The problem on the Westside is housing,...

The problem on the Westside is housing, not industry

Calling a pig a duck won’t make it fly. Similarly, as some writers

to the Daily Pilot have tried to do, calling flat commercial land a

bluff doesn’t give it a view. Also, calling the Westside business

owners “industrialists” doesn’t make them robbers, barons or gross

polluters.

The Redevelopment Agency wisely decided that adding the industrial

properties on the Westside to the proposed redevelopment area would

do little or nothing to improve that side of town. I believe most of

the problems on the Westside are caused by the slum rental housing

located there. The city needs to rethink the zoning in those areas.

Land once zoned for up to 29 units per acre is now zoned for 11. This

makes tearing down many of those obsolete apartments and replacing

them with decent housing a financial impossibility.

If the decision to tear down the slums and build affordable,

owner-occupied housing was made, redevelopment could occur naturally.

Developers would rush to take advantage of the incentives the city

could provide. Most of the rundown rental areas could become decent,

affordable homes and the problems of crime, bad schools and blighted

streets would disappear from the Westside.

MIKE STEINER

Costa Mesa

Memo to Geoff West and H. Millard, re: Westside

Geoff West, you’ve gotten it right once again. Those who live and

work and own property on the Westside, governed by the laws of

economics, should be the ones to make the necessary changes to our

area. And those changes will be made when there’s a profit incentive

to do so, or when the code enforcement folks are knocking at the door

-- or both. We must always remember that the fear of loss --

businesses, income and quality of life in this case -- is often a far

greater motivator than the anticipation of gain.

M. Millard, you (industrialist) and (industrialist) your

(industrialist) little (industrialist) group (industrialist) are

(industrialist) going (industrialist) to (industrialist) have

(industrialist) to (industrialist) get (industrialist) another

(industrialist) strategy.

As was so graphically demonstrated last Monday evening, the one

you are using -- trying to strike fear by using the misnomer

“industrialist” every other word -- just isn’t working.

CHUCK CASSITY

Costa Mesa

Education hasn’t always been a priority at KOCE

You state in your editorial titled “Foundation’s bid should win,”

which ran Oct. 9, that the “first priority of both the district and

the KOCE has always been education.” This is not so. Had this been a

No. 1 priority, the original goal to make the station an educational

delivery system for Golden West College would have been realized.

Forgotten is the fact that the TV station was “sold” as an

educational adjunct to be operated by the “electronic college,” also

known as Golden West.

However, once the Coastline College arrived on the scene, KOCE’s

educational operations were diverted to that institution. The

district leadership sought to establish something akin to England’s

open university by combining Coastline and KOCE.

This desired development never did go beyond the telecourse phase,

which served a minority of students locally. Ironically, telecourses

have been popular nationally and internationally and have generated

funds for the district.

LEFTERIS LAVRAKAS

Costa Mesa