Mailbag: Viewpoints on ‘Bunnyhenge’ keep multiplying

Jan Rainbird’s recent Forum comments regarding the proposed removal of the Newport Beach City Hall bunnies and “the petty, penurious mind-set of our current right wing” sound as if they could have been lifted from a Students for a Democratic Society handbook during the 1960s [“Mailbag: Bunnies add cultural value,” Jan. 1].

So it’s a right-wing plot, is it? OK, I agree. Let’s keep those concrete bunnies where they are, but understand the point of all this ongoing bunny controversy. Of course that point is: Couldn’t our last City Council regime have spent a quarter million dollars of Newport Beach taxpayer money more wisely?

This is part of Team Newport’s platform, and it’s called fiscal responsibility and accountability.

Kent Moore

Corona del Mar

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OK, the bunny statues were a great campaign symbol for excessive spending by the former Newport Beach City Council. However, they are here. The kids and some adults like, even love, them.

Before this erupts into an emotional issue with people yelling, kids crying and people chaining themselves to bunnies, let’s move on to more important issues and leave the poor rabbits alone. This is a conflict that will probably consume an enormous amount of wasted energy before it is settled to no one’s satisfaction.

Carolyn L. Carr

Newport Beach

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With the new City Council ranting against the Civic Center bunnies, I am deeply concerned about our beloved Mariners Park dolphins. Could they be next on the council’s agenda?

Paul Kuhn

Newport Beach

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I am hoping that the focus on the Newport Beach Civic Center bunnies is a media invention and not a real City Council issue.

Surely the new council can take on other costly items that don’t benefit many of us in the way the bunnies do.

How about the harbor-dredging costs? Or the low dock fees? I don’t personally care one way or another about the fire rings, but I understand the city is providing charcoal for the users.

Leave the bunnies alone. They are small potatoes compared to the many budgetary issues that face a city. Many of us love them and the light touch they add to our image.

Annie Jelnick

Corona del Mar

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My family and I have never been fans of what we refer to as the “creepy bunnies.” But for better or worse, the bunnies are here, they’re paid for and some folks seem to like them.

So instead of burning even more cash to remove them, I say leave them as a reminder of City Hall’s wasteful past.

Elliott A. Lowe

Newport Beach

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Earth to Team Newport: Forget the bunnies and address real fiscal problems, like the towering costs of current salaries and retirement benefits for city employees.

Ruth Westphal

Newport Beach

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I love the bunnies. It’s about time we who live in Newport Beach learn to laugh at ourselves.

Too much noise about dock taxes, developers and fire rings. Not enough noise about the foibles that make us human. Let’s leave the bunnies for the kids and move on.

Incidentally, the other art installations at the Civic Center aren’t so bad either. I like trying to figure out how to appreciate different forms of art that are another expression of the human spirit.

Bette Ross

Newport Beach

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Does our City Council have nothing better to do than fret over the bunnies? Maybe we elected the wrong people.

Lilian Singelyn

Newport Beach

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Is it too soon to think recall? The recent article regarding “Bunnyhenge” could be also be titled “Bunnymania” or “Peotter’s Priorities.”

Managing Newport Beach is a complex undertaking, and the City Council has a limited amount of time to attend to it.

Scott Peotter’s first act as a new councilman was to ask his minister to provide a second invocation to begin the meeting, which resulted in a lengthy lecture regarding leadership. When asked to put forth his focus items for the next council meeting, Peotter had two things: Bring wood back to the fire rings, and have the city attorney update the policy pertaining to invocations to allow a broader interpretation.

We also know from Peotter’s campaign video that he likes to symbolically blow up images meant to depict the bunny sculptures. I’m not sure how the children of our community would feel about blowing up bunnies, but it hardly seems like the Christian thing to do.

I don’t know what the waiting period is before we can begin a recall campaign, but perhaps during that probationary period Peotter’s priorities can be redirected to matters of importance to the city.

Dudley Johnson

Newport Beach