SOUNDING OFF:

I spent the weekend at Costa Mesa’s marina near Victoria Street. It was relaxing to walk on the sand and watch the small boats coming and going.

While at the marina, I imagined what Costa Mesa would be like today had a prior City Council not had the foresight to put the beach and marina in below the Westside Bluffs. Why, the Westside might now need revitalization.

Oops. Sorry. For a moment, I was mentally in the alternate “it could have been” universe version of Costa Mesa. That’s the Costa Mesa where the politicians didn’t make the mistakes that they actually did make.

It once seemed so likely that a marina and beach would be dredged below the Westside Bluffs that a developer built what now seems to be the oddly placed Newport Beach neighborhood of Newport Terrace at the end of West 19th Street. Fish were supposed to be next to that neighborhood, not the possums that live there now.

Also, in anticipation of adjacent water, the Marina Highlands neighborhood near Victoria Street was built. If you look down into the brush and dirt below that neighborhood today, you’ll see a large artificial pond surrounded by a chain-link fence. That pond is actually a test ditch to see if sufficient water can remain there to float our boats, as we say in the trade.

Had one vote gone differently on the Costa Mesa City Council back then about 25 years ago, both neighborhoods would now be looking at water, and Costa Mesa would be in the coastal cities club. We also wouldn’t now be talking about needing a revitalization of the Westside.

Anyone who wants to know more about this should talk to former mayor and present head of the Planning Commission Donn Hall. Commissioner Hall was one of the main proponents of the Marina.

I recently asked Supervisor John Moorlach about the possibility of Costa Mesa acquiring land at the mouth of the Santa Ana River that is presently owned by Orange County. He said that if Costa Mesa wants it, it should put in an offer for the land.

We’re probably talking about less than 3/4 of a mile of land, proceeding south from the mouth of the Santa Ana River along the beach. Small, but a window to the ocean.

So, why shouldn’t Costa Mesa put in a one-dollar offer to take that land off the hands of the county? The county might be happy to be rid of what might just be a nuisance to it.

Sure, it’ll be a postage-stamp-size beach, but a beach is a beach. Cities that have ocean front property are generally better off than those that don’t have such land.

And, if Costa Mesa has that tiny plot of sand, it might just lead to bigger and better things, such as: I spent the weekend at Costa Mesa’s marina near Victoria Street.

In addition, and in keeping with our blue-collar reputation, think of all the “Serf Costa Mesa” T-shirts we can sell.

One last thing. With water actually touching some part of Costa Mesa, our annual Fish Fry might make sense.

M.H. Millard is a Costa Mesa writer.