STEVE SMITH -- What’s up?

Fairview Park is located on the bluffs in Costa Mesa, adjacent to

Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley, overlooking Orange County. From the

edge, you can look out over Huntington Beach, Long Beach and the Pacific

Ocean.

The sunsets, with Catalina in full view, are often magnificent. At 9:30

p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, you can see the fireworks exploding

over Disneyland. And if you’re quiet, you can hear them, too.

To those who do not frequent the park, it could be considered ugly. There

is no vast expanse of grass, no shade trees; few things that make up a

park in the traditional sense.

Instead, there are weeds, hard dirt and hilly trails that take you up and

down and over and under the bluffs, down to the Talbert Nature Preserve.

Down there, it’s a more of a traditional park, with a manicured lawn,

barbecues and benches, trees and a cinder-block bathroom facility.

We are frequent visitors to Fairview Park. Just last week, our friend,

Mary Kay Jones, led a contingent of kids on a bike ride all around the

area. Our son, Roy, was there with her and her sons, Kohl and Kyle, and

friends Nick and Shannon. They had a blast. The kids rode a particular

collection of bike trails which have several small hills -- perfect for

BMX-style riding. And for those whose BMX days are over, Fairview Park

has plenty of flat trails, too.

Visitors to Fairview park run and walk on the trails, fly kites and

radio-controlled gliders, ride their bikes, walk their dogs, and do just

about everything they’d do at a “pretty” park.

Enter some nice people from various departments of Costa Mesa City Hall.

In an effort to turn Fairview Park into a park that is a little easier on

the eyes, they want to lay down asphalt and build a bathroom or two.

I know they mean well, but I wish they’d just leave Fairview Park alone.

The park already has the elements of a “normal” park. That it doesn’t

have the landscaping does not in any way diminish its usefulness and it

is certainly of no concern to the many people who use the park daily.

Our children don’t want those paths paved -- they’ll tell you themselves

that the trails are better as dirt. I agree with them.

Instead, I suggest the City Council send the asphalt trucks over to the

stretch of 18th Street between Newport Boulevard and Placentia Avenue. It

is there that drivers can get a feel for what it must have been like to

traverse over cobblestone streets. The city has several “18th Street”

streets.

Spend the money there, not on a park that doesn’t need paving and will

require a maintenance budget once it does.

ANYONE LISTENING?

Suppose they gave a poetry festival and nobody came. In Newport Beach,

this year’s poetry festival came and went with barely a blip on the

radar.

Overshadowed by the film festival and a few other local concerns, the

poetry festival at the Newport Beach Public Library this week played to

too few people.

My writing colleague, Barbara DeMarco Barrett, this year’s moderator,

said that publicity -- or the lack of it -- was the reason for the sparse

crowd.

“Last year’s attendance was much better,” she said. “We were packed.”

I suggested that perhaps the poetry powers hook up with the film festival

people and organize next year’s event as the Newport Beach Film and

Poetry Festival. But with no funding from an already strapped city budget

and -- my guess -- too few poetry lovers on the City Council or the film

festival board, it’s a longshot.

IT’S NOT A.D.D.

If twin cities schoolchildren seem a bit on edge these days, it’s not

because of any biological or environmental disruption. This week and part

of next week, the kids are taking the SAT-9 test, which will tell us how

much they’ve learned.

That’s not the problem. The problem is the test preparation. In our

house, and in many of the homes around Newport-Mesa, kids have been

whipped into a frenzy over this test.

They have been taught to the test for weeks, maybe months, and have heard

over and over again how important it is to get lots of sleep and a good

breakfast.

Newport-Mesa is not alone. An Irvine friend reports that her daughter is

feeling the same pressure. Maybe it’s me, but I believe it’s hard for

kids to get a good night’s sleep when the test pressure is so great. Next

year, I’d like to see the test scheduled before Spring Break, not after.

ATTENTION: I was hoping for the Cannery to reopen by Mother’s Day

for brunch. What’s going on over there?

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer. He can be

reached via e-mail at o7 stsmth19@idt.netf7 , or call our Readers

Hotline at (949) 642-6086.