Ventura Avenue used to be the main road through Ventura. It’s been a long time since that has been true. For many years areas around the west side have been blighted, abandoned and in disrepair. It’s almost as if West Ventura is a separate town from the rest. Much of that stems from the abandoned Shell Chemical Plant. Closed in 1984, the facility has been left to rust, leak hazardous materials and attract vandals and the homeless to set up camps. My goal is to help cleanup that substantially depressed but amazingly beautiful area. (if you look around, ignoring the facility, it’s really beautiful). I would help turn that into a viable , useful and more beautiful location for many activities. The westside would greatly benefit from a project like the Ventura Community Park in the East End. I envision a West End gem that has soccer fields, Softball fields, Indoor roller derby, bicycle trails, retail shops etc. Once that area is attractive and useful then the surrounding areas will increase in their attractiveness as well. A sense of pride is infectious.
