2026 Candidate Questionnaire
Welcome to the 2026 CMABS Candidate Questionnaire!
For the fourth election in a row, CMABS has asked City Council and mayoral candidates about the spaces between buildings that we all share: our streets.
We are thrilled to have received thoughtful responses from all eight candidates for City Council and mayor this year. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, CMABS does not endorse or oppose candidates. We are publishing their responses verbatim and without commentary so that readers can better understand the candidates’ different visions for Costa Mesa’s future and how they propose to achieve them.
Not sure which district you’re in? Check the map out here.
Every candidate had three weeks to respond, and each answer was limited to 2,000 characters.
Enjoy!
Question 1
What role should City Council members play in shaping Costa Mesa’s streets and public spaces, particularly in relation to City staff and adopted plans?
District 3
Daniel Morgan
City Council should set the direction and priorities, while City staff should be responsible for the technical work and implementation. I have a lot of respect for the expertise of our professional staff, but ultimately, elected officials are accountable to the residents who elected them.
I don't think Council should micromanage engineers or planners, but I also don't think Council should simply rubber-stamp whatever staff puts in front of it. Part of the job is asking questions, challenging assumptions, listening to residents and businesses, and making sure we're getting the best possible outcome for the money we're spending.
Adopted plans are important, but they aren't scripture. Circumstances change, and sometimes a plan that made sense several years ago needs to be reconsidered or adjusted. My approach would be to follow adopted plans when they make sense, use good data and professional expertise, and to challenge the current course when the results aren't what the community needs.
At the end of the day, I want Council and staff working together, with clear accountability and a focus on actually getting things done.
Cara Stewart
City Council should set the vision, establish priorities, fund them responsibly and hold the City accountable for delivering results. Staff brings the engineering and technical expertise, and I respect that expertise. I don’t believe councilmembers should design intersections from the dais.
But Council shouldn’t simply rubber-stamp recommendations either. Our job is to ask hard questions: What problem are we solving? What does the data tell us? What alternatives were considered? Who has been affected, and who has been heard from? And how will we know afterward whether the project worked?
Adopted plans should matter. Residents invest significant time in developing them, and the City shouldn’t continually start over. At the same time, a plan shouldn’t prevent us from responding to new information or changing conditions.
I want Costa Mesa to plan ahead instead of lurching from one issue to the next. That applies to our streets just as much as it does to housing, infrastructure and everything else we do.
District 4
Angely Andrade Vallarta
City Council should provide strategic leadership and accountability in shaping Costa Mesa’s streets and public spaces, guided by community feedback and adopted plans. Council should set clear policy direction, ensure investments reflect community priorities, and work collaboratively with professional City staff to effectively implement those priorities.
Fisher Derderian
City Council must set the vision, priorities, and standards for Costa Mesa’s public realm. Staff is to provide Council with its best professional advice, research the issues, explain costs and tradeoffs, and carry out the direction Council ultimately sets.
That division of responsibility is important. Staff brings expertise and institutional knowledge, while elected councilmembers exercise judgment, make choices when legitimate interests compete, and take responsibility for the results. We should not micromanage engineering decisions, but neither should elected officials outsource policy decisions simply because they are technical or contentious.
Our adopted plans provide valuable continuity and should guide future investment, but that doesn't mean the Council is relieved of judgment about how those plans are implemented in particular places. A city is inherited as much as it is planned. We as elected representatives should understand what already works, walk the streets, speak with residents and businesses, and see how our decisions--and past ones-- perform in ordinary life. When experience reveals an unintended consequence, we have to respond.
I see the Council’s role as one of stewardship: preserve what is good, repair what is failing, improve what can be better, give staff clear direction, and remain accountable for the city we leave behind.
District 5
Steve Smith
The role of city council — broadly speaking — is to ensure compliance with the laws and set the strategic policy (at the "grand" level) that staff will then pursue at a strategic and tactical level. City council adopts plans and funds them. Residents should be able to trace a straight line from what council approves to what actually gets built on the street.
City council should be defining what the strategy is, and what the definition of success is. Although we're speaking in abstract terms, we can say as a general rule that any definition of success must have an end result that benefits the people of the city, and those who work and travel through it.
Staff has the expertise to design and deliver. Council is ultimately the mechanism through which the success or failure of a city and its staff to deliver becomes known. Residents don't always know the difference between "that's a staff decision" and "that's a council decision" — they just know the street doesn't work. That feedback has to have a real channel back into policy, not just a comment card at a hearing.
