Limiting Growth in San Diego

Several weeks ago The Times published several articles dealing with San Diego’s anti-growth initiative, which was passed by a large margin. I have a feeling that there are several communities in Orange County (San Clemente?) that may, in the near future, opt for this type of initiative.

I was ecstatic to read that San Diego’s initiative to curb the plight of urban sprawl passed, and passed with an enormous margin. It brings to mind the lyrics of an old song, “You don’t know what you got till its gone.”

I am a native San Diegan, now living in the vast wasteland called Orange County. I grew up in San Diego during the ‘40s. My parents were relatively poor, but I lived in a purely, totally natural, undeveloped area of San Diego.

It held in perfect memory what Southern California looked like for 15,000 years as the American natives held stewardship over the land.

As there are no fences, barriers or boundaries in paradise, I could run, wild and free, for as far as the eye could see. This glorious land, deep, ancient canyons crested with rich, sweeping hills, stretched undisturbed to the sea.

It is all gone now. It is developed with houses, shopping centers, cars, streets, noise and crowds. Though I’m no longer poor and am now living among America’s finest yuppies, I find I’m living among the spiritually dead, the truly impoverished. The quality of my life diminished drastically when I left San Diego.

Perhaps the American natives understood, without question or query, what we have failed to grasp. They lived in California for 15,000 years and left no discernible impact upon the land, and we have, in less than 200 years, raped, changed, degraded or destroyed almost all of His creation.

When I return to San Diego someday, the old song will return to mind: “We pave paradise and put up a parking lot.”

MAVIS COOK

Costa Mesa