Countdown to 2000: Growing pains

Elise Gee

The 1960s for America was an era defined for some by the Vietnam War,

activism, the country’s loss of innocence and the peak of space

exploration.

While activists on the national level protested war, activists in Newport

Beach began an environmental movement to stop growth and protect the

area’s resources. While the country struggled with loss and conflict,

residents in Costa Mesa were dealing with new growth and stability.

The ‘60s were the decade when housing tracts in Costa Mesa such as the

Mesa del Mar, Mesa Verde Highlands and the Hall of Fame tracts sprouted

up. The city’s population ballooned from 32,000 in 1960 to 75,000 by the

end of the decade.

While growth blossomed in Costa Mesa, Newport Beach dealt with its own

growth issues. The city began to shift from a tourist town to one where

residents were putting down roots.

They showed those roots by digging in their heels when it came to growth.

Residents Frank and Francis Robinson began a movement to protect the bay,

which ultimately set the stage for the state purchase in 1975 of the

741-acre Upper Bay Ecological Preserve.

The Freeway Fighters, led in part by businessman Marshall Duffield,

formed to combat the creation of the Pacific Coast Freeway. And after the

Irvine Company sold 166 acres of land to the county for expansion of its

airport, an anti-airport group formed.

Still, growth wasn’t totally curtailed. The San Diego Freeway was

extended during the decade to Jamboree, opening up the area to traffic

from the north.

The ‘60s also saw the birth of the area’s two major malls: Fashion Island

and South Coast Plaza. Industry in Costa Mesa boomed, as outlined in a

1967 article in the Economic Review magazine, labeling the city as a

“money making machine.”

There were 250 industrial plants in the city that year but that number

grew to 462 by 1970.

These events shaped the 1960s in the Newport-Mesa area:

1960 -- The capture of a three-ton great white shark causes a three-day

traffic jam as up to 50,000 people flock to the beach to see the animal.

1960 -- Maaco buys the Santa Ana Air Base land for $4.7 million to begin

building tract homes.

1961 -- Fairview State Hospital, with 5,000 patients and staff members,

is dedicated by state Gov. Edmund “Pat” Brown.

1961 -- Flo Stoddard founds the Newport Harbor Area Museum

1965 -- Newport Beach and Costa Mesa combine their school districts to

form the Newport-Mesa Unified School District

1965 -- The Irvine Co. holds groundbreaking for the Newport Center and

begins construction on Fashion Island.

1966 -- May Co., South Coast Plaza’s first building, goes up, followed by

the plaza’s mall with 86 stores the next year.

1966 -- The Buchanan family house, which sat in the middle of Costa

Mesa’s Harbor Shopping Center as it developed around it, is finally torn

down after last remaining Buchanan dies.

1967 -- Costa Mesa Civic Center, including city hall and the central

police department, are built on Fair Drive.

1968 -- Costa Mesa’s first high-rise and Orange County’s tallest building

at the time is built: the 18-story Bethel Towers.

SOURCES

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

“Newport Beach 75: 1906-1981” James Felton, 1981.Costa Mesa Globe-Herald

Daily Pilot