Free-market system works

I like it when stores compete. I am a shopper who likes to look at a variety of products and services before making a decision. That is why I am voting no on Measure B, the Do It Center initiative. It prevents the kind of competition among businesses that keeps service levels high and prices low.

Think about it. If you are the only game in town, you can treat your customers however you want and charge the customer whatever you want. But when a competitor moves in down the street, you need to treat those customers nicely and keep your prices in line with what your competition is charging.

This is the reason the owners of the Do It Center have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years keeping competitors out of Westlake Village and Agoura Hills.

Now the owners of the Do It Center are trying to do the same thing in Thousand Oaks. They have paid to get Measure B on the ballot, which would effectively keep a competitor from building a store in a nearby location.

What is the Do It Center afraid of? A little competition? As a shopper, competition is what I like.

If you like lower prices, better customer service and a variety of products, you will join me in voting no on Measure B.

— Gary Heathcote,

Newbury Park

Let the people decide

Thousand Oaks' Measure B gives us the power to decide what large development projects are built in our neighborhood.

I support this excellent example of government "of the people, by the people and for the people" in action.

— Paul Lukasiewicz, M.D.,

Westlake Village

Measure will worsen traffic

I am voting no on Measure B when it comes up for a vote in June because it will do exactly the opposite of what it says it is intended to do. Passing Measure B will actually make traffic worse in Thousand Oaks. Let me explain why.

An independent consultant for the city studied the differences between building one large store or a group of smaller stores. The conclusion: "The Institute of Traffic Engineers shows that larger retail centers generate fewer trips per acre than smaller types of retail. People tend to shop for a longer time and go to larger retail centers less frequently."

Second, when larger developments are approved by the city, the developer is required to pay upfront impact fees that are used to improve the streets and traffic flow in the area.

"Large-scale projects provide the greatest financial ability to mitigate traffic impacts as well as provide other benefits to the city," the report says. "Smaller developments do not have the financial capacity to provide substantial benefits to the city."

It is very simple. If Measure B passes, Thousand Oaks will only develop small stores that create a lot of traffic, and the city will have little money to improve the streets to handle the additional traffic these stores create.

Be careful what you wish for. And be careful what you tell the voters. Measure B will make traffic worse.

Vote no on Measure B. It is simply a very underhanded ploy by the Do It Center to stop competition in Thousand Oaks and take away our current form of representative government.

— Rick Lemmo,

Newbury Park

(The writer is chairman of the Thousand Oaks Traffic Commission and on the board of the Thousand Oaks Boulevard Improvement District. — Editor)

No reason for measure

As a longtime resident, I urge voters to vote no on the Do It Center initiative, Measure B, on the June ballot.

I have lived in Thousand Oaks since 1968, and have watched our community develop into a vibrant, desirable place to live, with amenities for the whole family. We have exceptional parks, excellent schools, a regional mall and beautiful homes surrounded by a ring of open space.

All of this happened because of good planning decisions made by our city managers, planning staff, planning commissioners and our elected City Councils.

There is absolutely no reason to add Measure B to an already proven and successful planning process.

I urge voters to vote no on Measure B.

— Cathy Schutz,

Thousand Oaks