Guest Commentary
by Robert E. Bennett
I grew up in Burbank, California and in the late 1950s, global warming was always present in the summer. That’s why my mother and father would get us in our 1957 Ford Country Sedan station wagon and head on down to La Jolla. I had four aunts and a grandmother living there. We would take Hwy 101 to Santa Ana and then head to the coast and intersect Hwy 1 at San Clemente. Then it was down to La Jolla on a Friday night after my parents had finished their work week. My God what a beautiful place. I had a friend named Charley who lived next door to my grandmother on Avenida Cresta. I wanted to live there.
It was usually dark by this time as we had to leave after my parents came home. But I can still remember how beautiful the trip was. The moon was out sometimes and the coastline was lit up as if by searchlight. And there were very few cars after we left Oceanside. The highway was clean, well paved, and safe. Illegal aliens were things that appeared in sci-fi movies at the Saturday afternoon movie theatre matinees.
I just got back from a stay at the Del Mar Hilton Hotel. My wife and I took a break from the heat of Carson Valley, Nevada, to get some quality sea breezes. And I admit, at age 62 my memory can be selective. A few million more people can make a difference. But there is something very wrong with California. It appears dirty, unkempt, and expensive. There is an urgency to go everywhere fast for some undisclosed reason. But the biggest difference from my many trips to So Cal is the decay in the public infrastructure.
Since Hwy 1/101 is a public roadway, it would normally be maintained by federal, state, and local government agencies. But we noticed that there are some parts of the PCH that are well maintained and others that are third world. Some towns have kept the medians and parking strips well maintained but others have let them deteriorate. In between towns where there is State jurisdiction,. the median landscaping has not been performed for what appears to be years. And what has happened to the formerly high quality state park system. Some of the towns take good care of their beaches, i.e. Del Mar, Carlsbad, etc. But the state?
Gasoline costs $.35 a gallon more than in Minden, Nevada. Both stations are ARCOs. Why is that? Besides the occupancy tax, our hotel had a SD Tourism District Assessment tax. Huh? With a very high state income tax, and a high sales tax, and taxes that I’m sure I don’t even know exist, where is the money going? PCH should be a magic carpet on the most beautiful piece of beach in the world. But just go through Leucadia, it’s like ruralsville.
So my friends, continue the good fight to lift the burden of welfare state Socialism off of your shoulders. And maybe your children will be able to enjoy traveling around the So Cal coastline like their grandparents used to, on a publicly funded magic carpet. Perhaps if Marxist redistributionism is eliminated, there might be some money left over for the wishes of the taxpayers.
We will be back.
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Mr. Bennett lives in Genoa, Nevada and is an avid fan of SD Rostra.