Mailbag: Little bang for annual state beach pass

Re. “Cost of state beach parking increases,” April 26:

I honestly don’t think the state knows what it is doing. Here is its pricing for the last few years: $75 in 1996; then, in the “good times” for the state, they dropped the price of the pass to $35 in 2001; then it was up to $67 in 2003 and $125 in 2004, and now $195? Why not $500?

They as a state just keep grabbing figures out of the sky. It’s too bad we don’t get something for our money since we have some of the dirtiest beaches (come down after the Fourth of July and the 909ers go home) compared to other states, and that is because they keep cutting back on the state personnel who clean up.

Maybe for the $195, they can buy sack lunches and have prisoners clean the beaches.

Gary Arneson

Huntington Beach

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Council makes mistake again on center

The five-member majority of the City Council did it again (“Senior center report passes,” April 19).

They, for the third time, voted to approve a flawed community center in Huntington Central Park. Did we even expect a different result? Councilman Joe Carchio asked how much the city had had to pay already for the successful lawsuit against the city for the senior center. The city attorney replied that it was about $750,000.

Carchio asked how much it would cost if the city were sued again. The city attorney replied that it would likely be between $75,000 and $100,000. With that in mind, Don Hansen, Keith Bohr, Matthew Harper, Devin Dwyer and Carchio voted to approve the flawed environmental impact report.

Only Connie Boardman and Joe Shaw, as usual, sensibly voted no.

The alternative they should have chosen is to demolish the senior center on 17th Street, which is on land that is dedicated to the city and zoned for a senior center. It’s a whole city block.

Build a senior center, not a palace in the park as proposed now. Seniors can walk to it, as they do now.

Well, November is the city’s only hope.

Eileen Murphy

Huntington Beach

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Council made the humane choice

The Huntington Beach City Council should be congratulated for drafting an ordinance to ban the sale of dogs and cats (“Council: phase out pet sales,” April 19) without driving existing pet shop owners out of business.

While the unconditional love dogs and cats give their owners is a great thing, many people buy pets without thinking about their preparedness and commitment to give pets a good permanent home in return.

Thousands of abandoned animals regularly euthanized in shelters or suffering starvation, fear and death on the roads is proof of human neglect and treatment of animals as a commodity. On top of that, mass breeding of animals under inhumane conditions is also well known.

Let prepared and committed pet owners go to animal shelters to rescue perfectly healthy dogs, cats and other animals from untimely death, and get their blessings and love for doing that. Let us minimize the misery of animals in our society.

Maneck Bhujwala

Huntington Beach