Staff implements, and council governs — and governing must mean staying engaged.
Kelly Brown
It’s important that Councilmembers understand the influential role they play in representing the people of their district. In this way they should be a conduit of the on-the-ground lived experiences, interests, and opinions of the residents they represent. Councilmembers should also be tasked to help imagine, and then build, the city we want to live in. City Councilpeople should both represent their constituents and serve as leaders who can see, and then enact, a bigger vision for our city. City streets and public spaces are central to this work–though there are many other areas in government that require attention.
City staff bring enormous amounts of education and expertise to the table–hence the reason they have the professional positions they do. If elected to Council I want to collaborate with staff in order to design and develop streets and public spaces that are vibrant, well designed parts of our city infrastructure.
In my experience as Chair (two years) and then Vice Chair (one year) of the Parks and Community Services Commission, I’ve learned a lot about how to successfully partner with city staff to solve problems and get things done. At times this has required that I vocally advocate for a certain approach or outcome that I think is important, and that conflicts with staff recommendations. At other times I’ve gratefully accepted the recommendations and advice of staff in a way that dovetails with what I think, and what I understand to be the needs of my district.
I’m proud of the reputation I’ve built over the past five years in terms of how I collaborate with other Commissioners, city staff, and residents. I listen to people and respect ideas. I also have the courage to speak up on issues and help move forward the projects we care about.
Mayor
Loren Gameros
I think that study sessions are extremely valuable when utilizing already put in place tools when utilizing methods for safe and sensible roadway usage. A perfect example would be Placentia Avenue where it appears that the trash cans are impeding usage and travel with bicyclists and automobiles. The consideration of a lane that shares bicycles and automobiles should be explored. For example, the use of a “Sharrow” lane could be implemented to provide is safer means of travel.
Mike Buley
Council's job is to broadly direct policy that reflects the goals and desires of the community that elected them. In a community like Costa Mesa, with competing view points, and areas of the CIty with differing characteristics, there is no "one size fits all solution". Council needs to look at each specific plan and balance community desires to improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods where they live, as for this question, in the areas of parks and mobility. To do this Council needs to be as informed as possible and open to compromise, knowing that there will never be complete agreement on any course that is charted.
Question 2
What qualities do you think make a street successful for the people and places it serves?
District 3
Daniel Morgan
A good street is safe, functional, well maintained, and appropriate for the neighborhood or businesses around it.
That sounds pretty basic, but I think we sometimes make transportation more complicated than it needs to be. A street needs to work for the people who live there, the businesses that depend on it, and the people traveling through it.
Safe crossings and sidewalks, reasonable traffic flow, good lighting, adequate access for businesses and deliveries, and infrastructure that is actually maintained. I also think trees can be a real asset. When they are properly selected and their roots are properly maintained, they improve the appearance of a street, provide shade, and make walking more comfortable. The key is maintaining them properly so they don't become a problem for sidewalks, utilities, or surrounding properties.
In a commercial area, I want to see a street that makes it easy and inviting for people to visit local businesses. In a residential neighborhood, preserving the character of the neighborhood and keeping traffic from becoming a nuisance may be the bigger priority. I don't think there is a one-size-fits-all solution. A street in College Park shouldn't be designed the same way as a major commercial corridor.
Most importantly, we should judge these projects by whether they actually make things better. If we're spending millions of dollars on a street, residents should be able to see the benefit.
Cara Stewart
A successful street is safe, understandable, well-maintained and appropriate for the neighborhood it runs through. People should be able to walk or roll along it safely, cross it without risking their lives, drive it without confusion, and bike it without being forced into dangerous conflicts with cars. Emergency vehicles need access. Businesses need customers and deliveries. Residents need reasonable access to their homes. And the basics matter: pavement, sidewalks, curb ramps, streetlights, crossings, trees, drainage, visibility and speed. I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all street design. Harbor Boulevard doesn’t serve the same purpose as a residential street in College Park. Good planning recognizes those differences. For me, the measure isn’t how many cars, bikes or pedestrians a street serves. It’s whether the street safely and effectively serves the people and places around it.
