Mailbag: Good for Scout leader opposed to cookies

I just had to write to express my gratitude for your writing the article (“No cookies for these Girl Scouts,” July 18) and shedding light on the actions of leaders as Girl Scout Troop Leader Monica Serratos.

I find it amazing to witness the plethora of sweets available for children to consume at every turn, like after storytime at the Mesa Verde Library or during playtime at the Costa Mesa Community Center’s play group that I attend with my 4-year-old son.

It’s frustrating. It’s one thing to go to the fair, ice cream truck or local grocery store and buy sugary items, but when they are presented to the children as “treats” when completing or attending something, it makes it hard to, once again, steer your child elsewhere or have to explain why he can’t partake.

We wonder why obesity is increasing among children, in addition to the rise in diabetes in adults.

Hello? Is it any wonder?

We are the adults, and what is the message we send to our children? Why does it have to be high-fructose, processed food items and not carrot sticks, nuts and apple slices? Why not real instead of processed food? We teach our children with our actions and words.

I admire the leader who rises up and says there can be another way. So how about the Girl Scouts adding a sixth essential life skill — nutrition and wellness.

Mary Ann Wettler

Costa Mesa

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Banning Ranch vote

OK, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer and Mayor Eric Bever tell us that the Costa Mesa City Council has no say in the Banning Ranch plan. But we read in the July 17 Daily Pilot that the Banning Ranch developers apparently hold a different view, and offer $4.4 million to Costa Mesa if the council does not oppose their plans (“City to vote on $4.4 million proposal”).

It seems to me that the developers know the council has some influence and offer a very thinly disguised bribe in hopes that any opposition would fade away.

The problem, of course, is that long after the $4.4 million is spent on some left-turn lanes, a few wide spots in the street and a couple of traffic lights on Monrovia Avenue (which aren’t needed now), Costa Mesa still will be stuck with the traffic generated by this egregious boondoggle of a plan.

No! No Banning Ranch development and no bribes to try to get Costa Mesa to look the other way and passively accept this plan.

Richard Robertson

Costa Mesa

* Banning is a boondoggle

Good grief! First we got the Big Ditch. Then we got the Great Park.

Now we get Banning Ranch. Newport Beach gets the money, and Costa Mesa gets the traffic.

Seems the City Council and the Planning Commission need a course in long-term planning and negotiating

Virginia Hanley

Costa Mesa

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Chuck Cassity columns

I read the July 19 letter “Opinion pieces a waste of a read” by Amy Litton in which she criticized the Chuck Cassity column. At the time I didn’t give it much thought.

However, on Friday I read Cassity’s column, “Let’s create fund for pension costs,” and now I see what she was talking about.

Cassity’s column had little to no valuable information in it. While his worthless column is taking up valuable print space, other, more important articles only get published in the Pilot’s online edition. If he can’t do better than that, I suggest the column be canceled.

Charles Mooney

Costa Mesa

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Wu on the library law

I enjoy Jack Wu’s columns and will continue to read them (“A new chapter of library rules, July 15)”. However, Jack has obviously not been using the Central and Mariners branches. I use these two consistently.

At Mariners’ entrance, there have often been two carts filled with personal stuff with signs on them asking for donations, bikes unchained and chained to trash containers, strollers for which there is room at Mariners in the small children’s section, and people snoozing in the library.

Central Library has more rooms and greater temptations. There, some folks stretch out on two pieces of furniture and sleep on chairs. A cart or two filled with belongings might be parked near the entrance.

The odors coming from some of the loungers are extremely stinky.

Jack, libraries are a bit different today from when you were a “youth with sweaty, salty, onion-y long hair.” We still have that now and then (no big deal), but those are not the problems of 2012.

Eveline Dennis

Costa Mesa