Time for council to admit mistake

Before Allan Mansoor, Eric Bever and Gary Monahan united on the Costa Mesa City Council to close the Job Center and use the police force to manage immigration laws, Costa Mesa was a great place to live.

Oh, sure, Newport has beautiful beaches and Irvine has a well-planned community, but Costa Mesa represented a mix of cultures, styles and economies that worked.

Costa Mesa also had budget issues and crime, but so did every other city.

So what was wrong with Costa Mesa that needed so much fixing? Not much. Costa Mesa was just fine before all of the controversy.

Before these moves, there were potholes and utility poles. Now, the utility poles are seen as a key to city beautification.

There is a telephone pole in my backyard, along with two support cables that stretch 15 feet away, angled into my wife’s garden. We couldn’t care less that they’re there.

It’s interesting that almost no one else cared about them before. It’s interesting that no one seems to have noticed that Newport Beach has utility poles, too, even among many of its million-dollar homes.

Perhaps it’s not an issue in those parts of Newport Beach or in other areas because the leaders of those cities and the residents know that the presence of utility poles does not prevent a city from being beautiful.

Beautiful cities are not created by removing utility poles.

Beautiful cities are created by removing hate, distrust, finger-pointing, pettiness and stubbornness.

Beautiful cities are created by developing good communication skills and good schools. Ask 10 real estate agents what the No. 1 most desirable quality is for families shopping for homes, and nine will say good schools.

If anyone on the City Council wishes to beautify Costa Mesa, he should ask the members of the school board why, for at least 10 years, they have done nothing significant to raise grades, test scores and hope in several of the schools in their city.

They should start demanding action from the school board, instead of settling for an endless stream of reports, studies and strategic plans.

At least once a week for the past 60 days, I have been driving my car or riding my bike down Placentia Avenue in Costa Mesa to determine whether the closing of the Job Center resulted in more or less beautification.

On Feb. 18 at about 7:30 a.m., there were 28 day laborers hanging out in the strip mall at Placentia Avenue and Victoria Avenue and 23 waiting for jobs down the street near the old Job Center location.

Saturday, there were 28 at the strip mall and 17 at the Job Center.

My survey is over, and though some outside agency may have charged the city thousands of dollars for this work, I have done it for free.

There was not a day that I visited Placentia Avenue ? usually between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. ? when there were fewer than 40 displaced day workers waiting along the road.

The low was 40, the high was 57. In the mornings, the strip mall at Placentia and Victoria does not look beautiful.

Closing the Job Center was a mistake. It put the day laborers back on Placentia Avenue, and it is not beautiful.

That silly new bridge across Placentia Avenue at Fairview Park is not beautiful either. For the cost of that bridge to nowhere, Costa Mesa could have funded a few years of the Job Center, and the city would have been more beautiful.

Closing the Job Center was a bad idea. It has done more to uglify the city than the presence of utility poles has ever done.

Good leaders know that admitting a mistake is a strength, not a weakness. Good leaders know that to accomplish their goals, it is better to inspire people to a point of view, not force them to bend to their will.

Good leaders know that superior communication will solve 99% of all problems. Good leaders know that it is OK to change one’s mind on the basis of new information.

At least one of the three members of the City Council who voted to close the Job Center must now admit that it was a mistake and vote to reopen it.

That’s what a good leader would do.

If any one of them truly wants to beautify Costa Mesa, they need to start with their own hearts and understand that they can put utility poles underground, but they can’t put people there.

Beautiful cities are comfortable in their own skin. Sometimes that skin is white; sometimes it is brown. And sometimes it is both.