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Newport needs to promote dinghy business, not...

Newport needs to promote dinghy business, not stifle it

I am calling to comment on the article in the July 29 issue

“Residents’ question: Is it a dinghy plan?” The article referred to

the dinghy storage that they are proposing in Newport Beach for the

harbor and also for the extended time limit on the dinghy dock.

Even though this refers mostly to people on moorings, this whole

idea needs to be implemented to benefit all boaters in the harbor. We

have a boat that is moored at a marina and we have the same problem.

We cannot take out dinghies and go out in the harbor and go anywhere

for lunch or to do a little shopping or whatever because you have a

20-minute limit on these places for pulling up. We feel that this

definitely needs to be addressed; we’d like to see it happen.

Apparently, the city feels that they want to promote business, but

somehow they always manage to stifle it. And by putting limits on

these boaters and not letting us come ashore, that is not helping

their economy any, and we feel it is a necessary thing.

BARBARA HUBER

Irvine

Steve Smith should have run in the recall election

I read Steve Smith’s column on Kobe Bryant and I want to say I

wish he’d run for governor in California because I’d move back there

and vote for him. I thought that was the best written, best piece of

journalism, the getting back to basics and what life is really about.

It’s not about superstar athletes who get paid exorbitant amounts of

money to do the menial task. It is about remembering what is

important in life, and that is our firefighters and our police and

our teachers who go underpaid and undervalued.

And I just appreciated his column very much and only wish he was a

writer here in New Jersey and I could read him more often.

CATHY NATOLI

New Jersey

Column on Kobe Bryant’s ‘mistake’ apt in Cleveland

Someone just forwarded to me from California to Cleveland, Ohio,

here, a copy of Steve Smith’s piece on the Kobe Bryant story (“Kobe

made more than a mistake,” July 26) and I am calling simply to

acknowledge it and to say that I think it was succinctly and bravely

written and I am thankful for the perspective that he conveyed and I

want to commend him for it.

ALISTAIR BEGG

Cleveland, Ohio

Forget about Chino, ‘O.C.’ gives Newport bad name

Well, even little Chino rebelled at the depiction of their town in

that trashy TV show “the O.C.” Not a word from the citizens of our

fair city. But, I guess having Rodman as our leading citizen (as it

seems from the constant coverage by this very paper), I guess O.C.

says it all. God help us!

JERRI MIRAMS

Newport Beach

Use the amphitheater all the time, except during fair

Regarding use of the Pacific Amphitheatre, I think you should use

it year-round and not even get it going when the Orange County Fair

is on. You should use the Pacific Amphitheatre year-round because

there are plenty of things going on at the time of the fair. You

shouldn’t connect the two together. That 8,500 people booking

concerts would be great, year round. And speaking of the noise, the

noise at the Citizens Business Bank Arena seems to be just as loud as

the noise at the Pacific Amphitheatre because I’ve lived here for 22

years. Not that I really didn’t think it was really that bad, but I

could hear that just as loud when the Beatles tribute was there,

Latino music and just different people who were there, you could hear

them every night because it was a lot closer to our neighborhood.

Anyway, I would use the Pacific Amphitheatre year-round. The noise

doesn’t seem to be any problem at all and there is enough going on at

the fair.

TED ANDRINI

Costa Mesa

Civil liberties group should step up for Lions Club, too

Could someone tell me when the pejorative term “dyke” became

acceptable to use in polite society? Not just among friends sitting

around drinking a beer, but on the front page of a newspaper? Or is

it OK for lesbians to use such a term, but not the rest of us?

I find it fascinating that those who practice an alternative

lifestyle such as this would decide against quietly assimilating,

keeping their sexual preferences and practices to themselves, where,

dare I say, they belong. Is their lot in life improved by mounting a

noisy parade, replete with rolling street closures and motorcycles?

I’d like to learn how. And why should a “dyke march” be exempt from

meeting certain requirements, including those reasonably necessitated

by past experience, prior to permit approval (“ACLU sues city on

behalf of march,” Friday)?

The Costa Mesa-Newport Harbor Lions Club has to meet certain

requirements prior to gaining permit approval from the city for the

Fish Fry. Should the Lions contact the ACLU and solicit their help as

well? And would the ACLU be willing to help a mainstream, charitable,

community-service organization like the Lions Club fight off those

nasty, mean-spirited, onerous city-imposed restrictions with the same

zealous, suit-filing fervor they display in supporting the (pardon

me) dykes? I think not. What do you think?

You know, it just gets weirder and weirder.

CHUCK CASSITY

Costa Mesa

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