COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:Group will shift city into reverse

There is a new group called Return to Reason. They tell us, among other things, that they intend to “improve” the Westside of Costa Mesa. They apparently think we are very gullible. They are not talking much about the fact that they are a well-funded political action committee, financed by industrialists and heavy industry.

Their members are, by no means, entirely made up of residents of Costa Mesa. Their goals are not motivated by only residents’ concerns, as are those of the Westside Improvement Assn. Let’s be clear that the Westside Improvement Assn. does not support Return to Reason. The association is the original Westside group.

I, as a Costa Mesa resident, spent the better part of three years of my time on two city-sponsored committees whose focus was to create a plan for the Westside of Costa Mesa. Now, I think we are finally going in the right direction. We, the members of those groups, were charged with arriving at a consensus for redevelopment or revitalization. After much arguing, debate and acrimony, it was agreed, by consensus, to use the small “r” of revitalization, and not the big “R” of Redevelopment and the use of eminent domain.

There were members who represented many interests, the broadest possible cross-section imaginable. Many of those very same new political action committee members served on the same committees and voted on the same Westside issues as I did.

Now it seems that what they are really saying is, “We don’t like how the consensus turned out, and we want to change things back for our own political purposes.” They appear to be convinced that the money and prestige of their political membership, a group mired in the past and bent on keeping the status quo, will somehow be better for us than the real progress that the current City Council has made. They are calling it a “return to reason.” Nice euphemism, but what does it mean?

They have yet to show us any of their “reason,” and so far, there is no explanation as to where, exactly, they wish to “return.”

I know that I wouldn’t wish to return to a blighted past, which is where we have been. I really like not having the overhead power lines that the burying of utilities brought. I also really like the choice that the new overlay zoning gives. All of this clearly demonstrates the positive direction in which we are going.

I am heartened by the big and even the small improvements to my neighborhood. Only five years ago, we, the Westside, were on a downward spiral of blight. We are now slowly moving in an upward direction. The naysayers promised that nothing could be accomplished without the use of eminent domain.

They were wrong.

By allowing the residents to control our destiny, we are also controlling our own revitalization. No previous council has given us such a potential for improvement. This new direction is already beginning to bear fruit, and not from any city dictum, but from private investment and development.

Let’s hope the public is aware of how much progress has recently been made, so that this group doesn’t fool them into going in reverse.

Don’t be seduced by a slick campaign promoting special interests. Let’s not return to the past. Ignore the supercilious prattle of a few people who didn’t get their way and want to undo the vote. I believe that most Costa Mesans are not so easily led, without thinking, to the myth of better days of the past by the same old politicians of yesteryear.

is a Cosa Mesa resident.