Disney Plans for New Park

* Re “Disney Park to Celebrate Golden State,” July 18:

Here we go again. Now that Orange County has “recovered,” it is back to business as usual. Why am I not surprised that the “abandoned” Disney project has been revived and that a greatly expanded convention center is being justified on the grounds of competitive necessity?

And where is the role of public money in all this? Now that we have been forced to listen once again to grandly optimistic projections of jobs and revenues, I hope The Times will continue to examine all the funding and more realistic expectations for the outcome.

Two continuing themes resonate. A very wealthy and profitable corporation is receiving substantial government assistance at all levels on a project it could afford to fund itself, a project that by all descriptions will enhance its profits. The other side of this question is to what other uses this government largess might be put. The same boring lists: health care, education, libraries, job training, to name a few.

Second, public funds are being directed to projects of dubious need, and especially in the case of Disney, a project that a substantial portion of the public cannot afford: The last time I looked, Disneyland tickets were well in excess of $30. This is reminiscent of the vast public funds continually directed toward professional sports facilities with similarly high ticket prices.

Where will the convention center madness end? Continual nationwide races to have the biggest and best?

TONY BARNARD

San Pedro