MAILBAG - April 12, 2007

Rohrabacher is irresponsible

The editorial “Rare straight talk from D.C.” (March 29) praises Rep. Dana Rohrabacher for allegedly taking on the Bush Administration regarding Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzalez. However, Rohrabacher’s call for Gonzalez to step down may have more to do with the prosecution of the two Border Patrol agents mentioned than the questionable firing of the U.S. attorneys.

Rohrabacher’s maverick behavior seems consistently at odds with what is fair and prudent, as the backing of the clearly “dirty” Jack Abramoff and the threat to call for President Bush’s impeachment over the fate of the convicted Border Patrol agents clearly implies.

It is one thing to be independent-minded and another to be wildly irresponsible. The Independent editorial seems to put too much stock in the former and not enough in the latter in Rohrabacher’s case.

Tim Geddes

Huntington Beach

Money doesn’t grow on trees

The March 15 article about the trees vandalized in Central Park (“Search continues for Central Park tree vandals”) states that it will cost $40,000 to replace the 34 saplings. Since these trees were recently planted, the ground has already been prepared with planter mix, etc. I’m sure trees this young could be purchased at any nursery for $100 to $200 at the most per tree. That comes to $6,800.

Since the city has workers already on salary, couldn’t they plant these trees by merely digging up the old, replacing them with new trees and covering them with the already prepared soil? It seems to me that this would cost considerably less than the anticipated $40,000. We have workers who could finish the job in a day, and they are paid for whatever work they are doing for the city on any day.

I realize some will say this is oversimplifying things, but every day we hear outrageous amounts of money coming from taxpayer dollars for work that the average citizen accomplishes in his own home for much less cost, even though he is hiring outside labor to do the job.

Rose Campolito

Huntington Beach

Booth placement at

Surf City Nights

I attended the third Surf City Nights March 20 and thought it was great to see all the people there on such a cold, windy night. I have read that the farmers market is doing very well, but I wonder about the placement of their booths. By having all the booths on one side of the street, it seems the merchants on that side are being shortchanged. Also, why do the vendors have to park their vans and trucks directly behind their booths?

In some cases, year-round merchants like Rockin’ Fig and Avilas were almost invisible from the street. The vendors could easily unload, park off-site and return at the end of the event to pack up, leaving merchants visible.

I say drop the farmers market, give every Main Street merchant a booth, and allow them to either use it or sublet to another vendor and put the booths in the middle of the street to improve business visibility.

All in all, I think this is a great event that should be expanded and improved.

Michael Bergevin

Huntington Beach

Put an end

to beach closures

I see that the beach closure season has started.

From now until Labor Day, huge sections of the city’s best beach areas (around the pier) will be sold off to one or another activity.

This weekend it was paintball, of all things.

Including set-up and tear-down, residents are denied use of the beach for a week at a time.

Does anyone know how much revenue the city realizes from these beach closures and where the money goes?

Could we maybe have one summer where our beach was open to people who just want to lay on the sand and swim in the surf?

Tom Chambers

Huntington Beach