Kids moved the mess, others made it...

Kids moved the mess, others made it

I have read your article about the Bolsa Chica wetlands and can

understand that the kids have damaged some trees, but really, what

they have done is cleaned up the area from what it looked like

before. Trash was everywhere. These tires and things were not brought

in buy these kids -- it was all there. Don’t you think kids need to

play some where? They really are not hurting anything. What you

should be writing about is all the dog feces that is everywhere or is

it that no one would read your articles if you talked about what

really is hurting the environment, the dog feces. You should also

write about how when you are there you can smell this funny odor in

the air, which is probably caused by the wetlands. It is called PCBs.

This is really the big problem.

I hope you can see that there are more than one problem going on

down there at the Bolsa Chica Wetlands.

JON BOOMGARDEN

Huntington Beach

City owes paintball players nothing but jail

You are indeed naive to think that paintball destroyers would sign

any kind of letter thus leaving them open to arrest for trespassing

and destruction of property. Truly, it makes me sick as I am one of

the people supporting the preservation of the Bolsa Chica with my

hard-earned dollars. I believe this is important enough to have the

police monitor and arrest these people.

CHLOE POLLOCK MIECZKOWSKI

Huntington Beach

Pacific City a good fit for Huntington

As a resident of Huntington Beach whose home sits immediately

behind the property slated to become Pacific City, I believe this

planned community will indeed be a good fit for Downtown Huntington

Beach.

One of my biggest concerns as a Huntington Beach resident is the

slow degradation of our city’s infrastructure, specifically sewers,

roads and schools.

From a financial perspective, Pacific City could be a godsend for

our cash-strapped city administrators, allowing them to fix many of

our city’s ills without burdening residents with new taxes.

From an aesthetic perspective, the planned development looks to be

a marked improvement over the empty land, growing weeds and trash

that currently dominate the site.

While I initially had noise and congestion concerns, those fears

have been put to rest now that I have sat in on some of the

developer’s meetings with local groups and have a better sense of

what the overall plan entails.

NIDAL IBRAHIM

Huntington Beach

City should control motorcycle noise

Why won’t the City Council act to end noise pollution? One form of

pollution that can be controlled with relative ease is noise. For at

least two decades, we have been contacting council members, urging

them to demand that police enforce existing laws regarding vehicular

noise. The state code, for instance, specifies that motorcycles

traveling in speed zones of 35 mph or less not exceed 77 decibels.

However, anyone who has tried to enjoy a meal at one of the sidewalk

cafes on Main Street knows that the explosive revving of motorcycles

exceeds that limit, making the sidewalk experience impossible for

some and unpleasant for all. According to Encyclopedia Britannica,

“At a level of 80 decibels, sound is annoying; but steady exposure to

noise in excess of 90 decibels -- a level that is frequently exceeded

by many common urban sounds, such as jackhammers, jet planes, and

excessively loud music -- can cause permanent loss of hearing.” To

the Britannica list of sources of excessive noise, we add the

motorcycles that make dining on Main Street so unpleasant.

NORMA AND ROSS WINTEROWD

Huntington Beach

City should repay taxpayers, not appeal

No, the appeals court should not overturn a decision [in favor of

the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Assn.] where Huntington Beach has been

ripping us off for years on that spiking of city employees

retirement. We are owed that money and it should be returned.

Secondly, I do not agree with Debbie Cook, she seems to have great

agenda when its her own little personal agendas of ecology and the

thing she is yapping about. But when it comes to items like the

yellow ribbon, I hope she gets either recalled or defeated. I dislike

the job she has done tremendously.

NEIL BROWN

Huntington Beach

City should not appeal award

The city of Huntington Beach should not appeal the award of $2.1

million for the shooting of Antonio Saldivar. That amount should be

directly acquired from the Huntington Beach police budget, as a

reminder that their personnel are responsible for their actions.

J. WILKER

Huntington Beach

City should appeal $2.1 million award

We offer our condolences to Epifania Huertero for her loss, and

yes, the city (the taxpayers) should appeal this particular decision

because it is unreasonable and there is no basis in fact. Although

the Independent did not report it in this article, Officer Mark

Wersching was completely exonerated by the California courts of the

unreasonably use of lethal force. And now, if I understand the

findings of this civil rights court correctly, the court/jury now

expects our City Council to instruct its police chief and police

officers to be more gentlemanly should this sort of thing happen

again. To paraphrase the jury, it would really be appreciated if the

police would wait for the other fellow to fire first so as to clearly

demonstrate that the person confronted has a real gun rather than a

replica of a real gun. Maybe “take one for the team” so to speak

before returning fire.

We are very fortunate that we are not offering our condolences to

Wersching’s family, as events could have gone the other way. While we

ask our police officers to go in harm’s way, we don’t expect them to

take one for the team so that Huntington Beach taxpayers can avoid a

potential lawsuit.

It was also a finding of the court that Antonio Saldivar was

complying with the police at the time and that Wersching should have

waited for a second officer to arrive at the scene. An interesting

conclusion when the officer was in fear of his life because the

suspect was pointing a gun at him. And exactly how was a second

officer arriving at the scene going to change the situation? What we

have is two officers facing imminent death rather than one.

I am offended by this particular civil rights case because there

is no useful message coming out of it. It’s a chilling message indeed

if the jury was trying to say that police officers should “roll the

dice” when they come face to face with gun-in-hand suspect and hope

they don’t end up in the morgue.

JOHN F. HILL

Huntington Beach