Marinapark blog a flop

On the Web and seeking community responses since Oct. 31, city-run site has yet to receive a comment. Newport’s technology leader says city is ahead of the curve.The city of Newport Beach has launched its first blog in the hope of eliciting more community feedback about proposals for the Marinapark property.

The blog, the brainchild of Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff, was created about two weeks ago but is so far bare of any suggestions or complaints.

The City Council has been debating what to do with the city-owned Marinapark property for years. It’s now occupied by a mobile-home park and a Girl Scout house as well as public beach, tennis courts and other amenities.

The council in 2000 voted to let hotel designer Stephen Sutherland negotiate to build a 110-room luxury resort on the property, but the necessary zoning change was quashed by city voters in 2004. Since then, the council has asked for ideas from the community; eight proposals have been made.

Kiff said the idea of the blog is to make sure people have plenty of opportunity for input on Marinapark ideas before the City Council discusses the suggestions early next year.

“Some of the criticism for the Sutherland proposal was that the public ... didn’t get as many chances as they would have liked to see the other concepts that had come forward up to that time,” Kiff said.

But no one seems to be biting yet. That’s a disappointment to Paul Malkemus, the city’s Web guru.

In recent months he’s overseen the city’s various technological leaps: making City Council meetings available online for on-demand viewing, setting up a Yahoo e-mail account for comments on the proposed $48 million civic center, and most recently the blog.

“The blog is more intriguing to me because people can pretty much post whatever they want anonymously,” Malkemus said.

“If it did generate some activity, we’d certainly be a lot more inclined to use it for other things.”

He doesn’t have statistics, but Malkemus said plenty of people are using the Web viewer for council meetings, and they’re still sending comments about the civic center.

“I think that at this point we’re kind ahead of the curve, and in some respects other cities are kind of taking a look at what we’ve doing and following our lead,” he said.

Kiff said he hopes to hear from a wide variety of people about Marinapark, not just those who have put forward project ideas and their friends.

The proposals include a park with a sailing center and a small boat launch, a deep-water marina with large boat slips, and overnight cottage rentals. The City Council is expected to discuss plans for Marinapark at a study session in January.

“We really do like the public’s input -- we just don’t make it easy for them. We’re trying to make it easier and easier,” Kiff said.

To see information on Marinapark and the proposals, or to visit the Web log, go to www.city.newport-beach.ca.us and select “Projects” at the top, then choose “Marina Park.”