Time to Ditch El Toro
NEWPORT - COSTA MESA DAILY PILOT
COMMUNITY COMMENTARY
STEVE SMITH -- What's Up?
It's time to ditch El Toro and fight to save John Wayne
In California, politicians are dropping like flies.
In the same week that Orange County CEO Jan Mittermeier
announced her resignation, state Insurance Commissioner Chuck
Quackenbush decided that July 10 was a really good day to seek
employment elsewhere. His announcement a few days ago was odd.
Quackenbush is under fire, but instead of bailing out right now, we
have to endure almost two weeks of a lame duck.
Locally, Huntington Beach Mayor Dave Garofalo is in hot water.
Among other things, it seems that Hizzoner's handoff of a former
magazine he owned may have been the kind of monkey business we're
used to seeing in Washington, not down here by the beach.
And even closer to home, we've got a mayor in Newport Beach
who has not only declared his involvement in the abduction of his two
children 24 years ago, he also declared that he will not be running for
reelection in November. But, as he announced, the two events are not
related.
In Mittermeier's case, the dreaded El Toro airport appears to have
been her downfall. And while I've never been a fan of Mittermeier, I
can't help but support her should she declare that she has been set up
as
the "fall gal." Someone's head had to roll after the drubbing that the
airport took in the vote last March. And because the county supervisors
are still hanging on to a slim thread of hope that the big, smelly, noisy
facility will appear, they could not go on with the same crew leading the
way. It was a rare instance of government deciding that "business as
usual" was not good business.
But what of our local bodies? The city councils of Newport Beach
and Costa Mesa, as well as the school board, all declared their support
for a new airport prior to the vote. Now that the people have spoken,
are we to see more time and resources spent chasing this dream? Or
will our leaders become followers of the county's voters and move on?
Some folks know when they've been licked and they move on. Others
retaliate, even after a fair fight.
It has been eight months since county Supervisor Tom Wilson
offered to coordinate a coalition of Newport-Mesa airport proponents
and South County opponents to fight the expansion of John Wayne
Airport without an El Toro airport in the picture. And it has been five
months since the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority passed a resolution
offering the same deal.
But eight months later, eight months closer to the lifting of the JWA
moratorium, which restricts flights, we are no closer to stopping the
expansion. In fact, we're moving farther away.
The supervisors are probably going to appoint an airport czar in
order to breathe new life into this very bad idea. So, they'll dump more
of your money into this pit, and unless civic officials tell the supervisors
that they're dropping out, the county government will assume their
support. And as the moratorium clock ticks, we try to push a piece of
string along the table, hoping for a change in public opinion.
This is not a good way to stop the expansion of JWA. Now that
Measure F has passed, now that Mittermeier has resigned, and before
the supervisors get a chance to hire someone else to head the airport
task force, our local governments should urge them to bail out and
convince them to pool their resources with the South County folks who
are still willing to help them stop a bigger, badder JWA.
The El Toro airport is dead. Mittermeier as much as said so in her
Los Angeles Times interview when she commented that "the only way
the [airport] will succeed is if proponents work together and manage to
get the public to believe in it."
Given the Herculean effort proponents made prior to the March
vote, and the subsequent outcome, it's not likely that opinion will
change any time soon.
The only question that remains is whether the school board and the
cities have enough sense to start an anti-expansion plan that does not
include an El Toro alternative and start it right now.
And to those who think the El Toro proponents are resting, think
again. On Aug. 26, they are hosting a walk/fun run to raise money to
keep up the fight. The location? Why, the El Toro airport, of course.
* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer.
Replies can be sent to the Daily Pilot at (949) 642-6086, by e-mail at
dailypilot@latimes.com , or to Steve at stsmth19@idt.net .