READERS RESPOND

* AT ISSUE: We asked readers if they would vote for the proposed

Greenlight initiative. Here’s what a few had to say:

I would vote “yes” for the Greenlight initiative. This initiative would

give Newport Beach voters oversight regarding any major amendment to the

city’s general plan. It’s time to change the system, for as former state

treasurer Jess Unruh once said, “money is the mother’s milk of politics.”

It took the Orange County bankruptcy to wake up the county’s voters

regarding oversight. I hope it doesn’t take absolute gridlock on the

city’s only major cross-town arteries to wake up Newport Beach.

JENNIFER W. FRUTIG

Newport Beach

My worst fears have come true. A mayor from another beach city, Santa

Barbara, has used Newport Beach in the same sentence as Santa Monica. Her

reference was to how our city planners and government leaders have let

the city go down hill in a big way.Maybe Greenlight is not the answer.

But whatever is our policy now doesn’t seem to be working very well.

Consider what has happened to Newport Beach in the last few years. Coast

Highway in Newport is looking more and more like Melrose Avenue in Los

Angeles. Bill Hamilton said it all when he said that the city makes it

impossible to do business. As a result, we lost yet another landmark of

old Newport. Is this good city management? What has happened to our fine

city by the sea?

Norma Glover stated that, “I think that to put the community under a

slow-growth policy is not in the best interests of the city.” Norma,

would you consider careful and controlled growth? I think that would be

in the best interest of the city?

It appears to me that Glover and some of the others in city government

are not solving our problems, but are in fact part of the problem.

ARMANDO EASON

Balboa

I wanted to register a pro-vote that is in favor of the Greenlight

initiative. Largely on the basis of trying to get the City Council to

reassess it’s policy on growth.

ROSS BILLINGS

Corona del Mar

I would like to say that a recent letter to the editor from Chris Welsh

implied that Greenlight supporters are not playing by the rules when they

protested City Attorney Bob Burnham’s legal challenge against the

initiative (“Greenlight should apply high standards to itself,” Jan. 11).

If a legal error had been made by Greenlight, Welsh would actually have a

valid point. And yes, we would have just had to fold our tent and

disappear from view. However, the error did lay with the city and the

fact that the City Council voted to accept the petition Tuesday night

supports this. The Greenlight initiative was drafted by a lawyer

experienced in initiative law and it does comply with the election code.

I am sure that Welsh joins the developers in wishing that Greenlight

would just disappear. Instead the residents of Newport Beach will

rightfully have the opportunity to make decisions about major

developments in our city. And yes, I would vote for Greenlight.

CLAUDIA OWEN

Newport Beach

I am calling to voice my approval of the Greenlight initiative. And I

take offense to Councilwoman Jan Debay and other city officials’

implications that the people are unengaged and too ignorant to understand

these issues. Aren’t we, after all, the same people who elected them to

office?

STEVE LEACH

Newport Beach

The response from our City Council members to the Greenlight initiative

was something right out of the “Stepford Wives.” Following like lemmings

over the cliff of the “God of Development,” their little eyes all wide

open and shiny, only Tom Thomson seems to have the intelligence and

political savvy to check the box titled: “Let the electorate speak.”

Has anyone driven around Newport Beach lately? It feels like going to

Disneyland for the first time -- what is that, what is this, when did

that go in? Notice that traffic? What is next? Where is the senior and

low-cost housing we were promised? Our borders with Irvine are being

pushed with new development. What is our “Joint Development and Planning

Committee for Irvine, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach” doing now? Oh, we

don’t have one?

Hey, so there is an initiative on the ballot. Why does this scare our

public officials so much, and not just in Newport Beach? Will their

political contributors cut them off if they don’t get what they want? Why

is it we can spend $1.25 million every year for a pro-airport marketing

campaign that directly affects people in other parts of the county, but

we can’t spend $50,000 for a special election that may affect every

person in Newport Beach? Someday, politicians might get it. Initiatives

come around because somebody isn’t doing their job.

RON and ANNA WINSHIP

Newport Beach

I would vote yes -- there’s too much development and traffic already.

There seems to be no limit.

JILL AMADIO

Balboa Island

Yes, I intend to vote for the Greenlight initiative. My opinion is that

for some time the City Council has put the developers’ interests above

those of the Newport Beach homeowners. Those of us who live in the

“original” Newport do not want to see it turned into a Miami Beach clone,

concrete jungle, high-rises and traffic congestion. The council says we

need more development and the income it generates. But at what price? In

my business, we not only consider how much income there is, but how

wisely it is spent. Those of us who support Greenlight hope that it will

put a stop to this never-ending development and expansion.

DORIS HOPE

Newport Beach