Job center should be for Costa Mesa...

Job center should be for Costa Mesa

Do you believe that Newport Beach is somehow deserving of indirect

welfare payments from Costa Mesa? How about Huntington Beach? Or

Irvine?

If we are to believe the numbers reported in Thursday’s Pilot

(“Job center survives another council vote”), 49% of the employers

utilizing the job center are from outside Costa Mesa. Of that

percentage, it was reported that 31% hailed from Newport Beach and 6%

from Huntington Beach. Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t this

indicate that the residents of Costa Mesa are paying all of the

nearly $100,000 in yearly job center costs, while our neighboring

cities are getting a free ride? They’re paying nada, zip, nothing?

Why should we subsidize Newport Beach or Huntington Beach or any

other city? And why should we permit the reported 37% of prospective

employees from other areas to use our job center and possibly take

jobs from Costa Mesans? And don’t tell me they’ll just go somewhere

else. I suggest our law enforcement professionals be held responsible

to insure that they do not.

It seems to me that our job center should serve our employees and

our employers. If other cities want job centers, I suggest they build

one of their own. Or, at the very least, the 49% of the job center’s

out-of-town employer-customers should bear at least 49% of the total

operating costs (I’m thinking more like 65% or 70%). I submit that to

do it any other way is bad business, is wasteful of precious tax

dollars, and is representative of poor governance. I request that our

council revisit this issue and vote the only way that makes any

sense.

By the way, in this, Costa Mesa’s 50th year, I make the formal

motion that the appellation “Newport-Mesa” be officially changed

henceforth to “Mesa-Newport.” Do I hear a second?

CHUCK CASSITY

Costa Mesa

El Toro needs a presidential touch

Regarding Wednesday’s front page question about the El Toro

airport:

The fate of El Toro lies in the hands of the Orange County people

and the hands of the president of the United States.

As recently demonstrated, our president committed to sending our

troops to Iraq to liberate the people and free them from an evil

dictatorship.

The president has no less of an obligation right here in Southern

California, the second most powerful metropolis in the nation.

In the case of El Toro, the president must send his “troops” in to

liberate the people subjected to the biased rule of multiple

dictatorships. On both fronts, there are blind leaders refusing to

see the truth, tell the truth or surrender to the truth.

In south Orange County, there is the evil trinity dictatorship of

Larry Agran, Don Bren and Christopher Cox, hell-bent on blocking

interstate commerce by building-out south Orange County with

high-density housing and now, 18-story-high luxury dwelling “towers”

in Irvine one-half mile from John Wayne Airport, all of which will

clog our already severely congested transportation system. All the

while, they are content “shoving” air transportation “elsewhere” onto

those already carrying an unfair burden at their expense.

On the “pro” airport front, you have the now transparent majority

rule dictatorship that in their support for a much needed El Toro

airport, is still hell-bent on supporting the workable but

inefficient (and now dead airport plan that failed to consider the

recommendations of the FAA, the pilots, and the local residents under

the proposed flight paths. The county also failed to adequately study

or even allow the FAA to study the only logical airport plan for El

Toro: the Charles Griffin-designed V-Plan, even after a nearly

60,000-pilot member group endorsed the V-Plan and encouraged the

county to do so, also.

The issue and the reason of the never-ending El Toro war has been

and always will be the proposed flight paths. Yet the dictatorship

rule on both fronts, in their blindness to overcome their opponent,

refuse to admit their deceit and pride and work toward addressing a

viable solution to the problem and the issue, which is air

transportation growth and the need to accommodate future anticipated

growth in Orange County as well as the entire Southern California

region fairly, and justly by removing all current biased dictatorship

rule and bringing in a new leader to address and solve the problem

once and for all.

The blindly obvious solution is for the president to meet with

delegates from Southern California’s five counties to address the

importance of El Toro in the mix of the future anticipated air

transportation growth and to declare El Toro a commercial airport and

appoint federal leadership to oversee and determine how El Toro can

be utilized as a commercial airport while creating the least negative

impacts as possible.

Taking into account the prevailing winds, the over 30,000 acres of

permanent Irvine Co. dedicated open space reserves, and the flow of

current aircraft using our air space, the V-Plan, or a similar

airport plan derivative will ultimately prove feasibly and impose

virtually no negative noise impacts to existing residents.

Please, Mr. President, step up to the plate.

RUSSELL NIEWIAROWSKI

Santa Ana Heights

Irvine Co. not wrong for wanting back rent

Your article treated the Irvine Co., What’s Cooking’s landlord, a

bit harsh, it seemed to me.

If in fact the restaurant was not paying its rent, the landlord

has little option when the term of the lease comes due. I rent space

for my business, and I understand that if I don’t pay my rent, I will

not be able to keep occupying the space. Nor do I suppose the Los

Angeles Times would continue to deliver my paper if I stopped paying

my bill.

JUDY JOHNSON

Newport Beach

Time to end fireworks in Costa Mesa

I used to live in Newport Beach and was very happy that we had

only public fireworks to watch at the Newport Dunes. A few years ago,

I voted no on fireworks in Costa Mesa and nothing became of it. Every

year on the Fourth of July I have to stay home, bring my pets inside

and have to close all the windows so my cats are safe, but they can

still hear the noise and hide under the bed. I try to open windows at

midnight, but firecracker still go off through the night. And there

is also the smell -- stink in the air.

Besides, there is always the danger of fire and illegal

firecrackers.

I would gladly donate some dollars every year into a fund so that

we can stop the sale of fireworks. The fairgrounds is a good place

for our city to have a public display.

Maybe we can vote on it again and act on it this time.

WALTRAUD “WALLY” WEAVER

Costa Mesa