Fast Food Outlets Bad for Capistrano

I had to laugh at Mayor Pro Tem John Greiner bemoaning the increase in development of fast food restaurants here in San Juan Capistrano (Jan. 4).

Who does he think he is kidding? He and his friends and city government approved Taco Bell and the other junk food restaurants in this small town!

They also have approved a massive new shopping center, yet another movie theater complex and legions of new tract homes as soon as the hills are flattened by developers’ bulldozers.

He says there is nothing he can do because of state law? Then how did Pacifica, Half Moon Bay, Mill Valley, San Anselmo, San Bruno and other Northern California cities stop this blight and keep the natural beauty of the state? Are they subject to different state laws, or do they have a different attitude toward development?

PHILLIP WEISSBURG

San Juan Capistrano

* I have lived in San Juan Capistrano all my life. I find it hard to understand how the city could allow these new fast food places to build.

Of course we all enjoy the new variations of food, but in a city that has always stressed the historical values and quaintness of the town, it seems odd.

It almost seems that the true value for the history in our town and state is gone or leaving quickly. Opening these new restaurants will only cause more of a traffic jam through our already crowded and hazardous street of Del Obispo.

Although the council has called for a moratorium on the opening of fast food restaurants, this seems to have no point. We already have one each of the largest fast food restaurants in the country residing in our town, all on the same street!

The council had no right to sacrifice our city’s historic appearance for a source of revenue.

KATIE ALEXANDER

San Juan Capistrano