Eastside wasn’t always a jewel

Lolita Harper

On any given day, you will see a family taking a walk down Orange

Avenue or pushing a stroller across 18th Street, or a child riding a

bike on Santa Ana Avenue.

The Eastside of Costa Mesa has long been considered a gem because

of its cozy neighborhood feel, and that atmosphere is in large part

because of aggressive action taken by the City Council in 1960.

Forty-three years ago, the City Council enacted a series of 1911

Act projects, in which it elected to widen many of the streets and

add sidewalks, curbs and gutters.

Bob Wilson, an expert on city history, was on the council in 1960.

He would later become mayor. He said he and his colleagues took the

lead to make the Eastside what it is today.

“It was the reason Costa Mesa turned out to be the jewel that it

is today,” Wilson said. “We didn’t do everything right, but we did a

good job, all things considered.”

The 1911 Act, in essence, says a City Council can simply enact

various projects in small increments, attacking certain problem

areas. Residents have the right to protest and force it to an

election, but they must have 51% opposition to halt it.

In the case of the Eastside, opposition never surfaced, Wilson

said, and as more and more was accomplished, the demand for the

projects grew.

“We spent hours and hours meeting with the community and

communicating to them the value of this act,” Wilson said. “As things

got done, more and more people were asking for it in there

neighborhood.”

All of a sudden, the Eastside had curb gutters and sidewalks, and

the city “cleaned up its act,” Wilson said. That action, more than

two decades ago, is still largely responsible for the high property

values in that part of the city and makes it attractive to young

families.

Wilson admits the various councils he served on, as well as those

that followed, ignored the Westside of the city. He hopes today’s

council can use the same foresight as in 1960 and use the 1911 Act to

transform the city again.