You get what you pay for

Re “Let’s put some green into our parks,” Opinion, March 19

I admire Larry Agran for being a tireless advocate of the Great Park in Irvine, and I think that turning the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station into a park with residential and commercial areas is a wonderful idea.

However, Agran’s opinion article, tin-cupping for federal money for that and other parks, shows that our American way of life is fundamentally out of whack.

Our communities can’t support the lifestyles we want without massive federal support. Even well-to-do cities such as Irvine, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa can’t seem to wean themselves off federal block grants and other doles.

Rather than ask for a shot in the arm from the feds, how about insisting that our lawmakers keep the money at home in the first place? We’ll get lots more bang for our bucks if they don’t have to be laundered through layers of bureaucracy.

Burt Hermey

Costa Mesa