Besieged Web site logs itself off for good

Lolita Harper

A local Web site where dozens of residents shared, debated and

sometimes attacked each other over their ideas for city improvement

was officially shut down this week after its creators said recent

critical attention became too much to contend with.

Janice Davidson, a community activist and co-creator of the

Concerned Costa Mesa Citizens Web site, said she begrudgingly killed

the Web site after it was infiltrated by people she labeled as

“outsiders.”

“I’m devastated that they would try to take something so good and

destroy it,” Davidson said

More specifically, Davidson said she was referring to members of

the Orange County Human Relations Commission who began to monitor the

site after some allegedly intolerant posts were publicly questioned.

Earlier this month, a small group of activists accused three

members of the Costa Mesa Human Relations Committee of writing what

the activists considered racist and homophobic posts on the Web site.

As a result, members of the Orange County Human Relations Commission

-- who work closely with the city committee -- logged on.

Officials from the county commission were not in the office Friday

and could not be reached for comment. County commission member

Barbara Hunt has said she was on the site “as a resource to the Costa

Mesa Human Relations Committee” and hoped to “help the group overcome

some of the hurdles it’s currently facing.”

While Hunt stayed out of the cyber dialogue, her counterpart, Bob

Cerince, contributed a handful of posts in which he discussed and

debated such issues as homosexuality and tolerance levels. His posts

received many heated responses from regular chat group members.

Frequent Web site contributor and Costa Mesa resident Eric Bever

said the content on the site began to “get off track” after Hunt and

Cerince joined. Bever said topics strayed from general city issues --

such as crime, future developments, education and City Council

campaigns -- to philosophical debates about sexuality and race. The

contentious nature of many subsequent posts was unappealing to many

regular contributors.

“When people who don’t have an interest in city issues start

meddling and getting into debates, it starts to be a waste of time,”

Bever said.

The Web site was started by Davidson and Jerry Vanus in October

2000 as a venue for other residents to get together -- albeit in

cyberspace -- to discuss possible solutions to some of the problems

they believe plague Costa Mesa. The founding members of the online

chat group were largely members of the Citizens for Improvement of

Costa Mesa, a group that supported Councilman Chris Steel’s election

and continues to agree with many of his platform views.

The actual Web site still exists, but members are unable to post

any new messages. Davidson said the effort to keep the site running

was simply too great in light of the negative attention it was

getting.

“I wanted to fight it all the way because at one time this was a

great site that succeeded in taking people from all over the city and

putting them together to find some common ground,” Davidson said.

“But we had too many people who wanted to bring it down, and it just

became too much of a burden.”

Resident Paul Bunney said he was surprised and disappointed that

the Web site is gone.

Bunney revered the site for the unparalleled freedom it gave to

Costa Mesans who wished to express their concerns publicly.

“I’m sorry to see it go,” Bunney said.

* LOLITA HARPER covers Costa Mesa. She may be reached at (949)

574-4275 or by e-mail at lolita.harper@latimes.com.