District 4
Angely Andrade Vallarta
Successful streets prioritize the safety and visibility of pedestrians and cyclists. Streets should be designed to make people walking and biking more visible to drivers, while using traffic calming measures such as narrower travel lanes and streets to naturally reduce vehicle speeds. Our streets should be safe and comfortable for everyone, whether they are walking, biking, driving, or taking transit.
Fisher Derderian
A successful street should do its job well and belong to the place around it.
That job will naturally vary. Harbor Boulevard must carry substantial traffic; a residential street serves a different purpose; a commercial street should help businesses thrive and make it easy for people to arrive and move through. In every case, streets should be understandable, well maintained, and reliably navigable by residents, deliveries, transit, and especially police, fire, and emergency medical responders.
Function does not require ugliness, though. Major corridors like Harbor and Newport Boulevard can move large volumes of traffic while still being shaded, landscaped, orderly, and attractive. Their beauty will look different from that of a quiet neighborhood street, but they should still contribute positively to the city around them.
The relationship between the roadway, sidewalks, trees, buildings, storefronts, lighting, and landscaping gives a street its character. Beauty often comes from those ordinary things done well: good proportions, mature trees, durable materials, attractive buildings, and visible signs of care.
The best streets work well, age gracefully, and strengthen the places they pass through.
District 5
Steve Smith
A street can perform several functions: movement, access, economic activity, predictability, and bringing people together to engender a sense of community. It's successful to the extent that it meets the combination of these it was designed to meet.
An important aside — because safety cannot be understood as a function of streets unto itself — is that each of these functions should have safety baked into it. In our context here, safety is an adjective after all. Safety is a sine qua non of a successful street though, underlying every function it's meant to perform.
Kelly Brown
Ooh, this is a great question! I have a laundry list of some keywords that I’d like to start with, and then will explain how these might add up to something larger than just a series of attributes for a successful street: --Safe, well marked crossings --Shady/includes lots of green (trees, plants, gardens, etc.) --Interesting/creative (incorporates the arts in some way, perhaps through murals, poetry, awnings, etc.) --Easy to navigate for all (cars, buses, people on foot/bike/wheelchairs) --Flexible parking/drop off zones (more options so that businesses can better serve their customers)
I appreciate that streets serve a variety of different needs. Living in a mixed use area of Costa Mesa (there are lots of businesses and houses/apartments mixed together in my neighborhood), my daily experience is with streets that need to serve multiple purposes at the same time. This includes traditional car commuting, delivery trucks (which stop frequently to unload), bus transportation, people riding bikes to work, teens walking up to the local thrift store, moms and dads pushing strollers, and everything in between.
Not all streets serve the same purposes, though they do all need to work in terms of moving people from place to place. I do think streets are a compelling way to tell the story of our community.
Mayor
Loren Gameros
Explore how the street is currently used and what the future intentions would be if we are considering a modification of the usage of the street. One example would be to consider how the streets that are utilized to get from one end of town to the next, for example, the 55 freeway as it becomes Newport Blvd. The streets we commonly use for this have heavy usage and design considerations should be considered as we try to improve the usability for a bike-able and walkable city.
Mike Buley
First, is the condition that it is in. Is it properly maintained? Next, is the use being maximized? This requires balancing the need to maintain the flow of automobile traffic, while accommodating, where possible, bike and foot traffic. Having aspirational goals are valuable but implementation must be grounded in realities that exist.
Question 3
How should the needs and experiences of people who do not, or cannot, drive influence the way Costa Mesa designs and invests in its streets?
District 3
Daniel Morgan
They should be considered. Not everyone drives, and some people don't have the option to drive. Kids, seniors, people with disabilities, and people who rely on public transportation or bicycles all need to be able to get around Costa Mesa safely.
That doesn't mean every street needs to be redesigned around pedestrians or bicycles. It means we need to look at the specific circumstances and figure out where the problems actually are.
If there is a dangerous crossing near a school, it needs to be addressed. If a sidewalk is inaccessible to someone in a wheelchair, let's fix it. If someone has to cross five lanes of traffic to get to a bus stop, we should take a hard look at whether there's a better solution.
I think the key is to focus on practical improvements rather than turning transportation into a philosophical debate. We can make streets safer and more accessible for people who don't drive while still recognizing that Costa Mesa is a driving community and that cars are going to remain an important part of how people get around.
We should be able to do both.
Cara Stewart
They need to be part of the equation from the start, not an afterthought.
