Bridge decision fails Westside

Last Monday night, the Costa Mesa City Council, on a 4-1 vote,

decided against doing a study to determine the economic and social

advantages of extending 19th Street to Huntington Beach.

On this, a major issue that will affect the Westside for the next

100 years, they opted instead to appease a few people opposed to the

study who through retirement, job change, winning the lottery or

other reasons, could leave Costa Mesa at any time, rendering us stuck

with a bad decision done for them as a favor.

The City Council sees the solution to the Westside’s decline as

requiring major redevelopment, including the use of eminent domain.

Councilman Chris Steel sees the solution as getting rid of “poverty

magnets” such as the job center, pawnshops and the soup kitchen.

Residents line up at every council meeting to complain about

transients, loitering, liquor stores, crime, graffiti and filth and

see the solution as more police and code enforcement.

Some of us see the extension of 19th Street to the beach as the

solution to the Westside’s isolation, stagnation and poverty. Others

simply move away.

In 1991 and again in 1993, unsupported by facts and in response to

a few people to whom “all traffic is bad traffic” the Costa Mesa City

Council voted to oppose 19th Street being extended to Huntington

Beach. The only stated support for their decision was “concern for

its viability and constructability” and that it would “severely and

adversely impact the adjacent residential neighborhoods.”

There was no report, study or other documentation supporting the

above allegations. There was and is no justification to support the

city position to eliminate the 19th Street crossing to Huntington

Beach. But there is justification, because of the decline of the

Westside, to try to understand what the problems are and consider all

options for fixing them, and that includes looking at extending 19th

Street.

Some individuals came to the council meeting the other night in

opposition to this study, and some came in support. We all had a

right to do this and an obligation if we felt strong enough about the

issue. But this issue should have been too important to be determined

by a popularity contest, as it was.

Where were Mayor Karen Robinson and Council members Steel, Gary

Monahan and Libby Cowan, asking for the facts before making a

decision, as they do on all much less important issues? This was a

vote on getting sufficient information and knowledge to allow an

intelligent, fact-based decision on the 19th Street extension.

The council, with the exception of Councilman Allan Mansoor,

elected a position of ignorance about the facts as the proper and

responsible position for ultimately determining the fact of the 19th

Street extension and Westside. How sad.

ROBERT GRAHAM

Costa Mesa