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Mailbag: Costa Mesa city leaders are overspending

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About eight years ago, I had a conversation with a Costa Mesa maintenance worker. Not a man in a suit, but someone who actually worked for a living.

He expressed concern for the city’s aging underground pipes. He and his co-workers were being called to one crisis after another. He said this was not the type of item that got in the papers, but it was just part of the unheralded staff duties of holding the city together.

I mention this because of the problems in Los Angeles. It seems politicians everywhere, regardless of philosophy or party affiliation, prefer to ignore infrastructure because that sort of thing doesn’t register with voters. Politicians score more points by building new libraries, rebuilding aging fire stations that are still serviceable, and spending millions of dollars prettying up a city’s medians.

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It seems to me that some Costa Mesa council members are burning the midnight oil trying to think of more ways to spend money. It wasn’t that long ago that some Costa Mesa politicians were concerned that the city might go into bankruptcy and therefore had to lay off half the city’s workforce.

One would think that such civic leaders would want to focus on replenishing the rainy-day reserves expended in the Great Recession. Instead, they seem to be adopting a new mantra: Spend, spend, spend.

Al Melone

Costa Mesa

The writer is a candidate for City Council.

Does chalk reach level of vandalism?

Re. “Anti-abortion activists won’t face charges over chalk writing near Newport doctor’s home,” (Aug. 6): UC Irvine Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky seems to be advocating that vandalism charges be brought against abortion protesters who wrote their protest message in chalk.

He states that while chalk is less permanent than spray paint, it is damaging, since it requires someone to clean it up. So if Chemerinsky was running in a 5K on UCI’s campus, or anywhere else for that matter, and a supporter, in an attempt to spur him on, used chalk on the course and wrote, “Run, Erwin, run!” would she be guilty of vandalism?

Joe Nedza

Newport Beach

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All of O.C. pays for park debacle

Three cheers for Thomas J. Peterson for his commentary on the Great Park (“Irvine can’t be trusted with Great Park,” Aug. 9).

He described the situation very well. However, I have one comment. I think it was a bit too long — one word too long, to be exact. His first sentence is “South Orange County residents have witnessed probably the largest bait-and-switch of their lifetimes.” I would eliminate the first word, “South.”

Conrad T. Timpe

Newport Beach

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