Children, seniors, people with disabilities and people who simply don’t own a car still need to get to school, work, stores, parks, medical appointments and each other. A transportation system that requires everyone to drive in order to participate fully in community life isn’t serving everyone.
That means completing missing sidewalks, improving ADA accessibility, creating safer crossings, connecting people to transit and building routes that allow someone to walk, bike or roll somewhere useful—not simply for recreation.
It doesn’t mean ignoring drivers. Most Costa Mesans drive, and our streets need to work for them too. I see this as expanding choices, not taking sides. Every safe trip someone can make comfortably without getting into a car could mean one fewer car competing for space on our streets.
District 4
Angely Andrade Vallarta
As a vulnerable group, people who do not or cannot drive should have their accessibility and lived experiences guide our mobility investments. Their needs should serve as a foundation for designing safe, connected, and accessible sidewalks, bike routes, crossings, and transit infrastructure. When we design for those most vulnerable, we create streets that work better for everyone.
Fisher Derderian
I experience this question from several directions. My wife and I have five young children, and our household depends heavily on cars. We also live with my aging father- in-law who can no longer drive and has difficulty walking long distances.
From personal experience I can tell you that if you push a stroller around Costa Mesa with several children in tow for any amount of time, you come to quickly appreciate a smooth sidewalk, a usable curb ramp, shade, and a crossing that makes sense. For my father-in-law, those same details determine how independently he is able to move through the community.
With that in mind, I would look for practical barriers and address them: missing or damaged sidewalks, difficult crossings, inaccessible curbs, poor shade, or walking and bicycle connections that stop short of useful destinations. These are often modest improvements, but together they make a neighborhood easier to use and visibly more cared for and inviting.
Cars will remain essential to Costa Mesa, and to be clear I do not see improving walkability as a campaign against driving. We should make it easier to move around without a car where we reasonably can while keeping our streets convenient and safe for the families, workers, businesses, and first responders who depend on vehicles every day.
District 5
Steve Smith
Non-drivers aren't a niche group, unfortunately — they're becoming a greater portion of our population due to economic hardship. In a city with Costa Mesa's income spread, that's a real share of the population, not a temporary inconvenience.
The mistake is treating streets designed for non-drivers as a favor to a small constituency. If a senior, or a kid on a bike, can't cross a street safely, that's a failure of design.
Sidewalks and safe crossings should always be present where people walk and bike — but should be built in a way that requires minimal maintenance.
Level of service for cars shouldn't be the only metric. If our traffic standards only measure how fast cars move through an intersection, we're leaving a lot on the table.
Kelly Brown
Streets are for more than driving. Yes: They serve as critical infrastructure for moving cars from place to place. But they also serve people who use public transportation. Streets serve people who ride bikes and skateboards, who walk, who are in wheelchairs or using walkers, etc., and who use many other possible kinds of transportation to travel within and across the city to commute, visit friends, shop, etc. Streets should be designed in such a way that many, if not all, of these needs are at least considered. This does not mean that all streets are treated the same. It is important, however, that the full array of transportation needs are represented when we design our streets--including emergency vehicles.
I like to walk and jog, so I’m particularly attentive to our sidewalks; I am super critical of street crossings for pedestrians, those streets where pedestrians aren’t allowed to cross, and issues of crosswalk timing. I’m sensitive to the fact that we all have our different ways of getting around town–including in our cars. As a mother of a teen very close to getting her driver’s permit, I’m looking at our streets with an entirely new lens– that of teaching a young driver how to be both a defensive driver (watch for other cars!) AND looking out for everyone else on the streets. This brings up issues of visibility, well marked driveways, etc.
It’s important for a diverse group of street users to be included in our street design. Some of this can be achieved through the involvement of the Active Transportation Committee, for example. How might our senior population be included in these conversations? Our youth? I’m interested in broadening the conversation–not to slow down city progress, but to better respond to residents’ needs.
Mayor
Loren Gameros
The first thing I would do is find out what the needs are of those individuals who do not possess the ability to drive. Secondarily would be to speak with said individuals regarding what their experiences are now and take what their opinions are in when the city considers new designs and investments to create a more habitable environment for those who have the inability to drive.
Mike Buley
It should be considered and weighted in proportion to the needs of the community in total. It is one factor of many when attempting to address an issue involving competing interests. It must be considered, along with all other needs, as part of any plan for City streets.
Question 4
Streets serve many purposes beyond transportation. What role should they play in the civic, commercial, and neighborhood life of Costa Mesa?
