Ojai Valley News Blog

FROM: Detective Mark Burgess

Ojai Police detectives are warning Ojai Valley residents of an increase in reported vehicle burglaries and thefts from vehicles.  Most of the crimes are occurring during nighttime hours.  The suspects are targeting unlocked vehicles and locked vehicles in which property is in plain view.  Access to locked vehicles is typically gained by breaking a window.  The types of property stolen recently have included laptop computers, purses, and jewelry. The vehicles targeted have been parked in various locations such as driveways, streets, and parking lots.  They have been unattended for as little as 30 minutes.

Please be aware thefts and vehicle burglaries will increase as the holiday season approaches.

Here are some recommendations to protect yourself from being a victim:

Always make sure your vehicle is locked.  Double-check it before leaving.

If you are shopping, place all of your purchases in the trunk.  Do not leave items in an area where they can be seen from outside the car.

3.     Do not hide personal property underneath the seat. Lock your personal property in the trunk.

Even for short periods of time, do not leave your purse, laptop computer, cellular phone, wallet, backpack or anything else in plain view inside your vehicle.

Avoid parking in isolated, poorly lit areas.

Be aware of your surroundings.  Report suspicious activity to the police.

UPDATED January 26, 2010:
Fidel Duran was sentenced to nine years in prison for reportedly admitting to the charge of attempted murder. On Jan. 25, 2010, Rutilio Huerta was sentenced to six months in county jail for battery and criminal street gang activity.

By Lenny Roberts
Almost 11 months after a near-fatal stabbing incident on Waite Street, one man has pleaded guilty to multiple felonies and another has been arrested for his complicity in the crime.

No stranger to law-enforcement, 19-year-old Fidel Duran admitted last week that he stabbed 28-year-old Joshua Powers as he walked home from a New Year’s Eve party at 1:45 a.m. Jan. 1. Duran was arrested in June following a five-month investigation by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Gang Unit.

According to authorities, Powers was stabbed 17 times as he lay on the ground after being confronted by Duran and 20-year-old Rutilio Huerta, who was arrested last week. In a statement issued by Major Crimes Sgt. Bill Schierman, the suspects fled, leaving Powers lying unconscious. A short time later, an anonymous person reported seeing Powers lying in the street. Powers was transported to the Ojai Valley Community Hospital where he spent several days after nearly succumbing to his injuries.

Duran was booked for attempted murder and street terrorism. Special allegations of using a deadly weapon, causing great bodily injury during the commission of a felony, and the commission of a felony for benefit of a street gang were subsequently added.

Huerta was booked into the Ventura County Main Jail on preliminary charges of battery and participating in street gang activity. He pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to appear in court today for a preliminary hearing.

Powers’ grandfather, Ojai resident Walter Powers, said his grandson has recovered well from his injuries, but has some remaining nerve damage in his hand. “We want to thank the city and people for supporting Josh,” the elder Powers said.

Walter Powers commented on published comments about his grandson being in the ‘wrong place at the wrong time:’ “We don’t have a wrong place or wrong street in Ojai. They were on the wrong street and now they’re in the right place — in jail.”

Darlene Mansfield with old rotary phone and cover of the 1954 Ojai Valley Directory.

Reprinted phone book puts nostalgia on speed dial

By Nancy Gross
Did someone say they were headed up Highway 399 to stop by the Deer Lodge for a drink, a game of shuffleboard and to pick up some ice and groceries? It is likely someone did, in 1954.

Darlene Mansfield, whose husband was “the whistling telephone man in this valley” has put out a reprint of the 1954 Ojai Valley Directory, published by the Ojai Publishing Company, its original publisher. Ojai Publishing had already been in business for 63 years in 1954. Some things change, and some don’t change as much, and anyone with an interest in Ojai history or general nostalgia will enjoy being able to compare the present to the time capsule provided by this reprint.

The Deer Lodge’s advertisement in the back of the book is under the heading “Taverns,” and reads, “Deer Lodge, Tavern, Dancing-Shuffleboard, Grocery, Open 7 days a week, Ice-Chevron gasoline, Maricopa Hwy., Ph. Ojai 464.” A map in the back of the directory shows that Maricopa Highway had the designation of Highway 399 in those days.

