Not a good trend for Costa Mesa

* EDITOR’S NOTE: We are introducing a new regular feature on the

Forum page called Watchdog. Watchdog will be a place for any reader

to spell out concerns about a local issue related to city government

in Costa Mesa or Newport Beach. It’s also a place to cheerlead, if,

in your opinion, municipal government has done something right. Feel

free to send a letter for publication to the Daily Pilot to the

address and under the guidelines stated at the top of the Forum page.

Those who watch the statistics and facts and who give a clue about

the quality of life in Costa Mesa (as I do), know that Costa Mesa is

on the wrong track.

Instead of trending more like Newport Beach or Huntington Beach or

Irvine or even like Fountain Valley, most statistics show that Costa

Mesa is trending more like Santa Ana.

The statistics show, for example, that we have too many

apartments, too much industrial zoning, too many charities, too many

half-way houses, too high a crime rate, too low school scores and

more and more and more.

So, what are the 12 candidates for Costa Mesa’s City Council

talking about this year?

One long-time Westside Improver isn’t even talking about the

Westside (where most of our problems are located) and is railing

about mostly imagined potholes in Mesa Verde.

Another candidate says his biggest accomplishment was getting the

city to approve a skate park. Another one says we need to

communicate. It goes on and on. Most seem to be running either

because they don’t have anything better to do or because of ego

reasons.

Where is the vision? Where is the focus? Where is the

intelligence? Where is even the basic understanding of what Costa

Mesa needs to do to improve?

I join other commentators in suggesting that the people of Costa

Mesa need to really find out what the candidates are all about, but I

despair that if they scratch the surface of most candidates, they’ll

find nothing beneath the surface.

M. H. MILLARD

Costa Mesa