District 3
Daniel Morgan
Our streets should help connect neighborhoods, support local businesses, provide safe places for people to walk and gather, and contribute to the character of Costa Mesa.
On a commercial street, I want to see a street that makes it easy and inviting for people to visit local businesses. Good sidewalks, landscaping, lighting, parking, access, and pedestrian crossings all matter. In a neighborhood, the priorities might be safety, traffic calming, shade, and maintaining the character of the community.
I also think we should be creative about how we use the public space we already have. We don't always need to build something new and expensive to make a street better.
Costa Mesa has some great (and some not so great) commercial corridors and some great neighborhoods. We need to be thoughtful about where we prioritize our infrastructure investment to make sure our residents are getting the most bang for their buck.
Cara Stewart
Our streets are some of Costa Mesa’s largest public spaces. They help determine whether a neighborhood feels connected or divided, whether a business district feels inviting and whether people feel comfortable being out in their community.
That means thinking beyond pavement and traffic lanes. Trees and shade matter. Lighting matters. Clean sidewalks matter. Safe crossings matter. So do outdoor dining, community events, public art and gathering spaces where they make sense.
This is an economic-development issue too. Great streets help local businesses when customers can comfortably reach them by car, bike, transit or on foot and actually want to spend time there.
Street design affects the life happening alongside it, from supporting entertainment districts to connecting neighbors.
Costa Mesa has tremendous personality. Our public spaces should strengthen that personality, not just move people through it.
District 4
Angely Andrade Vallarta
Streets should be safe, accessible connectors that bring our community together linking neighborhoods to schools, parks, commercial corridors, and community events. When people can safely walk, bike, gather, and connect with their neighbors, our streets become part of what makes Costa Mesa a stronger community.
Fisher Derderian
Streets are where much of the life of our city becomes visible. They are where homes meet neighborhoods, businesses meet customers, and people encounter one another in the course of ordinary life.
That makes them more than channels for movement. A good commercial street should help businesses succeed and make people want to return. A good neighborhood street should contribute to a sense of order, safety, and familiarity. Buildings should address the street rather than turn away from it, and trees, landscaping, sidewalks, and public spaces should make the whole setting feel cared for.
Some of the best streets are the product of an accumulated character. They have collected notable features over many years and many tenants through good buildings, mature trees, useful businesses, familiar landmarks, and successive improvements.
We should lean into that throughout Costa Mesa and build on our accumulated character. At their best, streets help turn a collection of properties into a neighborhood and give people a stronger attachment to the place they call home.
District 5
Steve Smith
Streets are one of the defining qualities of a city. When we think of New York, we think of Fifth Avenue, Broadway, Wall Street, and Times Square — a convergence of streets. It's the array of activities taking place on those streets that makes New York great. In the town I grew up in, Lancaster Avenue was the very fulcrum of the whole town: the comic book store (when I was a child), the library, and the film institute were the places that define some of the fondest memories of my youth.
Commercially, a street either invites people to stay or just moves them through — and that difference is what determines whether the businesses along it thrive. A corridor built only for driving through works against the shops and restaurants on it, no matter how much traffic passes by. People spend money where they want to linger, not just where they happen to pass.
Streets and the space around them are often the only shared public realm a neighborhood has. Sidewalks wide enough for people to pass, a place for community events to spill into, for people to converse, connect, and transact their business — that's what gives a city its life.
Corridors like 17th Street, Harbor Boulevard, and Newport Boulevard will grow if people are walking on them more. A residential street is where kids learn to ride bikes, neighbors run into each other, have parties and friendly basketball games, and people decide to spend time and congregate.
Our streets must grow to connect us together as a community more — and we need not sacrifice utility for cars to do so.
Kelly Brown
City streets that play a vibrant role in public life more generally, connecting people to neighbors and other residents, to events, to businesses, and to city institutions. I’d love for Costa Mesa’s streets to play an even larger role in our civic life.
I recently learned, from Mary Hornbuckle’s reflections at the Costa Mesa Historical Society’s 60th anniversary dinner, that Costa Mesa used to run cattle down Harbor Blvd. to mark the start of the OC Fair season. How incredible is that? I am NOT proposing we do that, but do think it’s a fascinating example of how Costa Mesa used to use streets in a way that created communal traditions around a special event. What would a modern interpretation of this civic tradition look like? A charity "running of the bulls" with people in bull t-shirts to raise money for a cause and mark the start of the OC Fair?
