‘Citizens’ lost in a cyberspace black hole

The Concerned Costa Mesa Citizens Web site was a novel idea when

created in October 2000. Anyone with an interest in improving the

city could log on and exchange their ideas with others who shared a

common love for the city. Sometimes, this was actually the case.

But, unfortunately, there were also times when simple discussions

turned into nasty debates full of name calling. This, presumably, led

to its demise last week.

Creators Jerry Vanus and Janice Davidson had the right idea when

they came up with the e-mail group/Web site, but postings that had

discussed zoning for the bluffs, the City Council, Costa Mesa’s

diversity and renaming the city also took intolerant tones on

homosexuality, race and language barriers.

A few chat group members also sit on the Costa Mesa Human

Relations Committee, which works closely with the Orange County Human

Relations Commission. Eyebrows raised on that commission after

hearing about some of the latest postings and sparked commission

members to monitor the site.

Such monitoring -- and some interaction from commission members --

on the site didn’t please Davidson much. She said the county

commission members had no real interest in Costa Mesa and simply took

away from Costa Mesa discussion.

Whatever the case for the site’s demise, we can’t help but miss it

-- or at least its potential. As we said, the site was a great idea.

It could have been successful -- and we hope another one pops up that

aims to improve the city while staying clean and playing nice.

But we can’t help but think that some of the hostile comments

could have been prevented had someone spoken up. Several with

political aspirations regularly chimed in on the site and we would

expect more of them as potential city leaders.

All they had to do was tell those who sent such hateful messages

to clean up their acts a bit if they wanted to stick around on the

cyber venue.

After all, some people, whose acts were much cleaner by the way,

had been kicked off the site because their views didn’t align with

the majority of the improvement crowd. Indeed, many on the site had

no problem denouncing those Web site posters. They should have been

just as quick to attack those whose posts were laced with racist

overtones.

All in all, the site could have worked, but it failed for lack of

leadership and simple decency. Many site members brought wonderful

ideas to the cyberspace table -- and we hope they continue to do so

at city meetings -- but as usual, a few had to ruin it for everyone.