LETTERS
Letters to the Editor
El Toro, Cont’d
Re Richard Taylor’s Aug. 19 letter:
Mr. Taylor states the Airport Working Group has examined the Irvine/Navy plan for a Great Park and has devised a “test” for evaluating how family-friendly the plan is. In a remarkable display of shallow thinking, it seems the best test AWG could devise is figuring out how many acres of the planned area are suitable for picnics, as if picnicking is the only use a family might have for the land.
In any case, Taylor states that AWG’s findings show 671 acres of the base are suitable for picnics. I will take Taylor at his word. Lacking, though, is any sort of context. How much space is that?
According to my calculator, 671 acres is 3,247,640 square yards. That is enough land for 507 football fields. Or, to use AWG’s “picnic test,” assuming a generous 36 square yards for each family of six, that is enough land for 90,212 families to picnic at the same time, or over a half million people breaking bread at once. And as Taylor points out, that is on just 19% of the property.
Sounds like a pretty big park to me, even if picnics are the highest use AWG can imagine.
William Detoy
Irvine
Mold Litigation
You don’t need a crystal ball to predict the bleak future for homeowners in California.
Just take a look at Texas and the effects mold litigation has had on homeowners and its easy to see why Californians are sure to face a similar outcome of scarce selections of high-priced insurance policies, limited coverage for water damage and no affordable housing.
It’s been less than two years since a $32 million settlement to a family in Dripping Springs, Texas spawned an onslaught of mold litigation throughout the state. That’s been plenty of time for mold litigation to become the new darling of personal injury lawyers who gleefully herald mold as “the next asbestos” in terms of its potential to put money in their pockets.
And Texans are feeling the effects: Homeowner premiums have skyrocketed. By some estimates, rates can be expected to increase by as much as 40%. Allstate and State Farm Insurance, which control two-thirds of the Texas market, have stopped writing comprehensive homeowner’s policies.
California is becoming the next hotspot for mold lawsuits, highlighted by high-profile cases such as those filed by Erin Brockovich and Ed McMahon.
Already, State Farm Insurance, which holds 20% of the California homeowner insurance market, has stopped writing new homeowner policies because of massive losses due to mold-related lawsuits. Allstate has raised its rates by 18.5% and 21st Century Insurance has exited the California market. How much longer before other insurers follow suit, and how much more will we be paying in premiums?
California has never been known for its affordable housing, but the situation is worsening as the mere threat of frivolous construction-defect lawsuits, including mold-related suits, has created a huge disincentive for builders. They have drastically curtailed building of town homes and condominiums, the most affordable option for working-class families, and a favorite target of construct defect lawsuits.
Even renters are not immune. California lawyers are doing their Texas counterparts one better by suing landlords and property managers for supposed mold problems. You can bet the added liability costs are going to show up in the form of higher rents.
All of this is being fueled by lawsuits and panic that have essentially no sound scientific support. Health officials, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have stated that there is no proof that the mold actually causes any health problems more severe than allergy-like symptoms in some people.
There’s more proof of the harmful side effects of mold litigation, than there is of mold itself.
Maryann Maloney
Executive Director
Orange County Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse
Corona del Mar
Temps
Information in your Sept. 9 story on temporary staffing agencies was a bit misleading. While the article cited our sales dropping by 46% with a meager drop of only 2% in placements, it failed to explain why.
Although the events of the last year have impacted our business, the greatest affect on revenue was due to the sale of a non-performing division. As Karen Powers, Abbott Resource Group’s president, explained in your own June 3, 2002 edition, “We sold a money-losing division which allowed us to refocus the company on its core staffing services business.”
Most recently, Abbott Resource Group has seen a slow, steady and incremental increase in demand for temporary and permanent staffing from our clientele. With unemployment only up 0.9% over last year at this time, we are optimistic that once the economic recovery is in full swing we will see employers returning quickly to staffing companies to make their hiring decisions. This is compared to the 1990 recession when unemployment was higher than it is now and employers had a candidate pool that was accessible for the first part of the recovery, and had little or no need for staffing services.
Ken Kuck
Director of Marketing
Abbott Resource Group Inc
Tustin
