MAILBAG - Nov. 16, 2006

Greenlight deserves residents’ thanks for fightThe residents of Newport Beach can only offer a heart-felt thanks to Phil Arst and his Greenlight colleagues who selfishly and without personal agenda did all they could to stop the build-out that we now will ultimately face.

However, a few important items of interest need to be acknowledged by the residents of Newport Beach, as this last election represented a sad day for local politics. First, it is apparent that our City Council can be bought and paid for by developers and their agenda. Second, campaign finance rules need to be reformed in our city. I’m curious how it was permissible to use city funds and employees to promote a political agenda contrary to what residents voted for in the last election? And how much “soft” money was funneled through the Chamber of Commerce to also promote the same, pro-development agenda?

When the biggest war chest is the deciding factor in our elections, we have nothing but a dismal future ahead. Arst and Greenlight fought a good fight, but eventually the Koll Co., the Irvine Co. and others would have figured out a way around common sense in their unending quest for profits.

Lastly, the Measure X versus Measure V debate was decided based on a misleading, disingenuous and deceptive campaign designed to confuse voters. Shame on the Measure V side.

PRESTON MURRAY

Newport Beach

Results of school board race shock two Newport parentsWe are most shocked and discouraged by the results of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District candidate for the fifth trustee area.

After 26 years, Judy Franco, we were certain, would be unseated, and we are shocked and disappointed that Loretta Zimmerman was not voted in. She was a strong candidate, a working parent — a parent who’s worked with the system through four sons, and now a fifth is in the system.

As a family with six children — having raised six children — we desperately need some changes on the school district board. And I hope that this will be a wake-up call. Other areas did better — and the trustees were changed in some of the other areas and replaced with better people.

But I think that we are most shocked that Zimmerman and her strong candidacy and excellent background did not get in to change the trustee situation.

CATHERINE AND STEVE ZEISER

Newport Beach

Rejection of Greenlight is a big result of electionsA big surprise in the Newport Beach election was the utter rejection of the slate of candidates and measure positions offered by the Greenlight political organization. Its candidate in District 1 received only 16% of the vote. The third time was not the charm for the Greenlight watchdog candidate in District 7. Measure V passed over their objection, and their flagship Greenlight II initiative, a.k.a. Measure X, was overwhelmingly rejected. Can the Greenlight spokesman continue to claim Greenlight represents the residents? Based on the election results, to do so would be less than credible.

I was not surprised to see the electorate’s rejection of the Pilot endorsement of a protest vote against so-called dirty politics in the District 4 race won handily by Leslie Daigle. I hope the Pilot goes back to its core business of reporting and endorsing on the merits, and in the future avoids taking sides on the question of who is running a worthy campaign and who is not.

LARRY TUCKER

Newport Beach

Check out Costa Mesa’s Westside to see its realityI am writing in response to Chuck Cassity’s letter saying that the Costa Mesa he lives in does not resemble the one recently described by a Westside resident (Mailbag, “Letter writer seems to have only bad luck,” Nov. 6).

I agree with Cassity because I too live in Mesa Verde where the neighborhood is safe and comfortable. I invite him to instead take a walk (if he dares) through the maze of rundown apartments on the Westside and see if he comes away with the same sense of community pride. I recently walked through the area down the bike trail between the Costa Mesa Golf and Country Club and Westside apartments. I observed rundown apartments with graffiti splattered on walls, a group of about eight teenagers standing around and a disheveled character with a can of beer in a bag babbling to no one in particular. While I rarely see police cars in my Mesa Verde neighborhood, I observed one police car patrolling an alley and another stopped questioning a youth in another alley.

I would hope the diversity that community activists clamor for would not include the rundown apartments I observed, as our city is already made up of 60% renters. If we truly want diversity, we should promote redeveloping some of these rundown areas into new single family homes and condominiums as Mayor Allan Mansoor has pushed for. The recent spat of violent crimes in this city all involve run-down rental units, and the problem seems to be growing. Police should keep a close eye on this area, code enforcement should enforce violations, city leaders should promote redevelopment, and residents should be aware of the deteriorating condition of many Westside properties.

MARK GRIFFIN

Costa Mesa