Caps needs; so are other forms...

Caps needs; so are other forms of commuting

I feel the John Wayne flight caps should be extended. I live close

enough to the airport that I know the problems involved but a quality

extension and airport facility is needed until an alternative is

arrived at. If needed, I feel that a general tax on both aircraft and

or automobile travel should be put into a general fund to expedite

and improve rail transportation or bus transportation or other

high-speed modes of transportation so that we have alternatives to

airplanes and/or automobiles.

BILL NYHOLM

Costa Mesa

El Toro airport is a must-have for the county

Everything is not being done to ensure the extension of the John

Wayne Settlement Agreement. We need El Toro airport, and that’s all

there is to it. It’s the biggest scam in the history of Orange

County, what they did to us with El Toro. We should make the Navy

take it back and rebuild it and then give it back to us as a full on

international airport.

JO BLACK

Costa Mesa

Study of 19th Street bridge

just makes good sense

Your Tuesday question regarding the 19th Street bridge issue is

misleading. The question that was being asked in the Community

Redevelopment Action Committee was whether or not to do a study on

how having a bridge would affect the area from several points of

view, including traffic, not whether to build a bridge.

As a person who lives near enough to be impacted by this bridge,

and who has another family member who lives even closer to the

designated study area, I vote a resounding “yes.” However, what I am

saying “yes” to is a study to see what the impact would be on our

area, with a decision to be made from knowledge. Right now we do not

have this knowledge.

While I do not live on 19th Street, if I did I would want to be as

fully informed as possible. Right now a lot of these folks are living

in limbo not knowing whether to “flip to fly.” Should they improve

their properties or give up and move to Irvine? Certainly the study

shouldn’t be shouted down by those who have an agenda or preconceived

notion pro or con regarding a bridge. How about just letting us have

a look at the facts.

KATHLEEN ERIC

Westside

Time has come to do

nothing at Fairview Park

It has finally happened. Our city, Costa Mesa, has moved forward

with its “improvements on our last vestige of open land -- Fairview

Park.

I suppose I shouldn’t complain. When my wife and I moved here more

than 12 years ago, there wasn’t much more space than there is now.

But, soon the Segerstrom bean field will give way to a housing tract,

and our natural progression seems to be toward Fairview Park. It is

sad, because I enjoy open space, even if it’s a dirt field. But

mankind has a pathological disdain for undeveloped land, and this

attitude has pushed us past environmental suicide.

At a recent City Council meeting, a speaker stated the most

reasonable suggestion I’ve heard -- “do nothing.” Where man

interferes with nature, there is always negative impact. Even when we

are creating positive environmental changes, it is always in response

to damage we’ve already created. We don’t need any new trails,

parking lots, bathrooms or other alterations in Fairview Park’s

existing habitat; anything we do from this point forward will have

negative environmental impacts.

The only action that needs to be taken in regards to Fairview Park

is the action of inaction.

J.B. LITVAK

Costa Mesa

Estate tax is gift to the rich

In a recent letter, Newport Beach’s U.S. Congressman, Chris Cox,

wrote that the “Death Tax” (he prefers the pejorative term for

“estate tax”) typically is paid by “small business owners, family

farmer and ranchers.”

How can this be true? Most of the wealth created during the past

generation came from gains in real estate and common stocks. And

since these assets grew in value tax-free, the estate tax is not

double taxation.

The estate tax is one of the oldest and most common forms of

taxation. Let’s call repealing it what it really is: a gift to the

rich.

RICHARD ALEXANDER

Eastside