Coast Guard Protest

The Port District should quit harassing Capt. David Andrews, commandant of the San Diego Coast Guard Station, over the proposed location of the America’s Cup facilities (“Protest Over Site Holds Up Center for America’s Cup,” April 20).

The Coast Guard has an important mission to perform. You can’t expect a top-quality professional response when it comes to drug smuggling or a rescue at sea and then second-guess the commandant when he says that the tall masts of the racing yachts will be a hazard for helicopters landing and taking off from the Coast Guard Station next to the proposed Cup facilities.

The suggestion of one commissioner that their own “expert” be hired instead is insulting and absurd.

Well, we can’t have it both ways. Encroachment is a constant rear guard action our military bases have to fight. Public lands should be used for public purposes, not to help private investors make money.

EMILY A. DURBIN

Sierra Club