The hypocrisy of the Oceanside City Council in regard to railroad quiet zones became evident for all to see last week.

Over the last three years the council has dragged its feet on moving ahead with creating these areas free of the noise from more than 100 trains daily. During this time, at each hearing each member said how much they were in favor of this - that they realize the train noise is intolerable and not like the good old days, when there were just a few trains a day and few people lived beside them.

Two years ago, when the Sprinter was going to require a new crossing to the entrance of the Cavalier Mobile Park at a cost of $450,000, which was going to have to be paid by the park's 384-space residents, the council quickly acted by voting 4 to 1 to have the Sprinter pay for this, and later settled on paying $200,000 of the cost.

Now the council thinks coastal residents should pay up to $725 per house each year to have the "quiet enjoyment" other Oceanside residents enjoy and are entitled to for free by local ordinance.

The quiet zone corridors will affect thousands of people, including the new time share to open this summer and the new resort set to break ground soon. I predict both will be financial flops when visitors are awakened starting at 4:45 a.m. from the incessant train horns that run every 15 minutes for the next few hours. And all through the night, too. The builder of the new hotel submitted a letter to the council through me saying the quiet zone was imperative for the success of the hotel, but I guess that has fallen on deaf ears despite the council members stating they realize this is so.

The city should have required those two enterprises to pay for the upgrades required, but did not. Council member Esther Sanchez went from being for it at each hearing to now saying, "If residents want to pay for it, so be it, I don't want to spend a single dime for it. The sound (of train horns) is part of living in the downtown area." Wake up and smell the coffee. Even Mayor Jim Wood has stated that he and his wife moved out of the area because of the intolerable train horns.

The crossings at Surfrider Way and Mission Avenue (i.e., new hotels) are the only two in San Diego County that are subject to the horns from freights, the Coaster, Amtrak, and the Metroliner that runs to Los Angeles. The success of the new beach hotels and quality of life along the tracks, as well as the resulting safety upgrades, affect all the residents of the city and should not be sloughed off on just those who live beside the tracks. This is a city issue, and the cost of the economic and safety benefits needs to be borne by all. And state and federal grants need to be found, the same as other cities have done.

- Brett Anderson is president of the homeowners association at Sea Breeze Cottages, a 41-unit residential subdivision built on a 2.18-acre site on the west side of Cleveland Street between Neptune Way and Surfrider Way in 2002.