Fund-raisers need to find another way to...

Fund-raisers need to find

another way to raise money

The sale of fireworks and the use of fireworks should be banned

from the city of Costa Mesa. Are we waiting for a major catastrophe?

Do more accident’s like Adaleide Thiel’s have to happen before this

city realizes the extreme danger of legal and illegal fireworks?

My quiet, peaceful Eastside neighbor has sounded and looked like a

war zone most of the month of July. Not only do we hear constant

fireworks from individuals but we hear them from the Newport Dunes,

the celebration of the amphitheater opening and other venues nearby.

Debris from fireworks can be found on your lawns, streets and

sidewalks. Animals, children and even adults cringe in fright,

covering ears barely dulls the sound..

I have lived in the Newport-Mesa area for more than 50 years and

spent many years as a leader in youth and adult organizations that

depend on fund-raising to exist. We all know there are numerous ways

to do so; perhaps a city ad hoc committee could be formed of

professional or experienced fund raisers who could advise others.

JUDY LINDSAY

Costa Mesa

Change to city laws on fireworks are inevitable

Those groups who benefit from the sale of fireworks -- as well as

those who buy them -- are resistant to change, but change is

inevitable. It’s time we moved to ban fireworks along with other

enlightened communities. The negatives to the community (both

individually and collectively) far outnumber the positives in this

issue. Those who set off illegal fireworks continue to be a problem

in my Eastside neighborhood -- with an explosion again last night.

It’s past time that this be stopped.

BETTS HARLEY

Costa Mesa

Letter shows Mineta is out

of touch with airport needs

Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta’s recent letter

abdicating El Toro to a housing developer land auction reveals just

how out of touch with transportation he is, (“D.C. grounds L.A.’s El

Toro airport proposal,” Wednesday.) A better title for the secretary

might be Secretary of Greed and the Irvine Company.

Mineta knows all we have to do at El Toro is turn on the lights;

he knows we need those runways in our region; and he knows the Los

Angeles plan is the only way to meet our needs without harming

citizens at other airports; and he knows no one, absolutely no one,

is in the noise zone of the planned El Toro International Airport.

Newport Beach Mayor Steve Bromberg, who seems to like the negative

Mineta letter, because he doesn’t know the plan, should contact the

City Council of Costa Mesa, which voted 5 to 0 two weeks ago to

support the Los Angeles plan for El Toro.

DONALD NYRE

Newport Beach

The United States, as well as

Corona del Mar, is a tapestry

I am calling in regards to the letter in the paper today by Dennis

MaCarter in which he talks about the traffic jams, the garbage on the

street and the parking dominated on the weekends by “Mexicans”

(Mailbag, Wednesday).

First of all, the parking on the street is public parking, anyone

can park there, not just owners of Corona del Mar. Also, the beach is

public property. It is owned by the state; anyone is allowed there.

If he wants to go and have a picnic, let him go there early in the

morning and stake out his claim.

We were at the beach yesterday and the place was mostly “Anglo”

because most of the “Mexicans” were doing their work while others

were on the beach in the middle of the week. So I think this is so

disgusting, this whole controversy. I am sure if they took a survey,

they would find most of the people down there are not Mexican, they

are people of all ages, all groups. America is a tapestry, it is not

just blue-eyed blonds. It is a whole tapestry of nations of people

and I hope it stays that way.

SANDRA BASMACIYAN

Corona del Mar

A positive reminder in column about Kobe Bryant

I don’t usually agree with the things Steve Smith writes in his

column. I am a liberal Democrat and a single mother, so sometimes I

read your column and disagree. However, I absolutely loved your

column on your son and his friend getting his baseball autographed

(“Waiting for an Angel,” July 19). It is very affirmative. It

highlights a person who did something kind, a famous person. And what

a great column to come out on the day that Kobe Bryant is such an

embarrassment, if he is in fact guilty of his charges. And what a

great thing that you highlighted a sports figure that is doing

something positive.

SUSAN CLARK

Newport Beach