In this week's Community Commentary regarding redevelopment, Ila
Johnson makes a most remarkable statement toward the end of her
opinion piece. She states: "I am a property rights advocate, but
property rights are not absolute and really cease when they begin to
interfere with the rights of others' enjoyment of their property ...
"What? Can you say convoluted? If she isn't enjoying someone else's
property enough, then that property owner's rights should cease?
Johnson, you've got to get a grip.
Earlier in her commentary, she tries to make the point that
Westside industrial use is a holdover from the past, when it was
justified. But today, she calls it inappropriate because we need new
housing "in these highly desirable locations." The next sentence
gives you all the insight you need into her thinking: "Costa Mesa
should not be held hostage today by decisions of the past". What are
you advocating, the equivalent of a City Council mulligan? An
official "do-over?"
Let's see now. There are all these commercial and light industrial
businesses infecting the Westside. Many have been in the city longer
than Johnson, of course, but that shouldn't matter. The vast majority
operate entirely within the laws and the codes, but I guess that
shouldn't matter either. They employ thousands of workers and produce
tens, maybe hundreds of millions in sales and huge amounts of taxes.
But, because the breezes blow on the bluffs and Johnson thinks we
need some more houses, we should seize their property scrape the
ground flat and build a few hundred condos. Fairness shouldn't enter
into this, I guess. These Westside property owners who have their
entire lives in their businesses should just quietly fold their
tents.
Where, I ask, do these businesses go? Where do the jobs go? Where
do the thousands of newly unemployed find work? Does Johnson care?
If Mayor Gary Monahan is right and there's no money to pay for an
eminent domain seizure of these properties, count me among the very
pleased. And, as a small Westside business and property owner, I hope
it stays that way.
Let me add in closing, I don't give a damn whether Johnson ever
enjoys my property or not. It's my property, and I intend to enjoy it
enough for the both of us.
CHUCK CASSITY
Costa Mesa
Sadly, I read the all-too-visible column written by Ila Johnson --
a clear expose of the heartlessness, anti-business and socialistic
thinking patterns of the uninformed liberal.
"The industrial use [of the Westside] needs to go," she sings
