EDITORIAL:

And you thought Huntington Beach had it bad.

Oh sure, it’s pretty embarrassing that if you Google “glass walls bird deaths” you get several hits for articles on the birds killed when they slammed into Hearthside Homes’ glass wall on the border of the Brightwater development on the Bolsa Chica mesa. How many birds have died? About a half-a-dozen?

Over at Emory University near Atlanta the Mathematics and Science Center was considered a great example of “green” building. And it still was by some university officials even when about 60 birds slammed into it and died in its first year in 2002, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It wasn’t until one professor pulled out a couple of dead birds during a meeting with his boss that he finally got an administration official’s attention. Now the university puts black mesh netting around it for about three months each fall to alert migrating birds.

Toronto officials are also taking major steps to protect birds from downtown skyscrapers.

What do we get in Huntington Beach? A chain-link fence, some yellow ribbons and now decals.

We’ve got a better idea. Take down that wall, Hearthside.

We understand you spent a great deal of money installing the 4,400-foot wall, but you’ve made a mistake. What are you going to do if this fails? Add strobe lights? Pinwheels? Maybe hire some of those guys who guide the planes into the terminal?

It’s like buying a lemon and calling a tow truck every other week, thinking this time the mechanic will finally figure out why your car stalls at the light.

It’s hard to believe that after years of documented proof about how sprawl such as this has hurt various habitats, particularly how reflective windows in buildings kill birds, that the builders did not see this coming. It still doesn’t erase the mistake nor the continued danger to the birds. And all for what? So homeowners could have a clear and unobstructed view? How nice. We figure the decals, decorations and chain-link fence kind of subtract from that now. And even the most hard-hearted of us probably aren’t going to appreciate a glass wall in the back yard that looks like a windshield after a cross-country road trip.

Better to take it down.