Photo shows the danger of John...

Photo shows the danger of John Wayne expansion

On Dec. 7, the Daily Pilot presented a photo of a tanker truck

carrying 8,000 gallons of jet fuel headed to John Wayne Airport that

was broadsided by an SUV driven by a suspected drunk driver. The

collision caused the tanker to jack-knife and spill 4,000 gallons of

fuel. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries.

A week later, the Pilot published an article about the fading

dream of El Toro. Meg Waters, Allan Songstad and an attorney for the

El Toro Reuse Planning Authority were quoted with very sanguine views

on the status of the airport situation in Orange County, i.e., El

Toro is dead and John Wayne will carry the entire load.

However, I recall that Waters spent a lot of time and money early

on in the airport imbroglio by designing and distributing at least 11

large posters purporting to show the problems with an airport at El

Toro. One of them showed a picture, in color, exactly like the scene

in the photo of the previous article in the Pilot, an accident that

actually happened at John Wayne.

Waters intimated that the scene in the poster occurred at El Toro

so as to frighten the residents of South County by illustrating what

would happen if an airport were operating at El Toro. The picture was

a lie, because no tanker trucks would ever be required at El Toro

since it receives all of its fuel by pipeline from the refinery.

Waters showed great concern for the safety of South County

residents, even though there is no danger there from tanker trucks,

but she shows no concern for the residents of Costa Mesa and Newport

Beach, where there is a real danger. That danger will only increase

as the passenger load increases to accommodate the burgeoning

population of South County.

Waters also said the South County and Newport Beach should work

together. A commendable statement, but one that ignores the majority

of Orange County. The total population of Orange County is almost 3

million; all of us paid state and federal taxes to establish the

airport at El Toro and are now denied the use of it. The solution

proposed by South County to move the airport to the Inland Empire

sounds reasonable at first glance, but ignores the experience of Los

Angeles International Airport when it tried to solve the same problem

by putting the huge Palmdale airport in Lancaster. The result is best

described with a slight modification of an earlier political

expression -- “What if they gave an airport and nobody came?”

WILLIAM KEARNS

Costa Mesa

Schools deserve upgrades before beach deserves sand

For the state to pay for upgrades on a beach seems ludicrous to me

when our schools that were built in the 1940s and ‘50s have little to

no upgrades at all still. It’s just ludicrous. I can’t believe we’re

talking about moving around sand when those buildings that our

children go to school in are in such desperate need of upgrading

repair and, in many cases, totally rebuilding.

NIKI GOOD

Newport Beach

There’s a big difference between the bridges

Your story on the Gisler/Garfield bridge in the paper was somewhat

misleading (“Bridge notion widens gap between cities,” Monday). You

indicated that the action of the Fountain Valley City Council is very

similar to what the Community of Redevelopment Committee was asking.

Specifically, that both cities wanted to do feasibility studies for

the bridges. That’s not true. The staff report clearly stated that

the funding that Fountain Valley is requesting is for design and

engineering for a bridge. That’s way beyond a feasibility study;

further that was the City Council, it wasn’t a self-appointed

committee that was voting to do this. So there’s a profound

difference, and I don’t believe it’s appropriate to make it seem to

be the same thing.

SANDRA GENIS

Costa Mesa

* Sandra Genis is a former Costa Mesa mayor.

An airport at El Toro

is needed to ease travel time

Leonard Kranser is right. Orange County’s airport cannot serve

future needs. So he suggests an airport in Riverside or San

Bernardino, which means just as much time on the freeway to get

there. For years, we would go up to Los Angeles the night before so

as to ensure not missing our plane by an accident on the freeway. And

going by limo might have the same problem, but this meant an extra

day, plus hotel and parking costs. Now we fly out of Orange County.

We refuse to call it John Wayne, but this means changing planes

somewhere before getting to our destination.

This past Monday, coming from Cabo, the plane into Phoenix was

late, so we had, at best, less than 15 minutes to get the plane to

Orange County. Coming this way, one has to deplane at one end of the

Phoenix Airport and get to the other end, about half a mile. I had a

wheelchair waiting for me, but as we passed a small airport tram, I

explained the problem, got on the tram, and the driver called and had

the plane wait for us. They closed the door behind us as we boarded.

We need El Toro, which will fly us directly and is close by. I

guess Kranser doesn’t go beyond the local supermarket.

Another comment: I guess there was a stampede at Van Cleef &

Arpels for the Lotus Collection, with the earrings, which Greer

Wylder said, were “only” $18,500. Goodness gracious, I just don’t

like to buy cheap jewelry, so I didn’t go.

LYNN MERLES

Costa Mesa

Column was right on about protecting free speech

I just wanted to say how much I appreciated Tony Dodero’s article

because I think it is so important that people respect free speech

and that we do get coverage on both sides of the issue (“From the

Newsroom,” Dec. 16).

On another note, I’ve personally had issues with the anti-war

movement. People have torn bumper stickers off my car and I’ve

received minor vandalism because I have anti-war stickers on my car.

And then also, I have a human rights club that I started at Estancia

High School -- I’m a teacher in Newport-Mesa -- and my human rights

club is also making anti-war messages and we’ve hung those messages

up around our campus on Human Rights Day. Those were torn down as

well. So there is a spirit of nationalism, I believe, that is just

this pro-war nationalism and it’s sort of like the spirit of

censorship. So it was a good article, an important article, about

disagreeing, but don’t leave the debate.

When I read it, I found that two people called in to say they were

canceling their subscription. Well, I don’t subscribe to the Los

Angeles Times, Daily Pilot, but I would like to because of Dodero’s

article and I was happy to hear that somebody was brave enough to

cover the issue, because it can be unpopular to stand for issues of

human rights, anti-war, things like that.

I also think you guys did great coverage on the fierce winter

swells coming in at Blackie’s in Newport Beach. Good coverage on the

surf as well, on a lighter note.

JOEL FLORES

Santa Ana