
SOME CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS HAVE SCREWED UP PRIORITIES
As so often happens in politics, some outsiders who get into power on promises to do meaningful things to help improve our city, sometimes end up being part of the problem.
Last night, Mayor Eric Bever, Councilsnowbunny Katrina Foley, Councilbumponalog Linda Dixon and Councilmember Wendy Leece all voted to spend $ 81,000 of your hard earned money to buy another goofy recreation truck for the bloated Recreation Division.
Only Mayor Pro Tem Mansoor had the good sense to vote against this waste of money. We had expected Foley and Dixon to vote to squander your money, but we expected more from Bever and Leece.
And, speaking of Leece, one prominent local citizen approached us the other day and said it seems to this citizen that Ms. Leece still thinks she's on the School Board because all she ever seems to talk about are school matters and she always seems to be schmoozing with Foley in some sort of permanent PTA Mom's club.
The CM PRESS took a good look at one of the recreation trucks some time ago. They look like roach coaches without the kitchen equipment. The one we saw carried a bunch of broken sports equipment and was staffed by two disinterested city employees.
These trucks travel into different neighborhoods of Costa Mesa and set up for the day. Now, if Costa Mesa were Manhattan where it's all buildings with few parks or green areas, a case could be made that these trucks might be worth the money.
But, folks, Costa Mesa is not Manhattan. Some sort of park is within easy reach of all citizens. And, if there are neighborhoods that need more parks--such as the slum areas--the City should buy up some of the slum buildings, tear them down and put in pocket parks. What is this, friggin' brain surgery?
That's right, this $ 81,000 would have been better spent as part of a down payment on buying and tearing down a slum building in the Shalimar slum, the Mission-Mendoza slum, the Fillmore-Coolidge slum or the slums around Rea School. Just remove a building and put in a pocket park.
Oh, and another thing, these trucks are mostly for school age children. The School District and the City already have recreation activities on all school campuses in Costa Mesa after school!
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.