Try on someone else’s shoes before...
Try on someone else’s shoes before judging
I was dismayed to read the letters written by the unhappy
neighbors of the family who takes in special-needs kids and wishes to
enlarge their home (“Building blocks,” Aug. 28).
As the wife of attorney Jack H. Anthony, whose offices are in
Santa Ana but serve people all over Southern California, I have seen
all kinds of children and adults who need care that very few people
can or will provide. Some of his clients are children who have been
disabled in accidents or tortured, abused and molested in foster care
or group homes. Many of these kids are special needs kids, who are
far more likely to be abused than the general population.
The people who actually do take care of these kids deserve our
utmost support. Otherwise, the kids could be scattered, left without
special services, and their lives put at risk, at a far higher
financial cost to taxpayers than a loving family setting.
Jack and I have been humbled by the challenges his clients face,
and by the devotion of those who care enough to take them on.
Perhaps the lives of these complaining neighbors would be enriched
beyond measure were they to leave their comfortable, “normal-sized”
homes and take one of these children for a walk down the street or
out for an ice cream cone. Then they might see why a family with nine
special-needs kids need three people to help out, and what the
parents actually “do for a living.”
CHRISTINA ANTHONY
Newport Beach
Make Costa Mesa skate park work this time
The front page news of thoughtful teaming between the Costa Mesa
City Council and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District (“Costa
Mesa skate park idea revived,” Tuesday) is exciting. Let’s hope that
an agreement can be established quickly and the park planning and
building set in motion quickly. Ten years have slipped away already.
A well-planned park will be an asset to the city as well as to the
avid skateboarders in our city. The park should be fit into an
overall recreational development plan that covers the area that
include the Farm Sports Complex, Orange Coast College facilities,
Costa Mesa High, Davis Elementary, the ROP school, TeWinkle Park, and
the possible annex of some or all of the Fairgrounds for city
recreational requirements. The skate park sounds like a great next
step.
BILL JORTH
Costa Mesa
Long Beach flights exist over Westside
I do not accept the Long Beach Airport spokeswoman’s position that
the increase in flights directly over the Mesa Verde area of Costa
Mesa are associated with an airport other than Long Beach (A Closer
Look, “Resident ask, ‘whose flight is it anyway?’” Monday).
They are not and [Long Beach Airport spokeswoman] Sharon
Diggs-Jackson knows it.
When JetBlue Airways began operating flights out of Long Beach
Airport on Aug. 29, 2001, the increase in total airplanes over Costa
Mesa rooftops was immediate and dramatic. Inbound routes to Long
Beach over the Westside that were once used sparingly became the
routine approach path for JetBlue. And once JetBlue had “reopened”
these routes, other carriers operating out of Long Beach shifted to
them as well.
The relationship between JetBlue launching and the total volume of
flights over Westside Costa Mesa increasing over the past year is
direct and irrefutable. Stating otherwise shows an in-depth lack of
knowledge of the situation and/or a desire to cloud the facts. I
strongly suggest the management of the Long Beach Airport put forth a
more reliable, candid and credible representative to work with Costa
Mesa and Long Beach residents on this issue.
TONY STALLINGS
Costa Mesa
Property rights still exist at Mesa Verde center
This is regarding the Sunday editorial (“Costa Mesa needs to add
some fun”).
The Mesa Verde center in Costa Mesa has seen the downfall of the
cinemas and ice skating rink, and the dilapidated bowling alley is on
its last leg. Yet your editorial is against the proposed Kohl’s
department store and favors entertainment uses at the site.
Entertainment uses have not been supported by the public at this
site and that is why the buildings stand vacant. Councilman Chris
Steel favors a skate park at the site. Who will cover the economic
shortfall, the city? Will Steel write out a check himself? Or is the
owner of the property expected to eat the difference for the benefit
of skateboarders everywhere?
The property is zoned for commercial uses such as the Kohl’s
project and will bring the highest value to the owner, yet a few feel
their wishes should override market forces. To them this sounds fine,
as long it is not their rights that are being violated.
If Steel is such a skate park fan and feels that property rights
should take a back seat to the greater good, why doesn’t he bulldoze
his own house and build a skate park? He will then get his dream of a
skate park without tramping all over the property rights of others.
MARK LES
Costa Mesa
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