What’s the most important issue facing the...

What’s the most important issue facing the city?

Costa Mesa has fantastic assets, but our leaders have continued

squandering them at every turn, and this must stop.

City Council’s social philosophies have been misplaced for nearly

20 years, wasting valuable assets that are essential to our

community’s well-being.

The “city with a heart” concept has unfortunately had no “heart”

for the residents of Costa Mesa, but rather, has sacrificed our

quality of life and has attracted and serves transient and illegal

immigrant populations. While the sentiment seems good, the net result

of this philosophy is a busted budget, loitering transients,

overcrowded housing, flight of upstanding residents to other

communities, impacted schools and a general degradation of our city.

What do you think of the city’s joint-use agreement with the

schools for use of playing fields?

Possibly a good concept; however, mismanagement and allowing

nonresident groups impacts our home teams and the peace and quiet of

our residential neighborhoods. It has been said that we have a

shortage of fields, and if this is the case, we should not allow our

city to lease fields to any outside users. Why allow the impacts from

other cities to undermine Costa Mesa’s quality of life?

Our city should be in the quality of life business, not the field

renting business.

What would be the most effective way to improve the Westside?

Hundreds of acres of our ocean-close land have been kept in

industrial zoning, in contradiction of the tenets of highest and best

use. We must free up this land for ocean-oriented housing. This goal

can be achieved without forcing anyone out of business by enacting a

residential zoning overlay. Those who wish to transition into

residential use can profit handsomely, while those who wish to stay

industrial may do so as well. Keep the city Redevelopment Agency out

of the picture, let the private sector fuel the transition without

burdening the city’s taxpayers with more redevelopment debt.

Are city leaders doing a good job handling the budget and the

pressures on it from the state?

Unbridled city budget growth over the last several years has

undermined our ability to deal with the state’s insatiable hunger for

cash and its raids on our funds. We have enviable assets, and a

fiscally conservative approach to budgeting would leave us with cash

to spare. The fact that our streets are in terrible shape in many

areas, combined with a $9-million reduction (30%) in infrastructure

spending between this year and last year demonstrates a huge problem

with our city budgeting. We are paying for kids’ birthday parties and

other frivolities, but we cannot afford to keep our streets in good,

safe condition.

We must get back to the basics of good government, and take care

of our fundamental needs.