Mailbag:

What is going on in our city of Huntington Beach is a bigger issue than building a 27,000-square-foot multipurpose gym in a quiet residential neighborhood (“Gym doesn’t warrant protest,” Mailbag, July 2). It is a bigger issue than a gym that will hold more than 1,400 people. It is a bigger issue than holding Friday and Saturday night football games with more than 900 spectators 150 feet from someone’s home. It is a bigger issue than hundreds of cars flooding a quiet neighborhood with traffic, noise, lights, air pollution and filling every neighborhood parking space a quarter-mile away.

The bigger issue is the enforcement of the laws, policies, ordinances and statutes that are designed to protect the safety of the individual and create a quality of life. Protecting the safety of the individual and creating a quality of life are things that make this country great.

This bigger issue is what other Huntington Beach citizens may want to think about. Will your neighborhood be the next one that is forced to sue the city to enforce the laws, policies, ordinances and statutes?

This is about a much bigger issue than a gym! It is about taking action to protect the safety of the individual and fighting for our quality of life!

Strangers help save trapped kitten’s life

These days, it seems all we hear is about folks doing bad things to other folks. I met two wonderful people July 2.

I was running errands and went into the strip mall at Goldenwest Street and Warner Avenue. I did a little shopping and when I got back to my car, I could hear a kitten meowing. I glanced into the van next to my car and could see that the driver was leaning over and seemed to be looking into some sort of animal carrier, which was on the floor of the passenger side. I thought that perhaps he had a new kitten and that was what I heard meowing.

I looked around my car to make sure there was no kitten near it. Seeing none, I got into my car and drove west on Warner.

At the stoplight at Edwards Street, I noticed two men in the truck in the lane next to me were looking in my direction. I thought they were looking at something beyond my car. When the light changed, I continued on my way. At about the beginning of the mobile home park on Warner, I realized they were still next to me and signaling me with their hands. I rolled down my window and they asked if I had a kitten in my car. I told them I did not. They said, “You have one somewhere.” They could hear the kitten crying.

I pulled to the curb, and they pulled in front of me. Both got out and we checked my car.

One of the men crawled under my car and was able to find this little gray kitten under the hood of my car. As he struggled to get it, the kitten jumped down and ran to a car down the street and climbed up under that. Both man ran to that car.

I got a beach towel out of my car and went to where they were. One fellow was again flat on his back under yet another car. He was finally able to get the kitten, and the other man and I wrapped in him a towel. I had a small duffel bag in my car, and we were able to put the kitten in that.

I stopped at the vet on Springdale Street and Warner and he checked the kitten and told me he was healthy and was not hurt in any way. I took the kitten home.

I didn’t get the name of these fellows, but they are truly good people.

I just wanted to thank them publicly for all they did to save one little God’s little critters.

SHIRLEY DAVIS

Huntington Beach

Young sloganeers were out of line

I was very concerned to see the youthful proponents at Huntington Beach Pier over the Fourth of July weekend, writing chalk slogans in support of their views, all over the pier and up and down the sidewalks on Main Street.

We asked some of the participants if they were going to be cleaning up their slogans at the end of the day, but they did not respond in a positive manner.

If gangbangers were seen tagging the pier and Main Street during broad daylight, albeit with chalk rather than spray paint, I’m sure there would be an immediate outcry and the police would be called to arrest or at least warn the proponents to stop defiling the area with graffiti.

Just because a majority of members of the local community possibly support the views being chalked all over the place, doesn’t make it any less visually offensive, and the cost of the cleanup is no different, regardless of the cause being espoused.

While fully appreciating the right of these young people to express their views, as a taxpayer, I resent having to pay for the cleanup of their graffiti and the fact that no effort was being made to stop the perpetrators, who were carrying out their activities in full view of the large crowds in the area at the time.