Protective wall -- or safety hazard?

Jessica Garrison

COSTA MESA -- The people who donated $50,000 and countless hours of their

own labor to build a reinforced wall around the South Coast Early

Childhood Learning Center view it as a symbol of healing and safety.

But some neighbors disagree.

They said the wall, which was built after a Santa Ana man drove his

Cadillac into the center’s crowded playground, killing two children and

shattering the community’s peace, was unlawfully built on city property

and should be torn down.

City Manager Allan Roeder will hear both sides of the issue at a

neighborhood meeting tonight.

The wall encroaches onto city property by about 3 feet, but last month,

Public Services Director Bill Morris gave permission for it to stay

anyway.

Neighbors were outraged and circulated a petition, calling the wall a

safety hazard because it blocks their view of the road. They asked the

city to “immediately take action to eliminate it.”

Then July 29, resident Howard Denghausen formally apealed Morris’

decision. In response, Roeder scheduled tonight’s meeting to hear the

complaints of residents who are concerned about the wall and the pleas of

parents and community members who want it to remain at all costs.

If either side disagrees with Roeder’s decision, the matter can be

appealed again and left to the City Council to decide -- a process Roeder

said is likely to occur.

“I think all parties feel pretty strongly about it,” he said, adding that

he decided upon a neighborhood meeting so he could hear both points of

view and, with an eye toward the continuing debate, have the meeting’s

minutes typed-up and given to the City Council.

Roeder said he is expecting emotions to run high at the meeting. Someone

even called the Police Department and asked that an officer attend to

ensure order is maintained, he said.

“I’m not looking forward to the discussion of this wall, as [it] regards

the tragedy last spring,” he said. Nor, he added, does he want

accusations to fly, with parents accusing neighbors of not caring about

the children.

What Roeder said he does want is a careful, reasoned discussion of the

issues because he hasn’t yet made up his own mind.

But he may be out of luck because both sides are gearing up for a heated

discussion that they said is fraught with moral principles.

“It saddens me to think there are any people in this community who would

not support a memorial wall for two children who died tragically,” said

Sheryl Hawkinson, director of the learning center. “To even think about

taking this wall down would be like attacking those children again.”

Patty McSwain, a friend of Hawkinson’s whose grandson attends the center,

called the arguments against the wall “petty” and “ridiculous.” She

charged the neighbors with “using the tragedy” to advance their own

agenda, which she said is to get the day-care center out of the

neighborhood because it drives down property values.

McSwain added that she and her family are still traumatized by the

tragedy and that the community should be left alone to grieve.

Neighbors of the center, on the other hand, said their complaint is also

one of principle.

“They’re on public land,” said Gerald Evans, who lives near the center

and said his visibility is blocked by the wall. “I’m terribly sorry about

[the tragedy],” he said. “But that doesn’t alter the fact that it is a

private enterprise. Everybody has accidents, and you can’t let sympathy

get in your way of what’s right and wrong.”

The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Paularino Room of the

Neighborhood Community Center, 845 Park Ave., Costa Mesa.