MAILBAG:

Buying houses to refurbish and sell? Who is watching the city while you meddle in the private sector and ride through Pasadena on a Rose Bowl float? I thought we didn’t have enough resources to fix our aging infrastructure? If we do, why aren’t the problems of the city repaired? If not, why are you spending money and resources on things that are so trivial? Do you understand your roles as leaders of the city? Do you have a clue as to what’s happening in the country and city today? Hello … McFly?

It’s time to step on some toes and start doing the right things. If you can’t, step aside and I’ll do it for you.

Andy Weiss

Huntington Beach

Developers don’t ‘get’ cozy beach lifestyle

My kudos to Paul Sandor for his Dec. 4 Sounding Off (“Let’s get rid of the beige”); he hit the nail on the head. Anyone who has lived and surfed here since the ’60s and knows the coastal towns would agree with his comments. The name Surf City is just a marketing ploy for the city, and it hardly reflects a beach town that it is trying to project image-wise. Yes, development is needed to support the coffers but to do it under the guise of “Surf City” is weak, to say the least. At least Santa Cruz is still a “Surf City.” Why is it that other downtowns are able to retain a cozy, quaint beach-style environment yet Huntington Beach’s downtown has turned into a Block of Orange on the strand? I guess the fingers in the pie of redevelopment never surfed or understood what a beach-town lifestyle really is or should be.

Drew Kovacs

Huntington Beach

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following letters are in response to the Dec. 11 letter, “Rep. is the best in Congress.”

Dana has accomplished little in his 20 years

When Jim Beeler responded to an earlier writer who was critical of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, he missed the point. Beeler likes Dana’s conservative pronouncements on many issues; nothing wrong with that. The point is, however, that Rohrabacher is one of the laziest and least effective members of Congress, in either house. He has, in 20 years, introduced and passed no significant legislation of any kind. His committee assignments are minor when any other representative with that much seniority would be on an important committee. Rohrabacher is an extreme lightweight in the Capitol, collecting his big salary and doing little more than mouthing the kind of slogan-speeches that Beeler enjoys. If our part of Orange County is ever to have any clout at all in Washington it will have to elect someone else. Since this is unlikely to happen we can only hope that Rohrabacher will retire, take his big government pension, and spend even more time surfing.

Tom Chambers

Huntington Beach

Believing in Rep. just like believing in Santa

Wow! Somebody thinks Dana Rohrabacher is the best of the 535 members of Congress and writer Jim Beeler doesn’t even appear to be related. Beeler, being a ideological blowhard on illegal immigration does not qualify for any special recognition in my book. Members of Congress are supposed to work on solutions to our complex immigration problems, not just make noise. Even George W. Bush and John McCain have more realistic approaches to dealing with this issue. Believing our representative is the best in Congress ranks right up there with believing in the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. But, because this is Christmas and the season of wishful thinking, I will conclude by saying “Yes, Jim Beeler, there is a Dana Rohrabacher.”

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach

It takes more than a ‘yes man’ to do well

As much as I appreciate the accolades to Dana Rohrabacher, I believe the article is overstated. There is no doubt that illegal immigration is a major issue in California. However, Rohrabacher has never been an initiator, but rather a yes man to the Republican Party, and popular issues. When has he ever originated any legislation? It’s easy to jump on the bandwagon, but it’s another thing to recognize an issue and press it to its full legislative realization. Our borders are still unsecured. After 20+ years in the Congress, where is the political capital of Rohrabacher, and if he has amounted to any, just who and what has he spent it on? Certainly not the electorate who continue to get financially raped by Congress from the lack of security to the bailout of the rich Wall Street party contributors. Has Rohrabacher made any attempt to move some of the issues that are currently unfulfilled into the Courts to, at least, keep them alive in the mind of the public, or are we just numb to the endless rape of our wallets?

John Merzweiler