Mailbag - July 26, 2001

City failing to keep historic home up to code

It seems that the city of Costa Mesa has the time and the money to

commit perjury to get me out of the City Council meetings and the state

of California. The city has money to hire extra zoning enforcement

officers to harass the locals about an old car or some paint missing on a

house, but does not take care of its own Huscroft House that is clearly a

public nuisance.

The law says that an old public nuisance is still a public nuisance.

But when it comes to something that Costa Mesa can be proud of, like the

Fish Fry, “So sorry, no money.”

SID SOFFER

Las Vegas

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Sid Soffer is a former Costa Mesa resident who fled

the city six years ago after being convicted of violating the city’s

building codes at his Bernard Street rental property.

Museum can call former Marine Corps base home

Regarding your article “Museum looking for a change of scenery”

(Tuesday), the Orange County Museum of Art doesn’t have to worry about

where they are going to move. After the election next March, there is

going to be a large tract of land available at the former El Toro Marine

Corps Air Station, and it could be available for free.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Orange County Museum of Art could be

the beautiful cornerstone of “museum row” in the Great Central Park.

CHERYL HEINECKE

Aliso Viejo

Art museum needs to display some decent art

What would be a good location for the Orange County Museum of Art? If

the museum can only house 1% if its current collection, how about the

nearest landfill for the remaining 99% of its art snobby collection of

gigantic “White on White” canvases along with all the other

nonunderstandable esoteric junk it currently displays. This way, the

museum could stay exactly where it is.

As an art lover, I allow for those pieces I simply don’t get, but what

I have seen at this museum is less thought provoking than just simply

provoking. White on White? Give me a break.

DONALD RAMSAY

Newport Beach

Editor’s column hits Crystal Cove residents on the mark

Please spare us from any more smarmy profiles about the plight of

tenants at the Crystal Cove State Beach cottages.

With thousands of hard-working Orange County families struggling to

find decent affordable housing, the Crystal Cove bunch is undeserving of

any sympathy. They were more like an occupying army. The Daily Pilot’s

editor, Tony Dodero, hit the nail on the head in his “From the Newsroom”

column: “Finally, it’s time to start making those Crystal Cove

reservations.”

The Crystal Cove beach property is owned by California taxpayers. For

more than two decades of government dithering -- by the administrations

of both Democrats and Republicans -- a small group of insiders has

enjoyed below-market rents and vacation homes in a gorgeous and priceless

setting. The Crystal Cove bunch worked hard to trash every reasonable

reuse plan for the property. Their time has long since passed to move on.

Getting the foxes out of the hen house will help immeasurably with the

reuse planning process. Putting the property under the proper stewardship

of California State Parks rangers and getting environmental mitigation

and cleanup done now is the right thing to do.

Let’s give taxpayers the full measure of their investment. Help an

environmentally sensitive Crystal Cove beach blossom through an open and

inclusive public planning process.

PHILIP F. BETTENCOURT

Newport Coast