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Open Forum: Letters and Comments from 2017

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Growth, Traffic & Overdevelopment

  •            I am appalled at what has become of the quality of life in Irvine.  Traffic is a nightmare every single day of the week.  Our roads are clogged, our shopping centers are so full you cannot park to do your shopping, and yet the Mayor and Irvine City Council continue to reward developer FivePoint with more and more land entitlement to make a profit by trading away the health and well-being of Irvine citizens.  Enough!  The citizens of Irvine didn’t agree to providing continual, never-ending profits for developers, nor did they agree to having Irvine fully built out well ahead of what the General Plan provided.  Stop ruining Irvine and start resolving the existing problems.

Suzanne Seidel 

  •            Enough already!  The continual over-development of our City is a travesty!  The ONLY one benefitting is the developer, FivePoint Communities.  While they get rich off our backs, we get to sit in our cars in traffic, polluting the air, wasting gas, and wasting time while our way of life erodes with every new building permit issued.  When they’ve completely ruined our way of life, they’ll move on — and here we’ll sit for decades, reaping what THEY have sown for us.  We have to stop the overbuilding of our town.

Jaci Woods

  •           I am opposed to any more houses and apartments being built in Irvine.  Our City is changing for the worse.  Traffic is so bad, and the City is overcrowded.  Restrictions should be placed on growth, and residents should have a voice.

Tuyet Tran

  •            Overdevelopment — bringing too many new residents — has degraded Irvine’s environment.  Building all the new homes near and around the Great Park must be immediately stopped.

Wai Chiu

  •            It’s contemptibly selfish of NIMBY’s to complain about “traffic” and blame everything on developers.  If you think Irvine is too crowded, move!

John Jaeger

  •            We must stop the overdevelopment of our City!  It is affecting traffic and the quality of life.  We need to send a message to City leaders that the citizens of Irvine come before FivePoint and other builders.

Sheila Rafat

Portola High School Toxic Contamination

  •            For the life of me, I simply cannot understand why the City Council and the School Board do not demand extensive independent testing of the Portola High School site, as well as continuous air monitoring inside the buildings.  The school was built on top of a U.S. Marine Corps Airbase toxic waste dumping site.  The City of Irvine has the absolute responsibility for ensuring the safety and well-being of the students, faculty, and staff of Portola High School, as well as the nearby Irvine residential communities.  I don’t understand the irresponsible attitude of our Irvine elected officials.  I guess that as soon as we get the chance, we will simply have to vote out of office the School Board members and City Councilmembers who oppose testing.

Susan Sayre

  •            Is the School Board waiting for reports of student or faculty illness to test the Portola High School site?  It is unconscionable to allow Irvine residents to be exposed to possible contamination.  I say this to the School Board:  ACT to protect and safeguard the health of our residents!  It is your duty and a moral obligation.

Michele Garcia-Jurado

  •            At one time it would have been unimaginable that the reputation of our fine City could be sullied as it has been by such deliberate, prideful resistance to doing what is prudent.  Whether motivated politically or financially, the refusal of the IUSD Board, the Irvine Teachers Association, and the City Council to demand that every safeguard is taken to ensure the health and safety of students and staff through avoidance of exposure to known toxic chemicals is nothing short of reprehensible.  In addition to incalculable personal suffering, this willful neglect could result in ongoing financial burdens to Irvine taxpayers should illnesses arise and lawsuits be filed.

Jean Anne Turner

(Editor: Ms. Turner is a retired, two-time award-winning OC Teacher of the Year)

  •            Since the Portola High School site was not thoroughly tested prior to construction, it must be tested now to insure the safety of all who attend Portola High, whether students, faculty or other staff members.

Ira Lewis

  •            This will be an expensive lawsuit if any kids get sick in the near future.  I don’t understand why the testing wasn’t done correctly the first time.

Thank Nguyen

Trump, Trump, Trump

  •            Trump is a vulgar bully; a petulant child, and an embarrassment to this country.  Our Irvine Councilmembers should go on record as opposing his hateful policies.  Irvine has a reputation as a welcoming, family-oriented community.  That reputation will be destroyed if Irvine is governed by people who believe and act as Trump does.

