Maibag: Councilman's letter puts economy ahead of safety

An aerial view of thousands of beachgoers enjoying a warm day at the beach amid state-mandated stay-at-home and social distancing mandate to stave off the coronavirus pandemic in Newport Beach on Saturday.

April 28, 2020 4:03 PM PT

Re “It’s time to reopen Orange County” (April 24): Councilman Kevin Muldoon suggests we prepare a plan to reopen the county soon but he doesn’t offer any details for such a plan, which is particularly important because Newport Beach has one of the highest number of COVID-19 cases per 10,000 population in Orange County.

Second, Muldoon asks, “Do we show courage as Americans or are we governed by fear?” but rather than offering encouragement he does some of his own fear mongering with the warning .

“Our economy will fall into a deep recession” he wrote. “If our economy crashes, increased crime, depression, suicides, domestic violence and homelessness will be inevitable.”

Come on councilman, you can do better than this.

Charles Mooney
Costa Mesa

Profits-over-people approach

I must respectfully and vociferously disagree with Newport Councilman Kevin Muldoon, who cloaks his profits-over-people, pro-business rhetoric with concern for workers in general. It is neither scientific nor safe to put the general public at risk for the economy’s sake.

Tim Geddes
Huntington Beach

Newport attracts the unmasked

One need only visit the beach areas to see how many people are not wearing masks. That is going to add to our high contagion count in Newport.

Lynn Lorenz
Newport Beach

Stay home to defeat the virus

By following the steps suggested by public health professionals and epidemiologists, we are doing our small part to help our city, county, state and nation through this exceedingly difficult time. Make a commitment to protecting your community: Stay safe and stay home.

Steve Shepherd
Huntington Beach

A recent issue of the Daily Pilot featured an article about 16-year-old Rylen Schmid from Newport Beach, making her positive contribution to the COVID-19 pandemic by making needed face masks (“Newport Beach teenager sews hundreds of masks to help hospitals and others battle coronavirus,” April 17).

The next page reported a protest that claims COVID-19 is a hoax and a lie (“For protesters in Huntington Beach, social and economic restrictions are political; COVID-19, a ‘hoax’,” April 17).

The protesters obviously not following the 6-foot rule also were not wearing masks.

One thing is for sure: these protesters will not be needing the services of people like Rylen Schmid.

Bill Spitalnick
Newport Beach

Protests as contagious as pandemic

Protests against science and medicine have become as contagious as the pandemic assaulting our nation.

Mike Robbins
Anaheim

Next time, try releasing butterflies

I was appalled to see an article in the Daily Pilot talking about someone celebrating their birthday by releasing paper lanterns (“Lanterns light up the sky to help Huntington Beach girl celebrate sweet 16,” April 15). I envision palm trees, brush and even roofs going up in flames as these lanterns descend back to Earth.

Even if the flame extinguishes before the lantern settles down, they might get tangled in trees or power lines. At the very least, they are litter. Who is going to follow these and pick them up once the return to Earth?

I’m sorry this person’s birthday had to fall during these trying times, but releasing objects which cause more harm than good is not the solution. Next time, release butterflies or something which doesn’t impact the environment. And, please, no balloons.

Kathy Hanson
Huntington Beach

Trump supports the demonstrators

Is anyone surprised that an unmasked Donald Trump is siding with unmasked protesters? Which is more important, “liberating” Orange County’s beaches, restaurants and other small businesses or saving lives?

Denny Freidenrich
Laguna Beach