Park issue not one of political suicide

It was my intent to write this letter sooner, but there have been

quite a few issues before council lately.

In the April 22 Daily Pilot, a letter to the editor ran concerning

the “athletic fields at TeWinkle and California schools and the local

residents seeking to ban children from using them.”

The editor’s note indicated the letter was addressed to Costa Mesa

City Councilman Chris Steel, but I would like to make a few comments.

When I ran for office, I met with numerous people in the city to talk

about many city issues. That was part of the core of my campaign --

to at least hear out and address any issues of concern to the people

in this city. One of the groups of people I met with were the

residents on Iowa Street near California and TeWinkle schools. They

expressed concerns about traffic, parking, noise, trash and possible

overuse at some fields compared to others.

I told them I would be willing to look into the issue and felt

that was very fair. I must admit, at the time, I did not know the

complexity of the issue considering the number of user groups, the

city and the school district. At no time have I ever heard them or

anyone suggest that children should be banned from using the fields.

I would also like to clarify that I have never made such a statement.

If some are calling for an end to the joint-use agreement, I would

suggest that we look at ways to improve it.

The letter writer went on to say that many of the complaints are

unfounded. That may be the case in some circumstances, but as I have

looked into the issues, I believe there is room for improvement.

For example, as I drove down Iowa Street one weekend during the

time fields were in use, I did notice what I considered to be quite a

bit of trash on the street. Now, I am not going to place blame as to

how the trash got there, but the fact remains that there was a

considerable amount of it, and that is a problem. Perhaps the

solution is more trash cans, better locations or more frequent

emptying of the cans.

We won’t know until we are willing to look at the situation. The

other things mentioned were traffic, noise, parking, etc. While the

letter writer believes these are unfounded, I take the approach that

there is always room for improvement. He is correct that the

recreational venues in our city are inadequate compared to the need.

This is all the more reason to look at ways to improve what we have

to work with. Actually, I’ve gotten calls on the other side of the

fence, as well. There are regular problems with how we look at the

“mud line” and assess whether the fields are usable.

Apparently, we only check a couple of fields to determine the

usability of all of them after it rains. I know that sometimes it can

be a subjective decision, but I feel there is room for improvement in

this area.

In the April 26 edition of the Daily Pilot, Steve Smith seems to

also be jumping to conclusions. At a recent council meeting, we were

going to look at this issue, but appropriately decided to wait until

Parks and Recreation had a chance to look at it. Since we were not

looking at the issue that night, I intentionally kept my comments

brief and expressed simple concern regarding “problems with the

fields.”

Smith took that to mean I had made up my mind in some way. I guess

a better way to have phrased it would have been “issues with the

fields.” I don’t see how you can come to any final conclusions with

only four words. You did not even contact me for clarification before

writing your comments. For the record, I want to look for solutions

to these issues at the coming study session where we will be looking

at this.

In closing, the letter writer mentioned that “the very thought of

telling more than 200 children they cannot participate ... looks an

awful lot like political suicide to me.” Again, my response is that I

don’t think anyone is suggesting that, but to refuse to even look at

this issue would be political cowardice.

* ALLAN MANSOOR is a Costa Mesa city councilman.