New West Side citizens group forms

Andrew Glazer

The vocal founder of a growing grass-roots neighborhood group

splintered off and has formed a new association in Costa Mesa.

Janice Davidson, the feisty co-founder of the Westside Improvement

Assn. who has repeatedly, with strong language, demanded the City Council

increase code enforcement on the West Side, said her new group, Citizens

for the Improvement of Costa Mesa, will keep fighting for her pet cause.

“It’s not really a new group,” Davidson said in a printed statement,

“but our scope is more citywide in focus.”

Eleanor Egan, a member of the Westside Improvement Assn., said last

week that Davidson left the association because she had differences with

the steering committee.

“We all have the same goals of improving code enforcement here,” she

said. “But the rest of us feel the way to do that is to work with and

improve the power structure.”

The Westside Improvement Assn. formed in February after city-hired

consultants released a draft plan for revitalizing the neighborhood.

The group’s founders said the consultants listened to suggestions from

special interest groups, such as the Latino Advisory Committee, and

largely ignored the neighborhood’s homeowners.

Its meetings have drawn as many as 200 homeowners.

Davidson said five people showed up to the first meeting for Citizens

for the Improvement of Costa Mesa, but expects more at the group’s next

meeting.