CRPD plan isn’t horse-friendly
If having horses and related programming freely available in the Conejo Valley is important to you, please contact Conejo Recreation and Park District (CRPD) Director Jim Friedl and Andrew Mooney and voice your opposition to their recently unveiled Concept Plan for (over)development of Conejo Creek West Park, the “horse park” in Thousand Oaks adjacent to the 23F, accessed off of Avenida de las Flores.
Their new plan includes putting a bunch of non-horse-friendly activities in the park, including remote-controlled car tracks, pickleball courts, landscaped picnic areas, vehicular roads and multi-use trails, and significantly reducing and breaking up the space available for horses. This would create serious safety concerns for the horses, riders, and others, and would effectively discourage and possibly extinguish horse programming at the park.
The equestrians in the community know horses, horse behavior, and safety, and CRPD needs to collaborate with them and take advantage of their expert knowledge to craft a development plan that actually works. CRPD has developed a massive soccer complex and is building a huge skate park. Why not develop Conejo Creek West for expanded horse activities and facilities, to honor and foster the equestrian roots of the Thousand Oaks community? What a gem that could be.
Chris Reiber, Thousand Oaks
Orozco qualified to be supervisor
Re: Halla Maher’s March 31 letter, “Run for supervisor appalling”:
A close look at the candidates for Ventura County Board of Supervisors, coupled with serious consideration of what’s at stake for our entire county, will convince principled voters to support Ashley Orozco for Supervisor, District 2.
Ms. Maher’s letter disparaging Ms. Orozco is misguided and misses a bigger picture.
While Ashley Orozco’s work experience, education, and record of community involvement clearly qualify her for the role, it’s her values that, for me and a significant and growing number of others, make her the better choice.
Simply put, she prioritizes social and environmental justice over moneyed special interests. As one small example (of many available), her opponent, the incumbent, voted to allow oil drilling near Oxnard homes and schools. Check his voting record for numerous other examples.
Ms. Orozco’s commitment to the community represents what is urgently needed now. Her vote impacts the entire county, not just District 2. Ashley Orozco would ensure that ordinary working families and our precious environment are represented in each vote she makes.
As the federal government continues to decimate environmental protections and put corporate interests ahead of people, do we really want to see those same values reflected in our local leaders?
Kathleen Wheeler, Ventura
Trump’s terrible cabinet choices
Re: USA TODAY’s April 24 story, “FBI director faces probe on drinking accusations”:
We’ve witnessed the departures of President Trump cabinet members Bondi, Chavez-DeRemer and Noem and now the current FBI Director Patel appears to have issues.
Mr. Patel denies he has a drinking problem but as a recovering alcoholic I like Mr. Patel always denied I had a drinking problem (no matter how drunk I was). Rumors around Washington have indicated that Secretary of Defense Hegseth may also have drinking issues while he practices total abstinence. Once again “normal drinkers” usually don’t have to resort to total abstinence if there are no problems/issues related to alcohol from my personal drinking experiences.
Health Secretary Kennedy continues to reduce vaccine mandates while measle cases are rising to new highs as I type this letter.
Three cabinet members are gone and three others under investigation in the first year of the president’s term.
Could the president who nominated these people perhaps be part of the problem?
Walt Oliver, Santa Paula
Ventura to repeat same mistake
Re: Sarabelen Lopez’s April 22 guest column, “Why the VenturaWaterPure project matters to my generation”:
Ms. Lopez is so right, “nature isn’t just part of the scenery.” In Ventura we are blessed with two rivers and the Pacific Ocean, but it seems we keep making the same mistakes.
More than 30 years ago, the city of Ventura constructed a bike path right on the shoreline at Surfers Point. The ocean soon reclaimed the beach, and it took decades to undo the mistake. Today the relocated bike path is protected by imported cobbled and constructed dunes that are much more than just scenery. In the end, that $200,000 bike path cost $20 million to fix, entirely because decision-makers did not understand and respect the forces of nature.
Unfortunately, the city of Ventura is planning to repeat the same mistake, only this time billions of dollars are on the line. In the great floods of 1969, the Santa Clara River jumped its banks and flowed through the wastewater treatment plant and into the Ventura marina. Broken pipes spilled raw sewage into the ocean for weeks.
Now Ventura has decided that the WaterPure plant should be built right in the path of this historic flood. Only this time it’s different. It is well established that climate change will cause sea levels to rise by many feet over the coming century. Combined with ever more powerful atmospheric rivers, this location will be subject to unimaginable flooding.
Rather than doubling down on this hazardous site, the city should be planning to relocate all water and wastewater infrastructure to higher ground out of harm’s way. To do anything else is an insult to the next generation.
Paul Jenkin, Ventura
Learn about LGBTQ community
Hello parents, please reflect with me. I am writing this now on few hours of sleep, bags under my eyes, and with a heavy heart so this is not a demand, not something I’m meaning to subject you to, but a mere request. Are you ever purposefully misunderstood? You say one thing to someone and suddenly the thing you said is twisted, taken too literally, and/or thought to be a confession to some kind of thought crime and all of the previously listed done with intent?
That’s what it feels like to be a member of the LGBTQ community in this day and age.
An ad was recently published in the Simi Valley Acorn entitled, “Parents Need to Know How to Say ‘No Thanks’ to Gender Chaos.” The ad claimed that SVUSD teachers were being trained to groom your children into being gay. Mind you this ad contains no sources for the claims they are making. In my experience as a queer person, this is nothing but a feeble and asinine attempt to villainize my community and incite fear against my community.
When I saw that ad, I was not livid, I was not angry; I was severely disheartened. How subhuman do I have to be for someone to say those things? To frame me as a predator just because I’m different from them? I don’t understand, I likely never will.
If you are concerned about “the gay agenda,” I pray you go to a Pride event. Meet my community, interact with us, be curious. You will find that because for our entire existence we have been interrogated in regards to our normalcy, we are very open to respectful questions.
Be less supercilious and more curious.
Claire Menges, Simi Valley
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: ‘Horse park,’ supervisor race, Trump’s cabinet, and more | Letters
Reporting by Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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