The ultimate good neighbor

A Newport Beach resident since 1927, Allan Beek has long been a champion

of causes.

The son of Balboa Island pioneer Joseph Beek and a Caltech grad, Beek

helped -- not once, but twice -- defeat the Irvine Co.’s expansion plans

for Newport Center, helped turn back the county’s initial expansion plans

for John Wayne Airport and was involved in the ill-fated effort to spare

the Castaway property from development.

Known in Newport for being a City Hall watchdog -- and for his unique

method of tying neckties -- Beek believes that a city should be run by

the people. To that end, he has been instrumental on various referendum

and initiative drives. He is a former planning commissioner, a darling of

the environment crowd and a feared foe of the development industry.

Beek -- who grew up on the bayfront near the family operated Balboa

Island Ferry -- is now working on the Green Light Initiative, which is

designed to overturn the city’s new traffic phasing ordinance.