MAILBAG - Nov. 2, 1999
Dunes hotel pictures don’t show everything
You can look at pictures of the Dunes resort to visualize the beauty of
the building and the landscaping, but do the pictures show the back of
the hotel, which is what the residents living in the retirement community
of Bayside Village and especially on Mayflower Street view?
Do pictures show the noise and the smell of the 28-foot service road 15
feet from the Mayflower homes, with its 24-hour use, its three-level
parking structure with blowers to recirculate the emissions-filled air?
Can you listen to the pictures and hear car doors slamming, horns
honking, squealing tires and alarms blaring?
Can you hear the noise of the air conditioners and mechanical equipment
that it takes to service a 400-room full-service resort with 55,000
square feet of meeting facility and an additional 100, two-room time
share suites?
Do the pictures show the street lighting on the service road, the lights
for the parking structure, the lighting required for the arrival of all
guests on the third-floor lobby towering over Bayside Village and 15 feet
from the Mayflower Street residents?
Can you visualize the 9-foot block wall 3 feet from the Mayflower homes
that the draft environmental impact report thinks will mitigate to a
satisfactory level all of the above problems? Can the 75-foot height of a
five-story building be comprehended when you’re 3 feet below the bike
trail as are the Mayflower homes?
Can anyone even imagine the stress this community is going through and
these are our “Golden Years?” Do we pray to God or do we pray to the City
Council not to allow such a use of this environmentally sensitive 30
acres of land, which should be enjoyed in its natural state by all of the
people, or are they only picturing the sound of the money?
JOYCE LAWHORN
Newport Beach
West Side needs realistic solutions
I attended the meeting concerning the West Side Specific Plan, which was
reported in the Oct. 21 article (“West Side lets its voice be heard”).
While I applaud the city’s attempts to get the opinion from normally
ignored residents, I am distressed by the increased divergence from
reality. I believe these meetings are encouraging residents to fantasize
about the future of Costa Mesa without regard to costs and effects.
When asked by the moderator what they would like to see improved, the
audience responded with a number of requests: improved schools, more park
space, a market at 19th and Placentia, more police patrols and increased
access to bus service.
Not surprisingly, these have come up before in other meetings -- they are
things most residents want. Other things mentioned elsewhere, but not
last night, include burying the utility lines, another library and
improving the stock of affordable housing.
No one is asking what these things would cost or how they will be
maintained. For example, everyone is agreed that a decent supermarket is
wanted for the Vista Center at 19th and Placentia, but no one has asked
what happened to the one that used to be there. Why did it close?
If it closed because the declining incomes of the neighboring residents
starved it of sales, wouldn’t a new market be doomed to fail for the same
reason? The existing stores at Triangle Square and the Courtyards have a
better location than the Vista Center. I don’t see how a major
supermarket would be willing to move into such an unpromising territory.
Everyone agrees the schools need improvement. I visited Rea School and
was appalled by its disrepair. The best teachers and administrators in
the state would be discouraged to work in a facility so dilapidated --
sidewalks cracked and heaved and sagging roofs. However, the schools fall
under the jurisdiction of the school board and the city can do little.
Anger should be directed at a school board victimized by multiple
financial problems.
Everyone agrees that the West Side doesn’t have enough park space.
Perhaps this is why no one can agree on the proposed skateboard facility
at Lions Park, the only really accessible space in the area.
Unfortunately, building more parks requires condemning parcels already
developed, a very expensive proposition in money and uprooted residents.
Is anybody volunteering their house to be torn down for a park?
The same obstacles apply to a new library and underground utilities --
who will pay? Where do they go?
An overarching issue that the council has resolutely ignored is the 19th
Street Bridge. No private investors will commit substantial money to the
area so long as the bridge’s fate is unknown. Building the bridge would
change traffic and economic patterns. I believe such a change would be
for the better, but nobody really knows because the city won’t study it.
We must also consider the long-term effects if the city successfully
implements a program of improvements. The area is now affordable for
renters because it is less desirable than Mesa Verde or the East Side.
Making the area nicer will increase property values and rents, driving
out the very people the city wants to save. This effect can be seen in
its extreme form in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley, where the
people who work there can’t afford to live there. I confess I have no
solution to the problem of making nice housing affordable without massive
subsidies, which causes its own problems.
I would not have your readers think we should do nothing about the West
Side. I merely wish the City Council would not raise expectations for
improvements without careful consideration of their costs and benefits.
MICHAEL E. ONTKO
Costa Mesa
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