Importance of the ‘Big Picture’ in Transportation Planning

Your editorial “Consolidation Barriers Fall” (Sept. 6) does a disservice to Orange County cities by suggesting that the merger of the county’s transportation agency functions will require municipalities to look at the “big picture.”

In fact, Orange County’s 29 cities have had the “big picture” in focus for quite some time. Through the Orange County Division, League of California Cities, our local cities have worked cooperatively on the vast store of countywide issues that transcend jurisdictional boundaries.

Just three weeks ago, for example, our division accepted a single-room-occupancy residential housing guide that is designed to stimulate interest in housing that would be available to very low-income residents. We believe this “cookbook” for cities will lead to new housing opportunities that haven’t been available in our county.

Just two weeks ago, the City-County Coordination Committee accepted a report and recommendations on establishing decentralized detoxification facilities, or sobering-up stations, around the county to handle public inebriates who are no longer accepted at the County Jail. This effort was initiated by cities last year and will culminate, we believe, in viable programs to address this countywide problem.

Cities have also demonstrated their willingness to address issues such as transportation on a sub-regional basis. For example, the Inter-City Liaison Committee, which includes the cities of Irvine, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Tustin and Laguna Beach, has been meeting monthly for a number of years to coordinate transportation projects affecting those communities and centered on the airport area.

Perhaps if your reporters spent as much time investigating the countywide efforts of the Orange County Division as they clearly spend covering the Board of Supervisors, then you might find that the gray cloud you seem to detect often has a silver lining.

Orange County cities are up to the challenge of working with the “big picture.” We’ve been transmitting it for years, albeit apparently without a great deal of attention.

PATRICIA McGUIGAN

President,

Orange County Division

League of California Cities