The Deer Lodge floor doesn’t retain any remnants of the shuffleboard courts, as far as employee Susie Augustsson knows though she remarks that owners Jerry and Lisa Kenton have their own stash of memorabilia on the establishment. “We have customers who come in here now who say, ‘Oh my gosh, my parents brought me here when I was little. They gave me a penny or a nickel to go into the little store while they would get a drink.’ There was something called the ice house,” Augustsson said.

Conversations like this are likely to be heard all over the valley and beyond, as residents purchase the 1954 directory both for themselves, and as gifts for family and friends who have moved away. It is available at Ben Franklin, True Value, and on ebay. “Many people are buying two copies,” Mansfield said.

“This book is really about the people who lived here — they were the nucleus of this community,” Mansfield said. “It shows who we were, what we did, where we went.”

“1954. That doesn’t seem old to me,” Mansfield said, who is brimming with memories related to the valley, augmented by the fact that her husband was more or less “the only telephone installer up here.” She has dedicated the reprint to his memory. “He met everyone who came here. After he retired, he would still get calls. He would go over in his old VW, fix the phone and come back with a plate of cookies.”

She points out the foldout map, where one can find Henderson Airstrip. “It was small, but it was a status symbol, we had our own airfield, mind you.” The sister of a friend of the Mansfields once landed a plane there that was in no sense “an itty bitty private plane.” When told she couldn’t do it, the woman had replied, “You don’t know my pilot,” and indeed, she did it.

Another feature that appears on the map at Woodland and Highway 399 (now 33) is long-gone Mirror Lake, where Mansfield’s mother’s 11-year-old brother used to ride on his bicycle to collect frogs and pollywogs. “He once saw a rowboat sitting there with its oars, and took it out on the lake and it capsized, terrifying him. But he wasn’t hurt, as the lake was only 2.5 feet deep.”

Mansfield grew up in Ojai and only left briefly when she was a young woman. “I went and worked for U.S. Steel in San Francisco.” Her boyfriend at the time was a quarterback for San Francisco State University, and he lost his balance and then lost his life in a serious fall.

Mansfield’s parents wanted her to return to Ojai, so she packed up so that her father could come pick her up: “It was the ‘50s. You didn’t leave home without your ironing board and your lipstick.” She hasn’t left Ojai since, and she married Don shortly after that.

Mansfield points out the three and four digit phone numbers in the 1954 directory. She also says, “We didn’t have a phone. We’d have to go to my grandma’s house. She had a 10-party line.”

The reissued 1954 Ojai Valley Directory is not altered from the original, and begins with an essay about the valley. “Entering the picturesque valley on State Highway 150 from Santa Paula, thousands of travelers pause each year at the summit of Dennison Grade to enjoy the beauty of this rolling citrus valley spread out far below them and surrounded by the nearly continuous range of mountain peaks which give it the appearance of an American ‘Shangri-La.’”

The page after the essay offers a glimpse into the 1950s style of describing families and professions: “Your Ojai Valley directory lists the head of the family, the wife’s given name in parenthesis, occupation, address, mailing address, phone number and the names of minor children.” Apparently, if the wife had an occupation, that went into her parentheses as well, though most listings are without this.

A sample listing reads: “Bowie Wm (Hattie, dep cty clk) Ojai orng assn Grand av Rt 1 Box 17A ph 598-Mina, Bill.” And another: “Bjornstedt Arthur (Lerie, welcome wagon) survyr Cal Prep PO Box 678 Foothill rd ph 2438-Christina Erik.”

Congress is not healthy for children and other living things…or compassionate candidates.

By Peter Strauss
Unbeknownst to most people I recently made a decision not to run for Congress representing our 24^th District. I was approached in June and met in Washington with Democratic Party officials and White House political directors. Apparently they saw me as a worthy candidate who might have unseated the 22-year incumbent who is our Congressman.

The decision not to run, reached after days, weeks, and months of deliberation, has left me ill at ease. The problems ahead-health care reform, war, environment, immigration, the deficit and jobs among many others-did not deter me. We are, after all, a country of problem solvers. Nor was I dissuaded by the angry voices of extremists.

