Will Westside ‘industrialists’ get raises? The ninth...

Will Westside ‘industrialists’ get raises?

The ninth word into M. H. Millard’s indictment against Westside

Costa Mesa business in Saturday’s Pilot was “industrialist.” So was

the last word in that same letter. In between were another 20 or so

references to industrialists or industry. It’s as if a disgruntled

group, disappointed that their efforts thus far to gain traction with

the argument that the Westside needs to be purged of all business,

got together in a little room and came up with a plan. Eureka.

They’ll call them industrialists. It seems they’ve decided that all

of these businesses, large and small, will henceforth be referred to

in their frequent diatribes as industrialists. It’s true, isn’t it,

that if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth?

I don’t know about you, but when I think of “industrialists” I

think of Henry Ford or Andrew Carnegie or Jay Gould. I don’t tend to

think that sailmakers or auto repair shops or even Roger Craig’s

nifty boat-building enterprise qualify as industrialists. I drove all

over the Westside yesterday and, with exception of the Cla-Val plant

on Placentia, I couldn’t find anything that could qualify remotely as

“industry.” I’m thinking, if this new strategy doesn’t work, members

of this group might kick their efforts up a notch and begin referring

to Westside business owners as “robber barons.”

Let’s dispense with one of the fallacies right away. Most Westside

businesses are not owned by Newport Beach millionaires who dump their

trash in Costa Mesa so they can kill our children. Most of these

business owners work in Costa Mesa and live in Costa Mesa, just like

me. Secondly, when goats roamed the bluffs in Costa Mesa, Costa Mesa

wasn’t a city. Once incorporated, Costa Mesa’s leaders developed

codes and rules and regulations regarding zoning, and these Westside

businesses, as far as I know, are conforming to the laws as they are

written. And any that aren’t should be punished to the full extent of

the law. Those that are should be left alone to the quiet enjoyment

of their property (that’s called “property rights”).

Next, most of these businesses, mine included, don’t pollute. The

owners of those that do should be arrested and prosecuted under

Environmental Protection Agency laws currently in effect. I’ve lived

and worked on the Westside for years, and I’ve yet to see or smell or

suffer the ill effects of the toxic cloud of killer fumes about which

these people suffer such vibrant, palpable paranoia. I might add, I

don’t know of a single soul advocating the building of dynamite

factories or nuclear power plants or giant pig farms on the bluffs.

This sort of over-the-top rhetoric is so representative of those

otherwise unable to make coherent arguments in support of their

narrow points of view.

Lastly, I have come to believe that the unspoken undercurrent

providing the impetus for this merry little band to try to redesign

the Westside according to their own agenda may be

not-too-thinly-disguised racism. If all businesses on the Westside

were eliminated, there would be no employees in those businesses.

Without employees, there would be no chance that the “working poor,”

a euphemism for illegal immigrants, I believe, could be among them.

Without immigrants, illegal or otherwise, there would be no need for

charities to feed and clothe them, or a Job Center at which they

could loiter and spoil our otherwise pristine view.

Viola. No more problems. No problems other than how would the city

replace the lost tax revenue from hundreds of now defunct small

businesses. Or, how will these business-less people now make a

living. Or, where will thousands of the newly unemployed find work.

Or, who will buy all those nice new sterile houses and condos popping

up like mushrooms on the breezy bluffs. Is it worth breaking promises

and turning inside out the entire fabric of the Westside just to get

rid of immigrants? To some, I think it may well be.

By the way, if artists want to build an artists’ village on the

Westside, I suspect they’ll decide to do that all by themselves.

That’s the way it generally happens in a democracy.

Geoff West and Eric Bever have recently advocated a basic posture

in this debate with which I wholeheartedly agree. How about we go

hunting with a rifle instead of a shotgun? If a property is blighted,

let’s go after that property owner to make sure the problem is

immediately corrected. If a business pollutes, let’s use the law to

put that business out of business. If a business or property owner

proves by their actions that they are impinging upon the rights of

others, then let’s deal with that business or property owner

individually.

The City Council should enact laws permitting this type of

targeted enforcement so as to both improve our quality of life and to

simultaneously defuse the vitriol of those among us with

not-so-hidden agendas.

By the way, if I’m an industrialist, do I get a raise?

CHUCK CASSITY

Costa Mesa

Newport could use more human relations

Thanks, Joe Bell, for your suggestion that Newport Beach needs a

Human Relations Commission. It does indeed. But, we may also need a

course given by Miss Manners, so our councilmen can learn that it’s

“mannerly” to answer constituent’s letters, even if it’s to decline

an invitation. Mercy, what would their mothers say to such bad form.

P.S. I would be happy to serve on the commission.

NORA LEHMAN

Newport Beach

The great Fairview ‘useless’ land grab

A group of homeowners whose properties extend into Fairview Park

have requested the city give them this “useless” land.

With the exception of two homeowners, the encroachment of their

properties could have been solved through the existing permit

process. Obviously, this was not on their agenda.

With the support of some of the big spenders on the council, a

series of “studies” will be proposed, $15,000 of which having already

been spent. These studies are to determine how this taxpayer land can

be transferred to these homeowners.

Oh, how the money goes.

MIKE BERRY

Costa Mesa