Moving students is a bad use of...

Moving students is a bad use of money

I don’t think the students at Harbor View Elementary should be

moved. I thinks that’s a silly thing to do with monies in short

supply in the schools and in the city -- to go such added expense for

some inconvenience on the part of the parents is poor use of taxpayer

money.

As to a letter writer’s comments that we’re not willing to expose

our children to the possibilities of safety and securities such as

dust, dirt and noise -- does he ever take them to playgrounds? Seems

like they get plenty of dust, dirt and noise. If they can’t handle

that, maybe it’s poor parenting. And tools and equipment -- gees

there’s construction all around us. We’re not in the process of

removing kids from the real world. This is a ridiculous concern.

STAN WINTER

Corona del Mar

Forget about those bridges, once and for all

Am I having deja vu? Every time the bridge is mentioned, Robert

Graham gets another 12 inches in the Daily Pilot. This has been going

on for years.

I thought the bridge was gone. It’s been gone about four times. It

keeps coming back. I think you people give him far too much coverage,

far too much space, to be the only person or one of the few people

speaking for this bridge that’s supposed to go away.

When is it going to go away? We don’t want no stinkin’ bridges.

Let’s move on with issues that really do affect this city.

SHARON BOUDREAU

Costa Mesa

A familiar feel to the Westside debate

Here we go again. As always, we have two camps digging in their

heels and going nowhere.

One camp would like all Westside “industrialists” to take a hike,

and the other camp would prefer the status quo, thank you very much.

Every decade or so, the effort to improve the Westside has become

shipwrecked upon these very same rocks. I am a Costa Mesa homeowner,

“Improver” and “Industrialist” who believes that both sides are going

to have to give a little to get anywhere.

Now, for a little history: Up until the very recent past, the

Westside bluffs were down-wind of a working 24-hour-a-day oil field

operation located in the county territory between the bluffs and the

Santa Ana river.

This operation was noisy, and very noxious, and as such, nobody in

their right mind would want to live on those bluffs or in the

immediate area. So, what to do with this worthless property? Smelly,

noisy commercial uses were a perfect solution, and I stress “were.”

Now that the offending oil field is closed down, the adjacent land

is no longer worthless from a residential standpoint, but rather, is

very desirable real estate. This change cannot be ignored, but for

some it is seemingly impossible to consider that the area is in

transition, and that now the most logical use is for new high quality

residential.

With regard to more easterly portions of the area (east of

Placentia Avenue), some of the heavy industrial uses that the oil

operations “enabled” are now depressing the adjacent residential

areas. Nobody is going to fix up the aging residential until they can

be assured that the area is free of toxic, and nuisance odors.

Perhaps, a reasonable goal would be to create incentives that

would effectively upgrade area industrial uses to “clean” operations,

and free up prime real estate for residential use. Wholesale

elimination of “Industrialists” is unwarranted, and failure to make

the best use of our prime real estate is just plain silly. Perhaps if

both sides will recognize the wants and needs of the other, we can

improve the Westside without wholesale upheaval and displacement.

Barring cooperation, it appears that the residents of Costa Mesa have

a pretty good argument for outright removal of the industrial uses:

Their health and the health of their children.

As one of the many existing clean industrial operators of the

creative and inventive ilk, I certainly hope that the big polluters

are not allowed to drag the rest of us little guys down with them,

for to do so would have a degrading effect on the long-standing

character of Costa Mesa.

ERIC BEVER

Founding member,

Westside Improvement Assn.

Westside

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Eric Bever was a finalist for replacing former

Costa Mesa Mayor Karen Robinson earlier this year.

Harbor View is not the only school of concern

Why are you so concerned just about Harbor View Elementary? What

about the other schools in Newport-Mesa School District that are

being repaired?

Look at Newport Heights on 15th Street. That’s totally torn apart.

Are the students and the teachers going to have to go back to that

mess. I think that the other five schools that are being dismantled

should also be looked into - not just Harbor View.

FLORENCE JOHNSON

Eastside