Here is another roundup of some of the most thought-provoking reader comments of the week. Click on each topic’s headline to see the article in question. Comments are selected by our editors and subject to editing for grammar, spelling, clarity and length.
Settlement in Police Beating Death
I am glad that Fullerton had to pay [a cash settlement to the mother of Kelly Thomas]. I think they got off easy at $1 million. I hope they use better judgment from now on and not hire bullies.
I am so sad and upset that this is what our wonderful country has come too. My parents taught me to respect police officers. They even went so far as to tell me to trust them if I needed help. That video [of the beating] broke my heart. It’s time, people, that the police know the law applies to them as well.
I want to thank the Fire Department for having the heart to treat Mr. Thomas like the human being he was.
— OCmom / May 21
‘Grindle Again Reverses Stance on Sidhu Contributions‘
That’s a cheap-shot headline that makes it seem that Shirley Grindle is losing her marbles.
I am glad to report that she looked and sounded great last night on KNBC, channel 4, even if after all these years Vicky Vargas can’t pronounce her name right.
I think that your headline writer’s suggestion that Shirley can’t decide if she is for or against something, needs to read the story a little more carefully. Unlike our DA, Shirley is a private citizen, and when someone tells her something she must believe them until shown wrong. She was shown wrong, and she asked that action be taken.
— Dr Dan / May 18
C’mon, Shoot First Shirley takes aim at perceived enemies based on her agenda. Some in office or development get a pass on the same faults she barks about with “the bad men.” She barks to protect her friends, which may not be the public in many cases. Time to retire that mutt.
— Ockiote / May 19
While Shirley has her heart in the right place and is a true crusader for “equality under the law” and the common man, she is just another voice in the wilderness.
It has gotten worse, not better, Shirley.
It has reached a point that I would trust a snake oil salesman before I would trust a politician.
— Beelzebub / May 18
This will be the perfect opportunity for the DA to make an example of a shady political insider like [Anaheim City Councilman Harry] Sidhu. Karma is starting to come to Anaheim.
— ShadyHU / May 18
Backers of Anaheim Initiative Dealt a Surprise
Amazing! In the 11th hour the city staff seems to have moved the goalposts from the edge of the field to somewhere out in the middle of the parking lot.
Only in Ana-slime. First the hotel giveaway, then the taxi permit scandal, now this. Somebody call “The Daily Show” ‘cuz only Jon Stewart could make this scenario seem to make sense.
— Praetor / May 24
Synchronized Traffic Signals
This project is a bit overhyped. Almost all the streets targeted by OCTA for signal coordination already had some sort of timing system in place, run by the individual cities. The problem is that any coordination broke down at city limits or at Caltrans freeway ramp signals. The OCTA project is trying to eliminate these discontinuities.
But OCTA is also trying to take undeserved credit for signal coordination in cities. All but the smallest municipalities in OC already were running decent signal timing. OCTA is buying them new equipment and will tweak the timing a bit, but it’s a very small improvement over the good work the cities had already had in place for years.
And the bottom line is that when traffic gets heavy enough, like it does in Orange County, signal coordination breaks down and is not much better than random operation.
By all means this isn’t a bad project. It’s just not nearly as great as OCTA makes it out to be.
— Otherhand / May 18
It’s really sad that OCTA hasn’t managed to put some signage on the streets where the signals are synchronized that would indicate the optimum speed for hitting signals and the times when the synchronization is in effect.
It’s my understanding that the synch only works in one direction, based on a.m. or p.m. traffic peaks and timing, but how do you find that out if OCTA can’t invest a little money in publicizing their projects.
I also seem to recall that Caltrans didn’t like to play or surrender any control of the lights close to the freeways, so any plans always got bollixed up when you went under a freeway.
More reporting, please.
— Moonunit / May 19
Curtail Canyon Development
No, we don’t need another environmentally destructive housing tract here behind the Orange Curtain, but we do need to protect and preserve our finite natural resources.
I sat aghast in the Board of Supervisors hearing chambers during the first go-round with this developer when the Board of Supervisors basically voted to approve the destruction of hundreds of 100-year-old oak trees in favor of planting acorns. Sounds like the same plan is being proposed once again.
— Green Planet / May 21