Jumping on the bandwagon

I think the city should ban “fireworks”; they are dangerous. The City

Council should not try to duck the question as they have in the past

and should take action to save lives and property. There are many

community events in the area that allows families to celebrate the

Fourth. Service clubs will have to look for safer ways to raise

money.

BETSY WHITE

Costa Mesa

I’d like to see the city of Costa Mesa ban all fireworks.

Safe-and-sane fireworks are not really safe. They also seem to

encourage illegal fireworks, which now abound and make for a

dangerous evening. Some of the explosives used on our street soared

high enough to scatter hot debris over a wide area. We now stay home

on the Fourth of July, hoses out, ready to put out any tree or roof

fires.

JEAN ULANDER

Costa Mesa

I appreciate Costa Mesa Councilman Mike Scheafer’s concern and

compassion and the epiphany he has had in response to Adelaide

Thiel’s unfortunate firework injury. I wish her a quick recovery and

am sorry she is in pain. All due respect to Thiel, one makes a

decision to light a sparkler. A similar decision is made by the

adventure seekers at the Orange County Fair who take a chance on the

Adrenaline Drop attraction and are injured. The fair, so far this

year, has double the injury rate of the fireworks on the Fourth of

July. In response to those injuries, will Schaefer also work to phase

out the fair?

MEG TWEEDY

Costa Mesa

What should the city do about its fireworks? What it should have

done in 1990 when the advisory vote favored ridding the city of any

fireworks. How many lives will be lost and bodies maimed in this city

before we ban those torches? Councilman Mike Scheafer is right: A

neighbor was badly burned.

Solution: Conduct a workshop by smart marketers to teach the

nonprofits how to raise money for their charities. Have the sports

kids sell items, bake cakes, wash cars, etc. Use their computer heads

to solve problem. The 58 stands should be annihilated. They are ugly

and an eyesore to City of the Arts.

ANNE HOGAN-SHERESHEVSKY

Costa Mesa

As a longtime opponent to Costa Mesa’s “safe and sane” fireworks

policy, I was delighted to see that Councilman Mike Scheafer has

reversed his thinking and is now in favor of phasing out firework

usage in the city. My neighbor and I spent time on July 5 performing

our annual ritual of showing each other the charred remains of bottle

rockets that we cleaned up from our yards.

I regret that it took Adelaide Thiel’s injury to make the

councilman rethink his position. While I prefer an immediate banning

of all fireworks in Costa Mesa, if a phased-out procedure makes the

ban more likely to pass, then that would be welcome.

ELLIOTT S. MITCHELL

Costa Mesa

I am not worried that the Costa Mesa City Council may ban the sale

and use of fireworks for Independence Day. Aren’t there other issues

that should be addressed first?

Almost 50 innocent people die each day in this country from

alcohol-related driving assaults and yet our city, in some places,

rivals many well-known slum areas in the number of liquor stores and

substance abuse group homes per capita.

Costa Mesa has the embarrassing status of having the ZIP code with

the highest number of teen mothers giving birth in the county, and

yet, we still cling to the hope that our local Planned Parenthood

could possibly provide solutions and not actually be one of the key

causes to the problem.

Increasing numbers of transient men allegedly cause repeated

problems including crime, lewd acts and the take-over of some public

parks, yet our soup kitchen requires no community service or other

form of accountability in exchange for handouts.

We accommodate hordes of commuters from Huntington and Newport

beaches each weekday morning, and yet, in the evenings, those same

cities offer us no relief. And in the specific case of Adams Avenue,

Huntington Beach actually exasperates the problem with uncooperative

traffic signals at Brookhurst Avenue, causing gridlock in our city.

And Eastside residents have to endure more and more overhead

flights due to lost opportunities by our City Council to reduce

future growth in air traffic.

Whatever happened to common sense in setting priorities?

No, I am not too worried about losing fireworks when it is obvious

these issues mentioned and others need addressing first. Whether or

not we continue to allow residents to set off fireworks in this city

should be based heavily on community input and not reactionary

impulses.

Accidents happen, and if I witnessed firsthand what happened to

Adelaide Thiel, I too might have made the personal choice to swear

off fireworks. (I still may, anyway) I pray for a quick recovery for

her and her husband. However, sound law should be based on sound

judgment, careful thought and open and fair debate.

JOEL FARIS

Costa Mesa

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Joel Faris is a Costa Mesa planning commissioner.