Newport working to fix classic-size mix-up

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- Scrambling to correct a huge conflict, city officials

are trying to find a way that the Toshiba Senior Classic golf tournament

and the annual Spirit Fun Run can happen at the same place at the same

time.

Permit issuers in the city accidentally scheduled the two events to

overlap March 10. The same time that 5,000 people are expected to run in

the annual Spirit Fun Run, about 25,000 golf enthusiasts will need to be

on the same street as the runners to park for the tournament.

The run, a fund-raiser that earned about $200,000 last year for five

Corona del Mar elementary schools, has its course on Newport Center

Drive, encircling Fashion Island.

The golf tournament, which takes place March 4 through March 10 at the

Newport Beach Country Club, has parking at two large Newport Center

garages where the Irvine Co. donates space for the event. To access the

parking garages, which are in the 500 and 600 blocks of Newport Center

Drive, attendees must drive on the spirit run’s course.

On Friday, City Manager Homer Bludau met with planners of both events

to try to figure out a solution.

“Meeting with the Police Department, it appears they have worked out a

solution to partially reroute a portion of the [Spirit Fun] Run,” he

said.

In the meeting Friday, neither side was able to reschedule itsevent.

“The run has been publicized for a long time, people have paid to

enter, corporate sponsors are involved -- it’s not something that can be

changed,” said Lucy Steinberg, who along with her husband, Leigh,

underwrites the fund-raiser. “It’s a very unfortunate situation, but we

thought Homer Bludau has done a very good job of trying to work out a

very difficult problem.”

Other possible solutions include finding other access to the parking

spaces for the tournament or finding a way to reroute the run so that it

doesn’t conflict with the golf event. Bludau has also asked Police Capt.

Paul Henisey to prepare a parking access plan.

“It’s a question of how we can meet in the middle and make it good for

both parties,” said Jeff Purser, a spokesman for the Toshiba Golf

Classic. “We’ll do everything we can to resolve the issue. I would hope

this would never happen again, and I’ve been given assurances that it

won’t.”

The golf classic draws about 80,000 people to Newport Beach each year

over the course of the weeklong event. Sunday, its busiest day, draws a

crowd of about 25,000 people.

“Everyone is trying to engage in cooperative dialogue that will let

the two events occur at the same time,” Steinberg said. “How, exactly,

that can be worked out we don’t know yet.”

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .