Countdown to 2000: Politics

Alex Coolman

Even in the first decade of the century, Newport-Mesa residents were

displaying a side of themselves that would be pronounced in later years:

they were a civic-minded lot, full of opinions -- sometimes rather

cantankerous ones -- on the politics of the area.

A meeting of the Balboa Island Improvement Assn. in 1919 provides an illuminating view of the political maneuvering of the time: a member of

the “Bulkhead Committee,” which was formed to oversee the repair of the

bulkhead that protected the island, loudly proclaimed that it would be

for the best if the entire body of land sank into the bay.

The island, after all, had been “sold by a bunch of (expletive) crooks

and bought by a bunch of (expletive) fools,” this individual pointed out.

Joseph Allan Beek had a different perspective, though. He was all for

making improvements on the island and asserted that “if the association

program for improvements is carried out, [property] values will surely

increase.”

He predicted, according to the minutes of the meeting, “that the time

will come when there won’t be a lot on the island worth less than five

hundred dollars, and that front lots will some day be worth $5,000!”

The political challenges of the time had not yet morphed into the

brain-warping complexity of today’s issues, and the structure of

government was correspondingly simple. Newport Beach’s political

structure retained the same format that it started with at the

incorporation of the city in 1906, featuring a president and a board of

trustees. It would not be until the late 1920s before the city had an

official mayor.

The Harper/Fairview area, despite the financial difficulties that

afflicted it, was sprouting its own early forms of civic organization. A

women’s club, a boys’ club and a library had grown up in Harper. It

wouldn’t be long, in the early ‘20s, that the growing sense of community

identity in the region would find expression in a new town name -- Costa

Mesa.

Sources:

“A Slice of Orange: The History of Costa Mesa,” Edrick J. Miller, 1970.

“Newport Beach: The First Century, 1888-1988,” James Felton, Ed., 1988.

“Balboa Island Yarns,” Joseph Allan Beek.