Skate park bolsters recreational area space The...

Skate park bolsters recreational area space

The groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday for the new skate park at

TeWinkle Park in Costa Mesa was a welcome sight (“Skate park

construction about to air,” Thursday, Daily Pilot.)

I was dismayed to read of the two ladies who opposed the park. The

picture of Denise Lavigne pointing her finger while angrily talking

to Councilwoman Libby Cowan, who spoke highly of the project, was

especially disheartening, as were the comments by Jeannine McGhee.

Folks like Lavigne and McGhee are opposed to building recreational

facilities near their homes because of the “noise” of children

happily playing at healthy activities.

They are usually the first to complain about kids hanging out at

cyber cafes and malls and getting into legal trouble. You can’t have

it both ways, folks. Costa Mesa has a severe lack of recreational

facilities for our kids because of these not-in-our-back-yard

attitudes. This has led to our undesirable “shared access” policies

that restrict use of our few fields. Ask anyone involved in Little

League, American Youth Soccer Organization soccer, Pop Warner

football, or our high school sports teams about their lack of

practice and playing time.

The lack of recreational opportunities in Costa Mesa is shameful.

It is a direct result of people such as Lavigne and McGhee. I live

near Del Mesa Park and, by golly, you can build any type of field or

skate park you like there. I want the sound of children playing in my

neighborhood. It beats the sound of the door clanging shut at

juvenile hall any day.

BILL PARDUE

Resident of Costa Mesa and

secretary, Costa Mesa American

Little League

Endorsements reinforce too much industrial use

Christian Eric got it right in his letter to the Daily Pilot about

fixing the broken Westside (“Paper’s endorsements send wrong signal,”

Friday.)

The problem is that we have too many industrial buildings and many

of them are on the best land in the city -- land that has some views

and which is ocean-cooled.

Costa Mesa has a whopping 14% of its land zoned industrial.

Contrast that with Newport Beach with only 2% of its land zoned

industrial or Huntington Beach with only 8% of its land zoned

industrial.

And, speaking of Newport Beach, most of that city’s industrial

land is on the Westside bluffs immediately adjacent to Costa Mesa’s

Westside bluffs, but Newport is now starting to convert industrial

land to homes. Check out the new condo housing project on 15th Street

and Placentia, just over the border from Costa Mesa, for a look at

what a forward- looking city does to improve itself. That project is

on land that was, up until last year, occupied by industrial

buildings.

Will Costa Mesa follow suit? Not so long as the out-of-town

industrialists have a stranglehold on our city and on our local

politicians, such as those endorsed by the Pilot.

M. H. MILLARD

Costa Mesa

New dredging plans

meet approval

We are satisfied and pleased with the current plans for removing

the sediment from the Santa Ana River and pumping it offshore.

SAM AND DOT DEKRUYF

Newport Beach

* EDITOR’S NOTE: After working with the city of Newport Beach,

Army Corps of Engineers project officials now plan to pump dredged

material from the Santa Ana River into the water offshore, an option

residents said they prefer.