Issues that affect all of Huntington Beach

As residents and taxpayers of the city of Huntington Beach for more

than 20 years, we would like to bring several concerns to the

attention of the City Council. These are issues that directly affect

the quality of life in Huntington Beach, as well as the future well

being of the city.

Many longtime residents have witnessed the transformation of our

city from a sleepy beach town to a major tourist destination. In its

effort to market the city as a seaside “paradise,” the council, in

our opinions, has neglected many issues that made the city of

Huntington Beach such a desirable place to live in the first place.

By addressing the following concerns, the council will go a long way

to enhancing the high quality of life the city has always been known

for:

* Beach Cleaning: If the city hopes to continue to draw hundreds

of thousands of visitors to our shores, the cleanliness of our

beaches should be of primary importance. We have participated in a

number of beach clean-ups, yet, each afternoon, as we run along the

shore or bike along the boardwalk, we are appalled at the massive

amounts of trash littering the beach. On the beaches south of the

pier the trash problem is considerable, it is overwhelming on the

less touristy beaches between Main and Goldenwest streets. Perhaps

year-round clean-ups are the only way to adequately solve this

problem.

* Main Street: Years ago Huntington Beach, having been voted one

of America’s safest cities and one of the best places to raise

children, attracted families to the shops and restaurants along Main

Street. Now, the shops and restaurants have given way to bar after

bar and the families have been replaced by crowds of drunken

revelers. The endless lists of DUI and underage drinking arrests

published in the Independent further attest to the type of crowd Main

Street’s establishments now cater to. Again, how can the city

continue to bill itself as a destination for families if the streets

of downtown continue to smell of vomit and urine?

* Street Cleaning: After busy summer days the sidewalks and

gutters are often overflowing with trash. Compounding the problem is

the fact that many city streets do not have a regular street sweeping

schedule. Therefore, trash from Fourth of July visitors continues to

litter the sidewalks, gutters and planters on these streets. Perhaps

the city just hopes the rain will wash the trash away -- right into

the storm drains and onto the beaches.

* Beach Path from 9th Street to Seapoint Avenue: Most coastal

cities take considerable pride in their beach path or boardwalk.

However judging from the current state of the path north of 9th

Street, perhaps Huntington Beach is one of the few that does not.

While the views are unmatched, the path remains in an embarrassing

state of disrepair. The railings are rusted, broken, or missing,

landscaping is neglected, graffiti covers the walls, and trash

litters the path and parking lots. The city spent lavishly on the

beaches fronting the new Hyatt resort, but virtually ignores the

rest. You would not find such conditions in Santa Monica, Manhattan

Beach, Newport Beach or any other coastal city appealing to tourist

dollars.

We are certainly not the first to be concerned about these issues,

however, given the city’s failure to address them, we must be the

first to share our concerns with the council. As the City Council has

billed Huntington Beach as a world-class destination, it has

neglected many of its constituents and many of the factors that made

the city such a desirable place. If the city is so willing to invest

our tax dollars to attract tourists to Huntington Beach, then it

should be equally willing to spend the money to clean up after them.

We hope the city will take prompt action to remedy these concerns.

Thank you.

* JASON, LYNN AND DANA UNGER are Huntington Beach residents. To

contribute to “Sounding Off” e-mail us at [email protected] or fax

us at (714) 965-7174.