Sounding Off:

Ideas about solving the recent fairgrounds’ crisis come in bundles. Some are noteworthy, but a few of them are deceptive and even hilarious.

A proposal to buy the fairgrounds is creative, but it is also flamboyant and out of touch with a sound economic plan. If bonds were put in the market to save the fairgrounds, you know who will line up to buy them: the same people who have lobbied Sacramento to get our land for sale. Why give them an opportunity to fatten their economic assets without an inch of real work?

Instead of making decisions with our hearts, and acting with resentment against our politicians in Sacramento, I suggest we should focus on changing their behavior.

At a community meeting in Costa Mesa, Assemblyman Van Tran highlighted that opposing voices against the fairgrounds sale never reached his mailbag prior to the voting date. In fact, he said that there was no controversy on the Assembly floor when representatives cast their votes. It was close to a unanimous deal.

Our silence gave our politicians an implicit green light to fulfill the developers’ dreams. Whether we accept it or not, we are partly responsible for the recent turn of events.

In the meantime, economic interest groups belonging to the development industry sent their associates and lobbyists to Sacramento to soften the politicians’ minds with sweetened carrots. In the midst of a budgetary crisis, and no enemies on the scene, it was easy for them to push a privatization project.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his cohorts bought the idea of getting some meager money for the fairgrounds, thinking that Orange County residents had plenty of gossip to watch on television, and would never commit to political activism.

He was wrong. The people responded and are no longer voiceless. However, we are still unorganized and lack visible leadership to address our interests.

Consequently, the affected parties, Orange County residents, the county of Orange and the Costa Mesa government, must immediately name a commission to go to Sacramento to speak with Schwarzenegger to halt the privatization project. According to Assemblyman Jose Solorio, it is only up to the governor to stop the deal.

Our commission won’t travel empty-handed. They will take with them a Costa Mesa municipal decree that would alienate private entities from buying the fairgrounds. Namely, a landmark proposition for the 2010 election that would keep the fairgrounds’ zoning status intact, and it would also give voters the power to make further changes on the zoning decisions.

For a moment, when this issue arose in the public scene, I thought I was in my native country. Revolutionary ideas run amok in Bolivia.

We are forgetting that we can work within the system and solve our issues through diligent talks. We are all in defense of the fairgrounds issue, and we should take advantage of it. Let’s send our people to Sacramento.

Humberto Caspa lives in Costa Mesa.