Category: Opinion

Robin Doyno’s recent letter Editor: In Robin Doyno’s August 19 letter to the editor complaining of the current Mar Vista Community Council’s Committee structure and meeting schedules he fails to mention that: 1. He served on the board of the Mar Vista Community Council in 2015 . 2. In October 2015 he was appointed chair of the then named Homeless Issues Committee . 3. That he was on the 2021 slate presented by the Democratic Socialists of America for an at-large director seat on the Mar Vista Community Council and lost. 4. That he is presently on the board as chief financial officer, treasurer and community outreach director of the HousingMV (Mar Vista) seeking a 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in 2021. Mr. Doyno had every opportunity to effect change in Mar Vista’s solution to the unhoused crisis but failed and is now using the structure of a possible 501(c)(3) to perpetuate the enabling of the no rules and no responsibility persons sucking at the teat of the publicly funded trough. Meanwhile, he/they and the current councilmen have no solution for the mentally ill, addicted and criminal elements of the unhoused other than build high-rise half-million dollar units for everyone. Or maybe place all, with proposition HHH or Measure H money, into the midst of the shrinking low-rise Mar Vista apartment affordable stock and soon to be eliminated single family neighborhoods...

Considering the open Main Street pilot program Editor: When alfresco outdoor dining on Main Street was first mentioned 14 months ago as COVID-19 mitigation indoor closures were announced, I thought, “What a fine idea. Restaurants can continue to operate with customers spread out, safely social distanced in plenty of fresh air enjoying our mostly fine weather. Main Street can take on some of the piazza character with sidewalk dining like I’d enjoyed touring Europe on my motorcycle half a century before.” But when the PowerPoint slide deck showed car and bicycle thru lanes bifurcating the space, slashing the heart out of the potential pedestrian walkway and corralling the dining areas in narrow parklets spread along the former curbside parking spaces — my spirits fell. Lost were the potential for replacement seating capacity to keep the restaurants and their help profitably employed, along with the potential space to spread out safely in the open air to mitigate community virus transmission potential. What a thoughtless design decision they made! More than a year later, the “Sharing an Open Main Street” experimental pilot program was approved, financed to the tune of $70,000, and planning began as a joint effort between the leadership of the Ocean Park Association (OPA) and the Main Street Business Improvement Association (MSBIA ) for four “Pilot Program” experimental weekends of car-free Main Street commercial and community activities. Again...

Letter responding to recall letter from last week Editor: I wholeheartedly agree with Tim Tunks’ letter last week regarding the upcoming recall election. It could end in complete disaster for the 5th largest economy in the world if this stunt works. First of all, for the record, notice how nobody has questioned the signatures received to make this election happen because most of us trust the election process even though abusing a recall provision for political purposes is elitist and cunning. In addition, it is costing the taxpayers $276 million dollars, so what happened to the “fiscal conservatives?” Secondly, the height of elitism is thinking that the minority knows better than the 62% majority of California voters who voted for Governor Newsom. This elitism also shows up around the country with gerrymandering, voter suppression laws, the electoral college, corporatist judges, campaign bribes, and lobbyists. Of course this almost religious elitism stems from the “Atlas Shrugged and trickle-down” farce, which promotes that there are only a handful of people holding the economy together, and if they leave us, then we are doomed. There are literally millions of entrepreneurs and businesses who would just love to take their place. This idea that “everyone is leaving California” so that the 5th largest economy in the world needs to entice them to stay with big tax cuts is a lie. This is a political talking point for deep pockets...

Be sure to vote in this stupid but vitally important election Editor: A hundred years ago California added a recall provision for elected office holders so that crooks could be thrown out if they were discovered to be unfit office holders. Unfortunately, the provision was poorly crafted and the result is that our elected state governor could easily be removed and replaced by a candidate with a much smaller share of the votes. If governor Newsom gets less than 50 percent of the cast votes, he must vacate his office. Then whichever of the 47 gets the most votes will be our governor — regardless of their qualifications or whatever actions they’d promote. I can easily understand how many people have their own reasons not to love our governor, but that alone is no reason to vote “Yes, throw the bum out.” Even if you are a strongly partisan Republican who looks upon this as the only foreseeable chance for California to have a Republican governor, you should not risk the future of our state by placing an unqualified person in the driver’s seat of the very complex vehicle California has become. In Texas and Florida, we have already seen culture wars produce nutty government opposition to sensible Covid mitigation. Voting “Yes” to replace Newsom without being entirely certain a fully qualified leader from the pack of 47 will replace him is the...