In Agoura, one size does not fit all

Last Saturday there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the newly renovated bridle path along Driver Avenue, which was held in the shadow of a newly installed 35 mph speed limit sign which had increased speed limits.

Notwithstanding the residences on Driver Avenue, which are already impossible to get in and out of during peak traffic hours, that short stretch of Driver traverses a high school, three preschools, a playground for toddlers, a Little League field, a park, a public riding arena, a senior citizens residence and runs parallel to the bridle path itself on which children ride their horses.

Our city fathers were robbed of discretion in this matter by a court system that mandates an idiotic "one size fits all" formula for the use of radar that prohibits the use of common sense in deciding if the increased limit is safe or even sane and a sheriff's department who essentially blackmailed the city by flatly refusing to enforce the law without the use of radar.

Of the entire City Council, only one member voted against the increase, opting to stand on principle and highlight the foolishness of this. One would have expected a groundswell of outrage over such gross tyranny, but it never came. My theory is that the federal has taken discretion from the states, the states from the counties, the counties from local municipalities and that people including our politicians are just overwhelmed and fatigued from fighting uphill battles. The lunatics have taken over the asylum.

I am not a resident of Old Agoura, but I see such paralysis sooner or later extending to all neighborhoods, including my own, when discretion is totally eliminated in favor of inflexible codes that are grossly inapplicable.

This irrational nonsense is a microcosm of all that is wrong with government.
Larry Brown
Agoura Hills