Mayor’s speech draws harsh reaction

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- A speech by Mayor Tod Ridgeway that pits older, more

affluent residents against younger families is divisive and unfair, a

Greenlight spokesman has charged.

In his speech at Speak Up Newport’s 21st annual Mayor’s Dinner on

Thursday, Ridgeway called for unity in the city to promote growth

beneficial to all.

But in the process, Greenlight representative Phil Arst said, Ridgeway

drew a line he shouldn’t have between two groups of residents.

“Wealthier residents, particularly those that derive their livelihoods

from extra-regional sources like the stock market or inheritance are

increasingly hostile to future development,” Ridgeway told the gathering

of the city’s elite at the Newport Beach Marriott on Thursday night.

“Younger households seeking to live and work in Newport Beach are forced

out by economics.”

Ridgeway also read an e-mail he received from a self-described

Generation Xer who supports reasonable development. Then the mayor

challenged older people, the “Great Generation,” to come into the fold.

The mayor could not be reached for comment Friday.

But by distinguishing between older and younger residents, the mayor

drew harsh words from at least two community members.

“His statements are an affront to voters 40 years and older, not just

seniors,” said Arst, a spokesman for the Greenlight Committee, the main

opponent to some large developments favored by the mayor and City

Council.

Ridgeway has said his main goal as mayor is to communicate to

residents reasons why some development is good and, therefore, why the

slow-growth Greenlight Initiative is out of place. That initiative,

passed in November 2000, requires an election of the people to decide on

any project large enough to need an amendment to the city’s general plan.

Ridgeway’s speech comes on the heels of allegations by Arst that the

city is engaging in legal, but nonetheless unfair, age discrimination in

its appointment process for a residents’ committee consulting on the

general plan update. Arst has said the application process for that

committee discriminates against older voters.

Another resident, in an e-mail sent to the mayor and copied to the

Daily Pilot, also criticized the mayor’s words.

“Because most of those on the working group of Greenlight qualify as

senior citizens, ‘over 55’ is no reason to single them out for personal

insults,” resident Frank Limbaugh wrote, noting that he shares the

mayor’s feelings supporting rational growth. Limbaugh described as

“insulting, demeaning and divisive” the mayor’s characterization of

“older, wealthier residents being insensitive to younger families.”

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

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