because so many students were immigrants who did not speak English well.

We bought a house in Oxnard.

I have always liked to live in places that people look down their noses at. They tend to be more interesting than the alternatives. You are always bumping into a world that exists outside of Trader Joe’s and Noah’s Bagels.

Plus, houses are a lot cheaper.

We bought a good house in north Oxnard, with a panoramic view of mountains and sunsets. It was close enough to the Santa Clara River that opossums would walk our brown block fence at night, raising a bellow from our basset hound.

The house is a two-story and has a spiral staircase and a neat skylight. We liked it. But it didn’t take long to find out what others thought.

Soon after we settled in Oxnard in 1990, a longtime Ventura resident said of our location across from the rolling city-owned River Ridge Golf Course: “Oh, you live next to the Santa Clara garbage dump?”

Well, yeah. OK. So Oxnard’s newest upscale neighborhood was built near a converted dump. And the city is considering a second pricey housing project in the shadow of another closed dump just to the west.

Nobody said Oxnard was Beverly Hills.

Just ask Venturans. They really don’t like Oxnard over there.

At Ventura City Council meetings, officials hesitate to even speak the name Oxnard out loud, rolling their eyes instead. Maybe the fact that the two cities have fought over everything from shopping malls to minor-league baseball teams has something to do with it.

Sometimes my two daughters got the message when friends from Ventura were not allowed to visit them overnight in Oxnard. An occasional parent called to say she didn’t like to drive to Oxnard, even for a birthday party.

It’s odd having to explain to people that Oxnard is a pretty good place to live. Anyone who has driven the town knows how pleasant many of its neighborhoods are. The F Street area--a sycamore-lined series of wide boulevards with fine old houses near the downtown--is one of the most picturesque in Ventura County. The pioneer houses of Heritage Square and the red brick train station are classy additions to a downtown that needs a boost.

The beach neighborhoods--Mandalay Bay, Oxnard Shores and the unincorporated communities of Silver Strand and Hollywood Beach are nice in a laid-back way. None of the county’s sunsets can beat the one you catch from the groin that reaches out to sea from Oxnard’s Channel Islands Harbor.

Mrs. Olson’s is terrific for breakfast. Baja Fresh is great for lunch. And Sal’s serves the best Mexican dinner around.

Still, many of the people who live in Oxnard’s best neighborhoods don’t like to say they live in our town. Some have even lobbied to change the city’s name to Channel Islands or Mandalay Bay.

The reason is that Oxnard is a rotten name. Not to mention its reputation. On a recent hike hundreds of miles away in the Sierra, I met a couple from Santa Barbara. When I told them I was from Oxnard, the gentleman averted his eyes and said, “Oh.”

But after seven years as a resident, I can say Oxnard is more than OK. Crime is higher than anywhere else in this county, but the city is still relatively safe. We have spates of vandalism and graffiti, but we fight back and they pass.

The City Council has sometimes seemed like the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, but is now doing better. My favorite basketball court has been resurfaced. And my neighborhood park was finally built years late, albeit without any playground equipment for the children.

My daughters signed up for Oxnard schools but never went because their mother got a teaching job in Ventura and took them with her. But my neighbors tell me they have had good luck with Oxnard schools.

So I’m reminded of the motto the Chamber of Commerce printed on bumper stickers: “Oxnard, more than just a pretty name.”