Life is beginning to return to normal now – at least for those of us fortunate enough to have escaped any serious damage. I think everyone will agree that the city and county did an admirable job in the latest crisis but I noticed that once again they missed an opportunity.

I suppose that it is in all of us to want to go see what has happened after a disaster, but there are limits and this led me to my latest idea. I call this latest inspiration the "Moorpark Disaster Toll and Lottery Plan" and it works like this.

The city could put into motion a plan whereby all entrances to an affected area would be guarded by a toll booth. Every one who wanted to go sightseeing would have to ante up before enjoying the afternoon drive. On my street alone, at say $1 per vehicle, we probably could have raised enough money to add the wording, "Yes This Applies To You Too" to the speed limit signs on our street.

Here’s another missed opportunity. If the police had been available to issue speeding tickets, the city could have raised enough money to extend High Street to Gabbert, past Gabbert, and on into Ventura. We saw people going through our residential neighborhood who were driving faster sight seeing on Monday than the victims who were evacuating were driving on Saturday. I guess they just wanted to get to the next sight before it turned lush and green later that afternoon. The citizens at the top of Julliard probably could have raised enough scratch by dinner on Sunday to install a gated entrance. Given the extent of the destruction city wide, and the apparent lack of interesting computer games at home, the city could have raked in a tidy little sum just on the toll booths and traffic tickets alone.

For the lottery portion, every car entering the affected area would be given a number and chances could be purchased for a variety of occurrences. For example, which car would miss the left turn and drive up on the curb scaring the bejeebers out of the kids there. We could pick the car that would be the first to hit a parked car – on the other side of the street. Which driver would be the first to slam on the brakes in the middle of flowing traffic on Miller Drive, or any other street built at an incline, just to get a better shot. Agreed, parking is better than driving while camcording – but still not too smart in the middle of the street.. You get the idea. It doesn’t have to be the first car to do something but there has to some specifics or there would be so many winners our lottery would go belly up before the smoke cleared.

When overworked officers are trying to divert the traffic of an entire city and someone wants to try to explain why they’re more special than those backed up behind them, let them pay by the minute for the officer’s time. Ka-ching!

We could put up "Disaster View Parking Meters." We could place them on overpasses or any street with a view and we could work with Cal Trans to install them on the freeway shoulders and medians and on ramps which seem to be the preferred viewing venues. As an added benefit, these meters would serve as a giant lane marker for those in too big of a hurry to park or slow down while using the camcorder.

I don’t think it would be fair for the city to keep all of the money. Some of it should go to the victims of the disaster.

In the case of the latest unhappiness, had my plan been in place, maybe the city could have spared enough money to send a car for Ms. Childers’ insurance adjuster.