Mailbag: Fairview Park’s future at stake

The long-awaited update to the Fairview Park Master Plan came before the Costa Mesa City Council on Jan. 28.

Fairview Park is a rare jewel “that’s unique [in] all the state,” said Travis Brooks, a restoration ecologist, at the meeting. Also known as the Fairview Indian Site by the National Register of Historic Places, it’s the sacred home of tribes whose habitation goes back to 1500 B.C.

The mesa is the watershed for vernal pools where federally protected Riverside and fairy shrimp live. They’re supposed to be “specially managed and maintained,” said Robb Hamilton, a biologist who’s been studying them since the 1980s, but he called the area a “free for all,” referring to the Harbor Soaring Society, ebikes and radio controlled cars.

Yet there’s no park ranger for the 208 acres, which is larger than all of the other city parks combined.

The federal and state departments of Fish and Wildlife as recently as last month told Costa Mesa to stop HSS, as have biologists the city hired, the Fairview Park Steering Committee, the park administrator and over 800 members of the Fairview Park Alliance. Residents voted 70.9% in favor of Measure AA to protect Fairview Park, and California Administrative Code states that “No person shall remove, injure, deface or destroy any object of paleontological, archaeological, or historical interest or value.”

In November, at an FPMP update community meeting, which no council members attended, Brooks showed 100 years of aerial photographs documenting the degradation of the watershed by HSS since the 1960s. They’ve cleared protected tarweed and bulldozed the watershed, changing the rain’s flow into the pools, as well as trampling the pools while retrieving their gliders and tow lines. Then, a leader of HSS — who doesn’t live in Costa Mesa — rose to his feet and threatened to oust from office any member of our council who votes to oust them from the park.

The council yet again allowed HSS access until May 2025 — when the vernal pools are full and birds are nesting and migrating — and when the council will vote on whether HSS will be in the FPMP. One voice, Councilman Arlis Reynolds, a liaison to the Fairview Park Steering Committee, feels there’s a great opportunity for ecotourism, and agrees the park is a unique jewel, which adds a Native American ancestral home and nature’s art to the performing and fine art venues within Costa Mesa. If we’re to see this vision realized, however, people must speak loudly and often at every City Council meeting.

Priscilla Rocco
Costa Mesa

H.B. council ignores residents

Ballot initiatives, also commonly known as ballot measures or referendums, are questions placed before voters on local ballots. Citizen-initiated ballot measures give voters the opportunity to repeal an existing city ordinance or propose a change in the city governing document. In Huntington Beach that is our City Charter. The process gives people the ability and the power to collect signatures to place those proposals directly before voters.

Through ballot initiatives, a majority of voters tell the local government what the public wants to get done. Voters in red, blue and purple states have used initiatives to get issues on the ballot that help their communities. The process is direct democracy, an example of democracy in action.

Direct democracy is the will of the people. No matter who we are or where we’re from, we all want the freedom to make decisions on important issues that impact our lives. It’s an essential tool for passing people-centered policies at the local level and a critical part of building an inclusive, participatory, and thriving community. It is a process that is truly by the people and for the people.

Are the members of the Huntington Beach City Council afraid of democracy? Let the voters decide how they want their public libraries managed and what books and materials should be purchased.

Cathey Ryder
Huntington Beach

As a trained volunteer who spent six months collecting petition signatures from concerned residents who want to protect the library from government overreach, I am incensed that the city of Huntington Beach, under the direction of its 7-0 MAGA City Council, distributed a survey to residents casting doubt on the legality of the petition process.

Of all the culture war ploys they have enacted, accusing library supporters of being liars is one of their lowest attempts. Suggesting that their Ordinance No. 4318, which creates a parent/guardian review board, does not involve banning books, is in fact, one of their biggest lies. Their 21-member board of political appointees who have final and non-appealable authority to determine which books are purchased and kept in our library is book banning. If their hand-picked activists, with no library science background, don’t like an award-winning Young Adult book because it has a sexual or LGBTQ+ reference, they have the power to remove and permanently keep that book off the shelves. That’s book banning!

Our library, with its vast collection and range of programs, is the envy of non-Huntington Beach residents who don’t have their own city libraries. We can’t take this city institution for granted. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Central Library this year, we need to protect it from politicians and their culture war agenda. When the library initiatives are placed on the ballot for a special or general election, Huntington Beach residents must vote yes to preserve our city’s crown jewel for current and future generations.

Carol Daus
Huntington Beach

The release of Jan. 6 insurrectionists is and alarming insult to police, our U.S. Capitol, and democracy. Failing to hold violent offenders accountable emboldens others to attack law enforcement.

The mayor of Huntington Beach is a former police officer and should be ashamed to support or display a statue honoring someone who disregards the safety of your former profession. This isn’t just poor judgment — it’s a toxic endorsement of weakness and possible violence.

It’s time to end the MAGA culture wars and stop wasting taxpayer money on frivolous lawsuits.

Focus on restoring our city’s financial health. This council doesn’t need to “make H.B. great again” — H.B. has been great long before you ever stepped onto this dais.

Andrew Einhorn
Huntington Beach

President doesn’t know King

Re: Pro-Palestinian student group at Chapman University stripped of MLK award, Daily Pilot & TimesOC, Feb. 2: Chapman University President Daniele Struppa displays almost unbelievable ignorance about Martin Luther King Jr. if he thinks King would not have been a leader in the Pro-Palestinian movement. Does he actually believe that King would have been a supporter of genocide and apartheid? Can he possibly be unaware of King’s opposition to the Vietnam War, another anti-colonialist struggle in which the United States was on the wrong side? I don’t know in what academic discipline President Struppa trained, but it certainly wasn’t history, philosophy or international relations.

I can only hope that the students of Chapman University are not as ignorant as Struppa, and that King was right about the arc of the moral universe being long but bending towards justice.

Hayden Ellis
Corona del Mar

I felt nothing but hope and pride last spring when so many brave and compassionate young people formed encampments and protested against what certainly appears to be war crimes by Israel against innocent civilians in Gaza, a good half of whom are women and children. Chapman University President Daniele Struppa, buckling to political pressure, sent out a campus-wide email condemning Students for Justice in Palestine for receiving an award during the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Awards ceremony. The student group was later stripped of the award after pressure was exerted by the ADL.

What the hell is going on in my country? The vast majority of the demonstrators were advocating for justice for innocent Palestinians, not for antisemitic, anti-Israeli groups like Hamas. The only documented violence during these demonstrations was by a rogue Zionist group at the UCLA campus.

I wonder if anyone took a close look the bronze bust of Martin Luther King Jr. that stands at Chapman University? If there were no tears falling from his eyes, there should be.

Ron Terranova
Huntington Beach