Everyone says that Orange County has a housing shortage and that is the reason for high rents and high cost of homes. There has been so much building going on in Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach that it is causing extreme traffic and more accidents than ever before. Just wait until the places on W. 17th/Pomona are built. 17th will be a nightmare to drive, worse than it is now.

The places that are being built are the “live where you work” style, with four stories and tons of stairs. These are not made for older people nor are they made for families. They are made for the young, singletons and how are these young singletons able to afford these places? Seems to me that people are coming to O.C. from other countries, buying vacation homes or buying for their children. The average person who was born and raised in our county cannot afford to buy and are being forced to move because those who are from other states and countries want to be by the beach. Let’s build affordable housing for those who live here already.

— Carrie Berg, Newport Beach

Politics doomed shuttle

Re: “Little Saigon Shuttle shuts amid political backbiting” [News, May 4]: In August, I was a participant in a phone conference with Supervisor Andrew Do and high-level OCTA staff in which I heatedly emphasized that the city would not, under any circumstances, start our own transit authority to hurriedly start this program before the election. I emphasized the certain possibility of failure due to inadequate planning, community outreach and the winter start date, which historically always results in poor ridership performance because of inclement weather and minimal tourist activity.

Hastily moving the project to a pre-election start proved to be a waste of precious Measure M monies, and saddled the city with costs it could ill afford. The city needed this project to be successful to relieve congestion and air pollution in Little Saigon, not to burnish the supervisor’s election credentials.

For the record, Supervisor Do’s office requested that we apply for this grant. Our staff and the OCTA staff performed heroically in the frenzy caused by moving up this project without proper planning. Lastly, Garden Grove correctly declined participation because they had no traffic analysis, an element crucial to the success of any project. The failure of his project lies squarely with Supervisor Do.

— Diana Lee Carey, former councilwoman, Westminster

President Trump’s executive order last week “promoting free speech and religious liberty” allows religious leaders and groups more leeway to support and oppose political candidates.

Should religious groups take sides in political contests?

That’s our Question of the Week for readers.

Under the 1954 Johnson Amendment, named for then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson, religious and other non-profit organizations can be stripped of their tax-free status if they engage in direct electioneering — for instance, if a preacher endorses a candidate from the pulpit. Trump’s executive order doesn’t change the Johnson law, because only Congress can do that. But the order directs the Treasury Department to not take “adverse action” against religious organizations over political involvement.

Another part of the executive order seeks to help organizations that object on religious grounds to Obama administration mandates to pay for contraception. The order doesn’t go as far as some religious conservatives had hoped. It asks federal agencies to amend regulations in order to “address conscience-based objections” to health-care requirements.

Trump told faith leaders at a signing ceremony May 4 that “you are now in a position where you can say what you want to say” after years of the government “bullying and even punishing Americans for following their religious beliefs.”

Many religious leaders welcomed the order, though some among the Christian right felt it didn’t go far enough. Advocates for the separation of church and state criticized it for favoring religious over secular people, and said Trump exaggerates how much religious speech has been stifled.

Surveys indicate most evangelical leaders don’t want to get mixed up in politics.

Would it be good for politics and religion if the two institutions mixed more?

Do you favor Trump’s order?

Will it change much?

Email your thoughts to letters@ocregister.com. Please include your full name and city or community of residence. Provide a daytime phone number. Or, if you prefer, share your views in the comments section that accompanies this article online.

We’ll publish as many responses as possible.

Claudia Schiffer, naked and coming to a coffee table near you.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the German supermodel’s career — she was discovered in a Düsseldorf disco at age 17 — Rizzoli is putting out “Claudia Schiffer” by Schiffer, a collection of her favorite fashion moments to be published in October. The cover image is Schiffer in the buff and bathed in ethereal light, shot by Mario Testino for Vogue Paris in 2007. The book features photos by Richard Avedon, Patrick Demarchelier, Arthur Elgort, Steven Klein, Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, Herb Ritts, Francesco Scavullo, Mario Testino and Ellen von Unwerth, who also wrote the foreword.
Schiffer’s campaigns for Guess Jeans, for which von Unwerth famously styled her to resemble Brigitte Bardot, and as the face of Chanel are included. There are also contributions from Elgort, Anna Wintour, Domenico Dolce, Stefano Gabbana, Valentino Garavani, Cindy Crawford, Karl Lagerfeld, Olivier Rousteing, Naomi Campbell, Donatella Versace, Eva Herzigová and Helena Christensen.

