REBUTTAL

Sorry, dad, wrong again! Mike Schaefer’s call for the City Council to

reconsider the site selected for our first skateboard park will only risk

further delays in constructing a skateboard facility this year (“Chosen

site for skate park not good enough,” Jan. 4). After waiting so long to

address the city on this subject, it is regrettable that Parks

Commissioner Schaefer can only find fault in the action of the City

Council.

In fact, the City Council has been very diligent in its efforts to find a

suitable skateboard park, and it has listened to every segment of the

community. The Lions Park Assn. applauds the City Council’s selection of

Charle and Hamilton streets to build a skateboard facility this year.

Although the site may not be perfect in every aspect, it is highly

accessible to skateboarders and spectators (a short block off Harbor

Boulevard) and it adds (rather than reduces) park space at the edge of a

neighborhood in need of recreational facilities.

No, Lions Park would not have been a good choice. When you look at Lions

Park today, you see lots of open space and green grass. But look at Lions

Park again next year and you will see the huge new Downtown Community

Center and about 60% less green grass and open space available for the

residents who now use that area for family picnics, games and pickup

soccer. To the tiny Airplane Park green area that will remain, Schaefer

proposes adding another 20,000 square feet of concrete. With a parks

commissioner like this, who needs enemies?

Something that Mike Schaefer ignores is that all of Lions Park’s surface

water drains into a neighborhood that already suffers from the damaging

effects of an inadequate city storm drainage system. Several new parking

lots around the park, and now the new Community Center, all contribute to

a flash-flood condition that occurs along Anaheim and 18th streets each

time we receive significant rainfall. All that new concrete would make

the flooding occur even faster.

Yes, the Lions Park Assn. opposes a skateboard facility in Lions Park.

But we also recognize our responsibility to the youth who skateboard. We

conducted an in-depth survey of skateboarders and alternate skate park

locations. The result was a 20-page report to the Costa Mesa City Council

and school board reflecting the opinions of 1,500 middle and high school

students of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. The report

recommended skateboard park sites in Costa Mesa that would better serve

the 12- to 15-year-old youths who will be the primary users of the

facility.

Contrary to Schaefer’s remarks, the city has done good work in

researching and locating a site. We now have a window of opportunity to

build a park. Mike Schaefer should be using his influence on the Parks

and Recreation Commission to work with the City Council and the school

district and to overcome the hurdles that may exist with the Charle and

Hamilton site. For instance, we believe that an 8,000-square-foot

skateboard area will serve the 12- to 15-year-olds and will allow a more

attractive minipark design that is not all concrete.

Unless we seize this moment and build a skateboard park now at Charle and

Hamilton Mike Schaefer could be right that his 13-year-old son will be

too old to use Costa Mesa’s first skate park. So let’s move forward with

the City Council’s decision. It is the best solution for all the

residents of Costa Mesa, including our skateboarders. And we’re pretty

sure that Mike Schaefer’s son won’t mind if his dad is wrong.

CHERIE KORANDO

BRIAN TODD

WALT HOLLOWELL

BILL TURPIT

The Lions Park Assn. executive committee