Community Commentary:

As we all know, our local governments have been facing difficult financial challenges. Newport Beach was faring much better than Costa Mesa until the state legislature voted to begin “borrowing” cities’ local tax funds to the tune of $2 billion. We face cutbacks and limitations on municipal services.

So the big question becomes, what can we as residents do to help this difficult situation? One of the strongest recommendations is spend locally! Roughly 1 cent of every dollar you spend in Newport-Mesa goes to funding vital city services such as police, fire and maintenance of our parks and buildings. Just think about those weekly trips to the grocery store, or that trip to Target that starts with one or two items but ends up filling up the entire shopping cart. This spending helps to keep local jobs in Newport-Mesa.

So why shop local? Newport-Mesa has some of the finest shopping in all of California. People come from all over the world to visit Fashion Island and South Coast Plaza. Yet, we are so much more than our two malls. We have the best entertainment and restaurants in Orange County. When I entertain out-of-town clients, I always take them to our restaurants because they offer the finest cuisine at a reasonable value. They are never disappointed! Our small “mom and pop” stores provide important goods and services in a multitude of specialized areas. In our neighborhood, you can pick up cookies at a Russian bakery or a train set at the model train store. I rarely find myself saying, “I wish we had a store for that.”

Buying locally goes well beyond simply eating and shopping. For example, a few years ago, my wife and I were in the market for a new car. We priced various dealers, and discovered that the lowest price was in Irvine. Rather than purchasing the car in Irvine, we took a printout of that price to a dealer in Costa Mesa. The dealer gladly matched it. They wanted our business and we wanted to give it to them. Now, the dealer regularly services and maintains the car. The dealer makes money on the purchase and maintenance of the car. Costa Mesa receives sales tax revenue from the sale and ongoing maintenance.

On top of this, we don’t have to travel to get our car serviced. It is a win-win for everyone!

In these difficult financial times, I want to encourage all of you to think about your spending and think about how you can spend that money in Newport-Mesa. Our city services and local jobs depend on it.

COLIN McCARTHY is a Costa Mesa planning commissioner and president of the Mesa North Community Assn.