Ollie in favor of a skate park,...

Ollie in favor of a skate park, say aye

I am the owner local specialty skateboard shop called the Attic

Skate Shop, and I want to help bring more community support on the

skate park issue in Costa Mesa. As a local retailer, I think the city

needs a public skate park in the area to help churn business and

generate new city and state taxes.

How can a city support a $2-million renovation for softball fields

when the city’s own Recreation Department statistics show that 11.9%

of the local population in favor of skateboarding and a sad 3% for

the old sport of softball.

The city of Costa Mesa is the mecca of the board sports. It’s time

the city gives fair attention to its real issues and needs of the

youth and the future.

BRETT HAMILTON

Costa Mesa

Winnett has a winning statement

Give this writer a prize. Tom Winnett’s statement that at the Mesa

Verde Center property “we have land that is currently empty,

centrally located and historically appropriate for ... a recreation

facility including a skate park, bark park, movie complex and

library” is more than accurate. It’s a proposal that should be

seriously explored.

Winnett asks to hear from other citizens. I’m one who wonders why

the city does not utilize previously developed areas within the city

for much needed recreational facilities? These areas have already

been cemented over. What “greater good” for the community will be

gained by the loss of open space at Tewinkle Park in favor of a skate

park?

Also, overtures to the Segerstroms should be made immediately.

MAUREEN DI DOMENICO

Costa Mesa

Southland transit is behind the curve

Unlike the populaces of metropolises worldwide, the people of

Orange and Los Angeles counties opt for the self-defeating freeway

and automobile system rather than mass transit to get about.

Yet this destructive, environmentally disastrous automobile clouds

our reason. We allow ourselves to remain in the thrall of

unscrupulous, greedy, oil barons, who manipulate the prices of

gasoline whimsically, and we blindly cause our air to become

poisonous, but refuse to tax the monsters of our own creation.

It is a good tax: Drive a gas-guzzling Hummer and pay a lot. Drive

a small, less harmful car and pay less. Your choice. But no.

It will be interesting to see how all of the pro-Arnold

Schwarzenegger folks feel this time next year. I cannot wait.

WALLACE WOOD

Costa Mesa