The only sure way to make Ahmanson go away: Buy it

Today, people love to hate Ahmanson Ranch.

It was a small but vocal crowd, principally Save Open Space, that shot hard and fast from the very beginning.

They made a lot of noise back in the early 1990s, but didn’t seem to have overwhelming support in their fight against Ahmanson.

Today, it seems that almost everybody opposes Ahmanson. (Despite a recent surge in pro-Ahmanson letters, we doubt the proposal would pass in a popularity poll).

Now it’s politically correct and expedient (if you’re a politician) to oppose Ahmanson.

The hardest objection for proponents, it seems, is justifying those extra vehicle trips on an already heavily overburdened 101 Freeway.

It was bad 10 years ago. It’s borderline unbearable now.

We doubt that smog will get much worse because we’re already breathing cleaner air now than in the late 1960s (or so we’ve been told), thanks to cleaner engines, unleaded fuel, catalytic converters, etc. These days our eyes don’t burn and water almost nonstop like they did in 1970.

Critics of Ahmanson are now threatening to take their battle to the branches of Washington Mutual. They think they can hurt the developer where it means the most—in his pocketbook.

We wish them luck because developers of Ahmanson have won virtually every battle along the way. It’s doubtful we’ll see long lines of customers closing their accounts.

People like their bank because of its location, services, friendly staff, ample ATMs and convenient hours. Unless Ahmanson affects them directly, most people will probably stay with their bank.

The only way to stop Ahmanson is for somebody to step forward with a few billion dollars and buy the land.

Any takers?