COSTA MESA UNPLUGGED:

A basket of moons ago, former Daily Pilot Editor Bill Lobdell hatched a Thanksgiving tradition.

He’d cobble together a list of movers, shakers, also-rans and just ordinary folk in the Newport-Mesa community for whom he was thankful. It didn’t matter if you were a figure of notoriety or infamy. Making the list always carried with it some cache for reasons that remain a mystery to me.

Nonetheless, making Lobdell’s club meant you were somebody.

What we have here is a morphing of that theme. This is a reflection of things and recent events in Costa Mesa for which I’m thankful, whether they’re worth celebrating or ruing.

I’m thankful for the recent lane-striping improvements the city made on Adams Avenue between Mesa Verde Drive and Placentia Avenue. In the wake of the death of Sara Harris, the noticeably wider striping and profusion of new road buttons makes that tricky little curve much more visible on approach. If it works, the loons who regularly travel that stretch of road at speeds more suitable for salt flats than city streets will start slowing down.

I’m thankful for the new Susan Street offramp that splits from the Harbor Boulevard exit on the northbound 405. An improvement associated with the Home Ranch Development Agreement, this nifty escape route should help move traffic on that lengthy Harbor-exit chute. Before, traffic here was something like pushing tennis balls through a garden hose.

I’m thankful for the edgy vision Nexus Development is bringing to its Westside Lofts mixed-use project over on Monrovia in Costa Mesa’s Westside. A mix of commercial spaces, live-work lofts and mid-rise condominiums, the project should punch up that section of town with a hip urban campus and begin putting the brakes to the Westside’s relentless march toward something resembling South Gate.

I’m thankful that ol’ Jim Scott’s dream is nearly a reality. If you’ve passed by Estancia High School in recent weeks, you’ll see a football stadium rising up from what was once a batch of torn turf and a dirt track so hard it made concrete envious. The synthetic-turf football field is in, striped and painted; the locker rooms and concession stand is in; and the goal posts are up. Coming soon are the facility’s rubberized track and stadium seating. It will be one of Orange County’s finest facilities.

I’m thankful for the Costa Mesa City Council, who saw it smart to leave well enough alone at Fairview Park. Preserving the natural landscape of the park and respecting the Fairview Park Master Plan in its current form assures — for the moment, at least — that the city values one of the best open-space treasures in Orange County.

I’m thankful for the Costa Mesa Fish Fry, a flickering tradition that extends back in time before the city’s incorporation. It’s good to see that folks are still willing to strap it up and go to war to save this important event.

I’m thankful for Jim Hayes and his regional Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, who had the strategic savvy to place an ICE agent in Costa Mesa’s jail about a year ago. The move has proven potent in flagging alleged immigration violators, and it has defused the ethnic train wreck this city was girding for under Mayor Allan Mansoor’s game plan to federalize police with ICE authority.

I’m thankful for the chamber lizards at Costa Mesa City Hall. These are city residents who, out of care for this city or the lacking of a life, are fixtures at City Council meetings. They keep our elected officials and staff on their toes, which in public service is where they should be.

Finally, I’m thankful for the proliferation of blogs that observe the Costa Mesa machinery. From The Bubbling Cauldron and the CM Press to Goat Hill Harper and the CM Watchtower, it’s nice to see alternative media charting Costa Mesa’s progress.

Happy Thanksgiving.

BYRON DE ARAKAL is a former Costa Mesa parks and recreation commissioner. Readers can reach him at cmunplugged@yahoo.com.