We all need to have one, why not our city
Oceanside, like other cities in California, is facing a financial crisis. Not all of it is our fault, but we're in this mess regardless.
For too many years Oceanside has outsourced businesses that located or relocated elsewhere.
Examples of Costco, The Carlsbad Mall and Car Country Carlsbad come to mind immediately.
Oceanside likes to have that 'small town' feel and that's a good thing. However, we're one of the largest cities in California. We're certainly bigger than the surrounding cities and need to start acting like it.
We need to grow jobs in this city in order to pay for the services we have and want to have.
We need to better utilize our beach, harbor and pier. The very name 'Oceanside' means we are, in fact, near the ocean. We need to better transmit that to people who might want to vacation here.
We can't, as a city, expect our citizens to adhere to a budget when we can't. Every citizen has a budget that they need to follow. Our city is no different. There is a difference between want and need. We need to get the things we need first. We can want later when the recession is over.
The second thing is I'd like to encourage, if elected, every building being built from this day forward to use solar energy in their building. We hear about it in remodeling, it's supposed to keep the rates down, so why not use it from the first moment of building?
We also have a water shortage and will continue to have one. It is imperative to get a desalanation plant up and running in the near future. Agreed they are expensive, but so is importing water from the Colorado River. We live in a semi-arid area. It's what attracted most people to live here in the first place. But with 180,000 plus citizens using water, we're running out. We have an unlimited supply just to the west of us. Why not tap into that resource?
The same goes with cars. All we hear about now is hybrids and how they save money and gas. If we install roundabouts like they do in Europe, it helps cut gasoline use by not stopping when no other cars are in the area. We can do so many little things that end up helping us big time. All we have to do is implement them. If I'm elected to the city council, these are some of the things I will try and accomplish. We need to locate businesses in Oceanside, we need to utilize solar power, we need a desalanation plant and we need roundabouts when they make sense. Thank you.
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