From the Newsroom -- Tony Dodero

This year has been a pretty good one for us here in Pilotland. It

started with a bang on Feb. 4 as we relaunched our Sunday edition after

10 years without one.

We have a new look on our sports pages, a great new columnist covering

boating issues and again, after a 10-year hiatus, we are back on the

news, entertainment and sports beat at UC Irvine.

On the staffing front, we’ve hired several talented new people. Our

reporting crew got a near entire overhaul with a new education reporter,

two new city hall reporters and a new writer covering John Wayne and

environmental issues.

We also reeled in a new Community Forum page and assistant city editor

early in the year and some folks have changed assignments altogether.

As for news, it clearly would not be overstating to say 2001 was one

of the newsiest on record for our nation with the September terror

attacks and the subsequent war on terrorism overseas.

But we haven’t done too bad here in Newport-Mesa either.

We’ve had a councilman facing felony charges, hot debates over a bean

field’s future, a high-profile shooting at a fast-food restaurant,

changes to the Christmas Boat Parade, the tragic death of a young

football player, John Wayne Airport shutdown with flights grounded and a

college professor investigated for alleged classroom statements.

None of these could really be foreseen, but for fun, I went back a

year to look at our What to Watch predictions feature that we ran on Jan.

1, 2001, to see if we got anything right. Believe it or not, many of our

predictions made us look like regular-old Nostradamuses.

For starters, we mused that Greenlight, the controversial slow-growth

measure in Newport Beach, could well be tested by one of three planned

developments -- the Koll Center expansion, Conexant or the Dunes. As we

all know, it was the Koll Center developers who stepped up to the plate

and the rest, and that development, is history.

Our crystal ball saw a new plan in place for the Crystal Cove

cottages. That wasn’t quite right, but at least the ownership of the

cottages and the beach has been placed in the hands of the taxpaying

public where it belongs and many are hard at work planning how the public

will be able to use the cove in the future.

We foresaw that Newport officials would clamp down on John Wayne

expansion efforts, which is happening as we speak. We predicted more hot

testimony in the Eric Bechler murder trial, that work would begin on the

South Coast Repertory expansion, that sparks would fly at Costa Mesa

council meetings and that the controversial plan to overhaul the city’s

Westside would draw criticism.

We were right on target there.

Our forecast was a little off kilter in regard to Newport Coast

annexation, which we predicted would be delayed again. Sure, there were

last-minute attempts to thwart the plan but chances are the southern

chunk of land that stretches to the Laguna Beach border should officially

be part of Newport Beach by the end of the week.

But the one prediction that tripped us up the most was the very same

one that left us with egg on our face the year before.

We boldly claimed, as sure as the ferry boat schedule, that the

Peninsula’s Balboa Theater would indeed open its doors as a performing

arts center this year.

Wrong again.

At least Dayna Pettit and the gang who are toiling hard to make this

dream come true, are playing it safe this year. They are saying now don’t

expect to buy tickets until 2003.

I think we’ll predict 2004 just to play it safe.

* 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 to o7 tony.dodero@latimes.comf7 or by phone at

949-574-4258.