The most recent “Cruise the Loop,” which took place on Mesa Verde Drive East, could be replicated in other parts of the city. I’m interested in thinking about how an event like this could be structured so that our local businesses can take full advantage of people on foot, bikes, roller skates, and skateboards interacting with them. Let’s involve our business community, too!
How can we better brand our streets to represent the neighborhoods they run through? Can Costa Mesa, as the City of the Arts, use art as a way to mark 19th street, for example, as a place to listen to live music? Let’s highlight our city’s strengths (our coffee shop scene, for example) visually, so that as people move through our city spaces they can see, and then experience, all that Costa Mesa has to offer.
Mayor
Loren Gameros
Well, first let’s define what “many purposes beyond transportation” means. I believe the role that our streets serve greatly affects how constituents engage with one another in our neighborhoods. One example would be that having a safe street would make individuals that live across the street from one another feel safe when crossing to socialize or recreate with together. When we think about the role, some of the major arteries serve in our community for commercial and logistical services, we should keep in mind that Costa Mesa intends to make travel safe and efficient when we redesign a corridor that egresses from a heavy highway through city streets and ingresses into neighboring cities.
Mike Buley
Aside from mobility and safety, there is great aesthetic value to improved and maintained streets and roads. Costa Mesa welcomes vistors from around the State, Country, and World. Modern and improved roadways not only impact the quality of life for thos ehwo live here, but the make a lasting impression on vistitors, that Costa Mesa is vibrant, engaged, and thriving.
Question 5
Choose one street or area in Costa Mesa that you would most like to see improved during your term. What would you like to see accomplished there, and why?
District 3
Daniel Morgan
Harbor Boulevard and Newport Boulevard corridors. Both are important gateways into Costa Mesa and have a lot of potential, but they need revitalization and new life.
One of the biggest impediments to that, in my opinion, is that these corridors can be very unfriendly to pedestrians. If we want people to walk between businesses, spend time in the area, or connect these corridors with the surrounding neighborhoods, people need to feel safe doing it.
Public safety has to be the first step. We need to address speeding, dangerous crossings, lighting, sidewalk conditions, but also other issues nuisance that make people uncomfortable walking or biking. Once people feel safe, we can start having a bigger conversation about landscaping, streetscape improvements, businesses, public spaces, and how we can make these corridors places people actually want to spend time.
I don't think revitalization necessarily means spending hundreds of millions of dollars rebuilding the streets. It means identifying the things that are holding these areas back and addressing them one at a time.
Harbor and Newport are major corridors with tremendous potential. I would like to see us turn them into places that are safer, more attractive, more pedestrian-friendly, and better for the businesses and neighborhoods around them.
Cara Stewart
I’d focus on the Fairview Road corridor and make it a complete connection from Adams Avenue to Newport Boulevard. It connects Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa High School, College Park, the Civic Center, the Fairgrounds, neighborhoods, businesses and major east- west routes. It is also exactly the kind of corridor where Costa Mesa needs to demonstrate that transportation planning doesn’t have to be a contest between pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists.
I want us to finish the connections already underway, make crossings safer, improve lighting and accessibility, provide a bicycle route people actually feel comfortable using, improve access to transit and make sure traffic and emergency access continue to function.
And then I want us to measure the results. Are crashes down? Are speeds safer? Is traffic functioning? Are people actually using the facilities? Are there unintended consequences we need to correct?
My approach is simple: finish what we start, make the pieces connect and make sure the investment actually works.
District 4
Angely Andrade Vallarta
I would prioritize improvements along Harbor Boulevard and the Westside connection to Wilson Street. On Harbor Boulevard, I would support narrowing travel lanes to reduce vehicle speeds and creating a protected northbound bike connection. On the Westside, I would add permanent traffic calming measures and clearly marked crosswalks along Wilson Street. These improvements would make key corridors safer for pedestrians and cyclists, encourage slower vehicle speeds, and create stronger connections between our neighborhoods, schools, businesses, and community destinations.
Fisher Derderian
I would choose West 19th Street and work toward making it the genuine main street of the Westside.
My idea would not necessarily mean one large beautification project or another isolated transportation intervention. I would rather steadily strengthen the street as a whole: better shade and tree canopy, sidewalks and crossings that work well, attractive landscaping and lighting, buildings and storefronts that engage the street, and transportation improvements that serve residents, businesses, drivers, cyclists, deliveries, and emergency vehicles in practice.
