Letter to the Editor

This is regarding the “Community Commentary” in the Aug. 2 paper

(“Tragedy the best word to describe Crystal Cove loss”). If the Crystal

Cove cottages are just a “group of shacks” as Val Carson states, it must

be because those tenants who vacated on July 8 had not kept the cottages

in decent repair during the years they enjoyed the privilege of living in

the historic cottages on the beach for much less monthly rent than I have

been paying for a no-view 2-bedroom apartment in Costa Mesa.

No one has “destroyed Crystal Cove” as Carson further states. In fact,

the cove is now the public park it was intended to be when it was

purchased by the state with public funds, but it is now free of the signs

at the entrance to the beach, such as the one put up some years back by

those elitist tenants that warned “No Parking, No Vacancy, No Waiting

List, Unauthorized Persons Keep Out.”

The former tenants are now welcome to enjoy the beach and Crystal Cove

environment, along with all the public whose tax dollars of $32.6 million

were paid to buy Crystal Cove in 1979 from the Irvine Co.

Since when does the seller of a property for which a fair price was

paid have the right 20 years later to dictate the use of that property?

That appears to be the direction that Joan Irvine Smith is attempting to

assume. Smith should have the same right, but no greater right, than any

ordinary citizen of California to express her opinion to the Parks

Department at public hearings. Wealth and name recognition should not

carry any greater weight in this matter than the opinion of any ordinary

Californian whose tax dollars paid for Crystal Cove to be a public park.

The same should apply to the former tenants, the members of the

Crystal Cove Community Trust and the Alliance to Save Crystal Cove, which

might more accurately be titled “Alliance to Save Crystal Cove for a

Privileged Few.”

I do hope that the Daily Pilot will publicize well in advance any

public hearing to be held by the Parks Department so that the public may

plan to attend and voice opinions on the future use of Crystal Cove.

MILDRED URLING

Costa Mesa