City doesn’t take care of stuff
Visit Ventura’s Camino Real Park. Be careful as you drive in — the main road in is in even tougher shape than many of our streets. And speaking of streets, take a drive southbound on Victoria past Foothill. Be careful, lots of rough roads and potholes are waiting to damage your tires. Notice how much better Victoria gets once you cross into Oxnard. It would be nice if Victoria was the only problem street in Ventura. Can you imagine what this wet winter will do to our poorly maintained roads?
Next, look at the sorry condition of Camino Real’s eight tennis courts. Some of the weeds are taller than you. What city would put up a sign that basically says, “Sorry, these tennis courts have completed their useful life” It’s a city who doesn’t take care
of their stuff. They can’t blame a lack of money, city income has kept ahead of inflation and population increases.
Unlike nearby Camarillo, they’re just no longer setting aside sufficient funds to maintain courts, streets and medians. This is not healthy for our mental or physical well-being.
It is very difficult to conclude Ventura is being run well when they treat the visible resources so shabbily. Is it at all prudent to reelect the folks in charge?
Pete Hockenmaier, Ventura
Poor treatment of military
It is disgusting the way the Trump administration is treating active-duty military and veterans. I have a relative who has been going through a disability claim for nearly a year. They must go to Los Angeles numerous times, through traffic, construction, time off work, time away from their family, to sort all this out.
While it’s wonderful we have the Ventura clinic now, it does not have the doctors and personnel that they need. I can’t imagine how is it for a veteran who doesn’t have a car or who is disabled that it makes it impossible to get to L.A. They deserve the small amount of disability they are asking for. They serve our country and do everything they are asked to do and always have.
They submit paperwork, deal with the bureaucracy, try to be flexible with canceled appointments at the last minute.
They have reached out to our congressman numerous times and only then do they get information from the Veterans Administration. Does the VA just wait until someone of authority speaks up to do anything for the veterans? We can see how active duty is being treated on ships. It’s almost like this administration is mocking our troops for needed help, physical or mental and it needs to stop.
The VA has always had a bureaucracy problem, but it has been ten times worse in the last year. And all that “waste, fraud, abuse” that Trump got his billionaire pal Elon Musk to get rid of? We can see how that’s worked out so well. Those in charge need to be fired and we must vote the do-nothing, uncaring Republicans out of office.
Karilyn Steward, Ventura
Bus stop needs security
I am writing to you about Pacific View Mall bus stop. It is a very scare place.
I witnessed three fights there, drugs and other things in the bathroom and many homeless people who trash it up. When the police drive by they go to 24 Hour Fitness. Then they come back to the bus stop again.
The bus stop should be a safe place for people coming and going and not for people just hanging around the bus stop all day long. If you are not taking the bus, you should go elsewhere; the bus is for people going and coming. We need the police or a security guard there at all times. One of these days someone will get really hurt at the bus stop.
Therese Caron, Ventura
Fascinated with Arch de Trump
I have been fascinated with the Arch to be built in Washington, D.C. The Arch, as planned, will be 25 stories tall, which will overshadow the Lincoln Memorial and the Arlington Cemetery.
Also, its height will have a negative impact on Dulles airport. Traffic will be negatively affected during the construction. Hopefully, the construction will be better than the Reflection Pool.
Now if the Arch were to be built as part of the great wall on our northern border, it could have a turnstile that would work only one way. What a testament to greatness. On the other hand, maybe Iran at no cost to us would build the Arch adjacent to the Strait of Hormuz, as a monument to its newfound power on the world stage.
Draza Mrvichin, Ventura
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: A city in shambles, mistreatment of military, and more | Letters
