Skaters deserve a place they can call...

Skaters deserve a place

they can call their own

I’ve lived in Costa Mesa for almost 46 years and I have been

skateboarding for most of those years until lately. Getting too old

now.

Anyway, I would have loved to have a skate park when I was growing

up, and I think the dogs and the skate park can be as one and be in

the same area. I really feel that our kids are more important to the

city of Costa Mesa as being somewhere to go and having a good

environment to play in a safe place. I’d like to keep the kids off

the street as far as skateboarding, and so they have a nice, safe

place to skate.

And as for the dogs, I just think that our kids are much more

important than our dogs.

MIKE MORAN

Costa Mesa

Costa Mesa needs to find

a way to plan for the trees

Regarding “When a tree grows in Costa Mesa,” Friday. Whenever and

wherever human beings interact with one another, there exists a need

for policy guidelines that serve as a basis for consistent action.

This is especially true when these interactions involve a voiceless

third party -- in this case the urban landscape. I suggest that Costa

Mesa should have specifically laid out criteria regarding whether it

is appropriate to remove a given tree or trees. This policy ought not

be a fast track to allow removal of any tree that drops unwanted

foliage on somebody’s lawn: there ought to be consideration given to

the benefits that the tree provides to the urban environment.

In Southern California our predominant “urban planning policy”

since the 1940s has resulted in widespread urban sprawl -- not much

of a policy at all, really. This has resulted in the complete

replacement of natural landscape with unnatural landscapes. One

potentially beneficial result of this poorly conceived development

method, however, is the current existence of mature urban landscapes.

The emerging science of urban ecology is finding that the trees that

were planted 30-40 years ago now possess mature canopies that house

many species -- especially birds. In some cases, our urban landscapes

are providing habitat for a greater variety of species than the

adjacent “wild” landscape (if there is one). Some winter migrating

birds, for example, may only nest in mature trees in established

communities: in some cases, the urban landscape is their preferred

habitat.

When we decide that a particular tree is inconveniencing our way

of life, it is still worthwhile to review the full ecological value

of this tree. Many of us may feel as though we have already damaged

our “natural” environment to such a degree that we negate the benefit

of our “unnatural” urban landscapes. I suggest that, in some cases,

preserving our mature, urban landscapes may be worth the effort of

cleaning up some unwanted foliage (one can afford a significant

amount of leaf clean-up for the cost of removing a mature tree).

J.B. LITVAK

Costa Mesa