Time to check our predications for 2002

I doubt there is a quieter time in a newsroom than the two weeks

between Christmas and New Year.

Many city officials are out of town or out of commission, school

is out of session, sports teams are in perpetual timeout and even the

bad guys it seems take holidays off from crime.

Still, we had a couple big stories break during this time. First

the Federal Aviation Administration signed off on the agreement to

extend flight caps and curfews at John Wayne Airport and then came

the shocking report that an appellate court upheld an earlier ruling,

in a case filed by local kelp grower Rodolphe Streichenberger, that

the California Coastal Commission wasunconstitutional.

That’s right, the coastal commission itself was declared null and

void.

So for once we had some pretty big news to digest along with our

turkey during the holidays -- and that doesn’t even include the whole

Huscroft House saga, in which the city is offering to pay $30,000 to

have the old Craftsman-style bungalow moved from TeWinkle Park to the

Westside.

But even with those big stories, the pickings are slim for our

reporters these days.

That’s why this time of year is perfect for doing end of the year

reviews of all the big news stories and all those who made big news

and all those who used to make big news but have since passed away.

And there’s another staple to the end of the year doldrums, the

annual What to Watch feature, a prediction of future news stories and

headlines for the coming year.

Last year, I took a look back at our predictions for 2001 and

found that we had a pretty remarkable record for foreseeing the

future.

So this year I decided to do it again and pulled up our What to

Watch feature from January of 2002. What I found was that we

predicted some easy ones, missed some obvious ones and went out a

limb on some things and lost. Here goes:

NEWPORT PIERS GET A SECOND WIND

The $2.7 million expansion and upgrading of the piers did go off

as planned, making this one of the easiest predictions we’ll ever

make.

PARK UP IN THE AIR AS VOTING DAY ARRIVES

That soothsayer headline concerning the impending Measure W vote

on building a Great Park at El Toro was about as wimpy as it gets. We

all know the outcome of that, though. Measure W passed, changing the

zoning at the closed Marine base and now El Toro is about as likely

to become an airport as it is to become a Great Park.

COSTA MESA COUNCIL SEATS UP FOR GRABS

Another no-brainer headline. But what we said afterward was that

it was going to be an exciting election with lots of candidates,

including former council members Heather Somers and Jay Humphreys and

some guys named Joel Faris and Allan Mansoor from the Westside. Only

one of those four actually ran and we all know the outcome of that.

NEWPORT BEACH EYEING OTHER POTENTIAL ANNEXATIONS

With Newport Coast under its belt, we correctly predicted that the

city would set its sites on Santa Ana Heights and Bay Knolls. Just

how big can Newport get?

COUNCILMAN’S TRIAL FALLS THROUGH

We got this one sort of right. We said that Chris Steel’s trial on

felony signature forging would get tossed out of court. That didn’t

exactly happen, but Steel was able to get the charges reduced to a

misdemeanor and a minor slap on the hand.

FINANCIAL, REALISTIC WOES SLOW BALBOA THEATER

Enough said.

SOME STILL UNHAPPY ABOUT BOAT PARADE CHANGES

Actually, that’s probably true but this year’s parade sure seemed

to go off without a hitch or a complaint.

NEWPORT OFFICIALS STILL TRYING TO EXTEND FLIGHT CAPS

They were, until just last week when it all came to a nice

conclusion.

FOUR NEWPORT BEACH COUNCIL SEATS UP FOR GRABS

Now that was a bold statement. If we could have only predicted a

Dick Nichols victory, then I’d be at Santa Anita race track right

now.

CITY PONDERS MORMON TEMPLE AMID COMPLAINTS

Sure did. But it did much more than that. It smoothed out the

controversy over the steeple and lighting and will now be the only

place in Orange County to house a Mormon temple.

MARINAPARK PROJECT PUSHES FORWARD, NEARS GREENLIGHT VOTE

Beeeeeeeeeeeeep. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Marinapark is still a mobile

home park and the residents are still sitting on city-owned land and

the hotel by Sutherland Talla was hardly a blip in the news last

year.

NEW DUNES OWNERS PLAN A 275-ROOM HOTEL

Wrong again. New owners, but no hotel.

TRIANGLE SQUARE REINVENTS ITSELF TO STAY ALIVE

A new paint job maybe, and the possibility of a new nightclub

there, but nothing real tangible to say that the center has a new

lease on life.

RESIDENT COMMITTEE ENCOURAGES CHANGES TO WESTSIDE

The only change the committee encouraged was to resurrect the past

and bring up the long-dead idea of building a bridge across 19th

Street to connect Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach. The fact that the

only thing it could muster after an entire year was to propose that

silly idea as a way to fix the Westside just proves the committee,

made up at one time of some 80 members, is way too big and cumbersome

to effect any change.

NEWPORT FISH CO. NEIGHBORS SAY SILENCE IS GOLDEN

Judging by a lack of any real headlines on this one, I’d say

that’s true for the most part.

BUSINESS OWNERS REQUEST HELP TO ABIDE BY WATER RULES

So far, the new rules governing runoff and pollution have brought

little outcry. But I suspect that could change if restrictions

tighten up.

STATE BUDGET CUTS STRIKE NEWPORT-MESA SCHOOLS

The cuts really have not been seen yet. But there’s no doubt that

local schools and city services are going to feel the pain of the

statewide budget crisis.

LEECE URGES DISTRICT TO DROP TRUSTEE ZONES

Doesn’t really matter now because what we should have been able to

predict was that Tom Egan would be sitting in the school board seat

that former Trustee Wendy Leece used to hold.

FERRYMAN POSTPONES DUI HEARINGS IN HOPES OF REELECTION

That was wrong and an illustration of our sometime cynical view of

politicians. Former school board Trustee Jim Ferryman took the high

road, pleaded guilty to the charge of driving under the influence of

alcohol and declined to run for reelection.

RESIDENTS ANTICIPATE QUIETER PACIFIC AMPHITHEATRE

Well they sure did because as far as I know, there wasn’t one peep

that could be heard from that shell of a former concert ground. But

changes and a remaking of the venue are still in the cards.

FUTURE OF HUSCROFT HOUSE CONTINUES TO TEETER

Last but not least. It didn’t happen in 2002, but in 2003 it looks

like this house that many say is a historic piece of Costa Mesa

history will find a new home in the Bernard Street neighborhood on

the Westside.

So that’s the rundown from the big news of 2002, or least what we

thought would be big news.

Check back again next year as we see how our 2003 predictions hold

up.

*

I’d like to take a minute here to say goodbye to our features

editor Jennifer Mahal, who has quit the newspaper to take a job in

the advertising industry. Mahal has been a valued member of the Daily

Pilot team and I will miss her immensely.

Many of you may know her as the editor of our arts and

entertainment, religion and society pages, but she was also a major

player in the relaunch of our Sunday edition back in February of

2001.

She’s been the editor of that Sunday paper ever since, putting

together the main features and the Life and Leisure pages.

Good luck Jen, hope you enjoy your new career.

* TONY DODERO is the editor. He can be reached via e-mail at

tony.dodero@latimes.com or phone at 949-574-4258 or leave a message

for him on our Readers Hotline at 949-646-5086.