EDITORIAL:

Since it’s a new year, we thought we’d suggest a few resolutions for our city leaders. We hope in 2008 that our city officials resolve to:

 Work together on the best solution for the surplus land owned by the Huntington Beach City School District. School leaders are saying they are just checking out the market to see what they can get for the land if they deem it necessary to sell. That’s understandable. But here’s the bottom line: We need to figure out a way to make sure that the two Christian private schools can stay in our community without any major disruptions. City Council members are talking about using their authority to swoop in and acquire the land if the school district sells it. School officials aren’t too happy about that because it will mean a discounted price. Somehow or another a compromise is needed and a joint meeting of the school board and City Council would be a good place to start.

 Continue the successful Surf City Nights permanently. That might mean making Main Street a pedestrian mall as we’ve argued in the past or at least just finding the corporate sponsors who can keep it going Tuesday nights. But the deeper question that we hope city officials are asking themselves is how will Main Street businesses survive with the two new shopping centers opening this year. It doesn’t take Alan Greenspan to figure that with Main Street already dealing with a parking problem that shoppers already attracted to the new stores will just go there since they won’t have to hassle with parking.

 Convince Hearthside Homes to take down its glass Wall of Death.

 Somehow, some way, settle the federal lawsuit the parents of Ashley MacDonald filed and that the community can heal. A trial would only serve to hurt Ashley’s parents, Lisa Marie Guy and Kenneth MacDonald, and other loved ones as well as the city as a whole. No one really wants to relive that terrible day Aug. 25, 2006, when Huntington Beach officers shot and killed her in what has been ruled by investigators as a justifiable shooting. A trial would put everyone through the paces in painstaking detail. We’re sure there’s some way the case can be settled so her loved ones and the community can begin to heal.

And speaking of settlements, we hope to see that lawsuit over the Surf City USA trademark come to an end.

Yes, we understand the legitimate arguments to pursue the case, but the more you explain it the more it sounds like a Philadelphia lawyer’s arguments to the average Joe. To a lot of people not steeped in patent law, it sounds like you’re going after a T-shirt maker in Santa Cruz.

Put the dispute behind you and get on with the most important goal — telling the world that Huntington Beach is the best place to catch a wave, among other things.