Fourth of July is not the day...

Fourth of July is not the day to curb freedom

It seems strange that on the occasion of our nation’s holiday

supporting freedom, that being the Fourth of July, the Newport Beach

Police Department is doing whatever it can to subvert those freedoms.

The Newport Beach Police Department doesn’t want any extra beer

brought into the city and to keep the revelry more sober. Haven’t we

already tried prohibition in this country some 80 years ago? I am not

a rowdy person. What happens if I want a beer and celebrate the

Fourth of July and can’t get one?

Then there is the question of the criminal by date law. The law is

supposed to be equal and unbiased by definition. If on July 2, you

are a $40 offender, and on the Fourth of July, you are a $120

offender for the same offense, where’s the equality in that? I have

lived in Newport Beach since 1948, and being young and having a good

time on the Fourth of July has never been a crime and shouldn’t be.

Don’t take the rights of all because of a few. The cry of a need for

safety is often the cry of the despot to take control.

On the Fourth of July, remember the past.

ATSON REEDER

Lido Island

Encroachments were there when they got to Swan Drive

Before everyone attacks the Swan Drive residents about encroaching

on public parkland, they should know the facts:

1) In 1998, when I approached the city to get an access permit for

my pool construction, most city officials were not even aware that

they owned the property. I had to convince them that it was theirs

before they would accept my fee.

2) This is probably the reason that the city has never regularly

maintained the property, nor did they put it into the Fairview Park

Master Plan.

3) It is a skinny strip of weeds located between our rear property

line and a flood control channel.

4) The channel is “landscaped” with a rusted chain-link fence and

a raised dirt hill. We are not allowed to grow groundcover or ice

plant on their dirt, so the hill always looks bad.

5) Almost every one of us bought our homes with the rear wall in

place, already encroaching.

6) This strip of land has never been planned to be part of

Fairview Park.

7) The county had similar land to this on the Santa Ana River, and

they sold it to the homeowners that were adjacent to it. No

taxpayers, residents or special interest groups fought against that.

8) The only reason this has become an issue is because of the few

people who wanted concrete roads in Fairview Park are angry that the

majority of our neighborhood was in support of a preserve with dirt

trails only. Even though this property has nothing to do with them or

Fairview Park, they are trying to get back at us by urging the city

to make us tear down our walls because we are encroaching by a few

feet.

9) We have requested to purchase this property at fair market

value.

10) The Fairview Park Friends are looking at various ways to raise

funds for the improvement of Fairview Park. Selling this property

would be a great start in their fund-raising.

11) The city would save money in yearly maintenance fees if they

turned the property over to the Swan Drive residents.

12) It is a strip of land that goes nowhere and is never used by

dog walkers, bicyclists and hikers.

13) The land is of no value to anyone except for those few inches

or feet that my neighbors and I were surprised to find that our rear

walls encroached upon.

TIM CROMWELL

Costa Mesa

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Tim Cromwell lives on Swan Drive.