Great Park or greater fiasco?

Re “Irvine’s Great Park hasn’t exactly earned its name,” April 12

I read with a great deal of shock your story about the lack of progress on the Great Park at El Toro Marine base. I was shocked that anyone really believed that the park would happen in the first place. I also was shocked that the shortsighted attitude of the people in south Orange County deprived us of a badly needed international airport. We can look forward to years of idle property and further hopeless congestion in airports throughout Southern California.

Arthur Friedman

Newport Beach

The Great Park fiasco should be a warning to local officials nationwide of the danger of funding public/private projects with bonds to be repaid by the value generated by new homes or rentals over 20 years or more. The American 20th century experience was an anomaly and should be treated by governments and builders as such. The environmental factors that are assumed to underpin bonds for the Great Park project are no longer operative.

Orange County is lucky to have a second chance at rethinking this project. I hope that it, and local officials nationwide, will seriously consider what kind of dwellings will be desirable to live in 20 years from now, while we still have abundant energy to do so.

Danila Oder

Los Angeles