Mailbag: Memorable story didn’t make the cut

Memorable story didn’t make the cut

What about the lady who drove around with the dead lady in her car for nine months? That was a pretty big story; made it nationwide (“Top 10 stories of 2010,” Dec. 26).

Jolly Joe, via DailyPilot.com

Gary Reasoner

Pilot coverage on constant decline

I am canceling my subscription to the Los Angeles Times primarily due to my disappointment with the Daily Pilot as a local news source. Local newspapers should be a source for local news that provide some investigative insight, with some ability to deliver balanced news focused on the local community. I get none of this from your paper. What I get is whatever the local municipalities deliver to the DP on a platter with no investigative effort. The Daily Pilot has failed to provide any reporting of substance on issues like the City Hall fiasco in Newport Beach, or the Newport Beach mooring issue.

In fact, on the mooring issue the DP has consistently misstated the facts and used the city as the primary source for the story. This was pointed out quite starkly in your recent “Top 10 stories of 2010” where the story was represented as the City Council challenging entrenched mooring holders who were selling access for tens of thousands of dollars. Facts like the city had been encouraging and formalizing the transfer process for the last 50-plus years and that as recently as 2004 the city itself was auctioning off moorings, by passing the existing transfer list were never investigated or fleshed out.

Your coverage of local elections is superficial at best. I’ve lived in Newport Beach for over 30 years and really have witnessed the decline of the Daily Pilot to the point it is useless as a source of information on the community.

Gary Reasoner

Newport Beach

Article failed to mention storm surge

According to county records, the tide has increased on the average of 1/16th (one sixteenth) of an inch per year, over the last 100 years (“Waters bringing worry,” Dec. 29). The article fails to speak the word “storm surge,” which was a huge contributing factor to the flooding. With mixed wind swell at eight to 10 feet coming into the harbor entrance, and the full moon high tide, well, we’ve done this drill before. A definite plan by the city pointing out what will be implemented by the rising of water needs to be spelled out now, not cheery lip service.

RandyBalboa, via DailyPilot.com