Community Commentary -- Elizabeth Barnes

The Westside situation has been a problem for a really long time. A

lot of people, including myself, have had many workdays to help clean up

homes on the Westside, especially in the visible areas, to make it more

attractive. Unfortunately, the homes just go right back to their original

unkempt state because the people renting are unable to keep them up.

I think that eminent domain is pretty much the only solution that we

could come up with at this time, being that we have a lot of people who

are renting and can barely afford the rent. The rents are really high,

actually -- way too high for the condition of the apartments and houses

over there. They’re high because with supply and demand, they’re able to

be that high.

If the city were to make a concentrated effort and make a vision for

the future of fixing up areas -- maybe small areas and quadrants -- they

could just go through and fix it quadrant by quadrant using taxpayer

money and possibly some sort of a bond and donations.

We live in a beautiful place, very close to the beach. The people

living on the Westside shouldn’t have to leave, but they should have

better conditions to live in.

We should fix the problem. I know I’d be willing to jump in and help

out because I think that our area’s very special. We need to take care of

it.

Thank you for all your coverage on the Westside. It’s been a pleasure

to read all the articles that ran in the paper. Hopefully, we can start

to solve this problem now.

* ELIZABETH BARNES is an Eastside Costa Mesa resident.