Trying to bridge the gap

Andrew Glazer

COSTA MESA -- Most people don’t see the relation between bridges and

parking. Or bridges and trees. Especially not bridges and day laborers.

But that’s because they’re not Robert Graham.

Graham thinks the city should commit to studying whether a bridge on West

19th Street -- extending the street across the Santa Ana River to

Huntington Beach -- would raise property values and draw new shops to the

area. He said he’s frustrated that the council won’t seriously consider

conducting the economic study. Graham believes the council would need

this information to make an educated decision.

The debate about whether to eliminate the 19th Street bridge from Orange

County’s master plan has gone on for more than a decade. The county won’t

erase the bridge until all four adjoining cities reach a consensus.

Newport Beach officials are in favor of the bridge, while both Costa Mesa

and Huntington Beach city councils are vehemently opposed. Fountain

Valley is considered a neutral party.

Despite their positions, Graham and several others who have joined his

cause insist the 19th Street bridge would be good for the city.

In order to convince them, Graham has brought up the bridge at nearly

every council meeting for the past year. He speaks about the bridge

during public comments, which is perfectly fine with most council

members.

But he also brings up the bridge during the public comments period of

nearly every item on the council’s agenda, which has become annoying to

them.

“If it wasn’t such a big issue, I wouldn’t be doing this,” he said.

Sometimes a connection to the issue the council is discussing is obvious.

But more often, Graham is forced to perform rhetorical flips and

somersaults, bridging the bridge to seemingly unrelated issues. He always

finishes his three-minute speeches gracefully, thanking the council.

“I think I’ve gotten quite good at it,” Graham said.

The council’s reactions have included angry outbursts, laughs, smirks and

rolling eyes.

“I’ll admit, he does a good job of tying the bridge into every issue,”

said Councilwoman Libby Cowan. “We have to take it as a light moment,

otherwise it would be real frustrating.”But Graham got the better of the

normally stoic Mayor Gary Monahan at Monday’s council meeting when he

brought up the bridge during a discussion about parking.

“Yeah, I got frustrated,” Monahan said. “But when you take a rubber band

and keep stretching it, it breaks. That’s what happened.”

Monahan said he was thinking about calling Graham to ask him to keep his

bridge discussions where they belong.

The mayor said he could be more stringent by calling Graham to order with

his gavel. But he said for now he didn’t want to make a big deal out of

his bridge obsession.

“At some point, we may need to reign him in,” he said. “But at this

point, I don’t think we need to be more stringent.”

Graham said he’ll keep talking about the bridge as much as possible until

the city comes up with a reason for him to stop.

“If they don’t like me doing this, then they should come forward with a

justification for not doing the [economic] study.”