COSTA MESA AS TRAFFIC ISLAND, ATTIC, AND CITY DUMP
I'm getting more and more convinced that Costa Mesa isn't a city at all.
It seems to be a traffic island between inland cities and the Pacific Ocean on the one hand and on the other it's the attic and city dump for Newport Beach.
It seems to be a traffic island between inland cities and the Pacific Ocean on the one hand and on the other it's the attic and city dump for Newport Beach.
On the first point, take this SR 55 business. I attended both meetings about this in Costa Mesa last week, and it seemed that some people who commented were dancing around the subject and acting like poor cousins who must rely on the kindness of strangers to get their due.
Some suggestions about the traffic from the SR 55 were along the lines of how we should synchronize our traffic signals along Newport Blvd. so traffic can flow more easily to the beach, and how we have to put in pedestrian walkways up above Newport Blvd. so those pesky shoppers on foot don't have to mess up beach bound traffic by actually wanting to walk in a cross walk from a store on one side of Newport Blvd. to one on the other side.
In a way, those calling for these elevated walkways have a point. After all, who would want a cross walk across the 405 Fwy up at the other end of our traffic island city?
And, my bringing up the 405 is intentional. The SR 55 is a FREEWAY--all capital letters. It is like the 405 FREEWAY except the 405 doesn't just stop in our downtown and suddenly become a regular little arterial street with stores lining its sides the way the SR 55 does.
What idiot ever thought to bring a freeway to the middle of Costa Mesa to pour traffic into our downtown and why should we put up with this nonsense? What is this, the Twilight Zone?
Look, what is Costa Mesa; chopped liver? We're a city of around 110,000 souls yet we've got a weak City Council that is out there acting like they're begging for some scraps from the table of Caltrans and the OCTA. "Please, please, sir, can you please do something to help us with our traffic problem," they seem to be saying while standing there like poor little orphan children in best Dickensian fashion. Our traffic problem? OUR TRAFFIC PROBLEM?! Good grief!
Our City Council should be shouting: "Listen up Caltrans and OCTA, get your stupid freeway out of our downtown and do it now. Get off your fat bottoms, grab some shovels, and dig a tunnel down to Newport Beach. Got it? And, when you finish that, go erase that stupid 57 Freeway extension off your plans that you want to run down along the edge of Mesa Verde. What the hell do you think we are--a friggin' traffic island?"
And, speaking of Newport Beach, this gets me to my second point. The reason that Newport Beach doesn't have a bad part of town is because Costa Mesa is Newport Beach's bad part of town, its attic, and its city dump.
On the Daily Pilot blog recently, a woman from Newport defended Newport residents who don't want a sports field near their homes in that city by saying that Newport doesn't need such sports fields because Costa Mesa has plenty that are used by Newporters. Oh sure, just put what ever you don't want in Newport in Costa Mesa. The people there are too stupid to care.
Don't get me going...oops, too late...okay, now I'm getting riled up. A few years ago, a politician from Newport whose family trust owns a strip shopping center in Costa Mesa wanted to put in an oil change business in his center.
Some of us argued against it because we didn't feel it was good for our city at that location. The Newport politician came to a Costa Mesa City Council meeting and the weak sisters on the Council let him put in the oil change business.
Then, in an ironic example of synchronicity, a few months later a similar oil change business wanted to locate near the Newport politician's home in Newport Beach and he then argued before the Newport Beach City Council that it was a bad use and shouldn't be allowed near his home. And, the oil change business didn't go in.
So, sports fields near homes in Newport Beach--bad. Sports fields near homes in Costa Mesa--good. Oil change businesses in Newport Beach--bad. Oil change businesses in Costa Mesa-good.
And, what about having sixty acres of industrial buildings on the Westside Bluffs of Costa Mesa that are mostly owned by folks from Newport Beach? Hey, how about putting some industrial buildings on the bluffs in Newport?
I get it. Industrial buildings on view bluffs in Newport Beach--bad. Industrial buildings on view bluffs in Costa Mesa--good. Industrial buildings blowing pollution over homes downwind from the bluffs in Newport Beach--bad. Industrial buildings blowing pollution over homes downwind from the bluffs in Costa Mesa--good. Homes on view bluffs in Newport Beach--good. Homes on view bluffs in Costa Mesa--bad.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking Newport Beach or the politicians there. They seem to usually do what is right for the citizens of that city. They actually seem to have some enlightened self-interest. In fact, I wish we could send our Costa Mesa City Council down to Newport and take theirs to Costa Mesa. Costa Mesa could use a little enlightened self-interest.
And, speaking of politicians and how cities run themselves, here's another example of how the two cities do things. The reason that we're talking up here on Goat Hill about ending the SR 55 at Industrial Way in Costa Mesa just before the Newport Beach border, is because Newport Beach has a provision in their city charter that requires a vote of their citizens if any freeway is to go into Newport. Yup, you read that right.
Of course, Costa Mesa, the traffic island, attic, and city dump has no such provision in our charter. So, I ask you again: What is Costa Mesa; chopped liver?
Freeways through Newport Beach--bad. Freeways through Costa Mesa--good.
And, get this. When John Wayne expands; and it will, guess where the expansion will be? That's right, folks, it'll be on the Costa Mesa side and may eventually go over as far as SR 55. What?! SR 55?! Now you're getting me riled up again.... You have noticed that there are no tall buildings on the Costa Mesa side of John Wayne near Red Hill Ave. as there are on the Newport Beach side, haven't you? Do you think that's an accident? Hmmmm? It's far easier to remove one and two story buildings on the Costa Mesa side of the airport than the skyscrapers on the Newport Beach side.
Airport expanding into Newport Beach--bad. Airport expanding into Costa Mesa--good.
And, here's something else. Remember the job center that was closed in Costa Mesa? Lots of folks from Newport Beach complained about it being closed down. Seems they liked driving up the hill and picking up day laborers. One guy from Newport even wrote a letter to the Pilot telling how he had picked up about 50 day workers over the past few years and really liked them working around his home in Newport and how it was mean for Costa Mesa to close down the job center.
Then, a minister who lives in Newport Beach and whose church is in Newport Beach actually had the nerve to come to a Costa Mesa City Council meeting on the pretext of giving the blessing and, instead, used his time to castigate the council for closing down the job center. I later emailed this guy to see if he wanted any help in opening a job center on his church's property in Newport or near where he lives in Eastbluff. I didn't get a response.
In fact, I haven't heard a single Newporter, who has complained about the closing of the job center in Costa Mesa, offering to help open one in Newport Beach.
Job centers in Newport Beach--bad. Job centers in Costa Mesa--good.
A couple of years ago, residents of a neighborhood in Corona del Mar actually went into the streets to cheer when the last low income apartment complex in their neighborhood was torn down. In Costa Mesa we have many such complexes and our weak City Council isn't doing a thing to thin them out and replace them in other locations with modern low income housing.
Low income slums in Newport Beach--bad. Low income slums in Costa Mesa--good.
Now, maybe the following says something about the Newport Beach City Council and the Costa Mesa City Council, and maybe it doesn't. You be the judge. When Newport's Council adopted a military unit, they chose the front line, highly decorated 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, whose official job is to: "Locate, close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver." When Costa Mesa's Council adopted a military unit, they chose Katrina Foley's brother's back of the lines unit of Army helicopter mechanics.
Finally, and here's my plea. Can Costa Mesa please send its City Council to manage Newport Beach and can we have Newport's City Council take over Costa Mesa? Costa Mesa really, really needs a Council that is smart and tough and has the appropriate level of self-interest.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
