Mailbag - Sept. 9, 2000

Listen up ladies and gentlemen, children and seniors: A volunteer

group of residents have been working for six and a half years to give

Newport Beach and Orange County residents a cultural art and cinema

center and it’s located in Balboa, that wonderful village by the sea

where Newport Beach actually began with the McFadden brothers, the Red

Line, the Balboa Pavilion and Rendezvous Ballroom (“Residents, city

debate arts center location,” Sept. 1).

Although Balboa has seen much physical decline over the past 10 years,

we believe the Balboa Theater renovation will effect the change that is

needed to make this a vital, thriving cultural area. It’s been done

before in the San Diego Gaslamp District, Pasadena Old Town, where the

revitalization of a theater has made these destination points for young

and old to enjoy.

The Balboa area is unique, the Balboa Theater will be culturally

unique and will offer live theater, cinema, ballet, musicals and

orchestra, special programs for children and seniors, all readily

available in a state-of-the-art 350-seat theater.

No, we aren’t trying to duplicate the Orange County Performing Arts

Center, or the Barclay or Laguna Playhouse. We are simply making

available within our own treasure, Balboa, a culturally alive and

entertaining facility called the Balboa Theater. The city of Newport

Beach has supported our efforts by purchasing the theater in 1998; now

they’ve pledged $7.5 million toward making Balboa a destination place,

certainly one that should be preserved, that we are all proud to be a

part of.

DAYNA PETTIT

President, Balboa Performing Arts Theater Foundation

Old plans for bridge are still bad news

Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach -- the only cities that would have

neighborhoods disrupted by two new bridges proposed to stretch between

them -- still face a game of foot-dragging by those wanting the bridges

(“Costa Mesa bemoans stalled bridge study,” Aug. 26).

The southern bridge, strongly pushed by Newport Beach staff, would

create a route for shunting heavy Coast Highway traffic out of Newport

Beach, across the length of southern Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach, and

back again to Coast Highway beyond Newport Beach.

Seven years ago, the cities of Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach

requested that the county do any necessary studies to examine the effects

of taking the obsolete, nearly 50-year-old bridge plans off its

transportation map.

The Costa Mesa City Council is right. The cities of Huntington Beach

and Costa Mesa have both halved their growth plans so that their own

traffic will not make either bridge necessary. Newport Beach has not

followed suit, and its staff is still dragging its feet on getting the

studies completed.

JANET REMINGTON

Costa Mesa