EDITORIAL

It happens everytime the Pilot writes about Balboa Island’s Allan Beek

and his beloved 1961 Volkswagen Beetle. Someone always asks the

questions: How can someone identified as an “environmentalist” drive a

car that was built long before strict pollution standards were put in

place? How can he drive such a filth-producing little car?

It happened again with the report that the old car, which has chugged

along for some 512,000 miles, was totaled in an accident in Westminster.

They’re good questions, but ones that when you look at Beek’s activism

don’t quite apply.

Beek -- son of Balboa Island founder Joseph -- most recently made wave

upon wave by championing the city’s Greenlight initiative. Before that,

he twice helped stop Irvine Co. expansion plans for Newport Center,

battled the county’s initial expansion plans for John Wayne Airport and

was involved in the ill-fated effort to spare the Castaway property from

development.

All these actions have a cause in common, but it isn’t

environmentalism. Beek isn’t a tree-hugging, Ralph Nader voter. He’s a

slow-growth, at most, advocate. And that fits in perfectly with his

canary yellow Bug. Can you think of anything that’s slower on the road?

Readers are right, however, that the story of his car’s demise raises

some questions. And none more than: Just what was Beek doing in

Westminster, of all places?