El Toro Plan One of Board’s Mistakes

Your editorial (“El Toro: Still an Open Question,” April 19) is absolutely correct, when you said, “We had the cart before the horse” with the El Toro airport issue. That same reason is why the panicky South County folks are trying everything but a constitutional amendment to block an El Toro commercial airport that they must imagine will look like LAX.

In fact, no one knows what kind of airport can be planned, or even if one could be built, that would have the necessary minimal negative impact on surrounding residents. Lawsuits and referendums are useless at this time, because there is nothing to object to, yet.

The Times would have us believe Measure A is to blame. It isn’t. Measure A is the effect, the wishy-washy (Thomas) Riley-era supervisors are the cause. They were too busy trying not to embarrass the old general for his $89-million mistake at John Wayne to provide the leadership required to find out if an El Toro airport was feasible. This is same bunch that said, “Gee, we don’t understand derivatives let good old boy Bob handle it, it’s not our problem.”

Measure A was the only option available at the time, considering the waffling by the Board of Supervisors. Unfortunately, it’s now the board’s job to get us out of this mess. That’s the worst part of Measure A--it expects the board to do its job. What are the odds of that happening?

MICHAEL STEINER

Newport Beach