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?
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