Reviews & Comments
Vivian, LA
Where white people go to die -
5/2/2013The town is vastly a retirement community.
San Buenaventura (Ventura), CA
Misguaded by incompetent urban planning -
1/17/2011Ventura is my home town, but I could not afford to live there as the cost of housing and taxes made it unfeasible. Ventura has a little great historic architecture left from the early 1900s, and I emphasize little. With some research one can find so much lost heritage, destroyed for the sake of commercialism and a misguided failed attempt to modernize the city in the 1950s. The downtown is an eclectic mess of old business made to look new thus neither accomplishing a modern nor old character. Ventura lost the one attribute that could have made it different than all the other Southern California communities, a real history exemplified by classic Victorian homes and businesses. With the exception of City Hall, the Bard (former) Hospital and two old (former) bank buildings, I dare anybody to take a picture of Ventura which could be featured on a tourist brochure. The city is vastly homogeneous with common utilitarian buildings, franchised restaurants, uninspired residential units and ubiquitous neo Spanish strip malls. It is my understanding that there has been a recent arts movement that it is vastly modern, a style that is ephemeral and should be relegated to ash heap of history in the future.
Another negative is that there is a history of perpetual drought and water rationing. The wilderness consists of scrub brush, brown most of the year and the wild fires coat the city in ash which is an annoying health hazard. There is a wind called the Santa Ana that is hot and dry, it makes life miserable for a month.
Vivian, LA
A quiet community -
1/17/2011The people of Vivian are vastly senior citizens. The next largest population group are African Americans. The young to middle aged Caucasian demographic largely consists of the deer hunter type although the deer population has been reduced so much that they are rarely seen.