A stimulating Sunday morning

Geoff West

Thanks to the Daily Pilot for yet another stimulating Sunday morning.

On the front page on July 28 we found former Costa Mesa Mayor Peter

Buffa at his best, using all his wit and wisdom trying to convince us

that CenterLine is essential to Orange County’s transportation

well-being. Then, appropriately, in the bowels of the paper we found

costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem Chris Steel going on and on and on about

everything that popped into his mind.

First about Centerline. Despite Buffa’s clever presentation of the

“facts,” I’m still not convinced that CenterLine is anything more

than a boondoggle and a monument to those who conjured up this white

elephant in the first place. In its original incarnation -- with 28

miles of rails theoretically moving people by the hundreds of

thousands each day throughout the county and connecting to the

broader rail network -- it might have made some sense. It might have

actually taken people out of their cars. As the participating cities

began dropping like flies, it became much less viable. Since Irvine

opted out recently, leaving only Costa Mesa and Santa Ana as

participants, it makes absolutely no sense. With a show of hands, how

many of you plan to ride from South Coast Plaza to the Santa Ana

Transportation Center each day? That’s what I thought. Sorry, Peter

-- it still doesn’t pencil out. I have seen the future, and it’s in

my garage.

On to Steel. Readers of James Meier’s interview with him Sunday

got a real dose of vintage Steel in action. Having been a participant

in a couple telephone conversations with our erstwhile councilman in

recent months, I can attest to the fact that the rambling, disjointed

monologue published in the interview was very representative of how

things just seem to come tumbling out of his head, apparently

unencumbered by any sort of filtering mechanism. Those of us who

watch him in action on the City Council dais have seen this time

after time. He will ramble on, talking about subjects as they pop

into his head, then -- as if to add an exclamation point to his

dialogue -- push himself back from the microphone and glance around

in wide-eyed curiosity to see if anyone has been paying attention.

Usually, they have not.

As I read his rant, line after line, it became quite clear why he

has been unable to build any alliances on the council. For a man of

his years, with several decades of political activism behind him,

it’s hard to believe that he could be so inept -- but he is. Every

time he opens his mouth he manages, somehow, to figuratively shoot

himself in the foot. It seems to me that any slim chance of forming

an alliance with Mayor Gary Monahan was just blown away by his

harangue in this interview.

And why am I not surprised that Steel has a close relationship

with beleaguered Newport Beach Councilman Dick Nichols? The two men

appear to be bookends, both of whom are rapidly becoming irrelevant

on their respective councils. One can only feel pity for them.

So once again, the pages of the Daily Pilot managed to jump-start

my Sunday and get the juices flowing.

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Geoff West is a Costa Mesa resident.