Letters to the Editor

Getting back to Newport’s business

I do not speak for the Yes On Measure B folks. I do not speak for the No On Measure B folks. Like you, I am simply a resident of Newport.

Good, bad, or indifferent, the outcome of Measure B has been decided. 

As my Dad would’ve said about management issues in the law firm with which he was affiliated: “Once a controversial issue in the firm has been discussed and resolved, it is time to put the issue behind you, to join hands, and to look forward – not back.”

So, it should be with the Newport Council’s business. Homelessness/Be Well/Bridge Shelter, the budget, capital improvement projects (including Junior Lifeguard building, library lecture hall, Balboa Library Branch/Fire Station replacement, drainage improvement projects, Friends of Newport Beach Animal Shelter, infrastructure, etc.), the drought, the library, unfunded pension liability, the return of tourism/hospitality, John Wayne Airport/Aviation Committee, our harbor, film festival, boat parade, COVID-19 pandemic, our parks, our departments and their directors and their valued staff/employees, RHNA/City’s Housing Element/General Plan Update, PD/FD issues, waste disposal, group residential uses, a myriad of commissions/committees, and many, many, many more issues to tackle.

Soldier on – with civility and collaboration. 

Or as author Paulo Coelho tells us in his 1993 classic The Alchemist: “When you can’t go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward.”

Paul K. Watkins

Newport Beach