I felt secure I have political skills and the passion to devote myself to an idealistic and rational, compassionate philosophy. I was eager to hear and represent the voices of our district. I was ready to make a commitment that would have asked profound sacrifice on the part of my wife and family and to have terminated my career as an actor.

So why did I chose not to run?

Upon closer examination the landscape that lay before me was dour indeed. In fact it appeared completely compromised. What first sobered me was the amount of money I would have to raise to run a Congressional campaign for District 24. Early estimates were 2.6 to 3 million dollars! And therein was a dilemma: how does one accumulate that much money and not owe someone… somewhere…. something? Isn’t that the fundamental conflict of democratic principals?

But it was the perception of powerlessness that really alarmed me, as if Congress is oblivious, blind. I don’t only mean to the poor or those trapped in misfortune.

I mean… all of us!

The greatest crises confronting this country…as insidious an enemy as terrorism…but from within… are the growing power exerted by major corporations to affect any and all governmental decision making… and the devaluation of public education.

Congress has become an entrepreneurial venture.

There cannot be genuine health care reform when almost every politician who casts votes has accepted massive amounts of money from the very industry they are being asked to reform; there cannot be crucial Wall Street reform when Congressional members have accepted millions, yes millions of dollars, from the very industry they are being asked to reform. There cannot be any real reform when all members of Congress stand to enrich themselves and not the people they are pledged to serve; the system that funnels money into their “reelection campaigns” is vote buying. Period.

Are we to let Citi, Bear Stearns, Chrysler, and Blue Cross become the decisive factor in our children’s future??

But we, the people, would seem powerless to change that. Because there is an inherent problem when we turn to government to solve problems when they are responsible for the problems. It’s their game; the anemic compromises they unctuously announce are really “smoke and mirrors.” Fat on bailouts and bonuses corporations become even more brazen as they attempt to sway voters with massive capital investment in campaigns themselves. We are marketed, manipulated, and misinformed… but not fooled. We know this is not the essence of good government we ever subscribed to. Yet our representatives will point to their flag lapel buttons and assure us they are the true patriots. The defenders of capitalism. But when capitalism overrules the people America is not democratic.

Visit the website www.opensecrets.org and there revealed is Congress…in all its ugliness and corruption. Herein lies the real “stimulus” that motivates all Representatives and Senators to make choices regardless of the voices of the voters.

And what of education…that made America great? The dumbing down of America, the tone of coarseness that envelops us from media to sports to government coupled with reduced education funding would suggest a horror film plot of a growing menace. And yet…why do we allow government to feed itself while starving education? In our district students applied to CSU campuses in record numbers this year. Applications are up by 53 percent over last year, but the system is raising fees by 32 percent while cutting enrollment and classes. State funding is down by 7 billion!

This is as obscene as Wall Street bailouts and bonuses.

Under-funding education is shooting ourselves in the foot. It is education that enables us to compete globally. From it emanates the innovation that leads to technologies that foster industries like green and biotech technologies that produce…yup, jobs! That is the road to economic recovery!

Those denied education-especially those from minorities or poverty who need education as stepping-stones are particularly vulnerable and dependent on government protection. Left in limbo they are abandoned-as if unseen-on a precarious landscape that accentuates disparity. And it becomes dangerous. Look at the current divisive and angry tone.

If it is hunger, lack of opportunity, and the absence of education that produces growth in crime … then it facilitates the extremist’s sly demand for tough “law and order.” Unemployment of significant numbers and duration provides fertile ground for those fanning and focusing the fires of hatred-their sights set on immigrants, the poor, and social justice advocates. Add to that none-too-subtle racism and we are divided and conflicted as to the true identity of our American character, especially when we vilify those struggling to transition into their American dream.

The extremists do not reflect the America I love. America is not a “them” versus “us.” It is a “we.” And it is education that has always served to equalize us.

We, the people, must regain control of our government and away from corporate interference; we need to reclaim the fundamental principles of good governance. When we promote well-being for all, inclusion rather than exclusion, when we end inequities that cause suffering… that is the real American character.

So, problem solvers…how do we do that?

Ojai resident Peter Strauss is an actor and citrus grower. He was recently awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Ojai City Council.