Letters to the editor

We’re on a bridge to nowhere.

Scenario 1: A person drives along Banning Avenue. What will their

destination be? The choices are: Eader Elementary School, the Banning

Branch Library or someone’s home. That’s all there is on Banning, a

street that is one mile long (Brookhurst Street to Magnolia Street).

Scenario 2: A person drives down from 19th Street in Costa Mesa, their

destination is somewhere in Huntington Beach. After driving over the

[proposed] bridge, they drive another mile, from Brookhurst to Magnolia,

where Banning dead-ends. They then turn right to reach Hamilton, where

there already is a bridge where it connects to Victoria Street, or left

to reach Pacific Coast Highway, which already goes through. In the

process, a large residential area that is home to hundreds is ruined, and

Eader Elementary School is made a dangerous place because now children

must cross this now-busy intersection every day to reach their

neighborhood school.

Is this progress?

Basic logic tells me no, what does it say to you?

GREG HANSEN

Huntington Beach

Residents will fight planned bridge

I am a resident of Huntington Beach and my house backs up to Banning

Street. I can’t believe that anyone would want to build a bridge

connecting Banning with 19th Street in Costa Mesa. Obviously anyone that

supported this wouldn’t be living in this peaceful quiet area that we

have all come to love. Here are just a few of the results we could get

from such a plan:

1. A major increase in the amount of traffic.

2. A major increase in noise.

3. A major decrease in property values and quality of life.No one

would ever vote for something like this if this involved their own

residence. Can you imagine someone voting to convert a peaceful street

behind their homes into a Pacific Coast Highway?

Huntington Beach has done more than its fair share for the region. We

have three major highways connecting Huntington Beach with Costa Mesa.

Two of the three cities, Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach, are very much

opposed to the bridge plan. Only those folks who will not be hurt by such

a plan are trying to force it through. If the plan were to take 19th

Street south to PCH, you would hear great outcries from the folks in

Newport Beach.

We expect the Orange County Transportation Authority to be neutral.

The transportation authority needs to take leadership here against the

proposed bridge plan and come up with a real alternative.

The folks in this area will never give in on this issue.

RODERICK l. KAGY

Huntington Beach