Mailbag: Thanks to the Newport water committee

Recently, outgoing Mayor Nancy Gardner, chairwoman of the longstanding city of Newport Beach Coastal/Bay Water Quality Citizens Advisory Committee, announced the committee no longer exists. A new committee will be formed and will be called the City of Newport Beach Water Quality/Coastal Tidelands Management Committee, after a new-member selection review.

Some have held a seat since the committee was formed in 1985, some have passed, and some have moved on. This committee has been a huge plus about putting Newport Beach in the limelight as frontrunners for water quality without any publicity or public kudos. Newport Bay has been coveted as a spectacular recreation bay with an endless love from its community. Many battles have been fought and won in our bay and coastal areas for protection, setting state standards and EPA guidelines.

If the city won’t thank these many brilliant focused citizens (the “Who’s Who” of water quality) with a real heartfelt soul for our bay, then I’d like to.

Thank you to all the great folks and friends who have worked so hard together in the main trenches for the betterment of Newport Beach, bay, coastal areas and watersheds. You have been our helping guide, with trend-setting solutions for reducing water pollution, educating the public and promoting water conservation systems that have made notable reductions. My hat’s always off to you with a smile, and deep gratitude for you as fellow watermen. Thank you for your selfless commitment to the City of Newport Beach, its citizens, commerce and its coastal/bay waters.

Randy Seton

Newport Beach

Travel writers on N.B.

Please share the news that the Newport Beach Boat Parade has been named one of the “Top 10” lesser-known (but just as bright!) holiday lights travel sites by the Society of American Travel Writers, North America’s largest and most prestigious association of travel experts. Please share this news with Daily Pilot readers. Thank you!

Peggy Bendel

Society of American Travel Writers

Trickle-down economics don’t

This is a short response to Chriss Street’s lengthy commentary, “The U.S.’s return to supply-side economics,” published in the Dec. 16 Daily Pilot. Street, like Rip van Winkle, must have just woken up from a long sleep. Supply-side economics, or its more colloquially named twin, trickle-down economics, had a long and sustained run since 1981. We are all living with the dire results of this totally discredited hoax, which resulted in the sustained plunder of the public purse. The elections are now over, with a resounding defeat for what President George H.W. Bush used to refer to as “voodoo economics.” It is time for the Republicans to move on to the next big scam masquerading as a solution to the nation’s problems. Whatever happened to the Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt? What I see is a party without a soul, without shame and without scruples!

Jamshed Dastur

Newport Beach