Costa Mesa is not a cookie cutter town, Mr. Steel

After nearly two years on the Costa Mesa City Council, Councilman

Chris Steel still has some lessons to learn. He illustrated one of

them Monday when he constantly failed to focus on the issue at hand.

The question before the City Council: Decide whether to allow a

couple to add a second-story to their Mesa North home. That was it.

The fact that the family included some non-biological children was of

no concern to the council members.

But Steel, known for blaming others for the city’s ills, again

took his ever-familiar tack of finding a scapegoat and this time

focused on the Mesa North family, saying the non-biological children

living there violated “the spirit of the law.”

Eventually, Mayor Linda Dixon was able to steer her colleague and

audience members down the right path and the council supported the

expansion with a 3-to-1 vote.

While discussion on the actual issue and opposition to the plan

was more than healthy, we agree with the final outcome: The Davis

family should be able to add a master bedroom and bonus room to their

home.

In terms of what Steel chose as the issue, we’ve got thoughts for

him on that too. A community contains thousands of people and not all

of them will live in cookie-cutter homes with two parents, two

children and a dog and cat.

A community is diverse and its members will have varying

circumstances and living arrangements. And Costa Mesa is not Stepford

and should not be treated as such. Who would really want to live in

such a town anyway?

The Davis family represents the diversity that community is all

about and they should be embraced the same as any family of four with

a pet or two.

Steel told everyone not to tug on their heartstrings. He was right

because that wasn’t the focus of Monday’s City Council meeting.

But that doesn’t mean that Steel, when criticizing the family,

shouldn’t search for heartstrings himself.