Endangered in Oxnard

We got problems! Problems right here in Oxnard!

We have a big-time developer, Jim Baldwin, a nice fellow I’m told, who wants to put 478 townhouses and condominiums on 33.41 acres of land in south Oxnard. But the only folks who could live there would have to be blind, deaf (or unable to) smell or just plain like to take risks 24 hours a day. The proposed project buttresses an industrialized complex where companies store and daily handle acutely hazardous materials, like sulfuric acid and sulfuric dioxide, bromine, ammonia and chlorine, not to mention numerous other hazardous materials.

Life endangerment is the surface illustration of a deeper problem. The city attorney shrugs off responsibility, saying that by following the permit process the city is immune from liability and can win any legal suit. What happened to the ethics of all of this? Isn’t that considered part of the civic package: city government looking out for the people who underwrite it?

But get this: That land about which I am writing to you was probably a wetland at one time and now it only buffers a wetland complete with native wildlife. Endangered species are struggling to survive there. The city claims no protective enforcement here either.

So, not only are our people to be endangered, but the animal life is expendable. Part of doing business in Oxnard, you know.

GLORIA M. POSTEL

Oxnard