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Mailbag: Recycling center gets a raw deal

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Does anyone else find it sad that the Garcia Recycling Center in Costa Mesa (let alone the absence of any in Newport Beach) has been forced to move out of the city?

In an article, the Daily Pilot wrote, it was stated that “a few people had complained” about the homeless loitering around the recycling area (“Recycling center canned,” Nov. 27).

When is it OK for the city to shut down a business, or do anything for that matter, after a “few people” complain? I do find it interesting that they would close down a business because of homeless people loitering, when, in fact, it’s most likely because the soup kitchen is located right across the street.

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When we purchase an item, we the consumer, pay a CRV tax, which is giving us the option to either pay the tax or recycle and get the tax back, right?

More importantly, aren’t we supposed to be conscientious about the planet and the amount of waste we create and throw away? When we all recycle, it gives us a chance to teach our kids about being conscientious, doesn’t it? How about the child that recycles to earn money for something they want? How about taking the money and choosing to do with it as we please?

What if we chose to take the money and donate it to the homeless or any charity for that matter? The bigger picture is there are so many lessons and choices that we, as citizens, are having taken away from us.

It seems to me this is another way for our government to double tax us. We should have the option to recycle or not; we should not be forced to drive to Garden Grove to do it.

Kathy Shaw

Newport Beach

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Bike lanes need to be completely separate

Another tragic death of a bicycle rider. Last month, it was an 8-year-old riding to school. Then, a rider on a Newport Coast road (“Killed cyclist owned a Newport Beach travel agency,” Feb. 23). These are not isolated incidents. We read about fatal bicycle-car accidents all too often.

When are we going to disabuse ourselves of the ludicrous notion that bicycles can share roads built for cars? What makes people think that riding a bike alongside 1- to 2-ton vehicles hurtling along at speeds of 30 to 50 mph is a good idea? You are oftentimes close enough to reach out and touch the cars as they streak by you. And you think you are safe just because the city has painted a line on the street to create a 4-foot lane “just for you”? Really?

Until actual lane-divider barriers are installed, or bike lanes are completely separate from the roadway, it is foolhardy to presume you have any protection while on your bike just because there is a line painted on the road. Maybe the families of the bike riders should start suing cities for painting a line on the road, implicitly encouraging people to place themselves in mortal danger.

Bikes and cars “sharing the road” is a really bad idea.

W.R. Stratton

Costa Mesa

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