Logic remains faulty on Westside bluffs Most...

Logic remains faulty

on Westside bluffs

Most of the arguments put forth by the industrialists to keep

Costa Mesa’s Westside bluffs in their lowest and worst state are

factually and logically challenged. There are four basic arguments.

Argument 1: The area has been industrial for a long time.

Answer 1: So what? Times change. Also, just because something has

been done doesn’t make it the right thing to do. The bluffs once also

had herds of goats. In the year 2003, they’re as inappropriate on the

bluffs as many of the industrial buildings.

Argument 2: The industrialists have property rights.

Answer 2: And so do all the rest of us in the city. When someone

pumps toxic chemicals into our air, soil and water, those chemicals

don’t stay within the four corners of the industrialist’s property

but affect all of us in Costa Mesa. This is especially true regarding

air pollution. Because of the unique location of the Westside bluffs

industrial area -- upwind of most of the rest of the city -- and the

almost constant ocean breezes, dangerous airborne chemicals put in

the river of air flowing from the ocean over the bluffs quickly blow

over most of the rest of the city. Maybe this is why most of the

industrialists don’t live in Costa Mesa but prefer to live upwind of

the toxic cloud in places such as Newport Beach. Anyone who wants

unfettered property rights should move far away from other people.

The old saw, “Your right to swing your arm stops where my nose

begins,” applies to our situation. No one has a property right to

cause citizens of Costa Mesa to develop cancer or other illnesses or

to cause children to be born with birth defects.

Argument 3: The industrial area creates jobs.

Answer 3: Many of the jobs pay little, and many of the people who

fill them have been attracted to the city by the jobs. They then make

ends meet by using the infrastructure that has grown up around the

industrial area to help these “working poor.” This includes our

ever-expanding charities that provide free food, free medical and

dental care, free clothes, money for paying rent and utility bills

and day care. The city also provides a Job Center, paid for by

residents, to help many workers hook up with many employers from

Newport Beach who own factories on the bluffs of Costa Mesa. All of

this is causing the flight of citizens out of the city.

I could go on, but the above pretty much sums up most of the

arguments being used to try to fool Costa Mesa residents into

continuing to accept inappropriate uses of our land and which present

very real health and safety risks to the residents, and especially

the children, of Costa Mesa. These industrialists would never

tolerate these conditions near their own homes.

Argument 4: The government is trampling on the rights of the

industrialists

Answer 4: Actually, Costa Mesa’s city government has been

protecting the industrial properties by looking the other way and by

allowing improper zoning and land-use regulations. The present move

to improve our city is coming from average working-class residents

who are fed up that Costa Mesa is being treated as the city dump of

Newport Beach. Some “uppity” residents don’t believe that our city

should be sent to the back of the bus. Where some arrogant

industrialists see and want to keep a garbage heap that makes them

money, these residents see and hope to build a shining city on the

hill.

Part of the struggle in Costa Mesa is about who controls this

city. Is it controlled by the voting residents of the city, as is

normal under our form of government, or by rich out-of-town

industrialists who use their money to keep our city mired in

down-scale uses for their personal profit and who may figure they can

buy elections? And, if it is the voting residents of this city who

are in control, don’t we have a right to fix up our city as we want?

Can’t we decide what type of city we want? Or, are the residents of

Costa Mesa something like slaves to the rich industrialists from

Newport Beach? Are we simply helpless victims of a history that first

put goats on our bluffs, then oil wells and now industrial buildings?

What must we accept next? Nuclear power plants? Dynamite factories?

Massive plating plants? Huge pig farms? Isn’t it our right to take

charge of our own city and make it a better place to live and raise

our children?

Some of us have offered what we believe is a reasonable,

free-market compromise to scraping the bluffs of industrial uses.

We’ve suggested that a fairly painless and incremental step along the

way to deindustrializing the bluffs would be to develop an artists’

village within the present industrial area and to encourage artists

of all types to take up residence in live/work spaces. With some help

from the city this could become a unique alternative to Laguna Beach

and could become a tourist attraction for our city. One can imagine

art galleries, small theaters, coffee shops and all the other things

that spring up in an area frequented by artists to develop. The

artists would coexist with some clean industrial uses, which would

keep the area from becoming too antiseptic, and thus, anti-art.

However, instead of trying to work with Costa Mesans in creative

ways to make a nicer, safer city, many of these out-of-town

industrialists are responding with arrogance and are telling the

residents of Costa Mesa to love it or lump it. Some apparently figure

they can buy off local politicians so they can continue to pollute

and drive our city down ever lower. And, what do they care? It’s not

their kids who are breathing the toxic chemicals. It’s not their kids

who are attending Costa Mesa schools. It’s not their home values that

are less than they should be. It’s not the quality of life of their

families that is impacted.

Watch, as the political season that we are now entering really

takes hold, to see which Costa Mesa City Council candidates get the

most donations from these out-of-town industrialists.

M. H. MILLARD

Costa Mesa

Don’t judge all

seniors by one driver

I am now 82 years old, and I am afraid to drive my automobile on

the freeways in this state due to the young drivers that cut in and

out, changing lanes, talking on phones in large SUVs. With hardly

room for a car, over they come.

So I drive only where I am comfortable and try to avoid the young

speeders. I have driven since I was 16, have never been in an

accident and had just one ticket in my life. I have driven many miles

across the U.S. and in cities east and west and also in Canada. My

one ticket was in Tennessee, where I was caught on radar (with

others) for going 70 in a 65 miles per hour zone. I paid my find and

was surprised when I received and letter from Tennessee, thanking a

Californian for being honest; this was some years ago.

However, not long ago, I took my driver’s test. The young man

right behind me was in a hurry, and when we finished and were turning

in our tests, I passed, missing only one of the questions. The young

man failed the test, missing 11 of the questions.

My other concern is young people running stop signs in residential

areas at high speeds. I have seen this, and if by chance anyone had

been in one of the intersections at the time, they would have been

killed.

Now, my reason for writing is that I hope everyone will take into

consideration that we can not be judged by one senior’s mistake, and

we do not all fall into the same category as drivers.

JEAN CARSON

Newport Beach