Letters to the Editor: Huntington Beach should follow Costa Mesa’s example of sheltering the homeless

There’s an incredibly short physical distance between Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa’s city halls, but in terms of constructive action, political courage and basic human compassion, these adjacent Orange County governments couldn’t be further apart. My what a difference 6.8 miles makes!

As we rightfully celebrate and commend Costa Mesa’s exceptional efforts in opening a new, 50-bed homeless shelter in just over three months, it’s hard to ignore the political “rope-a-dope” going on in Huntington Beach. Residents and elected officials have made it abundantly clear that our “sleepy little beach town” of 200,00 is in no hurry to match the actions of our heroic neighbors.

Local residents would rather spend their time complaining online, bad-mouthing all who support constructive action to address homelessness and demonizing the unfortunate human beings of our homeless community.

This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with recent events in today’s Huntington Beach. As a community, we complain a lot about issues, both real and make-believe. And while our community certainly has some very real issues like homelessness, a housing shortage and choking levels of traffic and congestion, we generally have made a habit of doing nothing.

Over the past several years, many Huntington Beach council members have touted their commitment to “maintaining local control” and have scoffed at proposals that would affect the status quo. Simply put, this is incredibly flawed and shortsighted thinking.

Residents and local elected officials alike need to rethink our approach and reluctance to address the issues of our community. While ignoring or delaying actions on current issues might be good politics, the longer we collectively stick our heads in the sand, the harder it will be to find good solutions.

In the case of homelessness, one has to wonder just how long U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter, who is taking on action on homelessness countywide, will continue to tolerate the ongoing inaction of the city of Huntington Beach.

Steve Shepherd

Huntington Beach

Kiss the JWA curfew goodbye

For those of you who havent seen the latest news: Commuter aircraft operations at John Wayne Airport increased a whopping 1,287% in the past year.

While the county and city have promised many times to address our current issues with the large, commercial jets, they have failed to do so. If the county approves the new plan for general aviation, things are going to get much worse.

Just do the math: If we’ve already had more than a 1,200% increase in general aviation in one year, how high do you think this number will be when a new general aviation terminal is built?

Susan Menning

Newport Beach

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