Readers Respond -- One Costa Mesa group by itself on name change

I’d like to thank Janice Davidson for a great laugh. Please, my side

is killing me. Usually I can count on Davidson for an uninhibited,

egalitarian diatribe about someone or something in the city that has

offended her sensibilities. She’s as good a “lambaster” as we’ve had

since Sid Soffer moved to Las Vegas (although personally I preferred

Soffer because at least he had a sense of humor). But this, this is the

best I’ve heard in sometime (“Group lobbies officials for new city name,”

March 26). Costa Mesa By-the-Sea, come on. Why not Costa Mesa

By-the-Newport Beach?

And since Davidson is always predicting such a dire outcome from

actions of our City Council, why not Costa Mesa By the

Just-You-Wait-&-See?

It occurs to me that Costa Mesa does in fact abut a significant

waterway, the Santa Ana River. Perhaps there is some way we can

incorporate that into our name. How does Costa Mesa By-the-Riverside

sound? Yeah, I don’t like it either, but at least there’s a hint of

truthfulness about it.

I love Costa Mesa, it’s a great place to live. It’s a great name, and

if it’s not recognized around the world, well, that’s all right with me.

I don’t feel the least slighted. I often times identify myself as from

“lovely Costa Mesa.” I like it.

If Davidson or any of her colleagues want to live in a town called

Costa Mesa By-the-Sea, I suggest they buy some oceanfront property in

some heretofore-unsettled coastal area and move there.

I say we stay with plain old Costa Mesa. If you listen just so, I

think you’ll find “Costa Mesa” really has a very nice ring to it. The

funniest thing about this silly, bizarre suggestion was that she was

absolutely, dead-on serious.

MIKE DUNN

Costa Mesa

In reading your front-page article on changing the city’s name, my

first thought was that this is another Daily Pilot April Fools joke. I

urge the Costa Mesa City Council to keep the city’s name the way it is

and forget about changing it to Costa Mesa-By-The-Sea.

“Costa” means “coastal” or “by the sea” in Spanish, so Costa

Mesa-By-The-Sea would be redundant. It also means Spanish and English.

Mesa del Mar would have been a good name for the city, but the city

fathers chose Costa Mesa -- a great name -- long ago and there is no good

reason to change it now.

A name change would be very expensive. It is hard to estimate the cost

to change all the municipal and private signs and other things with the

city’s name, but it could run several million dollars. A name change

would be confusing to the general public. Mail could be misdirected (to

Cardiff-By-The-Sea) or delayed.

The good folks of Citizens for the Improvement of Costa Mesa, who are

proposing the name change, should drop this idea and focus on other more

productive projects, such as under grounding utilities and redeveloping

some of the city’s deteriorated commercial neighborhoods.

MICHAEL R. LAWLER, JR.

Newport Beach