INBOX: 'Greater Good' Is Not a Statue

Dear Editor,

Tim Brown's article titled, "Reagan Country, Where Is the Greater Good?" (NBI, 2/18), started by quoting an attendee at his breakfast meeting stating, "if we did not want a minority group to rule the majority, we should attend the City Council Meeting on February 22nd and speak in support of the Ronald Reagan Statue."

This response assumes that because citizens spoke out against the project that they are against Reagan. Mr. Brown and the attendee have missed the point of the Arts Commission's meeting: the citizens that showed up were not first and foremost against the 40th President, they were against a curio being placed at our new City Hall without public comment.

If Mr. Brown had been present at the meeting he would have heard for himself the broad spectrum of support for President Reagan, but opposition to the project.  Many people spoke passionately about the president but felt that the city deserves something much more appropriate. It is very clear that a majority of the residents of Newport support Ronald Reagan, but at the same time do not support this pet project of Curry and Hill.

The citizens that spoke at the meeting happen to be sensitive about the quality of public art placed on public land. Mr. Brown seems to blind to this fact. As an eight-year Commissioner, I hope he is aware of Stan Watts, the artist, or con artist contracted to build the statue. Stan Watts has been conning cities into buying overblown statues of famous men for years - it looks like Curry & Hill fell for it. A majority of our citizens have not.

I was a "raucous" meeting because the Arts Commission held it to receive PUBLIC comment, not a endless dissertation by Mr.Curry. Things fell apart after 20 minutes of Curry rattling on. The Arts Council should have stopped him. We all have great respect for Mr. Curry, but the man loves to hear himself talk, especially about Reagan: we all just ran out of patience.

Please! Let the public speak. Mr. Curry was way out of line. Others, like Mr. Hill, stood in line and shared their feelings. Thank you Mr. Hill.

The real question is why a Ronald Reagan statue in the first place? Curry and Hill convinced the Council that this is a great idea, but is it? Maybe a sculpture by a great artist, or a statue of Donald Bren, a man who has greatly effected the community - these would be more appropriate.

What does Ronald Reagan, turning 100 years old, have to do with the new City Hall of Newport Beach? I know the members of the City Council would love look out of their new City Hall office windows and see Reagan smiling back at them, but lets look at the "Greater Good."

This fast track agenda of Curry & Hill has made a big assumption: most people love Reagan and a Reagan statue. This is only half right: they love the man, reject the statue. The City is served when there is an open public debate and the Arts Commission asks professionals to make recommendations - then the City Council can make an unbiased decision on the merits of the project.

Curry and Hill need to recuse them selves, they have only one vision for this City and it's a Reagan statue. I hope the City Council can see past Curry and Hill's monolithic view and start doing the people’s business, openly and without bias. That is the Greater Good!

Terry Clark