STEVE MARBLE -- Notebook

Allan Beek, street thug?

At 73, with a Caltech education on his resume’, a distinction for

refinement and a reputation for intelligent -- albeit sometimes caustic

-- debate, Beek ended up on the wrong side of a police report last week.

Mike Tyson in wingtips?

Allan “The Body” Beek?

The melee on the bay?

Beek, a former planning commissioner whose father is considered one of

the town’s true pioneers, was accused of roughing up a woman who was

gathering signatures outside Gelson’s Market (What? You expected Moe’s

Tavern?).

Beek, according to the police, allegedly “pulled” the woman toward him

and then “pushed” her aside so that he could put his own campaign

material on the table the woman was using to gather signatures.

And then, as these sort of tawdry things always seem to play out, Beek

allegedly “fled the scene,” presumably speeding away into the angry

fugitive sunset in his canary yellow 1961 VW bug (the one with 500,000

miles on it).

And then? And then? Did he hole up in tired-out motor court just this

side of Twentynine Palms? Did he commandeer the family-owned Balboa Ferry

and put out to sea? Did he arm himself with a conductor’s baton and fend

off his pursuers?

Well, no. He did what he always does. He explained himself.

“They verbally abused me quite a bit,” he said after the ruckus. “I

didn’t touch her.”

And so it goes in the hottest political showdown in town. While the

school bond election drew yawns and ambivalent shrugs, the debate over

traffic in Newport Beach is roaring through town like a Humvee on the

open road.

Beek is one of the architects of something called Greenlight, an

initiative that if adopted by voters in November would require voter

approval for many large-scale developments or expansions in town.

Fearing that the initiative is riding the crest of popularity, a group

has launched a petition drive to put a competing measure on the November

ballot. The group has until mid-June to drum up 6,700 signatures.

While Greenlight has drawn the support of Newport’s gilded environmental

leaders, the countermeasure -- referred to derisively as “Redlight” by

detractors -- has brought together an equally respected group of elder

statesmen, such as former city manager Bob Wynn and Tom Edwards and

Clarence Turner, both former mayors.

Somehow -- and I’m trying hard here -- I can’t think of a group of people

less likely to engage in street brawling (Edwards does look like a

reasonably fit welterweight, however). These are people who “agendize”

their differences, people who seek out “win-win” solutions.

But, perhaps, I underestimate the power of Newport traffic, or at least

the road rage that comes with it.

The two sides have been clashing for weeks. Beek passed out fliers weeks

ago informing signature collectors that they could “go to jail” if they

mislead voters into signing the petition for the competing initiative. He

expressed concern that his foes were dispensing false information along

with their pens and petition forms.

Beek then crowded the plate a bit more when he asked the District

Attorney’s Office to step into the fray and assure that the election code

that pertains to signature gathering was being followed.

In response, lawyers for the competing initiative sent Beek a letter,

letting him know that interring with the gathering of signatures was also

a violation of the election code.

The letter to Beek went on to demand that he stop “shouting at close

range” at signature gatherers, refrain from “thrusting literature into

the hands and faces” of would-be signature signers and stop “stalking or

chasing” the signature collectors.

Allan Beek, urban terrorist?

Well, put away the mint juleps. Maybe we’re in for a long, bloody summer

after all.

* STEVE MARBLE is the managing editor of Times Community News. He can be

reached at o7 steve.marble@latimes.comf7 .