Triangle Square could be a hot spot

HUMBERTO CASPA

Costa Mesa Councilman Eric Bever must have surprised his colleagues

when he said in a council meeting that they should focus on eminent

domain to get Triangle Square on its feet. I can only imagine Mayor

Allan Mansoor and the rest of the city officials looking

bemused,shocked,and ready to jab him with the question: Are you

kidding? Bever’s proposal is either a revolutionary idea or simply

lacks entrepreneurial vision. My hunch points to the latter rather

than to the former, though you have to admit it’s unique and

flamboyant.

Let’s look at the positive side of Bever’s proposal. Perhaps his

intention was merely to bring a hard, pressing issue to the

community. After all, Triangle Square has been performing poorly

since I moved back to Costa Mesa a few years ago. It has about 25% of

its retail space empty. This has affected the owner, the leasing

company and the city of Costa Mesa. Instead of a projected $1

million, our local government collects only around $200,000 in tax

revenues. This number could go much lower if more businesses decide

to bail out of the area.

In Bever’s mind, resolving the Triangle Square affair should

include a radical twist, instead of working things out with the

current owner. Although he has recently softened his approach toward

using the eminent domain, mechanism, he continues to be a staunch

supporter of it.

Since his plan assumes using court proceedings, we must first

analyze whether his ideas have legal grounds. In this context, the

Fifth Amendment contains some of the most important safeguards for

individual citizens against the arbitrary exercise of government

power. While the law prohibits governments from taking property

without fair compensation, it allows some tolerance for projects with

a clear “public use,” such as roads or schools, or to revitalize

blighted areas. By the way, Triangle Square was built under the

eminent domain prerogative.

However, two weeks ago, the Supreme Court in Kelo versus City of

London (No. 04-108) extended the right of local governments to use

eminent domain on private property when city officials deem it

necessary, including taking away private property to expand

businesses. “The city has carefully formulated an economic

development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the

community, including -- but by no means limited to -- new jobs and

increased tax revenue,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in the

majority opinion.

Although there might be tiny legal loopholes supporting Bever’s

arguments, the law is clear regarding who benefits from eminent

domain. The court isn’t likely to allow a government to take away

property from a redeveloper to give it to another redeveloper. In

other words, Bever’s plan sounds more like a government takeover. In

Latin America, this is called nationalization of private industries,

and it is highly popular today with the leftist regimes of Hugo

Chavez in Venezuela and Lula da Silva in Brazil.

I think the solution of Triangle Square lies in the private

sector, and depends greatly on the company that owns the center. Many

people -- and an editorial in the Daily Pilot -- have already pointed

out the need for a different marketing strategy focusing on younger

generations.

Given the results at Sutra Lounge and the Yard House, this

approach -- though isn’t a sure thing -- is the best one available on

the table. Chris Cramer, a Sutra Lounge employee, corroborated the

success of his company, telling me, “Since we opened, we enjoyed

packed stages like this one.” It was very crowed when I got there.

I would challenge Colliers-Seeley International Inc., the leasing

firm at Triangle Square, to turn it into the hottest evening spot in

the county. I would highly encourage someone in that office to visit

downtown San Diego and prove to himself or herself that a mixture of

successful dancing clubs and restaurants, sharing the same market,

could coexist successfully if they attract different crowds.

Moreover, more than half of Costa Mesa’s population has Latin

roots and is middle class, yet I haven’t seen a decent nightclub like

those in our neighboring cities. Unfortunately, most Latinos have to

spend money at J.C. Fandangos of Anaheim or at Tia Juana’s and Las

Tapas in Irvine, to name a few places. Believe it or not, the View in

Newport Beach used to have one of the most extravagant floors for

Latin music.

I’m sure Jose Costas, dancing instructor at Orange Coast College,

would love to have an upscale dancing floor for his students just off

campus. To say the least, I would only have to say to my wife:

“Darling let’s go to ‘el triangulo’ to dance salsa.”

* HUMBERTO CASPA is a Costa Mesa resident and bilingual writer. He

can be reached by e-mail at hcletters@yahoo.com.