Surprise! There Are Latinos Here

* Shortly after former Costa Mesa Mayor Peter Buffa announced his intention to “revitalize” Costa Mesa’s west side, I stated that the ultimate outcome of this would be to oust the area’s largely poor Latino population in favor of expensive stores and homes for Buffa’s country club buddies.

Lo and behold, that is exactly what the city’s consultants have proposed.

Now, after public pressure has been brought to bear by Hispanic activists, the city has magnanimously offered to allow a Latino “advisory committee” a chance to look at the plans and offer opinions (“Latino Input Sought on Renewal,” Sept. 13).

Of course, despite the fact that Costa Mesa has a long and well-documented history of discrimination against Hispanics, from public policies to City Hall’s hiring and promotion practices, city officials take no responsibility for the lack of Latino involvement up to this point.

City Manager Allan Roeder states disingenuously that “we’re not sure that anybody has a really good, solid handle on what the demographics are.”

Are we expected to believe that Roeder doesn’t know the demographics of the city for which he’s been the manager for over a decade?

I suppose it’s not inconceivable. He didn’t know enough to have the consultants take the west side’s ethnic makeup into account when drawing up their redevelopment plans. So now he’s going to recruit students from Irvine, the UC campus with the least number of Latinos, to do a demographic study. (Typical).

The lack of leadership Roeder exhibits is appalling, and it’s high time to replace him and give Costa Mesa the type of forward-thinking, on-the-ball city manager it deserves.

Maybe then our city’s cultural diversity can be maintained and we Latinos won’t be zoned out of existence.

ART ACOSTA

Costa Mesa