TONY DODERO -- From the Newsroom

It was about 20 years ago but I still remember the incident vividly.

“RUN,” screamed my teenage friends. “RUN!”

I looked up and saw the reason for their alarm.

A highway patrolman had parked his motorcycle on the freeway shoulder

and was barreling down on us like “Starsky and Hutch.”

We scattered in about 10 different directions.

And while I would rather not explain all the details of that caper

just now, let’s just say the result was, well, bogus, dude. There were

interrogations, citations and fines.

It was gnarly.

And what exactly was our crime?

We were skateboarding.

Well, to be precise, we were skateboarding in a dried out drainage

ditch that sat about 50 feet from the Santa Ana Freeway. Neatly hidden by

shrubs and vines, it was the perfect little concrete wave for a band of

surf-starved kids who lived a little too far inland to be at the beach on

a school day afternoon.

In those days we skated on everything. Dried out swimming pools,

driveways, riverbeds. Aside from a few bumps and scrapes from falling off

our boards, no one ever really got hurt.

It was truly a harmless activity, a victimless crime by a bunch of

teenagers looking for a place to ride a skateboard in a world that seemed

(and still seems) to want nothing to do with them. Twenty years later

little has changed.

Sure several cities have skateboard parks. But many, many more don’t

and don’t have any plans to.

And Costa Mesa city leaders just threw away a rare chance -- not to

mention nearly $43,000 in planning and 10 years of debates -- to give

some teenagers a safe and free place to skateboard.

“I think it’s becoming more obvious we’re probably not going to end up

providing a skateboard park,” Councilman Gary Monahan told our reporter

after the council decided to put the skids to the previously approved

Charle and Hamilton site.

Let’s just say, I’m not too stoked about that.

I can attest that skateboarding is not a fad. It was a popular sport

in my day and it continues to be with today’s young daredevils. These

kids deserve more from their city leaders, who have decided to turn this

whole thing into a political football game as far as I can tell.

Former parks commish Mike Scheafer, who resigned his post because of

an earlier skateboard park controversy, put it best.

“They think of skateboarders, surfers and teenage kids as being

trouble, which is really unfortunate,” he said.

I mean, what are they worried about?

Do they think we’ll become an editor or something?

***

We in the newsroom are rather impressed by the three newest councilmen

in Newport Beach.

And no it’s not just because we endorsed them. Though, we can pat

ourselves on the back a little for that.

But it’s clear to us that Steve Bromberg, John Heffernan and Gary

Proctor have brought a refreshing new attitude that even seems to have

rubbed off on their colleagues.

Take for example the recent brouhaha over the city of Irvine pitching

its Great Park plan to Newport-Mesa residents. The trio, like many,

expressed outrage over that city targeting our residents with its

propaganda.

But they also did something else. They vowed to fight back with

similar tactics.

That’s a refreshing change from the battle plans, or lack thereof,

that were put into place during the fight over Measure F. The local

pro-El Toro leaders at that time chose to pitch their message in their

own backyard, instead of concentrating on the rest of the county,

especially North County.

The result was a predictable victory here in Newport-Mesa and a

resounding loss at the polls in every other town from San Clemente to

Seal Beach.

So with the recent court victory putting Measure F in mothballs, the

pro-airport leadership would be wise to heed the message of this trio,

take a page out of the South County playbook and make the case as to why

a new airport is essential to those outside the Newport-Mesa borders.

***

It’s hard to believe that the time has already come for the Toshiba

Senior Classic.

The exciting golf tourney held at the Newport Beach Country Club has

fast become a Newport Beach institution. Consequently, over the coming

week we will be devoting much time to the coverage of this event.

Stay tuned, and if you get a chance, get out to the links for a good

time.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. His column appears on Mondays. If you

have story ideas or concerns about news coverage please send messages

either via e-mail too7 tony.dodero@latimes.comf7 or by phone at

949-574-4258.