Time to be worried about flights...

Time to be worried about flights over Costa Mesa

It is nice to finally see some concern from Costa Mesa about air

traffic over our city. I am a board member on the Airport Working

Group and have been warning the Costa Mesa City council for two years

about impending flights and a push in demand to John Wayne Airport

and Long Beach. The flights you are experiencing are Long Beach

flights coming from the west. Long Beach will be at 41 flights a day

by the end of this month and that number will grow.

Councilwomen Linda Dixon, Libby Cowan and Karen Robinson helped

doom our city to these flights by adamantly being anti-El Toro. Now

with no El Toro airport, the airlines have changed their flight

patterns to fly over Costa Mesa and pushed flight demands to Long

Beach and John Wayne. It is time to make these council members

accountable. They have been shortsighted and have let our city down.

AARON ELDER

Costa Mesa

Swinging at, but missing, the Bell Curve

Joseph N. Bell, the Pilot’s puckish provocateur, has done it

again. This time it’s David Miller with the wind-up (Mailbag, Oct.

3), beside himself over Bell’s column on our fair city’s lily-white

demographics.

What cracks me up is Miller’s bleeding heart concern for the

delicate sensibilities of Newport’s diverse population: “All races

and ethnicities.”

All one of them.

DICK LEWIS

Balboa

Let’s share the Long Beach Airport traffic

I have a solution to the jets making their descent into Long Beach

by flying over Mesa Verde. We ask Mayor Linda Dixon and the other

council members to write Jet Blue a letter asking them to modify

their flight path ever so slightly. Ask them to make their way to

Long Beach by flying over Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, Aliso Viejo,

Laguna Woods and Irvine, and then by flying straight up the San Diego

Freeway. I know I’d swear an oath of fidelity to Jet Blue if they’d

reward our neighbors to the south with their continued and low-level

presence. Wouldn’t you?

CHUCK CASSITY

Costa Mesa

Happy to have Steve Smith

I really liked Steve Smith’s article on the TV guardian and other

technologies (“Happy to have a parental movie companion,” Oct. 5). I

think that’s something that’s really going to be breaking news in the

future here. I just really appreciate that article and him focusing

on something that really is a practical technology and helps

families. So thank you very much to Steve Smith.

BRITT MUHLIG

Pagosa Springs, Colo.

Greenlight candidates very easy to identify

Despite your sub-deck in Wednesday’s paper (“Greenlight candidate

Gary Adams and Mayor Tod Ridgeway report more than $30,000 each),

Adams and Ridgeway are not Greenlight candidates.

In fact, Adams, at a candidate forum Wednesday morning, berated

and attacked all Greenlight principles and candidates. Further, we

are told that over 30% of Adams’ contributions are from outside

Newport Beach, by special interests such as developers and

corporations.

Contrast that to real Greenlight candidates Richard Taylor and

Alan Beek, who get their money from Newport Beach residents, not big

business. Both have been passionately involved in the community for

years.

Taylor has been a lead attorney for more than eight years in the

fight to prevent John Wayne Airport from expanding and Newport Beach

from becoming another Playa del Rey (gone under the runways of Los

Angeles International Airport). When the current council, including

Adams, decided in February not to take any position on Measure W and

then hired former El Toro Reuse Planning Authority lobbyist Bill

Lowry and former Irvine Co. executive Gary Hunt to “protect” Newport

Beach’s airport interests in Washington, they betrayed the people of

Newport Beach.

Taylor is the vice president of the Airport Working Group and has

been out in the trenches fighting against John Wayne expansion,

against Measure F, Measure W and Measure V. Taylor has walked, hung

signs, passed out fliers and talked to many city councils. Where has

the Newport Beach Council been? What will happen when the airlines

and the Federal Aviation Administration sue Newport Beach to expand

John Wayne? Will our council roll over and play dead again?

CATHY MARGOLIN

Newport Beach

Setting the Verdict columnist straight

I just wanted to pass a word on to Judge Robert Gardner in his

“The Verdict” column (“What was funny about Slapsie Maxie’s,” Sept.

17).

I used to go to a bar or a restaurant in Beverly Hills, it was

called Maxie Rosenblum, not Rosenberg. Now tell the judge, I live in

Maywood in Huntington Park and I know where I’m coming from. It’s

Maxie Rosenblum not Maxie Rosenberg.

OMAR ORR

Newport Beach

Leadership issue important in Costa Mesa race

Doug Sutton’s “Sounding Board” piece in the Daily Pilot on Sept.

29, unfortunately, hit the nail right on the head.

Mayor Linda Dixon’s leadership has come into question over the

past several months and Doug’s column goes right to the heart of the

matter. Although she may be a very fine person, wonderful friend and

neighbor, it’s time for the residents of Costa Mesa to thank Dixon

for her hard work and replace her on the City Council with someone

who has a much tighter focus on the really important issues in this

city, not the frills. It’s time to replace her with someone who has

the leadership skills and vision to get the job done.

GEOFF WEST

Eastside