THE WEEK IN REVIEW

A significant step forward

Costa Mesa officials took an important step this week that, like it or

not, needed to happen.

Wednesday night’s meeting of West Side residents -- mostly Latino --

gathered information that is not only useful as the city puts together

plans to revitalize the area, it’s information the city must have to do

the job right.

With the city’s demographics changing and the Latino population

increasing, Costa Mesa officials must be well aware of how the entire

community wants to see the West Side improved. That includes every group

with a stake in the city’s future -- business owners and residents alike.

Wednesday’s meeting offered good insight into one of those groups; now it

is on the city’s shoulders to continue reaching out to the rest of the

community.

Reading right

A new “cafe” at Davis Elementary may not quite harken back to the

intellectual salons of the early 1900s, but it’s serving as an equally

important function: teaching students the love of reading.

The “Starlight Cafe,” at the heart of the campus, opens up during lunch

and recess with tables and carts filled with books. It’s a place students

can go to find some quiet, and a good book. Typically, 20 to 30 students

fill the cafe each day. That’s 20 to 30 examples of proof the program’s

working.

Heights anxiety

Costa Mesa officials must be feeling a little like a groom left at the

altar. Just about nobody, it turns out, who lives in Santa Ana Heights

and the surrounding unincorporated areas wants to be annexed by Costa

Mesa. Their choice: Newport Beach.

The reasons for residents’ reticence boils down to two main concerns:

loss of the neighborhood feeling in these areas and lower property

values. There’s no reason that by joining Costa Mesa (or Newport Beach,

for that matter) for Santa Ana Heights to lose its particular “feel.”

Property values are a different thing. And there’s not much that can be

done to change that perception.