...and Now

​What will happen to the school district's strategically located downtown campus? Declining enrollment and increased costs prompted a redevelopment project. But a developer's proposed 203-room hotel and spa was met with fury. Can it be redeveloped in a way that will draw more locals downtown and restore the equilibrium? The project has been sent back to the drawing board. Redevelopment could even be abandoned. If so, the community will have missed a rare opportunity to take its destiny in hand. 
Former Ojai Elementary School now the offices of the Ojai Unified School District
​A proposed Downtown Historic District has some property owners fearing more regulation. But it turns out that CalTrans already declared downtown a Historic District. Will Ojai formally adopt their own Historic District for more local control? City Council should vote on the proposed Historic District in June.
​When Ojai is featured in a national magazine, locals lament the changing retail and restaurant scene. Facebook comments to this recent article in Sunset Magazine include:
  • “Lame. Most of those places mentioned are newly opened businesses, owned by people not really from Ojai. It’s not Ojai they are really talking about, it’s the new hipster touristy Ojai. Ojai is nothing like what I grew up in, or even what it was just 5-10 years ago. I miss Ojai 1.0. And don’t get me started on short term rentals and second home owners squeezing out locals.”
  • “… hopefully there’s a movement of locals that actually see that we are destroying our own little towns by our greed.”