City of the Arts should live up...

City of the Arts should live up to its name

After Monday night, I wonder if four members of the City Council

for the “City of the Arts” represent the children of this town or the

developers. Instead of allocating the fees that the city extracted

from developers of the theater arts district in 2001 to the city’s

children -- or for another public purpose -- four members of the

council gave most of it back to the developers.

In 2001, the city entered into agreements with two developers that

required them to pay combined fees of $2.2 million plus 7% interest.

Now the pot is about $2.45 million.

The fees were to be used on a Theater and Arts District, in

exchange for the city agreeing to greater density and traffic than

was originally zoned for that site.

Monday, the City Council voted 4 to 1 to give almost all of that

money back to the developers to improve their own private property.

Only $63,000 of that money will be used to improve the public right

of way and the rest will be returned to the developers.

A proposal was made for the city to use some of the developer fees

for arts and theater grants for the children of Costa Mesa over the

next 20 years. That way, the city’s children would become the

theatergoers and art lovers of the next generation.

Two members of the council said the children would have to find

the funds for theater and arts from charity, since that wasn’t the

city’s business. (The city does fund sports fields and sports

recreation programs for children, but apparently, that is different).

Two girls from Sonora Elementary School spoke to the City Council

about how much they liked drama club and art masters. Now that the

chance of grants to fund those programs has been crushed, I hope the

kids get the same fun seeing the developers’ private property looking

spiffy.

GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL

Costa Mesa

Green light for theater -- not Greenlight

The citizens of Newport Beach own the Balboa Theater. Does

Greenlight realize how many people have donated money and time to the

dream of reviving this theater? Do they have an alternative option

for the theater?

The theater has been vacant for more than 10 years and this

vacancy has made it difficult to revive the downtown Balboa area.

Greenlight loses all credibility with the Newport Beach citizenry for

making the revival of this theater, and thus the revival of downtown

Balboa, a “test case for the General Plan.” I thought Greenlight was

trying to stop “big development,” not the renovation of community

treasures.

WALTER SEBRING

Corona del Mar

District’s actions swift and professional

It is with my admiration and respect for the Newport-Mesa Unified

Board of Education that I write this letter today. On Jan. 27,

several issues were brought to their attention relative to the

administration of Newport Heights Elementary School. During that

meeting, parents were told that the board would have the

superintendents look into these issues.

The district quickly took positive and proactive action. It

conducted meetings with the parents and staff of Newport Heights and

worked toward a solution. I highly commend Asst. Superintendents,

Susan Despenas and Lorri McCune, for their ability to conduct these

meetings in a professional and meaningful way. Their ability to

listen and sort through the issues has resulted in a positive and

unifying atmosphere at Newport Heights.

ROBERT SHAW

Newport Beach

You say debris,

I say jubilee

It is disturbing to all modern art lovers that Newport Beach is

attempting to label that truly creative modern art installation at

that Dover Drive home as “unsightly junk.”

I am hopeful that the Orange County Museum of Art will step in,

dismantle this art piece and reinstall it at the museum, as a prime

example of the art form known as the “Modern Art Installation.” The

tires on the roof are especially inspirational but the entire

installation just takes my breath away.

MATT MATTEUCCI

Newport Beach