The Last Word

It was not so long ago, that the pro-El Toro Airport Working Group

snubbed the city of Costa Mesa and returned money it had been given for

the promotion of aviation uses, other than John Wayne Airport.

The reason the working group returned the money was because the city

had put conditions on just what message it and others were to use while

speaking in Costa Mesa. Flush with money from Newport Beach, the working

group basically said to Costa Mesa, “we don’t need you.”

Now, as the endless well of Newport Beach cash has dried up, a

consortium of North County cities, along with the Airport Working Group

and others, are lobbying hard to get support for a lawsuit to overturn

Measure W, the countywide initiative that in effect put a dagger into the

pro-airport efforts.

So yes, we find it a bit ironic that these groups would come to Costa

Mesa now for any sort of backing, even if it’s just for a political

statement.

And we do wonder how Costa Mesa Councilman Chris Steel didn’t spot

that irony. After prematurely promising publicly that the lawsuit effort

would have Costa Mesa’s backing, Steel was shot down by the council

majority last Monday.

Steel and the pro-airport forces must buy the same tea leaves.