“We’re trying everything because it is very...

“We’re trying everything because it is very competitive.”

-- Marta Hayden, executive director of the Newport Beach

Conference and Visitors Bureau, on trying to woo tourist dollars to

Orange County.

“With interest rates dropping so low, it really brought a lot of

buyers to the plate. There’s just no inventory for them to buy.”

-- Lori Robnett, Costa Mesa real estate agent for First Team Real

Estate, on the seller’s market.

“I’m used to doing prayers addressed to ‘wondrous God’ or

‘gracious lovers of souls,’ without Jesus or Christ or God or the

Father or Allah or any specific references like that.”

-- The Rev. Peter Haynes, of St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal

Parish Church, said about the city’s new guidelines on City Council

invocations.

“They’re basically rats with wings, everyone knows that.”

-- Hunter Stroman, manager of Marina WaterSports, on the pigeons

on the Balboa peninsula.

“Just wait, I’ll be right back for the arrest. I wouldn’t want to

miss it.”

-- Barbara Seoane, 56-year-old UC Irvine undergraduate told a

fellow protester, opposed to the future demolition of the campus

mobile home park.

“I don’t want to be painted with the same brush. If [Phil] Arst

and his Greenlight Committee want a more strident voice on the

council than mine, well, the filing deadline for them to run a

candidate for my seat is the first week in August.”

-- Newport Beach City Councilman John Heffernan, who was elected

as a Greenlight supporter with the slow-growth group’s endorsement,

in regard to the group’s lawsuit against the city.