MAILBAG - Sept. 16, 1999

We left on vacation this July pleased that the Irvine Co. had

dedicated 12 acres to Newport Beach as open space. We were pleased that

the City Council was considering creating a natural park, rather than

turf and playgrounds. We returned to news that the library board plans to

build an arts and education center on the open space behind the central

library. We are not opposed to arts and education, but we oppose building

on dedicated open space. Plenty of venues exist around our city for arts

and education. The Orange County Museum of Art has an entire building

dedicated to that. If a large auditorium is required, Newport Harbor High

School has one. Other schools also have smaller auditoriums. If it’s

determined that an arts and education center is needed at the library, it

could be constructed as a third floor. Open space means no buildings!

Stop debating whether public or private financing should be used to

build, because nothing should be built within open space.

DENNIS AND DIANE BAKER

Newport Beach

Daily Pilot should learn how to spell

I have an idea. Let’s have the Daily Pilot sponsor a contest among its

readers. We’ll call it the Daily Pilot Spell Check Challenge. Here’s how

it works. Contestants must spell the name Byron de Arakal as many ways as

possible without actually getting it right. Grand Prize? A free edition

of Hooked on Phonics. So far, you guys are winning.

BYRON DE ARAKAL

Costa Mesa

City is to blame for fall of popular eateries

I know what I want to say but for one of the first times in my life I

am having trouble saying it, so I will have to say it in bits and pieces

as I think it. The best way to get closed in Newport Beach if you are in

the restaurant business is to be successful. The more you are successful

the better the chance of being closed by the city. Take a look at the

history of The Blue Beet and how many times the city tried to close it

and then tried to not allow it to reopen. The strange thing is that the

good folks, the neighbors, blame the problems on the restaurant and

complain to the city and the city starts the wheels turning and it is

then a matter of time.

It’s always the same old story. “Too much traffic, too much noise and

someone is always urinating on my frontyard.”

I have said for years and it always falls on deaf ears: The fault is

the city’s, not the restaurant owners or the neighbors. THE PROBLEM IS

ZONING! The city puts a dog and a cat in a box and when they start to

fight, it is blamed on the dog or the cat, but never on the city for

putting them together. That is the whole reason for zoning, to keep the

dog away from the cat, not to put them in the same box and then always

being surprised when the inevitable happens. What genius came up with the

idea to put residence above commercial, not only in the Cannery Village

area, but also up on Old Newport where Sid’s is. It sounds good if the

owner of the commercial downstairs is the same person that lives

upstairs, but what happens when they are different, which will ultimately

happen? The upstairs will be complaining to the city and the city will

close the downstairs commercial. I lived above the Alley West in a little

seven-room hotel for seven years and the bass player downstairs sounded

like he was in bed with me every night.

The hotel was right across a 20-foot alley known as 21st Place, which is where the Blue Beet is. The previous manager of the hotel complained

for years about the noise coming from the Beet and the city tried for

years to close the Beet. The only difference between me and [Cannery

owner Bill] Hamilton is I would not let them! In Newport Beach, if a

restaurant does not have the business, the owner shuts it down and if it

does have the business, the city shuts it down.

And to Bill Hamilton I say, “A fond fair-thee-well for a job well done

for many years, wherever you might be. There but for the grace of God go

I.”

SID SOFFER

Las Vegas

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Sid Soffer is the owner of the Blue Beet building but

no longer operates the business.

Crystal Cove gathering was beautiful

Did you attend the gala at Crystal Cove? You know, those cute little

homes on the beach, just a little ways down from our lovely pelican-less

golf course. Last Sunday, residents, activists, and friends of one of the

last remains of culture in Orange County gathered to discuss proposal

issues, sign petitions, and raise awareness to a community, which may

soon become another Don Bren box.

There were no photographers, dresses, champagne, or limos. I missed

seeing some of the names and faces of the 714 magazine. No surprise.

Because the magazine and life is all fiction anyway.

I don’t know where these images exist, but I still live in 949. When

the Newport Coast hills are filled with boxes and the cottages become a

parking lot, I hope you’ll remember your pictures and names because

that’s all that will remain. And the sandcastles washed up in Corona del

Mar.

STEVE ADDISON

Corona del Mar

Bus shortage problem needs speedy solution

I received a call Sept. 3 from the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District transportation department. It seems the district, despite its

reassurances last year when Costa Mesa zoning was going through the

reconfiguration process, is still having a bus shortage problem. At the

time of the consideration to move the fourth-graders to Davis Elementary,

[superintendent of business services] Mike Fine assured the

reconfiguration committee that the district will have enough funds for

the buses and drivers to handle the additional riders being bused from

their neighborhood schools to Davis.

Then why, I asked the bus driver (according to him, the department is

short on staff, so he is helping with the phones), will my child be

picked up at Killybrooke at 6:50 a.m., not Paularino, our neighborhood

school of attendance? He advised me to call the dispatch and they would

fix the problem. I called the dispatch and was told my son can be picked

up at Paularino at 6:40 a.m.! Why were these students being picked up a

full hour and 40 minutes before school even starts? The dispatch

responded, “It is in accordance to the guidelines that are set ...”

I can understand if we lived in a rural area or lived miles away from

the school, but we only live less than a mile away! For the safety of

these students, they should be picked up at a reasonable time by our

district buses. I cannot see or understand why the district would allow

our young 9-year-olds to walk down Fairview Road, an extremely busy and

dangerous street, and cross major streets (Baker Street, Fairview Road,

Adams Avenue and Fair Drive). This is in complete disregard to the safety

and well-being of our Costa Mesa zone students by the district and the

school board. Of course, according to another person I spoke with at the

transportation department, these pickup times are set up to cover the

shortage of the staff and equipment and to deter riders and promote

walkers (or take other means of public transportation).

I wonder when the parents of the Costa Mesa zone will finally stand up

and fight for their children against a school district and board that

simply do not care. Will it take a child being injured or killed by a car

while crossing a street, or a child being abducted while walking along

Fairview Road to go to Davis School? I pray for the sake of our young

students that they have a safe school year and the district is

pro-actively (not reactively) fixing the shortage of equipment and staff,

which we were told did not exist in the first place.

DENAMARIE ARELLANES

Costa Mesa