MAILBAG - July 17, 2006

City does not need more low-cost housing

I disagree with Jean and Frank Forbath’s contention that we need more affordable housing on the Westside (“Mailbag,” June 29). We already have more than our share. I also do not agree that the city should require this as a part of new developments. “Affordable housing” is a euphemism for hidden taxes or forced subsidies. A home builder should not be forced by government to overcharge some of his or her buyers in order to subsidize those who can’t afford a particular home. The way to make housing affordable is to pay your nannies, gardeners, and maids a living wage. I live on the Westside and I should not have to subsidize, by way of lower home values, someone in another part of the city who wants to pay inadequate wages to their employees. And for the businesses that have factories on the Westside, if they are claiming that their workers can’t afford to live here, they should pay them more, or move their business to a location where they can afford to live. An employer does not have the right to a subsidy just because he or she would rather live or work in Costa Mesa than Modesto.

It is a perversion of our hard-won freedoms to claim that anyone has a right to live anywhere that he or she wants, regardless of his or her ability to pay the actual cost.

I was also confused about the comment regarding the 3% vacancy rate. I remember recently reading an article in the Pilot about all of the vacancies on the Westside due to the immigration enforcement proposal.

If that article was correct, then there is more than enough “affordable housing” on our side of town.

JUDITH BERRY

Costa Mesa

Way too much building going on

The Newport Beach City Council on June 27 refused to even consider paying the Irvine Co. fair market value for a piece of property that is already an approved site for an office building on Pacific Coast Highway in Corporate Plaza, where they could build a new city hall.

The City Council will not even consider this site for the city hall even though the report to the City Council from the site selection committee unanimously recommended this site in May 2006.

Instead, the City Council voted 7-0 to consider taking a city park (Newport Center Park) and using that park land for city hall. Interesting. The Irvine Co. gives the park site to the city so it can build office buildings on other property in Newport Center. Now our City Council votes to build an office building in a city park in Newport Center. Looks like a win/win situation for the Irvine Co., don’t you think?

And then, the City Council voted 7-0 to take the park site, not the Irvine office building site, at fair market value. There is to be a further hearing before the City Council on this matter July 25.

Everyone who disagrees with this action should contact their City Council member, and show up at the meeting on July 25 to let the council and the television audience know how you feel about this action.

BARRY ALLEN

Corona del Mar

Cut the spending or recall the council

I believe the $188,000 Costa Mesa is spending on training patrolmen to enforce immigration laws should not be wasted on that. Cops know what they have to do. It should be spent on buildings and housing and the disabled. Maybe we need a recall on the council.

ANNE HOGAN SHERESCHEZSKY

Costa Mesa

Fourth proves immigration plan ridiculous

The Fourth of July has once again demonstrated the hollowness of Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor’s campaign to target illegal immigrants.

If Costa Mesa is, as the mayor claims, dedicated to enforcing the law, then why is it annually incapable of enforcing its own ordinances governing the (in)sane use of fireworks?

Although those ordinances clearly prohibit setting off fireworks on the days before the Fourth, after 10 p.m. on the Fourth and on the days after the Fourth, the Costa Mesa Police Department is either unwilling or unable to enforce those laws, so those of us who own pets have now suffered another year of crazed animals, while entire blocks on the Eastside sound and smell like an evening in Baghdad.

Since it is probably unreasonable to expect the mayor to stand up to the special interest groups that contribute to his campaign with their ill-gotten profits from the sale of dangerous fireworks, isn’t it time that he and our brethren on the City Council start enforcing the city’s ordinances before he attempts to shamelessly hunt down the illegal immigrants who care for our children, cut our lawns, maintain the city golf courses and work in the kitchens in most every restaurant in our city?

JEFFREY M. HOWARD

Newport Beach