Skate Ojai Saga Continues: Year Two
The following is a message from Skate Ojai
Your patience and support for the new Ojai permanent skate park have been tremendous. Hopefully, you are as tired of all the emails, city council & school board meetings, and talk, talk, talk, as we are.
The saga goes on and the School District is truly now trying to stop this project.
Please read the recent article in the View entitled, Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave, When at First We Practice to Deceive. It spells out what the scenario might really be as we go into Year Two of this effort.
During the last year the School Board has written several times in the paper that they do not want the new skate park located there due to excessive drug use and vandalism. Recently we acquired the crime statistics from the Ventura County Sheriff's Department.
You will see that the numbers clearly show that the LEAST amount of calls of all 5 youth frequented locations is the SKATE PARK!
NOTE: this is for 1 1/2 year period from January 2008 to July 2009
* 414 E. Ojai Avenue- Chapparal, Park n' Ride parking lot and the skate park - 27 calls
* 510 Park Avenue - Sarazotti Park - 137 calls
* 251 Ojai Avenue - Libby Park - 416 calls
* Matilija Jr. High - 106 calls
* Norhoff High School - 734 calls
Clearly the skate park is not our city's trouble spot!
It turns out, the real reason the School Board does not want the skate park there is because they want to develop the property!
It doesn’t seem to be widely known that the School Board has been drawing up plans, putting out to bid and soliciting funding for a large development on the very property they have leased to the city. Did you know that they are planning a 75,000 sq. ft. development with business offices, a three screen movie theatre, a hotel and low income housing for that block? Was that mentioned in any of the letters in the paper or interviews with reporters by our former Superintendent? Or more recently by Ms. Taylor when interviewed by the Ventura Star? No. They cited vandalism and teen drug use as their reasons for not wanting the park there. It seems they used our kids as a diversion tactic. They tainted innocent kid’s reputations and basically labeled a group of kids with derogatory names to serve their purpose.
Whether or not the school board indeed develops the land or not, is not really the issue. Whatever they do, they should incorporate the new skate park in their plans and stand by their word and lease contract.
Teenagers are dealing with enough these days! The recent murder has shattered all the honor codes of our town. Our kids now wonder who they can trust. They worry about where they can gather and be safe. They are not sure who has their back.
The School Board, leading the rest of the community, should be working hard to rebuild the fabric of our community and showing our youth that adults are trustworthy. Let's show them what integrity looks like.
The City Council has also promised our youth, face to face, time and time again, that this skate park will be built.
They put out a challenge to raise the money.
$350,000 has been in the bank for over 1 year!
It is time for the community to call those that they have elected to the integrity table.
So, what can you do?
1) Share this with all your Ojai friends, acquaintances, and business associates. It is beyond just the skate park issue. It is now about developing downtown Ojai, welcoming our new superintendent, supporting our youth and most of all, integrity.
2) Please go to the City Council Meeting on Tuesday, July 28th at 7:00 p.m. (TODAY). You do not have to speak, though that would be wonderful. Just come and show them you care. Or, stand up and tell them that you demand they keep their word.
3) Write a note to any or all of the papers. Thumbs down, letter to the editor, feature opinion, etc. You can also contribute to the Ojai Valley News or here on the Ojai Post. You can be anonymous in the blogs.
4) Go to the next School Board meeting. Meet the new Superintendent. Ask him if he plans to uphold the School District's moral and legal commitment to their youth. The city has a lease signed by Jim Berube himself, good through 2025.
Hold our adults to the moral codes we want our youth to embody. These are the future leaders of Ojai.
Thank you so much for your time and continued support,
Skate Ojai
To learn more, visit Skate Ojai online.
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Comments (9)
Thanks for Posting this Kenley, especially with the link to the recent article in the View entitled, "Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave, When at First We Practice to Deceive." I urge everyone to read this!
The title should say: Skate Ojai Saga Continues: Year TEN (it might be eight or nine but getting close to ten years since the idea for a skate park was first presented to the City.)
See the related Guest Editorial by Pat McPherson: "Why does it take Ojai so long to build a skate park?"
Last night the Ojai Democatic Club passed a Skate Park Resolution. There should be a press release or Comment on this soon.
Comment #1 Posted by: Suza | July 28, 2009 08:34 AM
Alas, I heard this "rumor" during the last City Councl election, but to see it spelled out like this is SHOCKING!
It turns out, the real reason the School Board does not want the skate park there is because they want to develop the property!
It doesn’t seem to be widely known that the School Board has been drawing up plans, putting out to bid and soliciting funding for a large development on the very property they have leased to the city. Did you know that they are planning a 75,000 sq. ft. development with business offices, a three screen movie theatre, a hotel and low income housing for that block?
Comment #2 Posted by: PS | July 28, 2009 08:43 AM
Great article Kenley.
The following is a resolution proposed by Pat McPherson last night at the Ojai Valley Democratic Club's General Members meeting:
The members present voted in favor of the resolution. In answer to any questions as to why the OVDC would be interested in this matter, the club is one of the 600 donors to this very worthy and long overdue project.
Mr. McPherson will be presenting this resolution to the Ojai City Council tonight at the meeting.
Comment #3 Posted by: SPK | July 28, 2009 12:12 PM
Someone just called me who read the above Post by Kenley Neufeld and my Comments underneath. They rightly pointed out that I forgot to place quotes around the paragraphs I copied above. And they pointed out that without quotation marks it looks like I'm the one saying that all this development is waiting in the wings, whereas in truth I'm quoting Kenley's sources.
So I promised I would write this correction. Hope this clarification helps.
Comment #4 Posted by: Suza | July 28, 2009 12:15 PM
Thanks, SPK! Our Comments crossed in cyberspace.
Just to be clear, Comment #4 refers to Comment #2.
Comment #5 Posted by: Suza | July 28, 2009 12:23 PM
I think we should all congradulate the kids of Ojai for the maturity, effort and gumption they have shown in sticking with this effort for so long. Having raised 350K in one year is tremendous!
The most troubling thing here is the falsehoods and misleading words being spoken by our elected representatives..again.. Come on Ojai - you are better then that! We have an opportunity to show our children that HONESTY counts. The council very clearly said, 'raise the money and we will build it'. Well, the money is there, so what about it city council? Now that the cats out of the bag, are you going to continue to level false accusations at our youth or are you going to do the right thing? This is your moment to either show yourself to be true to your word or not. So, I ask each of you on the city council, what kind of lesson do you want to teach the kids?
Comment #6 Posted by: George Plomarity | July 28, 2009 02:15 PM
Do the right thing: BUILD THE SKATE PARK.
Comment #7 Posted by: Frank Still | July 28, 2009 06:22 PM
read this on the OVN blog this afternoon:
http://ovnblog.com/?p=1603
Comment #8 Posted by: Donna | August 12, 2009 02:33 PM
Thanks, Donna, everyone interested in the skatepark saga should read this!
Comment #9 Posted by: Suza | August 12, 2009 03:21 PM