ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

Wait for it....read your email Dennis.

It's only a matter of time before he hijacks this one, too.

I am angry. I just read the city's proposed ordinance on chain stores which will be presented to the planning commission next Wednesday. Anger is part of emotional intelligence so I take into account my feelings when gathering my thoughts. This latest ploy on the part of the city is just another piece in the puzzle of what makes this administration tick. With each new piece, more of the truth comes out. Here's the truth as I see it: the city really wants chains but cannot come out and say that because it will blow their cover. Their ordinance in opposition to the peoples' is exhibit number one. Look at the city's actions, not their words. As Shakespeare said, someone can smile, bow and use all the right sounding words and still be a villian. The banker, developer, politician complex is addicted to money interests and is in denial about the needs of real people, despite their hollow claims to the contrary. - Kenley's initiative would protect the whole town from the chain phenomenon which destroys small town character. The city would use a divide and conquer stategy to allow chains into Ojai, except in a newly created historic district, apparently designed just for that purpose. Imagine Ojai twenty years from now: divided and destroyed; the core of the town is a museum piece surrounded by chains. This is not real. This is not the real town with small town character the general plan mandates and most Ojaians want. This is a strategy on the part of the politicians and financial interests to carve up Ojai for their benefit. It's one piece in the plan to create a new artificial Ojai phonytown. - I'm also angry about the trucks and the San Antonio bridge project on Ojai Avenue. I went to the meeting last Tuesday where Caltrans explained to the residents what Caltrans had already decided. The city sponsored the meeting after resident complaints about the bypass, or the bridge would have been an accomplished fact without any public meeting at all. Mr. Kersnar began by saying the bridge was not in the city. I was very angry a few minutes later when a citizen said the bridge was in the city according to a map we were all just provided with by Caltrans. - I was reminded of Mr. Kersnar's powerpoint presentation on the O-Hi Frostie situation in city hall chambers. He said then that the Top Hat in Ventura was not like Frostie because the Top Hat was on public land and Frostie was on private land. The fact that Ventura helped Top Hat was a strong argument for Ojai doing the same for O-Hi Frostie. Mr. Kersnar apparently hoped to undercut opposition with this falsehood. I later found out that the Top Hat was indeed on private land, just like Frostie. All of his powerpoints were riddled with inconsistencies and misinformation but he completely fooled the opposition that night. - Similarly, he hoped to fool the opposition to the bridge with false information, except in this case, the act was caught early on. Yes, indeed, the bridge is in the city which was not denied or qualified by anyone at the meeting. Mike Culver, the new public works director, acknowledged that "now we know the bridge is in the city." It is simply unbelievable that Mr. Kersnar did not know the bridge was in the city. I was very angry at that point in the meeting as those near me could tell. - Citizens were upset that they had not been notified of the bypass and bridge plans earlier. Caltrans officials repeatedly stated that Caltrans had been working with the city. There was no denial or qualification on the part of the city to that allegation. Mr. Culver apologized to the citizens for not involving them in the planning, saying it was an "oversight." What? Is this believable? I submit it is not. The citizens were left out purposely because the city knew there would be strong opposition to the detour, and even opposition to the bridge itself. - Only two council persons were there at the outset of the meeting, Smith and Olson. I think they stayed for about half of the meeting but I'm not sure of the exact times. Neither spoke or corrected their manager on his statements. - Citizens were upset because this project was presented as a done deal. I won't bore you with all the details, rationalizations in my mind, as to why. - I looked at the bridge a couple of days ago, walked over, under and around it. It looks perfectly fine to me, no cracks or signs of fatigue. I think it could be retrofitted (if even that is necessary) as many bridges have been, but then I'm not an engineer. I also note that studies (if there are any) can be skewed by political pressure. All the bridge needs is a pedestrian and bicycle path to be built alongside it for safety. The city engineer said this could be done for $400,000. By the way, he also said that up until three months ago he and the county has assumed a temporary road during construction would be built beside the bridge, thus not requiring a bypass on city streets, but the bypass was planned "probably for political reasons." - At the meeting I tried to contextualize the bridge into the whole gravel truck problem and scenario. I was ruled out of court by Mr. Culver. He obviously had been instructed to avoid the bigger picture and keep the focus on the bridge and detour itself (in the interests of time, of course, but I wonder about the real concerns that were ruled off the table). I said I was a citizen and had the right to speak my opinions but would defer to his guidelines. Nevertheless, I will state here the truth of the big picture. Caltrans has been strengthening and replacing these bridges for the gravel trucks. They deny it, claiming the bridge project is part of routine replacement. Again and again, they simply asserted that it had to be done, without any referenced studies. They said the bridge is unsafe, old, stressed out, etc. What a coincidence! Has nothing to do of course with big development or gravel trucks, the closure and opening of gravel mines, or the new asphalt plant in Santa Paula, or the new development there. Has nothing to do with ruining a small town like Ojai. Oh no. The banality of evil makes my blood boil. You should have been there. It was like listening to robots or puppets controlled by the invisible strings of their masters. Same old rehearsed party lines. It would strike me as a comedy if it were not so tragic. At one point the heat was put on the city whereupon Mr. Kersnar who was standing in the back pointed his arm and finger vigorously at the Caltrans officials upfront. Playing the innocent in this debacle won't pass. - Some citizens spoke in defense of the bridge and Caltrans. Who knows what their motivation is but it sure isn't mine. Maybe they don't have stock or vested interests in the companies involved and maybe they really are concerned about safety but they sure don't see how big bridges and big development feed the fires that will destroy Ojai. They are the ignorant or crafty taitors within as far as I am concerned. In last Wednesday's OVN, a letter to the editor said Michael Shapiro was buying into a conspiracy theory about Caltrans' master plan. The facts support a conspiracy on behalf of the gravel trucks and big development but all someone has to do to stifle the opposition is to call them conspiracy nuts. This, after all the work Mr. Shapiro, Mr. Smith and others are doing to save Ojai. I have to wonder if people like the writer of the letter wasn't paid to do so. - I can only scratch the surface of the scam that is happening right in front of our noses. Fortunately, the smell is becoming quite offensive, even to those who are doing their best to deny it. It stinks to high heaven but when you're addicted, even poison fumes smell good. You build up a tolerance. - Ojai is a microcosm of the world. The same thing is happening all over on a much larger scale but it has the same foul odor. If we can smell it here in Ojai we can smell it elsewhere and that truth will set us free. We are all complicit; it's not just the council, the manager and the special interests that cozy up to them; it's all of us. - When an angry person speaks out, it is uncomfortable and the screens of denial go up quickly. I am marginalized and ignored, called a fringe element and crazy. That's OK. Somebody has to play that role. Somebody has to tell the king he has no clothes on. A fool used to be able to get away with some back talk to the rulers. I have made a choice to love Ojai and to speak out on her behalf. It doesn't matter to me if anyone listens but it does matter that I speak. A voice crying out in the wilderness is heard by the stones, and sometimes if the people are silent, the stones will cry out. - This matter of the chains will eventually be decided by the people. As even the city acknowledges in its preface to its ordinance, the people want to preserve the small town character of Ojai and do not want big chains to ruin it. Like the neocons on Capitol Hill, the Ojai politico-developer complex doesn't care what the people want, although they have to give lip service to them. As I said before, look at actions, not words. Words are cheap and will fool most of the people most of the time. If the people can't see that they are being fleeced, then they deserve to be called sheeple and will suffer the consequences. - In my anger, I speak from my heart. I don't claim to be right but I do claim the right to speak for what I perceive as the good of Ojai. I welcome discourse and rebuttal which an open thread like this invites. Let it all hang out. Every piece of information, even the most outrageous is valuable. It's the indifference and apathy that is hard to bear. Evil triumphs when good holds its peace. - We're considering a law that will determine the fate of Ojai, and perhaps the fate of our children and grandchildren. Ojai deserves our support. Love, Dennis - I was about to post this when I read spk's comment to "wait for it...read your email Dennis," and anonymous' "It's only a matter of time before he hijacks this one, too." What to do? If I go check my email, I will lose what I have written here. This is my Rubicon. I follow my heart. Post.

