Mailbag - Sept. 30, 2000

Regarding the shutdown of Orange County’s only halfway house for

former female inmates:

The House of Sarah has been our neighbor for more than 21 years, and I

can truly say we knew nothing of its existence until a few months ago. It

was that unobtrusive.

Our neighborhood is not without its problems. We have freeways on two

sides, Fairview Road and Baker Street on the other two. We have neighbors

renting out several bedrooms in their five-bedroom homes, thus filling

our streets with cars, and sometimes it appears we have become the

graveyard of old motor homes.

But the House of Sarah was not a problem, and everyone concedes it was

doing a good job, a much-needed job.

Don Lamm, Costa Mesa deputy city manager, conceded in an interview

that there had never been a complaint, that the facility was very well

run and much needed. But the laws have to be enforced, he said.

Bumble, in Dickens’ Oliver Twist, may have said it best. “If that be

the law, then the law is a sick ass and an idiot.”

Change the zoning or give them a variance. This place is an asset to

the community. Let’s try harder to keep our assets and not waste them in

the name of law and order.

ELLEN AND BILL WRIGHT

Costa Mesa.

Beauty is more than skin deep

We live in a community of million dollar homes. Why, then, when I

visit Ensign Intermediate School do I see paint peeling and patches of

ugly black mildew on the walls? None of the showers work in the gym.

The band room has 50-year-old battered instruments.

What are we saying? We look beautiful on the outside -- Newport Beach

-- but the basic foundation of decent well-kept schools is not important?

Shame on us.

RUTH SHAW

Newport Beach

Traffic in Newport is out of control

To anyone who has lived in the Newport-Harbor area for any significant

amount of time, the statement “traffic and development in Newport Beach

is not out of control” sounds ludicrous.

In my 37 years, I have seen traffic go from a July problem, to a July

and August problem. Then it was a summer-only problem. Today, traffic is

a 365-day-a-year headache and getting visibly worse every year as the

city continues to approve more and more developments. You really have to

be new to not see the change.

Ever driven down Coast Highway between the hours of 3 and 7 p.m.? No,

you are not in L.A.! This is Newport Beach, my good neighbors, and that

is bumper to bumper traffic. Many folks moved here to get away from that

kind of grid lock only to contribute to it here.

Enough is enough! Voters must take control through Greenlight.

It is out of control.

DAVID BEEK

Newport Beach