If one looks for it, one can find graffiti on walls and senseless crimes reported in the newspaper's police blotter. But the toughest Ventura gang would get its ass kicked by the wimpiest L.A . I can see a Ventura gangster taking offense at this, and wishing to prove me wrong. But really it is a fact which instead of offense should prompt pride. In short, the quality of life in Ventura is high.
Problems exist but are manageable, and neighbors look out for one another.
There is a strong sense of community. I have obviously thought all this out, in the hopes that one can improve one's circumstances through patient planning. Not five years ago I was an overwhelmed beginning teaching in the ghetto and could hardly have been more miserable. If I currently enjoy a modicum of happiness, I flatter myself in believing I have earned it. I look to live in Ojai not as a hermit yet with detachment, in a spiritual withdrawal where I can more easily adjust where the outside world ends and my interior life and ease of mind begins.