The silent majority

Westlake Village faces one of the most controversial developments in the city’s history—the proposed 168,000-square-foot Lowe’s home improvement center already has drawn much heated debate—yet not a single resident made a move to challenge the city council incumbents in this fall’s election.

The three council members up for reelection are Robert Slavin, Mark Rutherford and Sue McSweeny. The city says the incumbents will be reappointed to office because no opponents filed papers to challenge them. The Nov. 8 election has been called off.

The recent turn of events baffle us because it appeared the residents had serious concerns about the new Lowe’s and even wanted the city to hold a special election so they could vote on it. The city decided to forego the referendum, but that shouldn’t have stopped concerned candidates from running in the council race.

The lack of interest tells us that residents must be happy with the way things are going regarding Lowe’s, and the Dole hotel and spa complex that was approved earlier is now under construction. The incumbents have to feel pretty smug. After all, no opposition means, well, no opposition. Even the large number of anti-Lowe’s residents from the Renaissance Homeowner’s Association didn’t use their political clout to support a candidate.

Is it contentment or just apathy? Perhaps we’ll never know.

During the upcoming public hearings on Lowe’s, the Westlake Village residents are still invited to speak their peace. We hope they’ll at least do that.

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