I found an ironic headline on the front page of the New York Times March 24, the same day as the Ventura County growth seminar at California State University, Channel Islands.  The headline reads: “Vibrant Cities Find One Thing Missing: No Children.”

Portland, Ore., the city touted in the Ventura County growth planning seminar as a model to follow, is educating the fewest students in 80 years.  The article states: "The very things that attract people to revitalize a city — dense vertical housing, fashionable restaurants and shops and mass transit that makes a car unnecessary — are driving out children by making the neighborhoods too expensive for young families.”

In Portland’s Pearl District, the fastest-growing and trendiest neighborhood, the kid population grew by three children between 1990 and 2000.

I suggest attendees to the conference read this article. The Portland model has problems. The open space initiatives are driving Ventura County to this model, and this model does not look family- friendly.

— Todd Miller, Camarillo