Al Nault 

  •            Trump is a corrupt, crooked, incompetent moron who cheated his employees, and now he’s cheating all Americans with his lies and propaganda.  America’s freedom and liberties, and our institutions known for their transparency are being eroded to the core.  Trump is making America into a Third World dictatorship.  Trump is a fraud.  His presidency is not legitimate, since the 2016 election was hacked, controlled and manipulated by the Russians.  Trump is Putin’s little pet dog.  America is now in danger, more so than ever before.

Gary Nguyen

  •            I usually toss the Irvine Community News & Views when it shows up, but I happened to notice the cartoon about Donald Trump in the current issue and the comment that Irvine voters didn’t support him since the (unofficial) Irvine vote count had come out as 52,000 for Clinton and only 27,000 for Trump.  But so what?  That just tells me that there are 52,000 more seriously uninformed voters residing in Irvine than I would have otherwise thought.  You would have to be incredibly ignorant to have cast your vote for Hillary.  I find your publication’s liberal format most uninspiring and out of touch.

Frank Hopper 

The Veterans Cemetery and Fivepoint “Land-Swap”

  •            It is absolutely shameful that the interests of FivePoint Communities should trump the desires of the veterans and spouses and children of veterans who served during World War II, the Korean War (like my husband), the Vietnam War, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Our veterans served to secure our freedom, not to enable FivePoint Communities to profit from the land in the Great Park meant for the burial of our veterans.

Ernestina Benson

  •            My brother, who is a Vietnam veteran, passed away November, 2016, and we are waiting to bury his ashes.  I think it is absolutely ridiculous that we were approved for State funding of the Veterans Cemetery in the Great Park, only to have Mayor Wagner and Councilmembers Fox and Shea now favor a land-swap.  Shame on all three of you!  Follow through on the original plan and represent the people of the City instead of the land developers.

Sheila Nyberg

  •            I am a veteran of the Vietnam era and am extremely disappointed that the land-swap was approved and the Veterans Cemetery is significantly delayed.  I have lived in Irvine for more than a decade and, until now, would not have imagined it was corrupt.  Unfortunately, that is no longer true.

Dave Carlson

  •            I am a Vietnam veteran.  Not only have the veterans lost their Cemetery, the citizens of Irvine have lost their representation.  FivePoint now controls the City of Irvine.

Larry Bales, US Navy (1967-1968)

  •            Shame on Wagner and Shea, and now Fox.  It is obvious that POLITICS got in the way of support for veterans and their families.

Robert Radus, USAF (1967-1971)

  •            I served in the Army Medical Corps for over 20 years, caring for soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.  These brave patriots deserve to be laid to rest on the hallowed land within the Great Park and not somewhere between two noisy freeways!  Anyone who thinks otherwise should seriously feel some shame.  What a disgraceful and cowardly stance by Mayor Wagner and Councilmembers Christina Shea and Melissa Fox!

Col. Peter Fredericks, M.D.

  •            As a veteran, I want the Veterans Cemetery to be built on the already-approved 125 acres in the Great Park and not next to the I-5/I-405 El Toro Y interchange.

Ralph W. Farrington

  •            The land-swap is a land giveaway to FivePoint.  Our veterans and military families deserve the Veterans Cemetery to be built as planned, within the Great Park, and with the generous funding by the State.

Josh Byer

  •            FivePoint and the City Councilmembers supporting the land-swap [Wagner, Shea and Fox] should be ashamed of themselves.  The Veterans Cemetery already has City, State, and Federal approval and should remain at the Great Park site.

Mary Jo Donofrio

Letters to the editor are welcome.  Please include your name and ZIP code.  Letters for publication must be addressed to Editor, 4199 Campus Drive, Suite 550, Irvine, CA 92612 or email Editor@IrvineCommunityNews.org.  Letters may be edited for publication.  Unpublished letters will not be acknowledged or returned.

ICNV Staff

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