Sounding Off:

Let’s buy it.

Let’s buy the Orange County Fairgrounds.

No, I don’t mean for the county Supervisors to buy it, nor the nonprofit started by the Orange County Fair Board members to buy it, or any other bunch of enterprising investors. I mean, the residents of Newport-Mesa should buy it, and right now!

Let’s take a good hard look at this situation. The state is bankrupt. Has been for quite some time now, except the weenies in Sacto don’t seem to know it.

They, in collusion with our Republican In Name Only guvernator, keep coming up with hare-brained schemes to put off the day of fiscal reckoning.

The latest is to sell off excess property. And although several such parcels were considered, including the People’s Republic of San Francisco-based Cow Palace, the L.A. Coliseum and the Del Mar Fairgrounds, the only one to be chosen for sale is the O.C. Fairgrounds.

Could it be that they used this opportunity to give us, the reddest county in California, the middle digit? I suggest we return the favor.

Yes, I’m aware that Costa Mesa and virtually every other city in California is facing budget woes of unprecedented proportions. However, if we get a little bit creative, I think we could pull it off. There are about 200,000 people living in Newport-Mesa. People who recognize that the O.C. Fairgrounds is smack dab in the middle of our world. It’s our crown jewel, and we should fight to keep it. This is, to put it bluntly, war.

First, I suggest the City Council decides to hold that vote next year to lock in the fairgrounds to current zoning and usage in perpetuity. With the expectation that it would pass, resulting in its highest and best use to remain “as is,” the sales price should be very reasonable. With no development possible, the builders will keep their hands in their pockets and the state will realize far less from the sale than it anticipates. Then I think the City Council and the city manager, together with advice from some good financial consultants, could float a municipal bond issue to pay for it. Give residents of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach priority on their purchase.

I’ll be first in line to buy some. With a tax-free opportunity to invest in our own community, and the chance to send a message to the bureaucrats in Sacramento that we won’t be threatened, I believe we can make it work. What do you think?

CHUCK CASSITY lives in Costa Mesa.