latimes.com - Los Angeles Times

Two questions asked at a recent community meeting prompted these thoughts.

On June 16, the Newport Beach City Council voted unanimously to initiate an audit of the civic center project, which ended up costing about $140 million.

A unanimous Newport Beach City Council on June 16 approved a third-party audit of the Civic Center project. It was a wise and thoughtful decision by each of my fellow council members.

Opinions on undergrounding are charged on both sides

America has certainly got a long and, well, really quite appealing history of rambling around.

The tree demolition event May 28 at the Balboa Peninsula Point, which resulted in the deaths of nesting egrets and herons, outraged neighborhood residents and bird advocates, who view the act as unthinkable and avoidable.

On June 15, a Newport Beach town hall meeting was held to discuss the fate of the St. James the Great Episcopal Church. The meeting room overflowed with parishioners clad in bright-red shirts that proclaimed "Save St. James the Great."

Re: "Time capsule from 1965 and 1990 surfaces at Estancia High " (June 17):

When my wife was a teenager, she became very concerned with her weight. But her mother told her not to worry. Why? Because she knew her daughter was too astute to let her weight get out of control.

St. James the Great Episcopal Church has been a part of the community for 70 years. It is a beautiful structure for the neighborhood and not an outdated relic.

While Councilwoman Diane Dixon's commentary ( "The Civic Center audit will provide a necessary third-party review") in the June 25 edition of the Daily Pilot was much appreciated, keeping everything in perspective is important in terms of the need for the unanimous approval by the council to conduct such an audit.

Online video reflects meeting's pro-undergrounding bias

Re: "Commentary: Outside pressures contributed to civic center's rising costs" (June 28):

Barbara Venezia wrote a column June 19 about Newport Beach Mayor Pro Tem Diane Dixon, a self-proclaimed reform candidate who voted to increase spending ("Mayor Pro Tem Dixon's team spirit questioned").

A city the size of Bishop in population is about to be built on the last few acres of coastal open space in Orange County. The enormous development is proceeding to approval under the radar of many residents of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

I'm puzzled by the Irvine council's decision not to nickle-and-dime small-business owners by charging $51 for a business license, while everyday residents cover the general fund shortfall.

The signature-gathering phase of the undergrounding petitions in Assessment District 114 and 118 — both Newport Heights areas — is coming to a close.

Maybe we should make legal “the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air” on Independence Day. That thought kept running through my head while watching — no, make that experiencing — Saturday night's fireworks extravaganza in my neighborhood.