Over development and poor city planning
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7/12/2013
Many folks go on here and rant about how the Mexicans ruined Oxnard, I can tell you as a non-Latino Oxnard Local my who has lived his whole life in this city, the problem lies in poor city planning. Yes, Oxnard was once segregated, with Generational Chicano gangs being a direct result from the alienation of this community by the racism of a bygone era but these gangsters do not exhist anymore. With the recent gang injunction many of these folks have long since disappeared. You may have kids that front gang culture, but many of them have no idea and do not carry the same ethics the cold hearted gangsters of the past believed in. As a matter of fact, most of the formerly segragated communities are occupied by newer Mexicans from the state of Oaxaca and speak the Mixteco dialect. These hard working people work 14+ hours a day 7 days a week and deserve the most respect from within our community for literally putting Vegetables on our table. The real culprit in lowering property values in this city is actually the nearby Naval Installation, which creates a high demand for rental units in the South Oxnard/Hueneme area. Not to mention most of the suburbs in this areas was developed and marketed towards transitioning service members between 1960 thru the seventies, many of whome retired and are renting out their property to sailors stationed here. So within these neighborhoods you have lower-income people that move in due to the low cost of rent [possible lowest in the county] and thats when you get the drug dealing and street hustling that people assume is Gangbanging, but are simply traits of any low income enclaves in the United States. There is simply a lack of opportunity for low income folks, and becuase the suburbs/apartments/condos in the area where built between the 60's and 70's when the baby boomer ideal was one car per house hold. The modern need of everyone in the household requiring a car ensures that every block has millions of parked cars lining the streets. The city of Oxnard should have noticed this trend, instead of building more suburbs to the North towards the 101 they should have focused on creating more sustainable buisness growth and better infrastructure in the south. And here in lies the problem, the city is more accomadating towards newer development in the North and newer middle-class inhabitants who commute to work thru the 101. The heart and core of this city lies in its agriculture and working-class immigrants. The youth I grew up with had a strong do-it-yourself ethic, with many dreaming of going off to college and comming back to Oxnards to make it a better place, thats the city I know and have faith in.
Gil | Oxnard, CA