Mailbag: Petition’s flaws the fault of Newport Beach council, not Line in the Sand

Gino Canori, developer of the Museum House, says the petition for the Museum House is fatally flawed and that his attorneys have never before seen a petition like it (“Petition signature target exceeded,� Dec. 22).

Undoubtedly, that is true. Having had the pleasure of carrying two of them around for signatures myself, I think a more appropriate comment might be “we have never tried this hard to interfere with the rights of a community,� and “we thank the Newport Beach City Council for requiring the petitions to be so overwhelming and cumbersome.�

It was not the decision of Line in the Sand to make the petitions so large that Newport Beach voters were not interested in reading them in their entirety. That was imposed by the City Council. However, the California Supreme Court has long supported the rights of citizens to petition their government. It has also supported the doctrine of “substantial compliance,� meaning that if a petition meets the intent of the law, it will not be rejected.

Given the immense barriers that this petition faced, it seems unlikely that the trivial points mentioned by Canori will result in the Museum House petition being rejected. This is just another example of a community being dominated by a developer mentality where profits are paramount to the desires of the average citizen.

Newport Beach deserves better, and Line in the Sand was established for that very reason.

Kathy Bronstein

Newport Beach

Developer unleashed ‘tsunami of horribleness’ on our city

It is interesting how apologists for the Museum House seek to equate the actions of the few paid signature gatherers hired by Line in the Sand to the overt actions of the developer seeking to stop the referendum.

There is simply no comparison between rare examples of rude signature gatherers and the constant circle of blockers around every public location to sign the referendum petition, the flood of deceitful fliers and the fearmongering engaged in by a once-respected developer in his quest to stop Newport Beach residents from signing the referendum petition.

A ripple of rudeness is not the same as the tsunami of horribleness unleashed on our city by the developer in his lust for profit.

Linda Painter

Newport Beach

Huntington Beach needs to do more for the homeless

With increasing homelessness, how pathetic is it that Huntington Beach built a 38,000 square-foot senior center, yet no place for the homeless to keep warm at night with one square meal a day. Really? Is it big enough?

It’s sad that those in power in Huntington Beach only care about building and development and not about their homeless people or homeless animals.

The site of sports complex would’ve been a perfect place for a homeless shelter and an animal shelter, rather than contracting with the high-kill county shelter in Orange.

Huntington use to be a great place to live back in the days of the Golden Bear nightclub, which was trashed for new development. The soul of this city has died as far as I’m concerned.

Lynn Copeland

Huntington Beach

OCC professor’s detractors are going too far

Let me get this straight. Olga Perez Stable Cox calls Donald Trump’s victory “an act of terrorism,� and how do Trump supporters react? By terrorizing her (“Professor at OCC claims she’s living in fear,� Dec. 30).

She may well be a preachy liberal, but Jim Ernst’s comments — “Go out in the middle of the football field, pull out a handgun, put it to your temple and shoot yourself� — are indefensible by any standard of human discourse.

Why does he get a free ride? Is it wrong to call someone a terrorist but OK to be a terrorist?

Peter Scofield

Corona del Mar

Professor should keep political beliefs out of the classroom

Violence is never acceptable, and if the professor at Orange Coast College is indeed experiencing the attacks she is claiming, then those responsible should be brought to justice.　

Here is the problem, which appears to be lost on the professor, who now considers herself a victim. She is a human-sexuality professor, and pontificating about her political beliefs in her classroom might be best done at a cocktail party. Did it ever occur to her that there may be some students who felt victimized because they do not share her political beliefs?　

The professor is an educator, not a commentator. She has chosen to use our taxpayer money to spread her political beliefs. This seems to be a common thread at our universities today. 　

The left-wing media and our uber-liberal colleges have become petri dishes of intolerance, all while claiming that people with a different point of view are the ones who are the problem.　

Describing our president-elect as a terrorist is not only irresponsible, it sounds like something a 12-year-old who does not understand the definition of the word “terrorist,� might say. The responsible thing for the professor, and those like her, to do might be to keep the hysterical political propaganda to themselves and allow students to draw their own conclusions.　

Juli Hayden

Newport Beach

Opposition to development nothing new in Newport-Mesa

Yes, Newport Beach is at the center of development disputes as we enter the year 2017, but then Newport has long been the center of development disputes (“Development disputes at center stage in Newport,� Jan. 1).

It is a near truism that no one anywhere wants more development. When I came to Newport in 1973, the dispute was over the Irvine Co.’s Promontory Point apartments, now considered an award-winning gem. And oh, what a dispute when in the late 1970s the City Council approved the Irvine Co.’s proposed development of several two-story garden office buildings in Newport Center. That resulted in petitions calling for a vote by the people, and the Irvine Co. withdrew its application.

Who remembers when another developer wanted to build an eight-story office building near Jamboree Road and MacArthur Boulevard on the Newport side of the Newport/Irvine border? Wow, what a fight.

But Newport Beach is not the only city that fights development. My favorite happened in Costa Mesa. In the early 1980s the Segerstrom family wanted to develop a high-rise office building for IBM’s local headquarters on the Segerstrom Ranch north of the San Diego Freeway near Harbor Boulevard. The slender, magnificently designed office tower would stand in the center of a broad, landscaped plaza. What a battle the residents of Costa Mesa put up, led by the city’s Mesa Verde section several miles away.

The project was defeated by the city’s residents (traffic, you know). What happened to the site? Oh, that’s now the location of the purple Ikea building.

Now Costa Mesa has the conversion of its aging industrial west side into new residential buildings to battle, and Newport has the Banning Ranch and the Museum House. The fight goes on.

Martin A. Brower

Corona del Mar