OC Changes

[senoritafish]

I feel pretty sad when I think about how much the landscape around my home has changed. The city of Huntington Beach and the county of Orange are really just in the developer's pockets. There is a hardly any open space around here any more. I am in a rather unique situation of living in the same house I did when I was a fairly small child - my family moved here when I was in second grade. When we first moved in, there were tomato and bean fields less than a mile away- you could smell the tomatoes when they were harvested, a pungent nose crinkling odor. There was a pond a few blocks away, and it was quite common to find toads and tree frogs in our backyard. There was one tree frog that lived on our patio that would chirp in time to the music on the radio. If you turned over one of the decorative rocks in our planters, there was a good chance you would find a California slender salamander. I'm tempted to set a toad house out in the backyard, but I fear it would never be occupied. The pond has been filled in and built on; I haven't seen an amphibian in my yard for years, although we do get the occasional alligator lizard. My bird feeder is visited by house finches, English sparrows, spotted doves and every once in a while, crowned sparrows migrating through the area; both the sparrows and doves are non-native species. When I was small, there were vacant lots all around us; now the last one in my neighborhood just recently sold for $400,000 and will soon be built up into some monstrosity of a house which takes up the entire lot. My kids will no longer know the fun of playing in tall grass and making "houses" where hallways are grass tunnels between rooms and the only ceiling is sky. People once rode horses down our street; the block where the stables were is now a gated development. The city tore down a school in a lower income neighborhood to build a Wal-Mart; and built another school in a new neighborhood where the average home price is at least $750,000, if not more than a million. The bluffs over looking Bolsa Chica, which were supposed to be a regional park, are now a horde of million dollar homes, where it's rumored members of the band Offspring live.

There are a few bright spots, I suppose. The El Toro Marine Base, which the county supervisors insisted must be a new international airport, and rammed down our throats whether we wanted it or not, has been defeated, and will probably be turned into a park. So sue me for being a nimby. Hummingbirds are one native species that thrives around human development because we landscape with so many blooming plants. Black phoebes are getting to be quite common; I don't ever remember seeing them when I was little. Robins are also becoming regulars here, unthinkable 20 years ago. My city recycles, not just by having people set out their cans and newspapers, but by actually going through all the trash and pulling out all the recyclable stuff. The bluffs on the north side of Bolsa Chica will probably never be built on because of continuing court battles. My brother just bought a Prius.

A couple of years ago, I got a phone call from someone doing a survey about development in Orange County, whether we needed another airport, etc. the surveyor was quite surprised to hear I opposed almost everything she brought up. "Well, that's very interesting, I be sure to let our sponsors know!" which I'm sure meant everything I said went straight into the round file. I am probably the only Green Party member in Orange County.