Argyros Should Look Elsewhere

* George Argyros (“The Leader of the Pack in El Toro Dogfight,” May 10) presumes to decide what is best for the common folk while trying to construct a legacy for which he will be remembered.

The injustice is that so many South County citizens would have to suffer innumerable hardships from this airport project to feed his need for immortality.

He has stated this project “is for my children and my children’s children.”

But what of our children? Their ability to learn in the schools impacted will be severely diminished. Study at home will be difficult. Family life will be disrupted. Perhaps they will not even be able to sleep at night.

This article refers to Argyros “creating a lasting imprint.” That imprint would be on the backs of South County citizens, and we will not allow this to happen. Argyros will have to buy his legacy elsewhere.

RICHARD W. LUBLINE

Aliso Viejo

* George Argyros is buying himself an airport to be “remembered by” and to ensure the county’s economy will grow. So if the El Toro Marine base had continued, then the county would be doomed because there would be no international airport for the economy to grow? Oh, please!

The arguments against the airport have been discussed at length. Residents continue to voice their opposition to jumbo jets landing and taking off in their bedroom community. Airline pilots’ associations have voiced serious concerns about the safety of such a proposal for numerous reasons. The county environmental impact report that was submitted has been ruled flawed.

The taxpaying residents want to protect the biggest investment of their lives--their homes.

The residents support the Millennium Plan--no airport. Recent presentations to angry residents by the county and the El Toro Reuse Planning Authority have emphatically proved that the Millennium Plan is the best and most profitable choice for the county. After all, it is the “American dream” to own a home that you can actually live in and enjoy.

GLENDA N. MADDOX

Irvine

* You summed it up beautifully in one paragraph. The Newport Beach residents would lead cleaner, quieter lives without the spewing exhaust on their homes. Let’s instead permanently pollute the Saddleback Valley.

The quality of life we have known here our entire lives will be lost forever. No amount of “generated income” from the proposed airport will ever make up for the increase in air pollution, noise pollution, additional traffic, increase of crime, loss of property value, disruption of classroom instruction. The list is never-ending. These are all the reasons that most of the population has moved here instead of under the flight path of Los Angeles International Airport.

Argyros is also looking for fame and a personal legacy under the guise of progress. This is a case where the price of so-called progress is much too high to pay.

RICHARD STEWART

Laguna Niguel

* One of George Argyros’ particular visions seems to be that of changing south Orange County from a pleasant residential community to an urban industrial complex and airport center. Think of El Segundo, next to Los Angeles International Airport, for a sharper image of this vision.

But it stretches the imagination to think that by doing this his name will be held in the same high esteem as someone who contributes to the creation of a museum, performing arts complex, recreational facility or charitable foundation.

ROBERT VOGEL

Irvine

* Oh, for the good old days of editors and proofreaders who checked the copy for accuracy before it was immortalized in print!

We’ve had a lot of fun over the years with the errors that find their way into newspapers in this era of computers and spell-checkers; but the one that showed up in the May 10 story about George Argyros and the El Toro airport took the prize.

Your story about an encounter he had with Mission Viejo Mayor Susan Withrow some years ago includes this wonderful [phrase]: “. . . ending with a flushed Argyros and an aggravated Withrow trading crude epitaphs. . . .”

Creating crude epitaphs? Somehow they all come out as crude epithets.

CLARICE GARFIN

Laguna Beach