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Letters to the Editor: When will something be done about JWA flights?

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I live in Dover Shores in Newport Beach, and I’m concerned about the increasing noise and pollution created by the current John Wayne Airport flight path, which apparently abandons all prior noise abatement plans such as having planes accelerate to a higher level when ascending over residential neighborhoods and “fanning” the flight paths to avoid concentrating all noise/pollution in one area.

When a plane roars over our homes, it interrupts all outdoor activities, halts conversations, requires one to raise the volume on TVs, etc. Our homes seem to literally shake when a plane flies overhead. In addition to the poor air quality this air traffic causes in our area, “airplane goo” drops onto our homes and patio furniture, and is ingested into our bodies, every day.

As air travel increases, which is JWA’s long term plan, Dover Shores will become a less desirable place to live, resulting in less property taxes for the city. The Balboa Bay, Newport Back Bay and the Dunes will be less attractive places for tourists to visit, resulting in less tourist revenue. And our waterways and Back Bay nature preserve sites will be a far less inviting habitat for the indigenous wildlife that the environmentalist are trying to save.

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Can you please tell me what is being done to alleviate, or at the very least, address these flight path issues affecting the Dover Shores area?

Robin P. Wright

Newport Beach

Scott Peotter is long on rhetoric, short on results

Public pressure forced Newport Beach Councilman Scott Peotter to abandon his foolish “political protest” of refusing $480,000 in gas tax (SB-1) funds for local streets in order to “send a message” to Sacramento. This would have cost Newport Beach $1.9 million next year if it had continued, according to the the Orange County Transportation Authority. The gas tax debacle is only the latest example of Poetter’s fiscal recklessness and irresponsibility.

In 2015, he proposed refunding the Civic Center debt, even in light of a financial advisor’s report that showed his idea would cost $20 million more in debt service.

At the same time, he criticized the call features of the civic center debt, even when the same financial advisor showed in the report that changing the provision as Peotter would have wanted would have increased debt service by $719,000 annually for a minimum period of 10 years — or $7,190,000.

In 2015, out of the blue, he proposed reducing the business license fees by $3.5 million, creating an immediate deficit in the city budget. Even the business community did not support this imprudent action.

He proposed arbitrarily adding $5 million to the 2015-16 budget for “sea walls.” This was around $4 million more than staff said could be reasonably spent and more than $2 million over the ultimate budget for these improvements. Here again, he would have created a budget deficit.

Peotter voted to abandon litigation and award more than $300,000 to the owners of Woody’s Wharf, major Peotter campaign donors.

While Peotter has been long on partisan rhetoric, he has been short on real results. The city’s pension liabilities have grown about $70 million since he took office and the operating budget has grown each year he has been on the council.

The near loss of our street improvement funds to political posturing and game playing show us how important it is to have thoughtful, responsible leaders on the City Council, not political ideologues. We simply cannot afford more of Scott Peotter. Go to recallscottpeotter.com for more information.

Becky Hill

Corona del Mar

How to get published: Email us at dailypilot@latimes.com. All correspondence must include full name, hometown and phone number (for verification purposes). The Pilot reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity and length.

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