Countdown to 2000: Politics

Greg Risling

While families were tearfully sending their sons off to fight a world

war, Newport-Mesa residents were grappling with their own battles at

home.

Ironically, residents 50 years ago were dealing with hot-button political

issues that still permeate the area today -- a proposed airport and

annexation.

In the ‘40s, Costa Mesa residents were contemplating whether they should

be incorporated into the coastal township. A citizens committee that

served like a city council reviewed its options -- stay unincorporated,

agree to annexation or become its own city.

In 1948, the Costa Mesa Globe-Herald posed a set of 10 questions to

Newport Beach Mayor Dick Drake about annexation. Drake supported annexing

Costa Mesa, although he didn’t want to interfere with the democratic

process.

“Newport Beach should not and does not want to dictate in any way to the

Costa Mesa citizens as to what portions of their property should be

included in annexation,” Drake wrote.

And, what would a newspaper be without a front-page headline about an

airport proposal?

Three former Air Force pilots decided to open a 214-acre airport in 1946.

The airport was located in a tract that bordered Victoria Street,

Placentia Avenue, and 19th Street to the Santa Ana River.

Unlike the feverish debate swirling around the proposed airport at El

Toro, a compromise was settled and the airport opened in July 1946.

Unfortunately for the former pilots, city planners opted for a new

housing tract in 1953 and the airport was closed.

Local politicians didn’t fail in providing some shady dealings that were

only exposed years later. Newport Beach residents had a difficult time

understanding anything the city council said. It seems council members

conducted their meetings in hushed whispers and mumbles.

Lloyd Claire -- the equivalent of a city manager -- and his friend, City

Clerk Frank Rinehart, always would quickly approve a litany of agenda

items at the meetings. No one could ever hear the pair as they passed

numerous motions.

One of the city’s watchdogs, Ma Fisher, went to the extreme of bringing a

court reporter to transcribe the meeting. The court reporter grew

frustrated with the mumbling soon after and packed his bags.

The documentation wouldn’t have done Fisher any good. It turns out the

decision was done at a few of the local bars the afternoon prior to each

meeting.

Sources:

Costa Mesa Globe-Herald, 1941-48.

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