READERS RESPOND

With a refreshing outlook and an attentive eye to the needs of the community, Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor has, in a proverbial way, hit a home run with his new plan for the Costa Mesa youth sports complex.

As a business leader and resident of Costa Mesa for more than two decades, I have heard it all and seen less. It is energizing to see leaders take action on a viable opportunity and respond to a clear need in our community. Even at the risk of being criticized and suffering political cannibalism, Mansoor chose not to take the safe road of conferences, meetings, studies, surveys, community discussion groups and polling to address the issue. Unique in an era of doing little for community safety and betterment, our mayor proposed a solution with the potential for both short- and long-term positive outcomes.

In an appealing manner, the mayor has proposed to essentially renovate one existing, but outdated, public sports asset into two higher-quality and more functional sports areas. These will benefit a far greater number of residents and families in our community and will be a draw for families wanting to make our city their new home.

While the details of the plan to create the Costa Mesa youth sports complex are yet to be solidified, the concept is pure, simple and innovative. I applaud Mansoor for stepping up and thinking “outside the box” in conceiving a solution for the longtime problem of inadequate sports venues for the kids of Costa Mesa.

I have complete confidence in the judgment of our council members and their ability to continue meeting the needs of the community, and, on this matter, reach a decision quickly. With the utmost optimism, I encourage all parents, boosters and concerned residents of our great city to support Mansoor in his quest to convince the council members of the benefits this plan will reap for years to come.

Likewise, allow this to be an inspirational catalyst for you; whether you agree or disagree on city matters, step up and take action. The world is in need of leaders, and we have one here. Go, Mr. Mayor!

STEVE MENSINGER

Costa Mesa

I agree with the sentiment expressed by publisher Tom Johnson regarding the proposal to destroy one of the courses at Costa Mesa Golf & Country Club (“Talk about a bogey idea,” Fair Game, June 2). I have played and enjoyed the courses when competing in the annual Will Jordan Classic. My concern is that there are very few places the middle-income player can afford to play, and these two courses are among them.

The trend in the county has been to create fancy country-club-like layouts, such as Pelican Hill, Oak Creek and Strawberry Farms, that can easily cost more than $150 on the weekend to play. The two Costa Mesa courses are already packed with players throughout the year. Slicing away part of one course to make baseball fields is only going to make it that much harder for the low-mid and mid-income player who can’t afford the high fees of the resort-type courses.

Please find another place for your ball fields ? leave these two nice courses alone.

STEVEN HENDLIN

Newport Beach

The lack of sports fields may be a fact, but there is a massive tree-free field at Sonora Elementary School. I’m not sure why the school keeps it locked up. I would use the field if it weren’t locked up. It is hard to jump a fence with three kids under age 6.

CHRISTOPHER GANIERE

Costa Mesa

So here’s the deal. The mayor and the recreation commission chairwoman want to turn the Mesa Linda golf course into lighted sports fields. Tom Johnson, the Pilot’s publisher, thinks they’re two tacos short of a combination plate. Well, here’s what I think.

I don’t play golf. I used to, but I stopped when it began to affect my health and the health of others. I played so badly that I was usually conflicted between committing suicide and killing those dumb enough to be in my foursome.

By the way, I figured out what’s wrong with golf. It’s the clubs. You’re looking over this way and hitting the ball over that way. It’s biomechanically impossible to do correctly. Except for Tiger, that is. Lose the clubs, I say. Then, simply throw the ball as far as you can. Walk up to it, pick it up and throw it again. When you get the ball on the green, simply kick it into the hole. Good exercise, no frustration, no clubs to break.

Anyway, now I just go directly to the “19th hole” and bypass all that unpleasantness beforehand.

But most of my friends play golf, and I seriously doubt they’ll sit quietly by and allow Mayor Allan Mansoor and parks Chairwoman Wendy Leece to dismantle their beloved golf course, especially when there are other, better solutions.

Want one? OK, if you insist.

It used to be that Fairview Park was this pristine expanse of grass and shrubs and wetlands between the golf course and the Santa Ana River bottom, harboring a few bunnies and birds, and sporting a small train and some track. And then some idiot, or group of idiots (Do idiots come in groups? Maybe gaggles, or bunches, or pods, or schools. No, definitely not schools.) decided to blow $500,000, which could have been put to much better use elsewhere, and put up a big, dumb bridge to nowhere across Placentia Avenue, within 50 yards of a signaled intersection replete with a cross walk. So now the view of open spaces I’ve enjoyed several times a day for more than 25 years has been ruined.

Oh well, the milk is spilled and the horse is out of the barn. So let’s continue despoiling this lost treasure and put athletic fields near the depot or on the bluffs.

The rationale? The land’s paid for. There’s plenty of it. It’s near Estancia High. Some weeds would die, but that’s a positive. It’s available now. There’s no constituency against such an action, except for those few who would choose to put the supposed welfare of a few bunnies and owls above our kids’.

The city wouldn’t lose revenue when my friends stop playing a newly christened, shorter, easier “executive” Mesa Linda course. And it would allow Mansoor and Leece to escape from their present no-win situation.

Enough said.

CHUCK CASSITY

Costa Mesa

Being a regular guest at the city of Costa Mesa’s golf courses, I was recently provided several Daily Pilot articles and comments on the proposed alterations to this complex. Two things immediately come to mind. One: Absolutely no forethought went into the release, backdoor as it was, of this proposal. Two: Mayor Allan Mansoor and parks and recreation commission Chairwoman Wendy Leece suffer from an abysmal and naive understanding of the realities and responsibilities of their city positions.

I am a strong advocate for the needs of our youth. I will be forever grateful for my chance to play youth sports. I also understand the need to generate revenue. How many good ideas die on the city agendas due to lack of funding? How many city endeavors are self-funded? The golf course pays for itself and how many other functions within the city? How much of the parks and recreation budget is covered by the green fees? Can the mayor name any other city-owned site that can boast that it always makes money?

It seems apparent that those few within the city who seem to have the ear of these politicos are pulling the strings (or light switches?). There are better, less costly and more publicly acceptable solutions to the immediate need for sports facilities.

Just two more things: Just because a “little bird” whispers in your ear doesn’t mean you have to scream its ideas out, and looking in the mirror may make one feel that anything made in 1960 or before may need to be updated, but this does not apply to golf courses.

S. SOUTHWICK

Huntington Beach

dpt.11-readers-respond-CPhotoInfo8D1RS00N20060611i8qw0bkfDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Many readers say a proposal to tear up a part of Costa Mesa’s city owned golf courses is folly, but Steve Mensinger writes that the plan is visionary.