Between the Lines -- Byron de Arakal

The news out of Newport-Mesa in recent weeks has reminded me of snack

food. We’ve had bags of tasty little morsels that are fun to eat when the

brain is lazy and not much interested in noshing on heavy headlines.

We have the case of Tawny Kitaen Finley, for instance, whom we know is

in a bit of a legal pickle for allegedly clubbing her husband -- former

Angels pitcher Chuck Finley -- about the head with the ouch end of her

high-heeled shoe. That one -- as columns go -- is a Funion or a Cheeto.

Pete Buffa can gobble that one up and wash it down with a liter-sized

bottle of his wit no problem. I can’t. This space feeds on meat and

potatoes.

Only we haven’t had much of that in the way of news in these parts. So

for today, we’ll be chewing on a few news scraps we’ve managed to pull

from the pantry of current events. And we’re calling this one duck soup,

dark clouds and houses of the holy.

First the soup. You’ll recall that earlier this year we engaged in a

fictitious colloquy with a representative of the white duck population of

Balboa Island. In the wake of the Newport Beach ban on the feeding of

these fine fowl, the city considered conducting ducknappings under the

cover of darkness to thin the local white duck population. The operation,

said city officials, might be necessary to cut the volume of duck doo

soiling channel waters.

This had our white duck ambassador seeing red. Nevermind the city had

yanked their meal ticket, or the irony of the city fretting over duck

droppings when it had been carting its untested human waste to sites in

Irvine for years. It was the targeting of the white ducks that had him

lathered. The brown mallards -- federally protected -- got to stick

around under the aegis of a kind of ornithological affirmative action.

And so with no other options for survival in Newport Beach, the white

duck told us that “there’s always Costa Mesa.”

But for a moment Monday evening, during the Costa Mesa City Council

session, things weren’t looking so ducky for our billed refugees. While

retooling and spit-shining the city’s code governing Costa Mesa’s parks

and recreation facilities, language was kicked about that would ban

public feeding of waterfowl. That’s because the lakes at TeWinkle Park

are teeming with ducks and their droppings. Nevertheless, Councilman Gary

Monahan and Mayor Linda Dixon -- sharing stories of how their children

enjoy feeding the ducks there -- urged their colleagues to reconsider.

Which they did.

So it looks for the moment that Costa Mesa will remain the Jenin

refugee camp for wayward Newport ducks.

Moving on, we’ve had precious few weeks of warm and tranquil sunshine

since the dark clouds that hung over the contentious Home Ranch debate

parted. And yet the overcast is gathering again, this time over the

planned development of a roughly 80,000-square-foot Kohl’s department

store on the bit of real estate now occupied by the venerable Kona Lanes

and the shuttered Ice Chalet in Mesa Verde Center.

It seems that many of the folks who dropped between a half million and

700,000 bucks for one of those mansionettes in the Mesa Verde Collection

are a bit annoyed over the prospect of a sprawling retail outlet tucked

nearly snug against the eastern wall of their cozy new community. Just

how thick the battle will become isn’t yet clear. Nonetheless, word is

the veteran foot soldiers who tossed grenades into the Segerstrom camp

during the Home Ranch tussle -- namely Mesa Verde residents Paul

Flanagan, Robin Leffler and Cindy Brenneman -- are lacing up their combat

boots.

Now if you noodle for a moment on the considerable volume of coin the

Mesa Verde Collection folks invested in their new homes and the

battle-hardened experience of Leffler, Brenneman and Flanagan, it’s not

outside the box to predict another heavyweight brawl between the forces

of slow-growth and economic development.

Finally, we enter the houses of the holy in Newport-Mesa to see that

the God business hasn’t been supping much manna from heaven lately.

In Newport Beach, the good people of the Mormon church have been

having a tough time convincing local residents that a 124-foot spire

planned for its new temple on Bonita Canyon Drive won’t sully the local

skyline.

Meantime, Costa Mesa is in the legal gun sights of one of its own over

the city’s decision earlier this year to allow Lighthouse Community

Church to expand its school operations. Paul Wilbur -- who along with his

wife and various neighbors objected to the expansion, in part, because of

the persistent annoyance of the sound of people worshiping and children

playing -- has filed suit against the city, claiming its decision

threatens the property value of his home.

Add to these headlines the recent keyhole Calvary Church Newport-Mesa

had to crawl through to win city approval for a temporary sanctuary on

its Newport Boulevard property, and revelations that a former priest at

St. John the Baptist may have been a bit too friendly with young

parishioners there. Even God has bad days.

* Byron de Arakal is a freelance writer and communications consultant.

He resides in Costa Mesa. His column appears Wednesdays. Readers can

reach him with news tips and comments via e-mail ato7

[email protected] . Visit his Web site at o7 www.byronwriter.comf7

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