MAILBAG - July 20, 2006

Westside plan wouldn’t remove businesses

Regarding Bob Small’s letter to the editor in the July 6 Daily Pilot “Mailbag,” perhaps I can answer and clear up some of the misconceptions that Small has about our Westside plans. While his observations would be perfectly legitimate if they were accurate, he has unfortunately not studied the Westside plan.

I, too, operate a small business on the Westside. I also believe it is a great location to do business. I also live on the Westside. Where Small is unclear is in his belief that “the plan” is to remove various businesses and business parks. There is nothing in the plan that remotely suggests doing that. One of the reasons that the Westside plan is so fair is that it allows a property or business owner to do what he likes. Nothing will be forced upon a business owner. I am an advocate of the plan, and I hope that he stays right where he is. We don’t wish for him to relocate his business. I personally will be very comfortable with a live-work scenario for my own business. If you do not find this practical for your circumstances, you will not be forced to change anything. The fact that these units would be geared toward artists does not require that a person be an artist. It does acknowledge for the first time, however, that there are a great many artists on the Westside of Costa Mesa.

As I have been involved with the revitalization process for many years now, I think that Small and others would be wise to educate himself on the plan that we have developed. It is available at our City Hall. Please take a look, you’ll see how long and hard all sides have studied to make this as fair to everyone as possible. It is a property owner’s choice, not a mandate.

CHRISTIAN ERIC

Westside

Costa Mesa

Costa Mesa should get piece of Banning Ranch

The boundary around Banning Ranch should be changed. How was Newport Beach able to acquire a foot-wide, 2,400 feet-long strip of land between Costa Mesa/Newport Beach and county (unincorporated) territory in the first place?

The just, fair and equitable solution is the boundary change. West Santa Ana Heights residents get the Newport Beach address (which is main reason West Santa Ana Heights residents want to be annexed to Newport Beach) and Costa Mesa gets to develop part of Banning Ranch in the future.

Costa Mesa is not trying to get beachfront property and most of the streets that lead to the Banning Ranch property are in Costa Mesa already. If I were a West Santa Ana Heights resident I would be calling, sending letters and attending Newport Beach City Council meetings to have the council members cut the deal post haste.

While we are on the subject, why is the Newport Terrace condominium development positioned at the west end of 19th street in Newport Beach when the only way to get to it is through Costa Mesa? Isn’t the Newport Beach corporation yard at Superior and Industrial way in Costa Mesa? How did that come about?

M. DE ANTONIO

Costa Mesa

Parks are not supposed to be crowded

Paul Drake’s letter in the July 10 “Mailbag” cries out for a response. He rejects Newport Beach City Councilman Tod Ridgeway’s view that the council betrays a trust when it “revisits a decision that might not necessarily be in the city’s best interests.” That’s not how those of us who trooped down to City Hall and spent an evening making our case see it. When the green lights went on and the council agreed to take the park off the table, I didn’t hear anybody add, “unless we change our minds.”

He notes that the relatively few letters to the Daily Pilot heavily favor moving a new city hall to the park, so let me advise him that a wider survey of the Corona del Mar Residents Assn. shows 44 against and 17 for. As those who will be directly affected by this decision, I believe our opinions deserve greater weight than those of theorists.

Drake also thinks the city has more than enough parks and that they are “a waste of both land and taxpayer dollars” as they remain virtually unused. A park isn’t only useful if full of people flying kites and bouncing beach balls. The idea of a park is peacefulness and precisely what they lack: activity or development of any sort. Great cities know this. Let anyone visit New York, London, and Paris and see how much land is “wasted” there.

The view of greenery and ocean as one travels south over the brow of Macarthur is breathtaking, and to replace it with a government building would be as negligent as allowing this crisis to arise in the first place through lack of foresight and absence of a replacement reserve ? about the only point on which I agree with Drake.

TOM MOULSON

Corona del Mar

Rove tactics in Costa Mesa must end

Why does Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor continue to get a weekly column in the Daily Pilot? Will his opponents in the upcoming election be given the same opportunity? And what is the routine that if you’re against his immigration proposal then you’re for criminals?

It appears that these “folks” have taken a Karl Rove tactic that if you aren’t happy with the Iraq problem then you’re unpatriotic and are not supportive of the our troops. The mayor might also look at our casualty lists and note the number of Latinos who have given their lives for this country. Some were not legal citizens but they could fight for us.

And lastly the City Council needs to get their heads out of the Westside. There are people on the Eastside.

JACK PERKINS

Costa Mesa