Letters to the Editor: 70 years of Fun Zone memories are going the way of Skee-Ball

Some things you just know will be here forever, then, wham bam, the rug, or in this situation the Bay Arcade in Balboa’s Fun Zone, has been given the old heave-ho after 70 years of providing fun for teenagers, pre-teenagers and oldsters (“Fun Zone’s Bay Arcade declares game over after losing its lease,” July 29). The soon-to-be-absent arcade will be converted to a cafe and doughnut shop. The old Skee-Ball games and air hockey tables that once were virtually the only games in town for youngsters will make their exit into the sunset, taking with them all the unused win tickets issued by the machines.

Having separated, then divorcing when my son Ryan was only 6 (he’s pushing 40 now), I recall the weekends he spent with me and occasionally driving down from Fullerton to the Fun Zone for some father-and-son rest and recreation. I didn’t move to Newport Beach until 1997, and by that time Ryan was in college and didn’t have time, or probably the inclination, for Skee-Ball or the Ferris wheel at the zone. We do, however, have memories of the Bay Arcade and the tickets spewed out by the Skee-Ball machines that for whatever reason we never traded in for prizes.

With the soon to be nonexistent Bay Arcade at the Fun Zone, I say farewell to almost three-quarters of a century of making memories for the old and young. The new cafe and doughnut shop, if trying to fill the gap of the arcade, most certainly has its work cut out for it. So let’s check back in 70 years and see how it’s doing.

Bill Spitalnick

Newport Beach

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Police acted with utmost professionalism

Last week we got an up close look at a disturbing event that occurred outside our front door here in Newport. After incessant barking by our dog, I looked out to see my neighbor signaling to me two people who looked out of place. They then proceeded to park in front our house and hide between cars parked on our street. A couple seconds later, a police officer drove by, looked over at me, and instinctively I pointed out one of the two suspects to him. The officer whipped around, got out of his car, and without hesitation, ordered the suspect down. He then turned and asked where the other one went and my neighbor shouted, “Over there!”

The officer proceeded to order the other suspect down. The officer had been notified of a stolen vehicle that matched the car parked in front of our house. As we watched this event unfold, we did not know if these people had guns, were high on drugs or were going to flee. This officer, who was alone for about a minute or two before a contingent of officers arrived, handled this situation with the utmost professionalism and tact.

To watch firsthand the split-second decisions the officer had to make, and the professionalism displayed, was quite possibly one of the most impressive things I’ve ever witnessed. I hope going forward, before judging all police officers because of what the news tries to imply, or by a few angry people shouting during their rallies, we might consider the risk these men and women deal with on a daily basis to keep our citizens safe.

Juli Hayden

Newport Beach

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District voting makes sense for Coast

Kudos to the trustees of the Coast Community College District for approving a resolution “that begins the process of establishing elections in which trustees would be elected by area rather than by voters districtwide.” During this period of political division at the national level, it’s reassuring to know that some office holders are looking out for the greater good.

Ben Miles

Huntington Beach

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Please crack down on Coast Highway speeders

As a longtime resident of Newport Beach, I can recall many high-speed, very deadly auto accidents in our city. As of late, I am disturbed by the marked increase in reckless, high-speed driving seen on a daily basis on the Mariner’s Mile stretch of Coast Highway, between Riverside Avenue and Dover Drive.

So many drivers, seemingly aroused by the presence of so many exotic car dealerships along PCH, seem to lose all control of their senses, as they floor their accelerator pedals and abandon any semblance of safe driving principles, not to mention traffic laws. This goes on every day, but on the weekends, it becomes shockingly worse.

I call on our Newport Beach Police Department to put a stop to this madness, before more deadly crashes occur. I believe many additional NBPD patrols along this stretch are called for. I would love to see them set up radar traps and to start writing significantly more speeding tickets. While they are at it, local residents would greatly appreciate it if they would clamp down on overly noisy vehicles as well, especially those packs of ridiculously loud motorcycles that constantly terrorize our streets and disturb the peace in our fair city by the sea.

Allen Drucker

Newport Beach

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Food bank does important (and fun) work

Re. “Column: Food bank volunteer … how hard could it be?” (July 27): Great article on Second Harvest Food Bank! Our First Bank Team volunteers there every month, and over the last 13-plus years has logged over 4,000 volunteer hours, collectively. Our “favorite” shift was sorting kiwis, and we too coined the nasty kiwi snot! Thanks for highlighting this wonderful organization and its mission.

Therese DeGroot

Managing Director

Community First Financial Resources Team-First Bank

Laguna Beach

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Development in Newport impacts neighboring cities too

While I certainly concur with Susan Skinner’s comments on Newport Beach City Councilman Scott Peotter, his support for development in his neck of the woods, and the general philosophy of putting profits over people in the ranks of his party (“Views on property rights go too far,” July 30), three additional topics need to be addressed. First, the impacts, largely negative, of this project and others in the Newport-Costa Mesa area on surrounding communities.

As a resident of Southeast Huntington Beach, I fought with other activists for years against the 19th Street bridge, and the Banning Ranch development that would have severely crippled traffic flow into Huntington Beach on Banning, Victoria and Pacific Coast Highway.

Clearly, developers don’t care about the communities they negatively impact. Peotter has turned a blind eye, a deaf ear and hardened heart in backing projects that impact his constituents. Second, Peotter seems to be a prisoner of his party’s ideology and its shameful pandering to moneyed special interests. Third, Peotter has has exercised a brand of arrogance, dismissiveness and rudeness in his dealings that not surprisingly has led folks to demand his recall and ouster.

These factors certainly lead residents in surrounding communities to question Peotter’s fitness to make decisions that impact their areas. It’s time politicians care more about community impacts and residential property rights affecting their constituents than those of developers and outside special interests.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach

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Recall Peotter before the 2018 election

As we saw with Museum House, Councilman Scott Peotter is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to prevent the public from exercising its rights to be heard on development. He alone wrote an opinion piece defending his actions to subvert the petition process, and he refused to rescind the project approvals in spite of 14,000 resident signatures in opposition to this high-rise development. Mr. Peotter is on record in support of raising the height limits on Lido, and he was a consistent affirmative vote on the Planning Commission for larger and denser development. The recall is not simply a matter of removing him from office a few months before the 2018 election; it is the best opportunity for residents to prevent him from locking his high-rise vision into our General Plan for a generation.

Mike Toerge

Newport Beach

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There’s still some uplifting news out there

Re. “Paraplegic man and fiancee announce pregnancy with ‘It still works!” (July 30): Lori Basheda’s article “Baby disclosure goes viral” on the front page of Sunday’s TimesOC (July 30) made my day. Give her a promotion and a pay raise for bringing sunshine into the lives of newspaper readers weary of unrelenting sad news. Thank you!

Peter and Penny Horstman

Huntington Beach

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