The "Soft" Seven

Having the opportunity to watch the City Council meetings by the internet, after the fact, is a genius idea. The 1 1/2 hours that the Debra Allen/Park issue went by really quickly especially when I had a chance to fast forward through most of the public comments. Of course, in addition to Debra and Barry Allen, the regular cast of characters spoke, with Mayor Rosansky emphasizing that this wasn't an opportunity to discuss the City Hall again, only the park and whether to send it back down to the Parks Beaches and Recreation Commission. Anyway, the City Council veered towards the safe side, rescinded their decision, and pushed the Park issue back down, with Keith Curry citing this article as part of his reasoning. The PB&R Commission now has 60 days to discuss the park use and the park use only. Mayor Steve Rosansky and Councilman Don Webb wanted to open the discussion, in the PB&R Commission, to possibly bring the City Hall back into the picture, but that was quickly shot down by the other members, with the insistence that Commission focuses on the Park only. The motion to send it back to to the PB&R Commission to re-discuss it as a PARK ONLY was approved 6-1, with Mayor Rosansky as the sole "Nay" vote. But I have a sneaking suspicion that since the PB&R Commission is held in a public forum and that their decision will be pushed back up to the full City Council, this City Hall vs. Park thing is far from dead. The other issue that I guessed would be tenuous was far from it, possibly because it was 4 1/2 hours into the meeting, or possibly because no one cares. But in regards to the Sober Living letter to State Senator Sutton & State Senator Harman, the City Council again stayed safe and away from the 1000' restriction that the Intense Residential Occupancy Committee, and speaker Robert Rush, had requested, saying that they'd prefer a marginal bill to pass than none at all. Is it a start and are they pacifying the understandably upset West Newport/Balboa Peninsula residents? I think their efforts on this are soft at best...but anyway.