Mailbag: Permit parking comes with a big payoff — places to park

Why should I pay to park my car in front of my house (“Residents near Balboa Village polled on parking,” Feb. 20)? I’ve lived here for 40 years and now the city wants to charge me to park my car. Ridiculous. It’s the principle of the thing.

I’ve heard such comments and more from indignant Newport Beach residents living in the targeted area. If paying to park on the street were really the issue, I would find these negative responses quite reasonable.

But look at it from a different perspective. Parking permits are not about residents paying to park their cars, but rather about them paying to not have someone else park where the residents would like to park. Here is a successful example in our city: Residents near Newport Harbor High School pay a permit fee so that kids don’t fill up their streets with cars while school is in session.

The idea behind the Balboa Village residential permit parking program is to redirect people visiting the area at night to more-appropriate public parking.

Overnight Catalina Flyer patrons, fishermen, employees of the village and the bar crowd routinely work our streets for free parking. The things that go on from midnight to 2 a.m. are unprintable. Cruising increases noise and pollution.

For the price of a moderately priced dinner out, we could have a little more peace and quiet, increased property values and maybe a place to park at night for a whole year.

Jim Stratton

Newport Beach

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Proposal is an assault on property rights

The intention of the Balboa overlay is to strip property rights from building owners.

If passed, it would mean that Newport Beach can essentially come up with rules and regulations on a whim and nobody is protected. Grandfathering would be a thing of the past.

Say I started a bar in the 1970s. I would probably be able to serve legally from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. This is a property right that runs with the building, not with the business.

If I had started a bar last year, the city would probably tell me that I can’t be open beyond 11 p.m. If it becomes 9 p.m. in the future, I still get grandfathered in — because it is a property right.

These property rights weigh heavily in the sales of property. Investors would look at property for its earning potential and the rights vested with it.

As a homeowner, if you have a wood-burning fireplace today it is because they are grandfathered in. You could not build one in a new home here today. However, you can keep the wood-burning fireplace because it is a vested property right.

Note that while the official debate is about businesses open past 11 p.m., if an overlay district is approved, it would set the foundation to strip any vested property rights from any property owner in the district.

Councilwoman Diane Dixon wrote in a Feb. 27 Daily Pilot commentary that she wanted to “find a way to apply the current rules and codes governing alcohol selling to older clubs and bars that were ‘grandfathered’ under the new regulations, perhaps by the use of a zoning overlay or similar planning mechanism.”

Dave Kiff has been quoted as saying the council could decide to hold older bars and eateries to the same new regulations.

Magically removing property rights through zoning overlays or any other planning mechanism is not something to be brought up casually. For city officials to even mention the possibility of stripping vested property rights is horrifying, to say the least.

Michael Glenn

Newport Beach

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Fond memories of karate master

I enjoyed Michael Miller’s piece on sansei Fumio Demura (“Master brings years of kung fu training to city,” Feb. 11).

He’s a wonderful teacher who finds the fun in learning the discipline and understands respect for the martial arts.

It’s been well past three decades since I met the man. I was editor of Fighting Stars magazine, a sister publication of Karate Illustrated and other martial-arts-inspired publications. But our introduction was much more up-close and personal.

Demura came at the behest of our publisher, also a black belt, to teach us karate periodically at our office in Burbank during lunch breaks.

I recall being a fledgling white belt throwing punches into his stomach during drills and katas, a type of movement exercise. My hand and wrist hurt far more than the blows I delivered as he smiled at my efforts.

Despite his Hollywood connections, Demura remained modest and focused on encouraging his students’ pursuit of the arts. It is wonderful that he’s being honored, and I’m glad to see him looking so well at age 76.

Benjamin Singer

Huntington Beach