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Posted on 11/25/2001 12:28:47 PM PST by Mark

Sunday, November 25, 2001

Sheen, Reiner can do our thinking for us

By Chris J. Parker

The president says that Ahmanson Ranch shouldn't be built. Who are we to disagree?

No, it wasn't President George W. Bush. He's too busy redeveloping the Afghan landscape to worry about a housing tract in east Ventura County, even if it is a big one: 3,050 homes, two golf courses and 400,000 square feet of commercial and office space on 2,800 acres.

No, the other president -- President Josiah Bartlet of "The West Wing," aka Martin Sheen -- recently announced his opposition to building houses, golf courses and other tools of capitalism in the hillsides north of Calabasas.

Sheen was joined at the press conference by actor-director Rob Reiner, another noted Hollywood expert on urban planning. Reiner also is the one who convinced Californians that we don't know how to teach our children well, especially about the dangers of tobacco. So now his group collects $700 million annually from smokers to tell us how to handle early childhood development.

Once again I ask, who are we to disagree?

After all, we are just the simpletons of west Los Angeles County and Ventura County.

We're not Hollywood celebrities. We're not smart enough to build much-needed housing along the Ventura Freeway corridor, they tell us. We don't know how to manage our community.

It's not their community, by the way: Sheen lives in Malibu, Reiner in Beverly Hills. But I digress.

No, we must be wrong and they must be right. After all, they're celebrities.

And if Reiner and Sheen think it's more important to march on a bank branch to protest a housing tract a dozen miles away than it is to help our government in the fight against terrorism, who are we to stand in the way of their photo op?

But don't they have anything better to do? Isn't there a sandbar in Santa Monica they can rally against? Isn't there an awards show somewhere?

There is a war going on, and the president has asked Hollywood's help. But celebrities have been reluctant to pitch in, wrestling with their politically correct morality that assumes we must be wrong because we're firing a gun.

Housing tracts aren't morally challenging to Hollywood. (The good news for celebrities is the houses don't shoot back.)

Reiner and Sheen are two of the most reliable activists in Hollywood. If there's a politically correct thought to be protected, they'll be there as soon as the camera lights turn on.

What Reiner and Sheen fail to realize this time is that their celebrity won't help. Yes, their celebrity draws attention to the Ahmanson Ranch. But what is obvious to level-minded people (and by that I mean, non-celebrities) is that Ahmanson Ranch is an appropriate project that addresses many of the needs of our community.

As is typical of these drive-by celebrity moments, the criticisms don't match the facts.

Critics say the Ahmanson Ranch project will be bad for the environment, pollute local streams and add smog to our air. In fact, the property's owner -- Washington Mutual -- is spending millions of dollars to protect two rare species found on the site and will protect the Malibu Creek watershed from any pollution runoff. The company will even plant five oak trees for every one oak tree lost during construction.

As for an increase in smog: Yes, houses have a funny way of attracting cars. But the fact of the matter is there's a critical need for more housing in the area. Anyone who has driven on the Ventura Freeway has seen the enormous growth of one of the nation's top tech regions: The 101 Corridor, which stretches from Warner Center in the east to Camarillo in the west.

Housing construction hasn't kept up with the job growth. So there's a good chance that many of those people who commute to jobs in Calabasas, Agoura Hills and Thousand Oaks will move to Ahmanson Ranch, potentially cutting down on their commute time and improving the region's air in the process.

Critics also say Washington Mutual is getting a sweetheart deal. But Ahmanson Ranch is the culmination of years of negotiation, not the start. When Ventura County first approved the project, 10,000 acres in or near the Santa Monica Mountains were transferred into the public's hands to be preserved as permanent open space.

Did Reiner and Sheen say something about affordable housing? Of course they did.

They said that the development doesn't have enough. Yet, with 25 percent of the homes being slated for affordable housing, Ahmanson Ranch will be a lot more accessible than, say, Beverly Hills and Malibu.

But who are we to disagree? We just live here.

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Chris J. Parker lives in Camarillo. He is a former city editor for the Daily News.

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