A few things to ask before burying El Toro
Newport Beach City Councilman John Heffernan would like to know
how the 3.7 million bucks the city -- meaning us -- invested to get
our El Toro airport message out to the voting public was spent. So
would I. Every time I try to talk to someone on our patio over the
aircraft noise, I would especially like to know.
I don’t find it comforting to be told that we’re offering noise
concessions in order to extend the current agreement when it expires
in three years.
The time to offer concessions was when various airport plans were
on the table and we had strong public approval for an airport. What
I’d like to know is how Newport Beach and our $3.7 million got from
that point to bailing out of the El Toro fight and buddying up with
county Supervisor Tom Wilson and Rep. Chris Cox, who torpedoed the
airport but have generously offered help now that their pals in
Irvine got everything they wanted.
Sour grapes? Sure. It’s hard to avoid out on my patio
contemplating an increase in noise rather than spreading it around a
little. Makes me feel something less than grateful to the people at
City Hall.
They -- or most of them -- have steadfastly refused to look the El
Toro debacle straight in the eye and admit the South County crowd
didn’t win the El Toro decision. We lost it.
We had it won twice, but we did such a lousy job of protecting our
advantage and presenting our case that our opponents simply took it
away from us. They out-created, out-imagined, out-lied, out-spent,
out-managed and out-performed us. And in the process they took away
the voters we had once won and stuck them in our ear. Mostly with a
mythic Park in the Sky that North County people wouldn’t visit even
if it ever existed. We allowed that bit of gauze to destroy an
airport that would have served many thousands of North County people.
Maybe demanding an accounting of the money spent in a lost cause
is flogging a dead horse. I don’t think the people raising that
question believe that any of those funds were stolen. Mostly,
Heffernan wants to know if there is any left to return to the city.
My interest is different. I’d like to know how it was spent and who
spent it. I might write a textbook someday on how to lose an election
you’ve already won, and this would offer a great example.
I’m getting a little tired of the we-fought-a-good-fight-and-
lost-and-now-we-must-pull-up- our-socks-and-move-on pieties from the
Newport Beach City Council and on the Pilot Forum page. Actually we
fought a terrible fight and -- a few of us believe -- moved on
prematurely while other cities less directly affected carried on the
fight.
I understand that however badly we performed, we are now in a
situation where we have to save what we can. But I resent the fact
that we abandoned the fight and hurried to this position in order to
placate Cox and Wilson and enlist their help in continuing a cap at
John Wayne Airport. So they win both ways; they successfully torpedo
an El Toro airport and emerge as heroes for throwing us a bone.
I think the low spot in all this maneuvering was a joint statement
that Reps. Cox and Dana Rohrabacher published in the Pilot after the
Great Park became law and the El Toro airport chopped liver. They
eulogized their own efforts to prevent a John Wayne expansion while
involving the private sector in the development at El Toro “to the
fullest extent possible.” Then they ended with this promise: “We will
continue our efforts to promote airport alternatives that will
prevent expansion at John Wayne from impacting the quality of life
for future generations.”
This is a high level of sophistry even for politicians. The
obvious alternative was El Toro. A made-to-order airport handed to us
on a silver platter. But instead of taking the lead in finding a way
to make that alternative happen, Rohrabacher was out surfing
somewhere and Cox was nuzzling with the Navy while the voters were
affirming the El Toro airport. I don’t recall him saying then that
the voters had spoken. Only after we finally blew it did he hear the
voters speak.
So why this tirade?
Because this whole miserable, expensive eight-year episode needs
to be seen with a little bit of honesty before it can be given a
proper burial. Right now, it’s been given little more than a cosmetic
makeover by public officials, but if we have to bury the El Toro
airport, let’s at least remove the lipstick and rouge first -- and
then maybe hold the killers accountable. That won’t make the noise on
my patio any more palatable, but it might provide a little bit of
satisfaction.
According to the Los Angeles Times, some $80 million in public
funds -- about evenly divided between the two sides -- has been spent
on this battle. The anti-airport money paid for eight full-page
newspaper ads and 22 brochures that saturated North County voters.
Pro-airport response was both too little and too late. The Great Park
won big.
But now, already, Irvine is backing away from the Park in the Sky.
Community activist Shirley Grindle told The Times: “Are we going to
have to face the fact that Irvine may have pulled a ruse on the
public by making one deal with the voters and another behind closed
doors with the Navy?”
Are we, indeed?
Meanwhile, the developers -- Cox’s “private sector” -- are
standing by at the El Toro airport’s wake, anxious to be pall bearers
and get on with the burial.
R.I.P., El Toro.
* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column
appears Thursdays.
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