COSTA MESA--THE CITY WITH A DESIGN FLAW
We imagine...two very dumb city designers come upon Costa Mesa before anything was built here...
Joe: Over here we have 60 acres of land on bluffs that have some ocean views.
Bill: Great. Let's fill that area with industrial buildings. The constant ocean breezes will blow the pollution downwind over the area with no views where we're going to put homes.
Joe: And, to supply low wage workers for the industrial buildings on the view bluffs we'll put in hundreds of cheaply constructed barracks style apartments near the bluffs.
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Of course, that's not exactly how the Westside came to be the Westside that needs to be revitalized, but the end result is the same.
Costa Mesa's best land is used for the worst uses and the worst land is used for the best uses.
That, dear friends, is why planting flowers, filling potholes, holding hands, wishing really, really hard and doing other sweet nothings will never fix the broken Westside and why such sweet nothings and feel good busy work will never get rid of gangs and other problems.
The Westside is designed wrong. It's backwards.
If the Westside were a car, you'd see tail fins on the front hood and the exhaust pipe emptying in the driver's face. To fix such a car, you need to redesign it. Painting it, or cleaning the windows, or putting on new tires won't fix it.
To fix the Westside, we need to redesign it.
We need to make the structural changes that will make it the great part of our city that it should be.
How do we do that?
1. We must do everything possible to have upscale homes built on the Westside Bluffs. And, we mean everything.
2. We must do everything possible to thin out the slum apartment buildings. The City should use its financial clout to buy up and tear down many of these buildings. Then, put in parks and soccer fields, and whatever else benefits citizens, where they stood.
Once again, folks, in considering # 2 above, we have to realize that all living things gravitate to where they are comfortable.
Make a particular habitat uncomfortable, and what is comfortable there will move to find comfort elsewhere. If you have a swamp full of alligators, and you want to rid the place of alligators, just drain the swamp. Without a swamp, the alligators will move all on their own accord.
It works the same way with slums. That's why many cities with high crime rates use eminent domain to remove slum buildings.
It is time to rachet up improvement of the Westside to redesigning the Westside.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
