Balboa Pavilion would benefit from more...

Balboa Pavilion would benefit from more amenities

I read with great interest the article about the new restaurant to

take the place of the Tale of the Whale (“A different Tale begins,”

Nov. 25). My daughter had her wedding reception at Balboa Pavilion

six and a half years ago. It was a gorgeous, beautiful view,

beautiful venue; however, the main problems we confronted were the

parking problem and also the lack of facilities for the disabled.

Several of our guests had difficulty with no elevators for the

ballroom. I hope they address these problems. I wish them good luck;

it’s a beautiful location.

SANDRA BASMACIYAN

Corona del Mar

Changes are needed at the top of Costa Mesa government

I believe it’s time that Costa Mesa made some changes in its

governance. We’ve become a major city with more than 100,000

citizens. We’re a powerhouse in terms of commerce and the arts. And

so far, at least, we’ve avoided the Stepford Wives “Irvinization”

that afflicts our neighbor city to the south, or the “pull in the

drawbridge” knee-jerk reaction against growth that has infected some

of our friends in Newport Beach.

We are culturally and economically diverse, and should be proud of

it. Yet, we are still governed by just five elected council members

who may -- or may not -- represent the majority of our citizenry on

important issues.

Was the recent election of Mayor Karen Robinson a coup? Did a

majority of the council engage in collusion (and possible Brown Act

violations) to elect her rather than Gary Monahan? We may never know.

But what we do know is that the most experienced and qualified

council member -- and the one who garnered the most votes by far --

isn’t mayor. Special interests could, and very possibly have, stacked

the dais. The three votes it takes to carry a motion used to look

formidable to me. Now it looks way too small. How do we insulate

ourselves from this? I recommend that we seek to increase the council

from five members to seven, or maybe even nine, as soon as is

possible.

It might be interesting to see which of the council members would

favor such a change. I recommend further that we popularly elect our

mayor, and give him or her some real clout. Perhaps the council

candidate that earns the most votes should automatically become

mayor. Let’s get rid of this largely ceremonial, baby kissing,

ribbon-cutting role, and replace it with a paid position of

leadership and authority. Only then, I believe, will we get the

governance we truly deserve.

CHUCK CASSITY

Costa Mesa

De Boom should be more careful whom he calls a turkey

In response to Jim de Boom’s column of Nov. 30.

The real “Turkey of the Year” is Jim de Boom. In his column, he

quotes a definition of a turkey as “a person considered inept or

undesirable.” His claim of “turkeys” being “those neighbors who were

concerned about losing 1/100 of a percent of one degree of their

360-degree view from the steeple at the proposed Mormon Temple being

built in Newport Beach” clearly demonstrates that he is certainly

“inept.”

De Boom is flat-out wrong on a number of issues. First, he has

demonstrated his ignorance of the area and issue by stating that

people have a 360-degree view. None of the houses in the area of the

four tracts opposed to the steeple have a 360-degree view. Second, he

claims the blocking of 1/100 of one percent of one degree of view. He

obviously has no knowledge of trigonometry. At a distance of 600

yards, the approximate distance of many Seawind homes from the temple

site, the width of the steeple, according to de Boom’s numbers, would

be 0.04 inches. Obviously, the steeple is much wider than 0.04

inches. My advice to de Boom is that if he is going to use numbers in

his column, then he should make certain that they are accurate.

In this sense, de Boom’s column is no better than the

environmental report and city staff report that misrepresented the

height of the existing steeple on the Mormon Stake Center. The

problem is not that the steeple will block a view but rather that the

steeple will be the view. The problem was clearly stated in a Los

Angeles Times editorial on Oct. 20, 2002: “Neighbors also worry about

the bright lights meant to bathe the steeple in a heavenly glow until

10 each evening, a natural concern for any parent who has to get the

kids to bed by 8:30.”

Later in that same editorial, the situation is summarized: “The

land where the temple would be built is zoned for houses of worship,

so home buyers should have been forewarned. But a Mormon temple isn’t

your ordinary neighborhood church. It is meant almost by definition

to be an imposing and visually dominant building that evokes

heaven-inspired awe in viewers.”

Of course, de Boom failed to disclose in his column that he, in

fact, was personally involved in the issue, since he testified on

behalf of the temple proponents at the Sept. 5 Planning Commission

meeting. It seems like “failure to disclose” goes hand in hand with

this whole project.

Those of us who live in the area are getting sick and tired of

such proclaimed “community leaders” and city officials pontificating

to us on what we should or should not have in our neighborhood. We

have been quietly living here minding our own business for up to 30

years in many cases.

Now, the Mormons come along and want to build a temple. That’s not

a problem, but the height and lighting of the steeple are a problem,

as noted above. All we want them to do is to comply with the zoning

ordinances, which have been in place for a long time. We would feel

this way about any type of structure to be built by anyone.

It just so happens that the city has a mechanism to grant churches

the right to exceed the zoning height limit, so we fought it. Now, it

just does not seem right that we should be labeled the bad guys in

this scenario. We don’t want any tall, lighted structure there. This

is really just an issue about what would typically be called “bricks

and mortar,” just that, in this case it is specifically about pink

marble and a gold-plated plastic angel.

ALLEN K. MURRAY

Newport Beach