MAILBAG - July 13, 2006

‘Most Influential’ list left out a few

I was calling about the Independent’s most influential members of Huntington surf culture. Although it’s a very long list, some names that I came up with that would definitely have to be included: David Nuuhiwa , Corky Carroll, Robert August, Carl Hayward, the Hawk brothers, Bud Lamas, Brad Gerlach, the Deffenbaugh brothers, “late-night” Larson and Timmy Reyes.

I think, again I probably forgot a few people, but I think if not all of those folks, at least some of them should definitely be included in the influential members of Huntington surf culture.

PANCHO REAL

Huntington Beach

Thankful group, plenty of construals

Michelle Marr in the June 29 “Soul Food” says that she is confused by some of the definitions about Hinduism. I am not surprised because all religions are interpreted by different scholars, religious leaders and individual followers in more than one way.

Zoroastrians (followers of a 5,000-year-old religion founded by Prophet Zarathushtra / Zoroaster in Iran) are grateful to Hindus who allowed them to settle in India and practice their ancient faith, when they left Iran due to religious persecution from Muslim rulers there.

MANECK BHUJWALA

Huntington Beach

Senior center needs to include all

Now that we have enjoyed our local Fourth of July celebrations of “liberty and justice” for all, we’ll need to openly discuss the modernization of our senior center, possibly selling its current downtown parkland assets and building over in Central Park.

The July 3 USA Today had an article on senior living, in particular gay and lesbian seniors with their unattended special needs on top of what our day-to-day senior center programs offer. Although these individuals have some common social problems and needs, such as having estranged families, no children, and partners that died, there are some unique legal and social policy barriers they suffer under:

1. Denial of Social Security survivor benefits;

2. Taxing of inherited 401(k) and IRA plans;

3. The denial of funding of medical research while their spouses and friends died from AIDS;

4. Denial of granting citizenship (like a married couple) to a non-US spouse/partner; and

5. Many of their fellow “Greatest Generation” colleagues considering them immoral, mentally ill and passing laws to outlaw their conduct.

Our local “Greatest Generation,” as they claim to be, ought to reconcile their decades-long prejudices by doing the right thing in undoing their legal and societal injustices by including a safe haven and specialized services to our Huntington Beach disadvantaged gay and lesbian seniors.

Next year, I enter the golden years, as a gay Huntington Beach senior, with my “domestic partner” of 16 years. Perhaps we will have a more modern senor center that includes all essential services and all feel welcomed in.

JOHN DE WITT

Huntington Beach

Huntington could emulate Pasadena

I had occasion to visit Old Town Pasadena over the Fourth of July weekend and it made me think that before Huntington Beach closes Main Street, it needs to get good at the basics of running a tourist-oriented downtown. Downtown Huntington Beach is a pig sty ? bubble gum, spilled drinks and trash cover the sidewalks; trash cans overflow; fliers and cigarette butts litter every planter and curb. Old Town Pasadena was spotless ? in the middle of a busy evening ? drawing better shopping, more affluent visitors and making its residents proud of their downtown. Huntington Beach City Hall needs to KISS (keep it simple, stupid) in our downtown.

JON TRAGER

Huntington Beach

Time to spend money on the streets

Not sure if any of the city council members read our local paper, the Huntington Beach Independent, but they should. Last week, a well written “Sounding Off” titled “A sign of misappropriated funds” brings to light the strong feelings we have about the city government’s handling and prioritizing our tax dollars. The first line of the article says a lot:

“The sign of our time is our disregard for establishing proper priority. We are about to spend $315,000 on seven signs to further encourage Huntington Beach as a ‘destination’ while we disregard the need to fix our infrastructure and fund the liabilities we already have.”

There have been many other letters and commentaries (including my own) voicing the same concern for the past few years, yet the words seem to have fallen on deaf ears over and over again. When you read the line above, think how the $315,000 spent on signs at the entrance of our city, or $1.4 million spent on a new Huntington Beach Police Department helicopter, would improve the southeast area that we, the residents of Huntington Beach, live in.

What we do know is there will be an entrance sign, you may see in a second as you past by, then drive on rough roads to get home or to visit a friend, sit outside and enjoy the summer night, only to have the silence broken by the low-flying and circling helicopter.

Ah, paradise.

Maybe what the new seven signs should say is: “Caution: Rough roads ahead and low-flying aircraft.”

One can only image how much more can be done to improve our infrastructure when combining the dollars mentioned above, the sale of the old helicopter estimated at $350,000 and $1 million savings by just changing the prevailing wage law; the approximate total is $3 million. Then add this to our current budget targeted for these improvements. That seems like a lot of dollars. Maybe the fault is not our budget; maybe the council needs to question our director of public works on how the budget is developed and the work is prioritized. I just shook my head and smiled when I read the article on how it took 10 years to answer a resident request to take care of the trees on Brush Street.

If the City Council can apply the same amount of energy, time and effort spent on the Poseidon project toward getting our streets, sidewalks and so forth in shape, then we’ll have a city government listening and working for the people.

CHUB DOMOTOR

Huntington Beach