The problem on the Westside is housing,...
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The problem on the Westside is housing, not industry
Calling a pig a duck won’t make it fly. Similarly, as some writers
to the Daily Pilot have tried to do, calling flat commercial land a
bluff doesn’t give it a view. Also, calling the Westside business
owners “industrialists” doesn’t make them robbers, barons or gross
polluters.
The Redevelopment Agency wisely decided that adding the industrial
properties on the Westside to the proposed redevelopment area would
do little or nothing to improve that side of town. I believe most of
the problems on the Westside are caused by the slum rental housing
located there. The city needs to rethink the zoning in those areas.
Land once zoned for up to 29 units per acre is now zoned for 11. This
makes tearing down many of those obsolete apartments and replacing
them with decent housing a financial impossibility.
If the decision to tear down the slums and build affordable,
owner-occupied housing was made, redevelopment could occur naturally.
Developers would rush to take advantage of the incentives the city
could provide. Most of the rundown rental areas could become decent,
affordable homes and the problems of crime, bad schools and blighted
streets would disappear from the Westside.
MIKE STEINER
Costa Mesa
Memo to Geoff West and H. Millard, re: Westside
Geoff West, you’ve gotten it right once again. Those who live and
work and own property on the Westside, governed by the laws of
economics, should be the ones to make the necessary changes to our
area. And those changes will be made when there’s a profit incentive
to do so, or when the code enforcement folks are knocking at the door
-- or both. We must always remember that the fear of loss --
businesses, income and quality of life in this case -- is often a far
greater motivator than the anticipation of gain.
M. Millard, you (industrialist) and (industrialist) your
(industrialist) little (industrialist) group (industrialist) are
(industrialist) going (industrialist) to (industrialist) have
(industrialist) to (industrialist) get (industrialist) another
(industrialist) strategy.
As was so graphically demonstrated last Monday evening, the one
you are using -- trying to strike fear by using the misnomer
“industrialist” every other word -- just isn’t working.
CHUCK CASSITY
Costa Mesa
Education hasn’t always been a priority at KOCE
You state in your editorial titled “Foundation’s bid should win,”
which ran Oct. 9, that the “first priority of both the district and
the KOCE has always been education.” This is not so. Had this been a
No. 1 priority, the original goal to make the station an educational
delivery system for Golden West College would have been realized.
Forgotten is the fact that the TV station was “sold” as an
educational adjunct to be operated by the “electronic college,” also
known as Golden West.
However, once the Coastline College arrived on the scene, KOCE’s
educational operations were diverted to that institution. The
district leadership sought to establish something akin to England’s
open university by combining Coastline and KOCE.
This desired development never did go beyond the telecourse phase,
which served a minority of students locally. Ironically, telecourses
have been popular nationally and internationally and have generated
funds for the district.
LEFTERIS LAVRAKAS
Costa Mesa
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