There are just 26 days left until Hermosa puts the oil drilling ban to the vote.
With every week that passes a new rash of No to Measure O signs breaks out on lawns and fence lines. More Keep Hermosa Hermosa flags appear each week, along with cod-Banksy
stickers featuring a rat and the legend 'E&B Oil Slick Liars'.
And for every ten or twenty anti-oil signs there's a meek one in favour of 'sustainable oil recovery' and 'protecting Hermosa's future'.
So whose side are we on? Well, I've been wearing my Keep Hermosa Hermosa baseball cap for almost a year now. It's clear to me that for the risks to the best little beach city are just not nearly worth the purported benefits.
More recently, Lady P got on board. She picked up a sticker from a neighbour's yard and insisted on plastering it on her bucket. She is broadcasting to everyone else on the beach the reported
9 Significant and Unavoidable Impacts of oil drilling in Hermosa.
Finally, despite being a man who doesn't like to wear his political colours on his sleeve, TLOML has got on board and posted our own 'No on O' sign outside the Sugar Cube.
The reason there are so few pro-oil signs out on the streets reflects how unpopular the position is. It takes a bold pro-oil person to actually advertise the fact to their neighbours. So it might be that the number of Measure O supporters is greater than the poster count suggests. Even so, it's hard to imagine the vote passing, in a city which prides itself on healthy living and natural beauty. Not to mention those steadily inflating house prices, which might suffer if a 100ft drilling rig appears in the heart of Hermosa.
And therein may lie the thin silver lining to the big dark cloud of oil recovery: if the vote goes ahead, and house prices do wobble, newcomers like us might get a foot on the housing ladder here.
Be assured, we are 100% against oil recovery in Hermosa. I'm just saying, we won't be leaving town in protest if Measure O passes (we may be able to do just the opposite instead).
No comments:
Post a Comment