MAILBAG - Feb. 8, 2006

With the beach, there’s no need for more parks

The Balboa Peninsula is in need of a shot in the arm. We’ve had years of misguided slow-growth or no-growth, and the peninsula has become badly neglected and run down.

I’m a long-term Balboa Peninsula resident and the former owner of Studio Cafe. I strongly support the Stephen Sutherland hotel project at Marinapark. A luxury hotel will do wonders for the area, pay big taxes and improve property values.

Why choose a mobile-home park over a hotel? We certainly don’t need any more parks -- what is all that beach for?

Let’s have a beautiful new hotel built and get the Balboa Peninsula moving again!

GRANVILLE KIRKUP

Balboa Peninsula

Boycott won’t help, but certainly will hurt

The Citizens for Constitutional Rights (headed by a Santa Ana resident) wants a boycott of any business in Costa Mesa that does not put their “pro felon” signs in the window (“Activists threaten boycott over immigration checks,” Friday). They believe this will cause the members of the Costa Mesa City Council to change their minds about having officers trained to determine the legal status of felons.

Does Citizens for Constitutional Rights care who will be hurt by any type of boycott? There will be a number to people who will boycott a store without the sign, and there will be a number of other people who will boycott any store with a sign. Either way, some businesses will lose customers.

What happens when they lose customers? They either lay off people or increase their charges to existing customers. This hurts all of us in Costa Mesa a little, but the people it really hurts are the ones who walk to do their shopping, they can’t just get in the car and drive to Huntington Beach to buy groceries.

But as long as the Santa Ana resident gets his 15 minutes of fame, what does he care?

JUDITH BERRY

Costa Mesa

Smith is right on about school board, charters

I think Steve Smith did a great job and hit the nail on the head with regard to the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board justifying their existence and rejecting the charter school proposals (“Board should take risk,” Jan. 28). I think all they want to do is protect their status quo and ignore the benefits for the school children.

They thought they could use this tactic to secure the money they have, but they never thought about how to improve the education for all the kids in Costa Mesa -- not only the kids on the Westside, where the schools are under performing.

Thanks to Smith for being the voice in the wilderness. I hope he continues to speak for the majority of Costa Mesa.

ED KAO

Costa Mesa

Traffic won’t flow when lights are broken

The other day I was sitting at yet another red light on Jamboree Road, waiting and waiting while an imaginary pedestrian, who apparently somehow triggered the pedestrian crossing signal, crossed the street.

I have long ago given up hope that somehow the traffic signals in Newport Beach can be synchronized, but still have the hope that malfunctioning signals can be fixed in a timely manner. The signals at this particular intersection (Jamboree and Eastbluff/University) have been malfunctioning for more than six weeks.

I have reported this to Newport Beach’s Traffic Engineering Department on a weekly basis. Is this a result of poor hardware or equipment, compounded by apathy or incompetence in the traffic engineering department? It is very frustrating.

Who has time to wait, unnecessarily, day after day, at these and other oft-malfunctioning signals (such as Jamboree and Bayview)? How is traffic ever going to flow on Jamboree when all of the new offices and condo high rises are completed? Or is that Irvine’s problem?

STEVE M. STEC

Newport Beach

Bring a Latin American flavor to the Westside

The Westside revitalization is rapidly coming to the forefront these days, with the preliminary plans making their way through the process and hungry developers poised like so many vultures, waiting to swoop down on our fair city. That’s not necessarily bad.

One thing has been on my mind lately, though. Through all the dialogue over many years, I don’t recall any mention of the role the approximately 60% Latino population of the Westside will play in this renaissance.

It seems short-sighted and foolhardy to make plans for the area without consideration of how these folk will be folded into the scheme. Unless, of course, you plan for them to be gone.

Assume for a moment that there is not an insidious plot to expunge the Latinos from the Westside. If that’s the case, then why not try to blend their rich heritage and culture into the plans for the improvement of the area in which they live? We already have a wonderful performing arts district that, especially when combined with South Coast Plaza and MetroPointe, makes a world-class destination.

Why not give the Westside a Latin American theme, with architectural and landscaping designs to emphasize that theme -- a place where the majority demographic can participate and feel proud?

I’m not suggesting the look of Los Angeles’ Olvera Street. I’m suggesting a much more upscale Latin American look to the area -- at least the parts of the Westside that are to be included in the revitalization process.

Over the years, there has been much conversation and many essays written about how shabby the Westside is looking these days.

Perhaps, if that part of town had a distinct Latin American flavor, the Latinos would feel more at home and do a better job of discouraging graffiti and trash. Perhaps the Fish Fry evolves into the Costa Mesa Fiesta on or around May 5, with Lions Park the focal point. It could become a signature event in which every resident of the city -- not just the Latinos -- could have fun and be proud of our city. Perhaps.

I can hear you long-time Westside residents screaming already.

Well, despite what Mayor Allan Mansoor seems to have in mind with his plan to authorize the Costa Mesa police to become immigration screeners, the Latinos among us are here to stay. They are the fastest growing group in this city. Like it or not, they represent the wave of the future in this town and this state.

Maybe blending their ideas, heritage and culture into the Westside revitalization is a place to start.

GEOFF WEST

Costa Mesa20060208hr744fkfKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)A local walks his dog near the Marinapark mobile-home park last year. Reader Granville Kirkup of Balboa Peninsula writes that a luxury hotel would be a fine addition to the area.