West Side diversity evident at meeting

Andrew Glazer

WEST SIDE -- In a meeting punctuated with encouraging applause and cries

of anger, residents told planners how the city should revitalize their

neighborhood.

“It’s very important for people to express their ideas,” said Manfredo

Lespier, a member of the Latino Advisory Committee, a coalition of the

city’s Latino leaders. “This is democracy at work.”

The meeting began with Woody Tescher -- the project’s lead planner from

EIP, Associates -- summarizing a draft plan for the West Side that the

Los Angeles-based firm released earlier this year. The city hired the

consultants to find solutions to the neighborhood’s traffic and crime

problems and blighted appearance.

The draft plan, among other things, recommended the city help create a

downtown pedestrian shopping area with a central plaza.

“There are a lot of different opinions here,” Tescher said before opening

the floor to the room of roughly 300 residents. “The worst thing to do

here is argue, argue, argue.”

With that, dozens of residents lined up in the stuffy Costa Mesa

Neighborhood Community Center auditorium to offer new suggestions, call

for cooperation and condemn the draft plan.

Some said it didn’t address traffic problems. Others said it was

unrealistic. Even more said the planners shouldn’t have modeled the plan

after Long Beach or Huntington Park, as Tescher indicated.

“Why didn’t you model the West Side after Huntington Beach or Newport

Beach?” asked Janice Davidson, founder of the West Side Improvement

Assn., a newly formed group of homeowners opposed to the draft plan.

The group’s founders say the planners have listened disproportionately to

the suggestions offered by other groups, including the Latino Advisory

Committee.

“I’m not clear on what you mean,” Tescher said.

“You modeled it after Glendale and Long Beach, Tijuana!” shouted voices

from the audience.

“I think it should be ethnically neutral, for all people,” said homeowner

Phil Morello.

Outside the meeting, City Councilwoman Libby Cowan said she was

encouraged by the discussion. She said everyone in the room -- Latinos,

business owners, homeowners, landlords, tenants -- had the same goal:

improving the West Side.

“What showed is that everybody wants a clean, safe, beautiful

neighborhood,” she said. “All we have to do is find a way to get us

there.”