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.
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