Shocking news: the "post-partisan" Governor of California, the world-famous Arnold Schwarzenneger, may be moving to my neighborhood. That's according to a rumor printed in the Ventura County Star.
The Sacramento Bee recently reported that the couple made an offer on a property listed for about $6 million in Upper Ojai. It didn't name an exact location. That story also cited a similar report in the Pacific Coast Business Times newspaper earlier this month.
Neither the governor's office nor the real estate company said to be handling the transaction would comment. But the news has been bouncing around town since the power couple rode through three weeks ago.
According to a Realtor in the Santa Ynez Valley, the governor and his family also looked at properties there, but found none to their liking before heading to Ojai.
There goes the neighborhood (the obvious joke). Actually, the neighborhood is already essentially gone for ordinary folks like us. The elementary school population is less than half what it was ten years ago, because ordinary folks--young couples likely to send their kids to public school--can't afford the area.
But the Guv endeared himself somewhat to me by visiting our colorful outdoor bookstore, Bart's Books, where every couple of weeks I take a stack of books back, and a couple of books out, and pay nothing -- recycling at its best.
When he was in town, the governor dropped into the store and browsed the bookshelves sheltered under the canopy of trees, said [the owner] Dave Ray, who wasn't in at the time.
"I heard he said, Ah'll be back,' " Ray said.
