SOUNDING BOARD -- Paul James Baldwin

This morning, I did my constitutional duty by walking around Balboa

Island. It is rather beautiful early in the morning, and today I thought

it would be nice to watch the sunrise along the water. I find the

tranquillity at this time of day gives time to reflect on the things

around me.

While walking along the bayfront houses, I noticed a couple of signs

that stated “Greenlight says no more traffic.” Wow, traffic really is one

of those things around me that I can really reflect on.

First of all, I don’t like traffic, at least the kind of traffic that

backs up and even stops dead in its track because of the sheer number of

cars on the same road at the same time. It’s bad environmentally,

economically, mentally and socially.

But is the solution “no more traffic,” as stated in the simplistic

yard sign one might see around Newport? I don’t think so. It is way too

easy to have a simple saying to get emotions running high about a very

complex problem.

Politically, these simple sayings may be effective, but they are not

the solution to the problem of traffic. The problem is not the traffic,

it’s the people -- too many people now moving in all the time. People

want to live here, and the developers are building to meet the demand.

So the people do move in, and guess what? We are not famous for our

public transportation system here in Orange County. Then we have babies

and more babies, and guess what? They grow up and get a driver’s license,

a rite of passage growing up in Southern California. Stopping growth in

Newport Beach can only work if we stop growth in the entire region. And

guess what? This isn’t going to happen, and traffic will continue to get

worse.

All we can do is to take measures to alleviate future increases in

traffic. Measures such as public transportation, phased work hours,

car-pooling and responsible and well-planned development.

This area always had, among many of the residents, new and old alike,

the mentality of “now that I’m here, let’s close the door to all

newcomers.” Well, this isn’t going to happen. Times change, and we must

take the good with the bad. After all, we all live here for a reason, and

I believe the main reason is that we love it here so much. So love it or

leave it.

* PAUL JAMES BALDWIN is a longtime Newport Bach resident whose columns

will appear occasionally in the Community Forum section.