Light Rail, Cont’d
Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido is pushing once again to establish a light rail line in central Orange County, ostensibly to connect his city to Costa Mesa and Irvine. In the pages of the Jan./Feb. edition of CityLine, published by the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce, Pulido refers to light rail as a tremendous opportunity of “the future.” Who is he kidding? Pulido’s support for light rail is less about the future and more about greedy municipal officials trying to use federal grants to build things nobody wants.
Does anyone remember Pulido’s support for electric cars a few years ago? He and the city council voted to build expensive recharging stations for electric cars, where the owners of these vehicles would be able to recharge them for free. That blew up in his face when electric power skyrocketed in price, and looks even worse now that it has become painfully obvious that people in Santa Ana are just not buying electric cars.
The light rail line in Central Orange County is doomed to suffer the same fate that the electric car recharging stations did. Pulido should know better, and the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce should focus on supporting the needs of business owners in the city instead of wasting time on worthless expenditures of taxpayer resources.
Art Pedroza Jr.
Santa Ana
El Toro, Cont’d
The City of Newport Beach continues to spend millions of dollars promoting an LAX-type airport at El Toro because residents of Newport Beach’s Back Bay and Balboa Island loathe the noise and pollution of jets from John Wayne. Unfortunately, the behemoth 24/7 international airport they want to build at El Toro would send planes directly over their recently annexed neighbors in Newport Coast.
In addition to restrictions on the number of flights and hours of operation at John Wayne, a 1985 court settlement established an artificial legal cap on the number of annual passengers permitted to use the airport. This cap forces many seats on planes at JWA to go unfilled, as many as five million annually. It also cuts into air carrier profits, forcing airlines to raise ticket prices at JWA.
I have a suggestion. Leave the curfews and restrictions on number of flights at John Wayne intact. Remove the legally imposed artificial cap on number of annual passengers and fill the planes. This would greatly increase capacity at JWA without adding more flights or hours of operation. It would also make flying out of JWA more affordable.
Would this be easier and less expensive than building “LAX South” at El Toro? Clearly. However, it would not accomplish the ultimate goal of residents of Newport Beach’s Back Bay and Balboa Island, who wish to see John Wayne Airport shut down altogether.
Sergio Prince
Laguna Hills
Airport proponents are consistently attempting to discredit Measure W, the Orange County Central Park and Nature Preserve ballot initiative, with misleading arguments. For example, they claim that the Central Park concepts is for the benefit of wealthy no-growth forces in South County while being subsidized by resentful North County taxpayers.
The fact of the matter is, people’s desire to protect their quality of life transcends political and socio-economic considerations, as demonstrated by polls that show overwhelming countywide support for Measure F.
The puzzling question is, why do airport proponents continue to consider tax increases to be a valid argument , knowing fully well that such an increase requires a two-thirds majority vote by the people of Orange County?
Paul Willems
Laguna Niguel
The airport issue is so simple. If you live outside of the impacted area, who cares? The problem of 24-hour-a-day flights (cargo and passenger), with all of the pollutants, traffic, noise, etc., may affect a large number of people, but it’s them, not me. So let’s vote for the airport, let’s send a message to those selfish people who had the audacity to move into areas that will be impacted by the jets, they should have known better, life is a bitch, etc. etc. Vote for the airport, let’s see those selfish homeowners who want to maintain their property values suffer, let’s put it to them, vote for the airport.
So who’s being selfish, airport proponents? Say it ain’t so! But it seems they are very selfish, and they don’t care. So what else is new?
Hal Rogers
Laguna Beach
Gray Davis
Re your Feb. 4 Comment, “Work-Comp Cave-In”:
Very well put. I really enjoyed the words of wisdom. “Candidate Davis” is always the ultimate decision maker, and Global Crossing was an important Dem source of cash.
Such a relief to see the truth in print.
RJ Mallory
Yorba Linda