Riding elsewhere in District 4 has taught me how easily good intentions can run into ordinary life. On some streets, residents put their trash bins along the curb as they always have, which blocks the bike lane and forces cyclists into traffic. The problem is that no one involved is behaving unreasonably. The design simply failed to account for how the street is actually used.
That is the sort of problem we should notice and correct. Different streets call for different solutions, including different kinds of bicycle facilities.
For 19th, I would favor steady improvement, with good public investment encouraging private investment block by block. The Westside already has the businesses, neighborhoods, history, and people that give it character. We should build on those strengths to give it a beautiful, active center that feels unmistakably its own.
District 5
Steve Smith
Harbor Boulevard.
Right now it's a corridor people drive through — not a destination. It's lined with strip retail that mostly treats the street as something to drive past, not something to be a part of. Big parking lots out front, buildings set in the back. Little reason to get out of your car unless you're going to one specific store.
Costa Mesa is never going to have one proper center where people congregate and enjoy themselves — but we can have several regional spots that are exciting to go to. Right now, we don't give people a reason to get out of their vehicles and stay. It's a road where people run errands, not a place where they linger.
We already have the traffic counts: tens of thousands of cars a day pass through it. Meanwhile, a lot of Costa Mesa residents drive to Newport Beach for a nice afternoon out — walkable retail, good restaurants, somewhere to be. I want to flip that. If we find the right mix on Harbor, they'll come here instead. Our standard for that kind of investment should be simple: would someone want to come here and spend their Saturday?
Kelly Brown
Costa Mesa’s downtown–the area around Triangle Square and Harbor/19th street–is at the intersection of Costa Mesa’s west and east sides. Its proximity to some of the City’s major investments, including our library and community center, our senior center, our major movie theatre and bowling alley, marks it as a space that anchors the city.
Many of the issues I raise above–about art and public space, about greenery, about the lack of persuasive city branding, etc.–are an issue in this part of town. We should treat it as a major artery of the city, as it is a prime entry point for those of us getting on the 55. But it is also where so many people first enter the city, and their first impression as they exit the freeway and begin their journey to the beach or Newport. What do we want it to say about Costa Mesa? I’d like it to invite them to explore what Costa Mesa has to offer (our diverse businesses and creative spaces, for example), rather than being simply a space to pass through while headed somewhere else.
I do think there are opportunities to make this area more green, with trees and plants. I’d like to explore how art can be better included or acknowledged in this area. Let’s brand this area with signage that talks about our history, arts, amazing business community, etc., in order to get more passersby to stop and explore.
It’s not easy, I know. This is an area with a lot of traffic, and that gets especially backed up during the summer months. But that’s a reason to attend to this area, offering both residents and visitors a better experience of downtown Costa Mesa. And hopefully it’ll encourage visitors to explore other parts of our town, too.
Mayor
Loren Gameros
If I had to choose one, I think it would be Fairview. Fairview serves the community in several different ways and it also is one of the main corridors to access the Orange County fairgrounds. Realistically, I think we should take a look at the Main arterials through our city that see the most traffic and look at general improvements throughout those affected streets.
Mike Buley
Each District in the City likely has its own #1 priority. I have no specific project that tops the list. Being on Council for a couple of years now, I'm keenly aware of the competing interests and needs throughout the City, and budgetary constraints that require prioritizing and phasing projects in to balance allocating resources around the City. That being said, using general funds to maintain the existing streets is a first, next is to continue to direct staff to seek County, State, and Fed funds that can be used, not only on specific defined projects, but where possible, piggy backed to achieve street maintenance and improvements as a whole.
Bonus Question
Describe the extent to which you agree or disagree with the following statement: “Children are a kind of indicator species. If we can build a successful city for children, we will have a successful city for everyone.”
District 3
Daniel Morgan
I agree with the statement, especially as a parent.
One thing that has really stood out to me while door-knocking (I have personally knocked on over 1,200 doors) and talking with residents is how concerned people are about traffic safety. Parents want their kids to be able to walk or bike around their neighborhood without worrying about speeding cars or dangerous intersections.
There is frustration that we spend a lot of time and money on major infrastructure projects while seemingly ignoring very basic problems are happening right in front of residents' homes. I've heard concerns about speeding and traffic safety on streets like Fordham, Princeton, and Junipero. Those may not be the biggest projects on a capital improvement plan, but they're a big deal to the families who live there.
