This is in response to “Small-town goodness exists,” by Roger Sayers Jr. that appeared in the Saturday, Dec. 16 Record-Bee. How can increased traffic, pollution, and litter, plus the loss of open space and wildlife be good for our County?
You want more people to shop in Lakeport, but when you stand at a cash register several minutes to wait for the clerk to finish a personal phone call before making your sale, you decide to shop in Santa Rosa. When you order food and are charged 27 cents for a glass of water, or when told that merchandise prices are higher here because they have to “drive it up the mountain,” you decide to shop in Santa Rosa.
You want more people to come to this area and they do come in the summer. The result is trash and drink cans littering the roadsides, dead deer and small animals all over our roads, and lines of traffic that require long waits to enter Highway 29 because our roads don”t have (and we don”t want!) traffic lights to engineer traffic breaks.
These “Cracker Jack” golf courses with 2,000 houses here and there as you talk about so lovingly, will only stress our infrastructure to the breaking point. Just read the papers to find out about water problems all around the lake. Even now the decision has been made to sell the golf courses in Buckingham and Clear Lake Riviera to developers because they”re not profitable.
Urban sprawl is what chased many of us from crowded, smoggy, billboard-lined street-trashed cities to beautiful Lake County. We love the trees, the wildlife, the quiet, the small-town atmosphere. Those that loved crowded city living should live happily in the city and not change Lake County any further. We don”t need more empty homes to join the huge supply of existing empty homes for sale and for rent. If you add ten thousand people to Lakeport, they won”t care for poor quality, overpriced, or unavailable goods either and they will probably decide to shop in Santa Rosa.
We have seen the results of sprawl” and we are Nervous Nellies” for a reason!
M. Norton
Kelseyville
