Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Perverts Among Us
It seems like we spend a lot of time yapping about the
differences between Costa Mesa and Newport Beach these days.
Some of our local "leaders" seem determined to pry these
communities apart on a variety of issues rather than work hard
to combine our respective strengths to accomplish goals in which
we share an interest.
Newport Beach's population is roughly 2/3 that of Costa Mesa, yet property values are just about quadruple. Newport Beach's annual budget is 50% greater than Costa Mesa's. The list of "differences" goes on and on...
Costa Mesa has Newport Beach "beat" in one statistic, though - one in which I take absolutely no pride in reporting. Based on the official State of California Megan's Law web site (you will find a link to it on my Useful Links page), Newport Beach has 12 registered sex offenders while Costa Mesa has a whopping 96!
If you visit the site you can view maps - or a list, if you prefer - and see just where these "pillars of our community" live. In fact, in Costa Mesa there are actually clusters of these people scattered around our town, some frighteningly close to schools.
As you think about those numbers and feel your blood pressure rise, here's how we compare with some of our neighboring cities:
Costa Mesa - 96
Newport Beach - 12
Santa Ana - 285
Anaheim - 272
Huntington Beach - 98
Orange - 64
Tustin - 29
Fountain Valley - 29
Irvine - 25
I don't have a solution to this question, but it sure makes one nervous when you consider the large number of "group homes" in this city, too. These facilities - drug and alcohol rehabilitation sites - proliferate throughout our city and most are in otherwise quiet and peaceful residential neighborhoods. It's unlikely most of us would choose these kinds of facilities as neighbors, and sure wouldn't choose to raise families in neighborhoods with convicted sex offenders.
Perhaps our civic leaders should spend less time trying to figure a way to expel the Latinos in our city and more time finding ways to restrict the number of these kinds of facilities in our community. You can call me intolerant, but I don't want child molesters living in our city - anywhere.
11:23 pm pst
Newport Beach's population is roughly 2/3 that of Costa Mesa, yet property values are just about quadruple. Newport Beach's annual budget is 50% greater than Costa Mesa's. The list of "differences" goes on and on...
Costa Mesa has Newport Beach "beat" in one statistic, though - one in which I take absolutely no pride in reporting. Based on the official State of California Megan's Law web site (you will find a link to it on my Useful Links page), Newport Beach has 12 registered sex offenders while Costa Mesa has a whopping 96!
If you visit the site you can view maps - or a list, if you prefer - and see just where these "pillars of our community" live. In fact, in Costa Mesa there are actually clusters of these people scattered around our town, some frighteningly close to schools.
As you think about those numbers and feel your blood pressure rise, here's how we compare with some of our neighboring cities:
Costa Mesa - 96
Newport Beach - 12
Santa Ana - 285
Anaheim - 272
Huntington Beach - 98
Orange - 64
Tustin - 29
Fountain Valley - 29
Irvine - 25
I don't have a solution to this question, but it sure makes one nervous when you consider the large number of "group homes" in this city, too. These facilities - drug and alcohol rehabilitation sites - proliferate throughout our city and most are in otherwise quiet and peaceful residential neighborhoods. It's unlikely most of us would choose these kinds of facilities as neighbors, and sure wouldn't choose to raise families in neighborhoods with convicted sex offenders.
Perhaps our civic leaders should spend less time trying to figure a way to expel the Latinos in our city and more time finding ways to restrict the number of these kinds of facilities in our community. You can call me intolerant, but I don't want child molesters living in our city - anywhere.
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