∙ Wow, this is the 15th anniversary of the Ventra Breeze. Very hard to believe that it’s our 15th year. A big thank you to our dedicated staff, wonderful readers, much needed advertisers and donors who keep us going.
∙ The Ventura Christian School is getting closer to final eviction. It has leased the MacMilllan Avenue building from Ventura Unified School District (VUSD) for the last 20 years. The district has filed court documents for its removal. The building is over 100 years old.
The VUSD stated that the school’s lease was never renewed after expiring in June. The building has been determined to be of a “potentially unsafe condition” by a building inspection, which is being disputed by the school along with religious discrimination.
∙ Controversy over how rent increases are determined for Ventura mobile home parks has always been very controversial. Residents of mobile home parks are upset they can’t challenge the costs of capital improvements that could increase their rent.
Under the current ordinance, when a capital improvement is made rent can be increased based on the cost of the improvements.
The city council is concerned that if it allows for challenges to proceed it could put the entire existing mobile home park ordinance at risk of a lawsuit if it was amended.
Councilmember Jim Friedman said, “I’m fearful that what we do may cause you to lose something that is extremely important, which is rent control.”
This is a tough one. If improvements are really necessary to maintain a park in a proper living condition the owners might not make necessary improvements if they can’t increase rent to cover their costs. In this case, residents might then complain about the conditions at the facilities.
∙ Mayor Sofia Rubalcava delivered the annual State of the City Address at the City Council Meeting on October 10, as well as at an event hosted by the Ventura Chamber of Commerce on September 22. A recording of the event, including presentation slides in English and Spanish are available at https://www.cityofventura.ca.gov/2126/State-of-the-City.
Topics highlighted during the 2022 State of the City presentation included:
- Overview of the Fiscal Year 2022-23 Budget.
- Community Survey 2022 Results.
- Overview of the seven-member City Council.
- Overview of the City’s team of department directors.
- Highlights of recent City and partnership successes
- Economic Development updates.
- Encouragement to get involved in the City’s General Plan Update and background on the process.
∙ The U.S. House Jan. 6 committee has voted to subpoena former President Donald Trump to testify. It presented interviews with his aides and new documents detailing his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
The vote seeking Trump’s testimony comes as the panel produced many new details and evidence of Trump’s state of mind as he refused to concede his election loss to Joe Biden, resulting in the 2021 attack at the Capitol.
Trump did not say whether he would comply with the subpoena. Instead, he repeated various long-debunked election claims that he makes in public that he won while privately admitting that he lost the election.
If he has indeed broken the laws of this country, he must be held accountable, just as you and I would be (maybe I could plead freedom of the press).
∙ Most American’s are disturbed that some countries have morality police that arrest women for how they dress. Doesn’t this country also have morality police?
It wasn’t that long ago that police raided “gay” bars and arrested men who were present even though they did not create any crimes or harm anyone. They have the same rights to be happy that we all have.
And, today doctors who provide abortions and recipients of abortions are being (or will be) arrested for what some perceive as immoral acts.
∙ Scores on the ACT college admissions test by this year’s high school graduates hit their lowest point in more than 30 years, the latest evidence of the enormity of learning disruption during the COVID pandemic.
The class of 2022’s average ACT composite score was 19.8 out of 36, marking the first time since 1991 the average score was below 20. And an increasing number of high school students have failed to meet any of the subject-area benchmarks set by the ACT, showing a decline in preparedness for college-level work.
This could set back our education system for many years because it will be very difficult for students to catch up.
According to a 2017 UNESCO report, the number of students worldwide attending higher education institutions increased from 100 million in 2000 to 207 million in 2014. But which countries are the most educated? This is not as easy a question to answer.
Despite the vagueness of the concept, multiple surveys and studies have done their best to determine which countries have the most-educated population. One of the most highly regarded analyses comes from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, which released its list of the world’s most educated countries in 2018.
The Top 10 Most-Educated Countries does not even include the U.S. so we are behind to begin with. The top 3 are Canada, Japan and Israel.
∙ Saw an ad on TV for pants that have “a hidden phone pocket.” What if you need your phone and you can’t find it?
∙ Saw an ad “Express Hand Wax” $120. Seems like a lot to have your hand waxed. Maybe 2 would only be $200?