If we want kids to be able to safely walk to school, ride a bike to a friend's house, or play in their neighborhood, we need to take those everyday quality-of-life issues seriously.
To me, building a city that works for children doesn't mean building a city without cars or trying to eliminate every risk. It means creating neighborhoods where people feel safe, where kids have some independence, and where parents aren't constantly worried about whether their child can safely cross the street.
If we can get those fundamentals right, we're probably doing a pretty good job of building a city that works for everyone.
Cara Stewart
I largely agree. If an 8-year-old can safely cross a street, a senior probably benefits too. If a child can comfortably bike to school, we’ve probably created a route that feels safer for a much wider range of people. Designing for people who are smaller, slower or more vulnerable forces us to notice problems with speed, visibility and crossings that the rest of us may simply learn to tolerate.
Children shouldn’t be the only measure of a successful city, of course, but it’s a pretty good test: Would I feel comfortable sending a kid I love down this street? If the answer is no, we should probably ask why. We also need to design for seniors, people with disabilities, workers, businesses and everyone else who uses our streets.
District 4
Angely Andrade Vallarta
I strongly agree. Children are one of the clearest measures of whether our city is truly safe, accessible, and welcoming. If children can safely walk or bike to school, play in our parks, cross our streets, and participate in community life, we have created a city that works better for everyone. Designing Costa Mesa around the needs of children especially safe streets, accessible parks, green space, and connected neighborhoods will create a healthier, more inclusive, and more vibrant community for residents of all ages.
Fisher Derderian
I agree with the spirit of the statement. With five young children, I experience Costa Mesa at their scale every day.
Children reveal things we adults often stop noticing. Can they cross a street confidently? Is there shade? Can they eventually walk or bike to a park, school, shop, or friend’s house? Does their world expand as they grow, or does every ordinary activity continue to require an adult and a car?
My father-in-law at the other end of his life is many of the same questions. His world can become smaller because a distance is difficult to walk, a crossing is uncomfortable, there is nowhere to rest, or he can no longer drive himself somewhere.
A good city should accommodate the whole arc of life. It should allow children to acquire independence while helping older residents retain theirs.
That is why children are a useful indicator. They force us to look at the city at a human scale and ask a simple question: have we built a place in which ordinary life can be lived well?
District 5
Steve Smith
Cities will wax and wane - the lack of children in a city may indicate that the city WAS a successful city for children - but children grow and establish lives of their own. They often go elsewhere. Children are certainly a strong indicator for the health, robustness and vitality of a city though and should not go ignored.
Kelly Brown
Scrooge might disagree with this question, but would anyone else? As I contemplated this question I thought back to being a child myself. I lived in my roller skates. I skated anywhere I could–to go to a friend’s house, to the local 7-11 for a slurpee in the heat of the Sacramento summer, and to the park. When you see the world through a child’s eyes, you experience both the possibilities and the challenges of the built environment. Now that I’m a mother, I’m thinking about what it’s like for my own daughter to walk up to the local coffee shop, and my concerns for her safety.
Building a successful city for children doesn’t mean that everything has to be child friendly. It does mean, however, we think about how our most vulnerable may use a space. It means prioritizing some values– freedom of movement, of safety, of nature/green space, and of dynamic/interesting elements–as we make choices for our city. Child-friendly cities are cities where you see children out and about–and not just in parks. It may seem obvious, but so often I think about a child-friendly city as having spaces for children to go to. What if we considered the entire city as a place for them? I think that’s what this question is encouraging us to take seriously, and it’s an exciting proposition. It makes me wonder, yet again, how we systematically include (or not) children in our decision making. How might we design our systems so that children are included as a part of our civic life conversations–beyond getting them to weigh in about park design (which we do). This is an area I’d love to work on as a Councilperson.
Mayor
Loren Gameros
Strongly agree.
Mike Buley
Having a City where "kids can be kids" is essential, not only for a successful city, but for society as a whole. Providing an environment where children have the freedom to engage in unsupervised activities, be that free play, exploring their surroundings, and having moments away from 24/7 adult monitoring, coaching, and helicopter parenting is critical to developing future generations of risk takers, entrepreneurs, and leaders. Children need to be given the space to test their independence, problem solve, and make mistakes and learn from them.
