Tuesday, July 24, 2007

CM PRESS # 183












MORE DISINFORMATION FROM THE DAILY PILOT


The latest Daily Pilot scribe to misunderstand and misstate the nature of the passive park designation for Paularino Park is Steve Smith in today's Pilot.

Let's see if we can help Mr. Smith think this through a little more clearly.

Smith's column starts off with the headline "Government shouldn't regulate play."

Huh? Actually, Mr. Smith, it does that all the time in every park in every neighborhood in the city. For example, every park in the city has a sign saying you can't hit a golf ball in the park. Some parks also say you can't ride bicycles in the park. And there are many other regulations as well.

You see, Mr. Smith, local government has to act for the health and safety of all and we all have to give up some of our freedoms in order to live in a city with many other people who also have rights. People don't like getting hit in the head with golf balls, Mr. Smith...or soccer balls, or baseballs, or footballs.

Now as to the specific issue of Paularino Park. One has to actually see the park to understand. And, it seems that many people who write for or who write to the Pilot haven't seen the park. Of course, that doesn't keep them from giving their uninformed opinions. Ho hum.

Paularino Park is one of the smallest parks in the city. In addition, it's hardly a park as you would think of a park. It's essentially a long narrow "bowling alley" of grass squeezed behind a row of homes and Paularino School. It's essentially a rectangle shaped strip of land that was left over and was too narrow for homes when the Mesa North tract was designed.

Still don't get the picture? Think bike trail. In fact, that's not what it is, but that's a little what Paularino Park looks like. It has a single winding sidewalk that bisects the park and connects up two streets. In the middle of this "bike trail" is a tot lot. Around the sidewalk are trees and hillocks.

Folks, Paularino Park is in no way, shape, or form a sports field. To allow group sports activities, or activities where projectiles are launched, thrown, or kicked at a distance puts others in this very small park in apprehension of being struck with the projectiles.

Residents of the neighborhood are fed up with the problems from the park.

This isn't the first time that Mesa North has acted to make the park safe. There used to be a restroom in the park. Then, there was a rape there. Gangs hung out by it. Drugs were being dealt there. Finally, the residents of Mesa North asked the city to remove the restroom and it was done.

Today, there is gang graffiti on play equipment and on trees. Neighbors have had broken windows in homes that back up to the park. They've had strange men climbing into their backyards looking for soccer balls--and in the process, taking a good look around. Residents using the park have been endangered by some of the sports activities. There have been soccer balls hitting cars on Paularino Avenue. There have been soccer players darting out into the street to retrieve balls. Strange men are urinating and defecating in the bushes and even in the tot lot. And, on and on.

Folks, when you hear "soccer," don't think of a bunch of happy, fresh faced little kids in AYSO. That's not what's going on at Paularino Park. Not even close. We're talking, in many cases, about pick-up games, often played by adults who arrive in cars, probably from Santa Ana, to judge from stickers on some of the cars and to judge by the fact that no one in the neighborhood seems to know who some of these people are.

Why should Costa Mesa residents be inconvenienced and endangered in their own small park, located in the interior of a housing tract, that their taxes pay for, by people who may not even live in Costa Mesa who want to play sports where there is no sports field and who are disrespectful of the rights and safety of the people who live near the park?

When soccer teams take over the park, residents can't even use the sidewalk in the park for fear of being hit by soccer balls or of being run into by soccer players who are often adults. And, the tot lot? What responsible parent would put their toddler in a sand box in the middle of a soccer game?

Despite the hate coming from the Daily Pilot, the people of Mesa North spoke. It was not one individual or two individuals as the Pilot wants you to believe, it was the community as a whole.

The City of Costa Mesa held a public meeting for all residents of Mesa North, and the residents asked the City to make this park passive so that they could use their own park as they, themselves, determine is best. And, who should decide on what is right for people? The people who are most affected. That's the way our government is supposed to work.

The people of Mesa North, no less than citizens in any other neighborhood in the city, do not want to have people such as Linda Dixon and her pal Thomas H. Johnson, who don't even live in Mesa North, try to tell them what is right for the neighborhood.

There are more than 700 single family homes in Mesa North. Not one of them is occupied by Linda Dixon, Katrina Foley, Thomas H. Johnson, Steve Smith or the others who are trying to dictate to Mesa North.

DAILY PILOT--WHAT ABOUT BASKETBALL BEING STOPPED IN MESA VERDE?
WHY THE SILENCE? WHY NO SMEARS?

As we've previously reported, the residents who live near a basketball court in a park in Mesa Verde complained that there was too much noise--just noise, mind you--and the City of Costa Mesa stopped basketball there.

Did you see the Daily Pilot and its publisher, Thomas H. Johnson, who lives in Newport Beach, make a big deal about it? Did you even see one word in the Pilot about it? Did you read that we're going to have fat kids if they can't play basketball? Did you read that it was racially motivated? Did you read that government shouldn't regulate play? Of course not.

How about some answers, Mr. Johnson? Why no stories about the closing down of the basketball court in Mesa Verde? Why wasn't the Daily Pilot full of stories and letters about this? Hmmmmm? What do you think, Mr. Johnson, was it a vocal minority in Mesa Verde that wanted basketball stopped? Did they have a racial motive? Were they trying to kick minorities out of their neighborhood and the city?

Don't get us wrong. We're not slamming the folks in Mesa Verde. They know the conditions in their neighborhood parks better than those who don't live there. We just think that its hypocritical of the Pilot and some local politicians to treat people in Mesa Verde with respect while insulting people in Mesa North.

We won't hold our breath for an answer from Johnson.
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