BYRON DE ARAKAL -- Between the Lines

There is a scene in Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” when Dr. Grant

and his party -- out and about in Dr. Hammond’s amusement park gone awry

-- suddenly sense imminent danger. How do they know?

The ground begins to subtly shiver beneath them, and a low, plodding,

intermittent rumble breaks the thick tropical air. The camera then cuts

away to a small pool of water on the muddy road. In precise intervals,

the puddle’s placid surface is broken as the ground quakes with each

thunderous step of the approaching Tyrannosaurus Rex.

It’s clear -- at least to the audience -- that trouble is near. But,

paralyzed by fear or denial, or both, no one in Grant’s expedition seems

to have a clue. They don’t move. So guess what? One becomes an appetizer,

and the others are left scrambling for their lives.

Now the corollary may be a bit obtuse, but suffice it to say that the

ground in Costa Mesa has been quaking lately with the approaching

footsteps of a citizenry that’s losing patience with tin-eared leaders. A

fair number of voters I’ve been chatting with lately have begun sniffing

out elected officials within Costa Mesa City Hall who seem to believe

they won’t be eaten if they just play dead. These citizens -- hungry for

action and hoarse from roaring their displeasures -- are quietly chatting

about the dinner menu for the 2002 election. And if their hunger pangs

become too uncomfortable, they might not wait that long.

What’s whetting their appetites is the City Council’s persistent

fumbling of Costa Mesa’s pressing redevelopment needs. It’s the

perception that some council members -- Mayor Libby Cowan and Linda Dixon

in particular -- barely suffer gladly the usual parade of gadflies and

their one-note laments of the decaying conditions of their neighborhoods.

And there are other sidebar issues that also represent thundering

hooves. There are those put off by the reality that some on the City

Council continue to explore the annexation of Santa Ana Heights despite

that community’s passionate and persistently communicated desire to

become a part of Newport Beach. Still others grouse about the City

Council’s doleful malaise in the El Toro Airport wars.

But the clear political battleground rests with the development of the

Westside.

Now the uninitiated might find it easy to dismiss John Feeney, Robin

Leffler, Eric Bever, Janice Davidson, Tom and Eleanor Egan and Martin

Millard as ruffians who like to poke sticks in the eyes of others. But if

you are the elected representative of these good folks -- who care deeply

about their city and who are quite capable of marshaling a brigade of

voters who agree with them -- I’m thinking it’s not a good idea to ignore

the quaking ground beneath you. The casting out of Heather Somers in

November is proof of that.

The buzz is that redevelopment advocates want to see concrete action

from the City Council this year. And while they are buoyed by the Costa

Mesa Redevelopment Agency’s (the City Council by another name) unanimous

action to begin the process of deciding if some of the city’s more

downtrodden sectors could be redeveloped, they’re keeping their powder

dry.

That’s because they are wary of Cowan’s stated opposition to the use

of eminent domain (the city’s legal taking of private property for

purposes of redevelopment). And they view her and Dixon’s preference for

a front-end “visioning” process of what a redeveloped Costa Mesa should

look like as an exercise that merely feeds delay.

Beware the quaking ground.

***

Nearly 20 years ago, my wife introduced me to Dorothy Jo Swanson, a

wonderfully vivacious, caring and God-fearing lady who taught generations

how to dance at Dorothy Jo’s Dance Studio. My wife has loved Dorothy Jo

for years and always appreciated that she would rent her studio to my

wife at a very reasonable rate whenever she had a ballroom dance class to

teach.

I later met Dorothy Jo’s husband, Harold, at our wedding. He was a

kind man. Quiet and unassuming. What struck me most was the depth of

Dorothy Jo and Harold’s love for and commitment to one another.

Yesterday, Dorothy Jo, her family and her friends remembered Harold,

who recently passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Knowing Dorothy Jo as we do, she’ll miss her dear companion but will

continue to live her life with vigor and enthusiasm. We’re thinking of

you, Dorothy Jo.

* BYRON DE ARAKAL is a writer and communications consultant. He lives

in Costa Mesa. His column runs Wednesdays. Readers may reach him with

news tips and comments via e-mail at [email protected].