Postponed vote on medical fee is wise...

Postponed vote on medical fee is wise

Regarding the possibility of an emergency medical service

subscription fee in Costa Mesa, I think it was wise of the City

Council to a) bring up the subject, and b) table it for further

thought and discussion.

I do have a couple of concerns regarding equitable payment should

usage fees be imposed. One has already been raised as to perhaps the

elderly either paying more because of frequent need for services or

not using it because of having to pay.

My other concern is that of an equitable fee for the halfway house

around the corner from me, which has an average of three calls per

week. Would this address, and/or its residents, be allowed to

subscribe at the same rate as all other Costa Mesa residents?

SHARON WILLIAMSON

Costa Mesa

Need to be on same page on the airport

In his Community Commentary Sunday (“Might as well do away with

the JWA”), Geoff West facetiously suggests we eliminate John Wayne

Airport. He knows better, of course. Eliminate JWA?

What if we decided to eliminate the San Diego or the Santa Ana

freeways -- both are noisy and polluting parts of our current

infrastructure baseline, just as JWA is. Scrapping JWA has been the

game plan all along in Newport, of course. Somehow I think that

scrapping JWA -- or any portion of our existing county infrastructure

-- would not fly with our own Orange County neighbors or with our

regional neighbors.

Will future Orange County growth require air capacity growth?

Well, the county is about built-out, so the answer is probably no.

But if more flights are needed, I am happy to report that the airport

-- our county’s only commercial airport -- is being used at only

about half of its design capacity due to temporary legal limits. If

need be, we can expand the airport to 14 million annual passengers

without nighttime flights, or to 20 million annual passengers with

nighttime flights -- and all at a tiny fraction of the cost of

building a new airport.

Every Orange County neighborhood has its own noise and pollution

problems. It would be a lot better if we learned to work with one

another to mitigate our problems, rather than working against our

neighbors to move our problems to their backyard.

MICHAEL SMITH

Mission Viejo

Writer misses a point

Geoff West’s satirical commentary on making John Wayne Airport a

park ignores one major difference between John Wayne and El Toro in

that everyone in Orange County knew John Wayne was a commercial

airport when they moved to Orange County or developed land here.

This is totally different than moving somewhere in Orange County

and having a commercial airport built next to your house, and that is

a fact you just cannot ignore when you’re discussing John Wayne

Airport and El Toro.

ROBERT SOMERS

Costa Mesa

El Toro not an

airport answer

Geoff West calls the people in South County “greedy” and

“whiners,” and then he sets off to write one of the greediest,

whiniest editorials I think I’ve ever read.

He’s right that John Wayne isn’t a good location for a major

airport -- but neither is El Toro. It worked just fine as a military

air base, but all of the plans I’ve seen for building an airport

there required the runways to be dug up, the entire site to be

regraded and the runways to be re-poured because the ones that are

there aren’t adequate for use by commercial airliners.

He says that El Toro could have been a “ ... launch pad for world

travel ... ,” but even the people planning it admitted that the

Orange County market just isn’t big enough to make international

flights economically viable.

Building an airport at El Toro because it was once a military

airfield makes about as much sense as converting Newport Harbor into

a container port because it has water in it.

BRAD MCCOWN

Walnut

Ring, ring, ring

goes the trolley

Regarding the Pilot’s question of how the city should deal with

parking congestion on the Balboa Peninsula?

I think the city should build a several-story parking structure on

the grounds that house City Hall.

The parking structure should belong to the city of Newport Beach

and revenues go into the transportation fund.

The city should encourage private bids for a private “trolley

car”-type passenger service that will allow tourists and residents to

get on and off the trolley every so many blocks.

This encourages more foot traffic for businesses and lowers auto

traffic congestion and parking problems.

ANN WATT

Newport Beach