Editor:
Measure 49 is not the ‘Measure in ‘sheep’s’ clothing’. Measure 37 was.
Measure 37 was the ultimate ‘Measure in sheep’s clothing’ fraught with misstatements and outright lies; scare tactics that promised private land would be confiscated by the government for little or no compensation, if not passed. The same scare tactics and misstatements that passed Measure 37 are being used to stop Measure 49.
Take a good look at the most prominent sponsors for defeat of 49: lawyers, Realtors, small timber companies and large land developers, to name a few. “Fool me once…”
If you defeat Measure 49, property will become more valuable to develop than farm.
California’s San Gabriel Valley was once as open and green as the Willamette Valley – citrus groves as far as the eye could see. The fragrance of the orange blossoms permeated the air. Then California let the real-estate consortiums buy their way into those citrus groves and there is not one orange, lemon, lime, tangerine, etc. grove left – not one.
If you want Willamette Valley to replicate Southern California with freeways and highways turned onto giant parking lots, subdivisions of homes built five feet apart, neighborhoods being used as alternate by-ways, strip malls vacated even before they are built, uncontrollable fires that consume neighborhoods for lack of infrastructure and space, defeat 49.
Mass development has already begun to rear its ugly head. Check out the subdivisions on 10th, Wiley Creek, the Ashford area, the airport, Duck Hollow (Sweet Home) and the Tigard-like developments by the river in Lebanon.
Vote Yes on 49.
Judith Brown
Sweet Home