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.
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