Mailbag: School district should share more field time

If Newport Beach or Costa Mesa residents needed an insight into the collective minds of the school board, they need look no further than a recent letter to the Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee, of which I am acting chairman.

The Jan. 6 letter was sent in anticipation of the committee’s Jan. 7 vote on whether to recommend to the Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation Commission that athletic fields be considered for the southeast section of the park.

The letter was a contorted effort to recommend fields at Fairview Park without actually stating that desire.

The letter includes the sentence, “We urge the committee to develop a long-term solution for more sports fields in Costa Mesa that doesn’t rely solely on using school district property,” which I take as code for supporting fields at the park. Realizing that it may have gone too far, the board sent member Vicki Snell to the Jan. 7 committee meeting to clarify that the board was not necessarily supporting fields at Fairview Park.

But the real “tell” in the letter is the belief that the fields attached to schools are “school district property.” Those fields are the property of the taxpayers of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, and if the residents of both cities believe that our kids are better served by allowing more school field access, that is what must happen.

The claim that fields are school district property is yet another attempt by the board to distance itself from its responsibility to taxpayers.

Athletic fields at Fairview Park can be avoided if residents express to the school board that it allow more access to school fields. But the people must speak up.

Both sides of the field debate agree on one major point: Costa Mesa needs more field time for the kids in youth sports. The challenge is not that Costa Mesa does not have enough fields. The challenge is that the city does not have enough fields under its direct control.

Instead, everyone involved in youth sports is at the mercy of a stingy and indifferent school board that recognizes the problem and the easiest solution, but refuses to respond to the pleas of the community.

Why should it? After all, those are the schools’ fields.

Steve Smith

Costa Mesa

The writer is acting chairman of the Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee and a recent candidate for school board.

Widowhood column was moving

I thoroughly enjoyed reading “Widowhood is another life journey” (Jan. 9) by Liz Newman.

The commentary was well-written, heartfelt, warm and hopeful all at the same time. Such a sad subject that so many people have to face.

Pauline Bjorkholm

Newport Beach

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Bunny costs can’t be recovered

It looks like Newport Beach Councilman Scott Peotter and his bunny-hating friends need to talk to an economist about sunk costs — costs that have been incurred and can’t be recovered.

No matter how they whine on about woulda, coulda, shoulda, the bunny statues at the Civic Center are bought and paid for. It would be mean-spirited and fiscally unwise to spend yet more money to remove them. It’s time these people loosen their stuffed shirts and look toward the future and leave the little bunnies in peace.

By the way, it’s not just kids who like them. Any time I have out-of-town visitors, we stop at the park, and the bunnies are always a big hit. They put a smile on everyone’s face.

Maybe if Peotter and his allies spent some time there they would lighten up a bit.

Janet Terry

Irvine

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A cottontail compromise

I see a very simple way to make both sides in the bunny debate happy.

Leave the rabbits where they are. Put a permanent sign up showing how much they cost. And maybe add a sign showing how much the Civic Center cost too.

Laurence A. Thompson

Corona del Mar