Postponed vote on medical fee is wise...
- Share via
Postponed vote on medical fee is wise
Regarding the possibility of an emergency medical service
subscription fee in Costa Mesa, I think it was wise of the City
Council to a) bring up the subject, and b) table it for further
thought and discussion.
I do have a couple of concerns regarding equitable payment should
usage fees be imposed. One has already been raised as to perhaps the
elderly either paying more because of frequent need for services or
not using it because of having to pay.
My other concern is that of an equitable fee for the halfway house
around the corner from me, which has an average of three calls per
week. Would this address, and/or its residents, be allowed to
subscribe at the same rate as all other Costa Mesa residents?
SHARON WILLIAMSON
Costa Mesa
Need to be on same page on the airport
In his Community Commentary Sunday (“Might as well do away with
the JWA”), Geoff West facetiously suggests we eliminate John Wayne
Airport. He knows better, of course. Eliminate JWA?
What if we decided to eliminate the San Diego or the Santa Ana
freeways -- both are noisy and polluting parts of our current
infrastructure baseline, just as JWA is. Scrapping JWA has been the
game plan all along in Newport, of course. Somehow I think that
scrapping JWA -- or any portion of our existing county infrastructure
-- would not fly with our own Orange County neighbors or with our
regional neighbors.
Will future Orange County growth require air capacity growth?
Well, the county is about built-out, so the answer is probably no.
But if more flights are needed, I am happy to report that the airport
-- our county’s only commercial airport -- is being used at only
about half of its design capacity due to temporary legal limits. If
need be, we can expand the airport to 14 million annual passengers
without nighttime flights, or to 20 million annual passengers with
nighttime flights -- and all at a tiny fraction of the cost of
building a new airport.
Every Orange County neighborhood has its own noise and pollution
problems. It would be a lot better if we learned to work with one
another to mitigate our problems, rather than working against our
neighbors to move our problems to their backyard.
MICHAEL SMITH
Mission Viejo
Writer misses a point
Geoff West’s satirical commentary on making John Wayne Airport a
park ignores one major difference between John Wayne and El Toro in
that everyone in Orange County knew John Wayne was a commercial
airport when they moved to Orange County or developed land here.
This is totally different than moving somewhere in Orange County
and having a commercial airport built next to your house, and that is
a fact you just cannot ignore when you’re discussing John Wayne
Airport and El Toro.
ROBERT SOMERS
Costa Mesa
El Toro not an
airport answer
Geoff West calls the people in South County “greedy” and
“whiners,” and then he sets off to write one of the greediest,
whiniest editorials I think I’ve ever read.
He’s right that John Wayne isn’t a good location for a major
airport -- but neither is El Toro. It worked just fine as a military
air base, but all of the plans I’ve seen for building an airport
there required the runways to be dug up, the entire site to be
regraded and the runways to be re-poured because the ones that are
there aren’t adequate for use by commercial airliners.
He says that El Toro could have been a “ ... launch pad for world
travel ... ,” but even the people planning it admitted that the
Orange County market just isn’t big enough to make international
flights economically viable.
Building an airport at El Toro because it was once a military
airfield makes about as much sense as converting Newport Harbor into
a container port because it has water in it.
BRAD MCCOWN
Walnut
Ring, ring, ring
goes the trolley
Regarding the Pilot’s question of how the city should deal with
parking congestion on the Balboa Peninsula?
I think the city should build a several-story parking structure on
the grounds that house City Hall.
The parking structure should belong to the city of Newport Beach
and revenues go into the transportation fund.
The city should encourage private bids for a private “trolley
car”-type passenger service that will allow tourists and residents to
get on and off the trolley every so many blocks.
This encourages more foot traffic for businesses and lowers auto
traffic congestion and parking problems.
ANN WATT
Newport Beach
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.