Blessing of a swap meet never...

Blessing of a swap meet never been a problem

We were hoping to have the Orange Coast College swap meet opened

on Saturday and Sunday; we go over there quite a bit with our kids.

The larger swap meet over there at the Orange County Fairgrounds is a

little bit too crowded and hard to get to when you have small

children, so we do enjoy the fact that there is a small swap meet

that we can go to that is close. We live in Costa Mesa, so it is very

convenient for us to go over there.

As far as the congestion goes, if you park in a different area

besides the front area that you come into, we have never had any

problem with congestion.

COLLEEN RABENS

Costa Mesa

Don’t pave over one of city’s last natural areas

I was so thankful to read the well thought out letter by Drew

Lawler in Friday’s Pilot regarding the alternatives to paving over

one of the last natural areas in our community (“Boardwalk out of

step with community, environment”).

I was surprised to hear there was “popular support” when this idea

had not been widely presented to the community for feedback. Though

organizations may see it as a means to increase numbers of visitors

to the Back Bay, it would be at the cost of ruining the very reason

they want to visit the area in the first place and why we enjoy

living here. The city should gather citizen input before barreling

ahead without considering all the alternatives.

SANDRA AYRES

Newport Beach

Numbers don’t add up at Orange Coast swap meet

Are the Orange Coast College swap meet vendors paying their share

of sales taxes?

At the City Council meeting, the following facts were discussed.

The city of Costa Mesa received $29,000 from the State Board of

Equalization from sales tax revenues at the swap meet. OCC received

$1.5 million in space rental fees.

Using these numbers, the number of vendor spaces was $1.5 million

divided by $25 per vendor space, or 60,000 vendor days. The gross

sales were $29,000 divided by 1%, or $2.9 million. This means that

each vendor paid taxes on $48.33 worth of sales each day on the

average. If sales are that low, why were so many people standing in

line at 4 a.m. to get the Saturday spaces? Or are sales really much

higher and taxes not paid?

JUDITH BERRY

Costa Mesa

No signs of problems at OCC, only nice shopping

I believe that we should keep the swap meet at Orange Coast

College open on both Saturdays and Sundays. It provides an

alternative shopping and cultural experience that I have not seen

duplicated anywhere else. I live right across the street from the

swap meet and it provides me a very convenient and enjoyable place to

get items that I am unable to locate in mainstream retail

establishments. I became aware of the controversy when I attempted to

visit the swap meet one Saturday to find out that it was closed

because of concerns that the traffic gets congested. Since I live

right across the street, I am able to observe the traffic on a daily

basis and have had no problems along any of the major streets

surrounding the swap meet. If there are any problems in Costa Mesa’s

traffic, it is the traffic jam that occurs at the end of the Costa

Mesa Freeway at 19th Street.

I have also heard that there are underlying racial motives that

some people have expressed implicitly and explicitly. The “melting

pot” of the world can’t hold this title any more if we are going

stifle the attempts of legal and honest commerce just because we

don’t like the ethnicities of the merchants or shoppers. So I hope

that this is not the problem. I hope that the college and city can

come to an agreement that the swap meet is a good thing for our

community and keep it open for many years to come.

ERROL AKSOY

Costa Mesa

Boardwalk needed to save area’s sensitive habitat

I am responding to the article “Trampled Under Foot” that appeared

in your Tuesday issue. The photo included in the article implies that

the boardwalk would be build on top of the bluff. This is not true;

the boardwalk would be build on the bottom of the bluff near the

water. It would allow people to walk close to the bay, but direct

them out of sensitive habitat.

The bay is being trampled. A boardwalk could solve this problem.

We have few natural spaces left in the county -- we need to do

anything we can to protect what little is left.

PENNY PERKINS

Santa Ana