Mailbag: Great Park needs a countywide voice

The new Irvine City Council majority (Steven Choi, Christina Shea and Jeff Lalloway) plan to eliminate public members from the Great Park Corp. board and give sole control of decisions affecting the park to the council. Since they now control the council, that means they can do whatever they want — sell off land, increase private development, limit public access or shut down the project entirely.

The Great Park is a regional treasure. The Great Park is not an Irvine city park. The board that guides the development of the park should come from all of Orange County. How did it happen that the five at-large members of the board are not representative of all Orange County? And how could it be that the Irvine City Council has the power to eliminate all of the current at-large members?

Susana Hegstrom

Newport Beach

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So long, Jack Wu

It saddens our hearts columnist Jack Wu is leaving the Daily Pilot! We always enjoyed his enthusiasm for our city issues. The reason to stay with the Los Angeles Times and the Pilot was Jack, I guess now we have to change our reading preferences. Jack would make a great Newport Beach councilman.

Jan New

Newport Beach

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Commentary offends

Re. “Commentary: How to control those annoying crows,” Dec. 27: Seriously? The Pilot running a commentary on shooting crows with BBs and slingshots? Isn’t this something if a teenage kid were doing it, the police would be out giving that kid a good talking to? You can kill birds with slingshots. Aside from that, why is the Pilot taking up valuable space in the paper with this sort of thing? Is there nothing better to run? I’m so disappointed in the Pilot and in Mr. Tom Egan, not to mention his action is excessive. Squirt guns or hoses would work fine. As for me, I happen to like crows, one of the most intelligent birds ever. When they’re outside my house, I actually like to watch them.

Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

Corona del Mar

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FOR THE RECORD:
A letter published in the Jan. 9 Daily Pilot Mailbag was substantially shortened and edited in a way that changed the context of the writer’s original opinion. Newport Beach resident Allen Drucker wrote the letter in the voice of what he deemed to be the accident victim. Changes made by the newspaper removed that context. The Pilot regrets the error.

Bike accident

Re. your story on Johnathan “Johnny” Coontz, “Local man marched to a different drummer,” (Dec. 31); Although it was nice to see you write that he was a “jokester and a skilled athlete,” and that he could strike “a cheater five position before backpedaling, then dropping back into a bottom turn” when surfing, I was extremely bummed out that you didn’t mention anything as to the details about how he was killed.

You said that he died after being hit by a bicyclist, but that was the extent of your in-depth reporting. What about the bicyclist? Don’t you think that something should have been written about this person?

Oh well, I guess it’s too much to ask that the media really dig into this story and tell the world what really happened. No, let’s not do anything to shine a negative light on a bicyclist. The Pilot should be ashamed not having covered this horrific story.

Allen Drucker

Newport Beach

Editor’s note: Police have not cited, charged or accused the bicyclist of wrongdoing in the accident.