No surprise when bad politics arise How...

No surprise when bad politics arise

How dare people act upset at Newport Beach City Councilman Dick

Nichols’ statement (“Councilman’s comments anger City Hall,”

Saturday).

With bribes running ramped in cities all over Los Angeles and

Orange County recently (don’t they watch the news?), they should be

looking into it. Bribes are, and have always been, part of bad

politics.

As for questionable recent decisions by Newport’s Planning

Commission, we need look no farther back than the Mormon church

steeple height problem. Someone on our City Council, with the entire

community involved crying foul, should have looked into that.

BRAD SMITH

Newport Beach

A right to talk, but a responsibility, also

It’s interesting, although not very comforting, to see that Costa

Mesa is not the only repository of politicians who forget to engage

their brains before they open their mouths. I refer, of course, to

Newport Beach City Councilman Dick Nichols’ recent brain burp before

the Planning Commission during which he reportedly implied that

someone had been paid off (“Councilman’s comments anger City Hall,”

Saturday). Good grief!

I agree with other writers that Nichols, as a resident of Newport

Beach, is entitled to speak on issues before the Planning Commission.

However, his position on the City Council carries with it the

responsibility of thinking before he speaks.

It’s one thing to overhear those kinds of comments while sipping a

cool one at a local bar -- it goes with the turf -- but for a sitting

councilman to blurt out such innuendo in a public forum is an

entirely different matter. If he truly believes what he said, then he

should launch an investigation. If it was just unedited drivel

running out of his head when he opened his mouth, then he should

apologize and keep his fingers crossed that no one sues him and the

city. And the citizens of Newport Beach should remember.

GEOFF WEST

Costa Mesa

A sign of something completely different

In Tuesday’s paper, a letter ran that is full of errors and

misconceptions (“Improvers improving Costa Mesa?”).

I am familiar with the request to post a “no soccer playing” sign

at a community park. However, the request was for a sign that not

only prohibited soccer, but also all other sports that are

inappropriate in the park in question, including baseball and field

hockey -- generally, thundering herd-type sports or those where balls

are hit, thrown or kicked by teams.

This park is a very small neighborhood park that is close to homes

and streets. It is no way a sports field. The central feature of the

park is a tot lot. The park is also dotted with large mature trees.

What has been happening is that soccer players are taking over the

park and disrespecting the uses for which this park was intended and

chasing off citizens who do want to use the park as intended.

The park has no flat area of a size that is appropriate for soccer

playing. The soccer players play around and among the trees and are

in danger of running into the trees. The turf in the park, which is

not the proper turf for heavy use, is now turning brown and has bare

spots because of the heavy use. The trees are being damaged. Soccer

balls are frequently kicked on to the sidewalk and into the street.

These balls are often followed by soccer players, who dart into the

very busy street. Residents have complained about finding human waste

in the tot lot after the soccer players leave.

Now, as far as the letter writer’s other vague innuendoes about

residents who are trying to improve Costa Mesa, I would only say that

his agenda seems pretty clear from the terms and words he has used.

My guess is that if the writer is for any sort of improvement, he

will define the term to mean clean the alleys once a year, rather

than making the very necessary changes in our city that will make

this the best place to live in all of Orange County.

JANICE DAVIDSON

Costa Mesa

A picture-perfect idea for Irvine Avenue

The consensus seems to be that speed is the most common factor in

causing accidents in the “S” curves on Irvine Avenue. I don’t favor

installing speed bumps or additional signals to slow down traffic,

and I don’t favor additional policing because of the numbers of

people who exceed the speed limit make it impractical to chase down

every one, the danger to the policemen and the time it takes for the

officers to spend in court when a ticket is contested.

I would like to see investigated the practicality of combining

traffic cameras with radar on portable trailers to photograph and

send a huge bill to the owner of every vehicle caught speeding.

This might require a change in the laws to provide that the owner

of a vehicle is responsible for anyone caught speeding in his vehicle

and would certainly require that the requirement that every vehicle

have a clearly visible front license plate be enforced. It would also

be very unpopular.

KENNETH L. PERRY

Newport Beach