dennis, keep being a thorn in everyones side. keep telling the king that he has no clothes. i think that you are seeing the situation very clearly even if the way you express it has no paragraph breaks :)
you speak with passion and with your heart. that is not always neat and tidy.
f__ neat and tidy.

Here is a question for everyone. ?How do you want to be remembered by others? ?Do you live up to your desired epitaph?

I observed the Gridley neighborhood present their case on this before city council but once again felt
their concerns going in one ear and out the other.City council always seems concerned for civic good, then then turns it around to the side of the monied source of power in this case being Cal-Trans and the mining/construction interest.As part of the problem verses part of the solution, clearly the council is the former. PL

What measures exist to make the city council accountable and subject to punishment for deception and subterfuge? This town has an enormous heart, matched by financial resources. Lawsuits may be the only option. Any Ojai patrons out their? Lawyers? Lets put this wild fire of self-interst out.

Dana, i hope that people think that i left the world better than i found it (realizing that "better" is a subjective term), that i honored the world's children by treating them and their planet in ways fitting with my belief that it is loaned to me by them, that i WAS peace whether or not the world as a whole got any more peaceful.

people will probably - as people do - remember silly things like my truth-mobile or various zany hairstyles. those are fun, but i hope that someone recognizes that i made a positive difference, of any size at all, in how our world works and behaves.

Evan, I like what you said very much, and thanks for showing courage to answer this question. I could of qualified the question in a way that would have brought a more immediate response by others, but I left it as a cold prompt, for that takes more courage in honesty to answer.In part, the question comes from seeing what others have written of those who left them.

My daughter and I take hikes all the time, some along the creek, then at other times, as yesterday, through the city. Inevitably here, you pass cemeteries, some small, some huge with little markers that the grass covers in part, to mausoleum's. We can't resist walking about reading the names, dates and inscriptions of affection or of honour.

When I walk through these cemeteries, I think/imagine of all the personal history lived by each of them, along with the wisdom, knowledge and good that once flowed through these bodies, that was passed on to others and eventually to us

How we see ourselves is rarely how others see us. Sometimes, the closer people are in your daily life, the further they are from understanding who you truly are. The dynamics that create this situation are many and varied. What one does day to day to survive is not always in tune or descriptive of their cares and sympathies of the world around them. Yet we all have some good about us that we hold deer in our self awareness that we want to share and be remembered for.

In my life, I have turned away many an opportunity to make more money, for that occupation would take too much time away from my day to day presence with my children. I want to be there for them. I always put my efforts in connecting with my kids still at home. It has payed off.

So if I were to choose the one thing to be remembered by, it is that I put my little ones first, and that mattered to them.

I would too like to be remembered for the good I passed on to others in need, the little and big gestures, that help one who had nowhere else to go. Not so to be honoured, rather, simply, that I cared, and maybe others could be so inspired.