The CRAC should continue At our first...

The CRAC should continue

At our first meeting of the Costa Mesa Redevelopment Action

Committee, City Councilwoman and Redevelopment Agency member Libby

Cowan suggested that we imagine ourselves as about to embark on a

road trip across the United States, a meandering cross-country

journey that might take as long as 18 months. Committee members

wouldn’t just be along for the ride, but rather each member would

have the opportunity to suggest detours along the way and to take an

active part in determining the route that would lead us to our

destination, our vision for revitalization of the Westside.

Like most on cross-country trips, committee members encountered a

number of bumps along the way, and like young children on a long trip

we began to fidget, and were continually asking if we were there yet.

We began to question the route that Civic Solutions, the committee’s

facilitator, requested we follow. It just wasn’t direct enough to

immediately satisfy our most strident members who knew exactly what

they wanted and how to get there. Some committee members complained

to the Redevelopment Agency. Naysayers began to question whether the

committee would ever find its way.

Well, I am happy to report that it does seem that the committee

has found its way. Significant progress was made by its members at

the recent meeting on April 24. After being on the road for almost a

year now, the committee has a new found energy, and despite our

initial impatience, our doubts and the many other bumps along the

way, we will soon arrive at our vision for the revitalization of the

Westside.

As the road with Civic Solutions comes to an end, and as we wrap

up our report to the Redevelopment Agency, we must be vigilant to

avoid another dead end like the one the Westside Specific Plan

encountered. It is my hope that the agency considers allowing the

committee to continue without facilitators, chaired by one of its

existing members and working closely with the agency and its staff to

see that the committee’s report is not an end but rather a new

beginning.

TERRI BREER

Costa Mesa

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Terri Breer is a member of the Costa Mesa

Redevelopment Action Committee and was among those who applied for

the empty City Council seat.

There is nothing lovely left to see here

I look forward to the fall, when the beautiful liquidambar trees

on San Miguel Drive provide the residents of Newport Beach with a

spectacular annual color show before they lose their leaves. The

springtime is equally as beautiful when the colorful green leaves

reappear on these mature and immaculately maintained trees.

I was terribly disturbed when I noticed last week that

approximately 40 of the trees in the city-maintained median have been

cut in half. After a discussion with John Conway, the city arborist,

I was horrified to find out that the SeaView Homeowners Assn. Board,

along with some of the residents, privately instructed and paid a

third-party contractor to cut these city trees in half.

These city trees were a benefit to the entire community before

they were destroyed. It is very difficult for me to believe that

anyone would act so selfishly without regard for the remaining

residents in Newport Beach or that any experienced contractor would

act in such a manor. Conway has told me that the trees have been

destroyed and that they will have to be replaced. Ironically, the

residents of Seaview will benefit from their malicious acts by

replanting smaller trees that will take years to mature. In the

meantime, these brazen and inconsiderate individuals will benefit for

many years until the new trees mature.

I believe the consequence to the guilty parties should be more

than just simply replacing the mature city trees with smaller trees.

The responsible parties should pay for the full value of the 40 trees

that were destroyed. I believe that the Seaview community should

reimburse the city an estimated $200,000 for the full value of the

approximately 40 trees that have been destroyed assuming a value of

$5,000 per tree.

STEPHEN A. BRAHS

Newport Beach