Mailbag: Colleen Street Annex residents want council change

At no time in recent history has our community of Costa Mesa had a more clear and distinct vision by our candidates running for council.

One group, made up of Mayor Steve Mensinger, former Mayor Allan Mansoor and longtime resident Lee Ramos, wants to continue the current priorities of serving the needs of outside special interests. Those include developers, contractors and lawyers — all tied heavily to their profits and not to the citizens and businesses of Costa Mesa.

The other candidates, Councilwoman Sandy Genis, former Councilman Jay Humphrey and attorney John Stephens, will spend our budget and our taxpayers’ funds on the community of Costa Mesa.

These priorities include increasing our police force, supporting our firefighters and using common sense to bring about community-supported improvements. No matter what the heated rhetoric on both sides scream, those of us living in the Colleen Street Annex understand how these differing priories will impact our lives and safety from this election forward.

Examples about these differences can be found by looking at the way the Colleen Street Annex residents were treated. Our requests were ignored while special interest groups’ were granted.

We requested time to work out the difference in our larger county lots and zoning as opposed to the city’s smaller lots. We were told we were not “that special” and were denied both the time and the special overlay to protect our neighborhood.

Instead, the council majority voted to fulfill the outside developers’ needs to have their own special overlay high density zoning ensuring an additional 3,000 homes can now be crammed into our Eastside neighborhood.

In a nutshell, Costa Mesa residents and current businesses are not “that special” as compared to those outside interest groups donating heavily to the current majority’s campaign. It is up to us, the voters, to make our roads, our homes, our safety the priority over their profits by changing the council majority this November.

Your newest Costa Mesa neighborhood learned a painful lesson and understand clearly these differences and support those candidates who will use our taxpayer money to benefit us. I hope the rest of the residents and citizens follow our lead and vote in a council majority that is invested in our needs first.

Elizabeth “Liz” Dorn Parker

Costa Mesa

Tail pipes are exhausting

I found your article very interesting (“Quiet riot versus ‘Easy Rider’ noise,” Sept.22).

I rode, years ago, a 750 Kawasaki. I am now 75. As a sixth-generation Californian, I love to drive with the windows open every chance I get.

More so now I get blasted by bikers, splitting lanes, while waiting for lights who needlessly continue to crank their bikes up. Because the state of California has no method to curb illegal exhausts, this will continue.

Al Vasquez

Laguna Beach