Community Commentary -- SANDRA KASZYNSKI

I live on a very nice street in West Santa Ana Heights. One day, a

Costa Mesa code enforcement officer happened to be on our cul-de-sac. My

neighbors have a nice house with a nice boat in their front yard. It has

been there for years. They take it out to play, clean it up and leave it

for the next time. It does not bother anyone. A code enforcement officer

wrote them a ticket because the boat was partially off the driveway.

We don’t want to be part of Costa Mesa -- or actually Newport Beach

for that matter -- because it means more invasion in our lives. We don’t

live in Irvine or a gated community because their laws are, frankly,

Communistic. Other folks make that choice and God bless them because this

is America and that is their right. You know when you buy there, those

are the rules.

Costa Mesa has adopted new rules governing what I can do on my

property. My husband cannot work on our car and leave it overnight, we

cannot leave screens off our windows even though I like to view my garden

through a clear window.

I can’t have dead plants in my yard. What will happen if a code

enforcement officer sees them going to seed for next years spring

extravaganza?

When many of us brought these questions up at a fall meeting at Monte

Vista School, we were told we were not who those rules were put into

action for.

The city wants teeth to get those who criminally neglect their

neighbor’s property values. We did not buy into a gated community, though

some on the council want it retroactively that way.

If Costa Mesa wants to clean up residential areas, the laws should

clearly be directed at people who make a profit renting to others. Some

landlords do not live in the city and put nothing back into their

properties.

Health and safety should be the concerns of code enforcement and that

is all. Whether a nice boat in a nice neighborhood has a wheel off in its

own private driveway should be none of the city’s business.

* SANDRA KASZYNSKI is a West Santa Ana Heights resident.