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LONDON — Faustine Steinmetz has been named winner of the annual Swarovski Collective Award, WWD has learned. The London-based designer will receive a 25,000 euros, or $27,292, prize.
Launched in 1999 by Nadja Swarovski, the Collective supports 150 emerging and established designers, as they aim to use the Austrian-made crystals in inventive ways. This is the third edition of the prize. Previous winners were Rosie Assoulin and Peter Pilotto.
Steinmetz said winning the award made her feel validated as a designer. “It gives you opportunities to do things as a young designer — with, obviously, the money as well. That’s so important,” said Steinmetz.
She plans to funnel the prize winnings into her production and, in particular, bring more weavers on board. Steinmetz currently produces her range in Africa and designs in London, and said she is keeping an open mind in terms of other geographic areas for production.
“At the moment, we are working on setting up production in different countries that have fair trade,” said Steinmetz, adding that she’s open to exploring new locations, providing she can find sustainable production. “We are looking for places where we can trust people and make sure that things are done the right way. For us, that’s

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Christine Quinn has exactly an hour for an interview, hard finish at 2:30 p.m. “Let’s talk through the picture,” she suggests as photographer Masato Onoda snaps away in her comfortably no-frills office. Before the bell tolls, Quinn will have discussed Donald Trump; Hillary Clinton; Brexit; the impending French election (we met May 5); Jaqui Lividini; a Titanic survivor (her grandmother); a charming jewelry fascination shared with her sister and late mother, and why she loves politics but not the clothes she wore as a politician.
Mostly, Quinn is revved up to discuss Women in Need, which holds its annual gala tonight. She became the organization’s chief executive officer in November 2015. Quinn speaks with passionate pragmatism, a condition perhaps innate but no doubt honed during her former (and maybe future) life as a hard-scrabble New York politician.(Her career before she lost the 2013 mayoral primary to Bill de Blasio.) She maintains that people have a distorted view of homelessness, believing that most homeless are single men, their plights exacerbated, if not driven, by severe mental illness. She counters that incorrect perception with a statistic: 70 percent of those residing in New York shelters are families; a full quarter, children under the age

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From cashmere sweaters to cropped jackets, to leather and wool materials, the power suit has a new vibe for fall.

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K.I.D.S./Fashion Delivers has a brand new name: Delivering Good.
The charity’s name change reflects both new and continuing efforts to fight poverty and tragedies through the gift and delivery of new products. The re-branding will allow Delivering Good to better communicate its mission of delivering hope and dignity to people in need through community non-profit partners.
For 32 years, the charity has helped millions of kids, adults and families affected by poverty and disaster. Their efforts have resulted in more than $1.6 billion of donated product that has been distributed through a network of community partners. In 2016, nearly 400 companies donated approximately $200 million of new apparel, accessories, shoes, home furnishings, toys, books and other useful items, distributed by over 500 community partners in need.
In April 2014, Kids in Distressed Situations and Fashion Delivers successfully merged. K.I.D.S. was founded in 1985 by children’s industry executives and Fashion Delivers was created in 2005 by adult apparel and home fashions professionals to serve similar purposes.
“As our charity has evolved, we wanted to have a name and brand that could be embraced by our product donors, our financial donors, our community partners and the broader audience of consumers,” said Allan Ellinger, board chairman of

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A new partnership has been launched in Brazil’s São Paulo state to promote decent work in the region’s textile and apparel sector, with a particular focus on migrant workers.

More shoppers went online to search for UK department stores and clothing in the first quarter of 2017 than in-store, new figures show, pointing to the significance of retailers tailoring their online offering to suit both traditional browsing and mobile platforms in order to satisfy consumers.

UK fashion retailer Monsoon Accessorize has suffered a fall in earnings and sales in its last fiscal year as the company continues to implement changes through its transformation plan, but says trading to date is “encouraging”.