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WE ARE THE WORLD
I read with interest the article on Chapman University's new student-body president for 2000-2001, Steve Hatch (Nick Schou's “Hatching a Revolution,” Sept. 1). Inasmuch as I'm on campus every day, dealing with myriad challenges and opportunities, sometimes it takes an article like this from the external media to point my attention to one certain area. After reading it, I was reminded that Chapman University truly is a place of opportunity for all students: we're small enough that any student can found and establish a new group or organization, but we're also large enough to have the breadth of academic offerings and community-outreach activities that would interest a campus leader like Steve.
While I do not agree with Steve's political and social philosophy, I certainly welcome the opportunity for lively campus debate and dialogue. That's what higher education is all about: the search for truth, and no one has a monopoly on that.
Jim Doti
president
Chapman University
YOU MEAN 'TRITE,' RIGHT?!
I usually stay far from family affairs—and besides, Commie Girl is clearly able to defend herself with wit, pith and flair (Letters, Sept. 1). But when her father pens a letter in which he claims her writing is trite and yet starts his own letter with the phrase “needless to say,” isn't he being . . .
Art Gardner
Huntington Beach
KEY WORD: 'TRASH'
The only thing that is true about your trashy article on Marinapark is that it is not a TRAILER park; it is truly a MOBILE HOME park (C.J. Bahnsen's “Trailer Park Confidential,” Sept. 1). It is one of the nicest parks in Orange County. They are all permanent manufactured homes. None are movable. This trash was written by a hateful former employee. He seemed like a nice person when he was living in the park. I cannot understand how a person who works only on weekends, gets a place to live in, gets paid, and is broke can complain. I would hope that your publication would do a little more research before printing any more TRASH articles like this one.
Ed Dillon
Marinapark resident since 1990
Newport Beach
OC WEEKLY: LOYAL FRIEND
OF THE RICH
Anthony Pignataro's statement that “the county's dawning realization that the Marine Corps runways could never support international air traffic” flies in the face of common sense (El Toro Airport Watch No. 145, Aug. 25). The Marine Corps ran international flights out of El Toro for more than 50 years. Why would El Toro suddenly become unsafe after July 1, 1999?
Pignataro's effusion is just so much gas, obscuring the real issues surrounding the El Toro Airport. Let's look at the airport fight in a different way—as a land grab by the city of Irvine and the Irvine Co., which owns most of the buffer-zone land surrounding El Toro. Without an airport, the 4,700 acres at El Toro and the 14,000 acres of the buffer zone can be developed into another city the size of Santa Ana. How much profit will there be in this acquisition? Perhaps $50 million.
All of the propaganda against the airport only serves as an excuse for this giant land acquisition. As to the “great park” described in the third Millennium Plan, this will be financed by Orange County taxpayers. If you don't believe this to be a fact, the supervisors have already appropriated $5 million to spruce up the El Toro facility for tenants.
This whole brouhaha about the airport is a fraud against Orange County citizens. Not only will we have to finance any improvements to the base, but we will also have to pay higher airfares at John Wayne because of the lack of airline competition.
Why doesn't the Weekly try to protect the interests of Orange County taxpayers instead of siding with the land developers?
Shirley A. Conger
Corona del Mar A shill for the developers responds: Conger is apparently one of those few Orange Countians who, cursed by John Wayne, would have everyone else live under a flight path. To compare El Toro's “international flights” under the Marines with the flight schedule proposed by the county is either naive or disingenuous. Conger either doesn't understand the difference or wants desperately—for her own narrow reasons—to obscure it. Conger's question about land developers vs. taxpayers raises the same dilemma: she's either nearly alone in her ignorance of bazillionaire developer George Argyros' role in backing El Toro International or embarrassed by it.
Conger ought to consider joining the majority of Orange Countians who want no airport at El Toro; no expansion of John Wayne; and a solution to the county's real transportation problem—the one on the roads.
CONFIDENTIAL
To “OC barber and his elite rock-star pals”: L'chaim from the vast Jewish conspiracy. To “Cranston High Grad”: Dave Garofalo went to West Cranston. Did you know him? Washburn went to Corona del Mar. To “Full Monte”: Welcome to the Irvine Co. story. You're late. Take a seat. To “Cool 93 Listener”: One word of advice: “Phonics.” And another: “Spell-check.”
