Look to City Council as Problem Cause

The financially troubled and overcrowded Newport-Mesa Unified School District is looking at Costa Mesa’s commercial projects for tax revenues.

The district should look first, if not solely, at the City Council’s liberal housing, welfare and employment policies that have unnaturally force-fed our overcrowding.

These well-intentioned but negative programs are HUD block grants, the low-success Job Center, excess rentals, subsidized housing, developer density bonuses and direct aid to charities, however worthy, that refuse to screen out non-city residents and non-U.S. citizens.

These are City Council--not federal or state policies--which few concerned, informed Costa Mesans would support.

Far more than commercial projects, these policies are causing our high crime, density and immigration (problems), budgetary shortfalls and rising service costs through police, fire, hospitals, welfare and overcrowded or reopened schools.

So, let’s be honest. Look at the real cause of the problem. Tax the five council members and the misguided, misinformed groups that endorse and elect them mainly on irrelevant issues without a thorough background check.

Tax the special interests and those so-called conservative Republican, residential and responsible growth groups.

CHRIS M. STEEL

Costa Mesa