EDITORIAL:

OK, enough with the past. Time to look ahead.

Will 2008 prove to be promising, exciting, exacerbating, tragic, triumphant?

Probably, like any year, all of the above. But that doesn’t mean we should be held hostage to the fates of time.

In fact, we have an impact. So in keeping with that spirit, we contemplated the Daily Pilot’s impact, and how to make it a positive one.

A good start, we thought, would be to publish our resolutions for the coming year:

 We resolve to continue covering the issues that affect your lives, and to cover them comprehensively, fairly and accurately.

Here are some: Where will a new city hall be built in Newport Beach? Will one get built at all? Will the City Council figure out a way to curtail the growing number of sober living homes on the Peninsula?

Will the Upper Bay get the continued care it needs? How will the City Council election in Costa Mesa go?

Will the council continue taking a hard-line approach to illegal immigration? How will our schools fare?

How will our sports teams perform? Where are the best places in Newport-Mesa to eat and party (note: a new Javier’s is set to open in Crystal Cove, tune in for more).

 We resolve to put out an informative and entertaining newspaper, and to deliver it in a timely fashion.

 We resolve to expand and improve our website, which has quickly become a community of its own for our readers — a place to debate the issues of the day, vote in online polls, submit items for publication and click your way through a plethora of information and visual delights.

And we’ll continue monitoring the site to weed out those who tend toward profanity and hate. You, our readers, have let us know in no uncertain terms that that kind of material does not facilitate debate, it merely ghetto-izes the free marketplace of ideas.

 We resolve to be at community events, in force, and to hold more “Chat with the Editors” get-togethers with readers (the inaugural one was held earlier this year) in ’08.

We feel confident we can keep these resolutions, which is why we kept them to four. But more is in store for the Daily Pilot, and we’ll keep you updated on all our fine-tunings as we go along.

And to all in the Newport-Mesa community, a safe New Year’s Eve and here’s looking forward to another unforgettable year.