TONY DODERO -- Editor’s Notebook
If there’s a cliche we love to toss around in the newsroom it’s the old
one about not killing the messenger. Being the messengers that we often
are, it seems an appropriate bit of self-protection.
And the saying was especially apropos last week as many were ready to
line us up on the firing squad in light of the controversies we’ve
tackled.
Take for instance our reporting on the recent statewide school Academic
Performance Index scores. We, I believe rightly, pointed out the
differences in rankings between schools within the Newport-Mesa Unified
School District.
At one end of the spectrum was Andersen Elementary in Corona del Mar with
a No. 1 in Orange County ranking of 933. On the other side was Costa
Mesa’s Wilson Elementary with a ranking of 443. Are there differences
between the two schools demographically? You bet.
Costa Mesa’s schools have large populations of children who either don’t
speak the English language, or are in the process of learning it. That
alone is a difficult hurdle, and we said as much in our first story after
the rankings were released.
In fact, we devoted an entire series, “A tale of two schools” that
highlighted the very topic a couple years back.
Still, our first-day story on the ranking results pushed one Newport-Mesa
trustee over the edge, prompting the school board member to call our
education reporter and growl, heatedly, to her about the story.
The trustees’ point? If you rank Wilson up with other demographically
similar, and lower ranking, schools, you’ll see that it’s a better
matchup.
Well, maybe so. And to ensure we we’re being fair, we reported that fact
in our coverage of the rankings Friday.
But personally, I find that attitude puzzling. We’re not talking about
comparing schools in two different districts, we’re talking about two
schools within the very SAME district in which a gulf of nearly 500
points exists between their respective rankings.
The trustee, and others who have complained about our coverage, seem to
imply that it’s fine to be at the low end of the rankings, as long as the
school measures up in that company. But that isn’t good enough for me,
and I bet it isn’t good enough for the parents at Wilson or other Costa
Mesa schools.
Those schools deserve to be pushed into the same class as Andersen and
Lincoln and other Newport Beach elementary schools. The issue of English
limited pupils is not a new one. So it’s time to put those old excuses to
rest and come up with some innovative programs to help those schools. As
school leaders love to say, “It’s what’s best for the children.” ...
Now on to our Greenlight critics. First on the list is the leaders of the
Bayside Village mobile home park association. Those leaders became
incensed when we reported the association, which represents the park
homeowners, had seemingly reversed its previous opposition to the Dunes
hotel project, adjacent to the park.
The basis for our story was a letter to the Newport Beach Planning
Commission, signed by the Bayside association leaders. The letter thanked
Dunes officials for promising to employ measures, one of which is
installing a guard shack at the common entrance for the Dunes and
Bayside, that would ease the burdens the development would have on the
residents.
That letter, written in very complimentary and conciliatory tones, had an
ending paragraph that summed up the association’s gratitude and stated
the leaders had given “a vote of confidence to the project developers of
the Dunes.”
Several planning commissioners, our reporter, a headline writer and I all
took that to mean the Bayside community had come to an amicable agreement
with the Dunes, which wants to build a hotel.
But several members of the community were taken aback by the news and
rang up association president Jo Smallwood to protest. We followed the
next day with that story. Now, Smallwood insists the association never
“endorsed” the hotel project, as our headline proclaimed.
In an e-mail she wrote to me she says:
“We like the fact that the Dunes has made an effort to address our
concerns regarding the two modifications to the project; however, because
of the diversity of opinions which exist in the village, the homeowners
association cannot give blanket endorsement of the project one way or
another. Our position was always such and has not changed since first
approached by the press for a statement.”
Frankly, if they don’t want to “endorse” the hotel project, it matters
little to our newsroom. But I’m still not sure I know the difference
between “vote of confidence” and “endorsement.” ...
Speaking of semantics, many have complained of our use of the terms “slow
growth” and “anti-growth” when referring to the Greenlight initiative,
the measure that would, I don’t know, “limit” growth or “discourage”
growth if passed.
Sorry for being trite, but I’m not sure the leaders of Greenlight
initiative had any other objective than to keep Newport Beach pristine,
free of additional traffic and congestion and maintain existing open
space and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but development growth
seems an anathema to that goal.
You see, I doubt any Greenlighters are shedding any tears over the demise
of Newport Center’s expansion, and if the Dunes, Balboa Peninsula and
Crystal Cove development plans were suddenly shelved, I imagine there
would be a party to end all parties at Greenlight leader Phil Arst’s
home.
Still, we promise to be a little more judicious in how we describe the
initiative, but make no mistake, the movement is populated by a respected
old guard of “slow-growthers” who have fought for years to keep Newport
Beach free from urbanization.
One of them is Allan Beek, who once in a public meeting for the Castaways
development warned of the “Irvine Co’s environmentally sensitive
bulldozers.”
So again, remember I’m just relaying a message here.
Please don’t make me walk the plank.
* TONY DODERO is the editor of the Daily Pilot. He can be reached at
949-574-4258 or via e-mail at [email protected].
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