Between the Lines -- Byron de Arakal

Great leaders know when to stop dickering and hit somebody in the

mouth. When to pull out of the patty cake circle and draw the saber. If

you need a visual, divert your attention for a moment to my pet sequence

from the film “Patton.”

Gen. George S. Patton, the nail-spitting World War II general

exquisitely portrayed by the late George C. Scott, is having a cordial

conversation with a British commander from Gen. Bernard Montgomery’s

Eighth Army during the campaign in North Africa. The two gentlemen are

amiably chatting in Patton’s upstairs office about the Royal Air Force’s

air supremacy in the North African theater. The discourse hasn’t traveled

far when, suddenly, the office begins to fly apart under a hail of

withering machine gunfire from the wings of strafing German

Messerschmitts.

While taking cover beneath a conference table, Patton deadpans to

Montgomery’s underling that they had been talking about the RAF’s air

supremacy. Then the bullets begin to tear apart the table.

“Well, now, by God that’s enough!” Patton curses. He leaps to his

feet, unholsters his fabled pearl-handed revolver, climbs out a

second-story window down to the street and takes dead aim at an

approaching German aircraft. As the plane’s automatic gunfire races

between his legs, Patton squeezes off several shots in bold defiance.

Nearly two Thursdays ago, when Newport Beach Mayor Tod Ridgeway used

his speech before the annual Speak Up Newport dinner crowd to poke a

stick in the eye of the Greenlight movement, my head replayed that

sequence. Ridgeway, near as I could tell, had had enough.

“Wealthier residents,” the mayor told the assembled, “particularly

those that derive their livelihoods from extra-regional sources like the

stock market or inheritance, are increasingly hostile to future

development. They recoil from the traffic jams, construction delays,

environmental challenges and population increases, prompting NIMBYism.”

That, he warned, means “younger households, seeking to live and work

in Newport Beach are forced out by economics.” As that happens, he

continued, “wealthier groups become even more affluent and less inclined

to tolerate any type of development even though it might benefit all

constituents by providing an additional revenue source for the [city]

without impairing quality of life.”

Ridgeway’s words might just as well have been rounds from Patton’s

revolver. And in their totality, as I see it, there was an open

declaration that he and most of his City Council colleagues were tired of

padding around in bedroom slippers where Greenlight is concerned. That

they’d grown weary of being strafed by Greenlighters as pro-development

lackeys. That they weren’t about to shelve the future economic

development of Newport Beach by abdicating their planning and development

authority to a vocal minority wishing the city back to the days when

Bogie was hanging out at the Bay Club.

It was a series of punches to the mouth none too soon, in my

estimation. That’s because in recent years the Newport Beach City Council

has been in the habit of ducking for political cover under the color of

appeasement.

The council wasted precious time, for instance, on the John Wayne

Airport settlement agreement. How? By breaking bread with South Orange

County’s anti-El Toro factions in an attempt to win their support for an

extension of the curfews and flight caps.

And since Greenlight’s passage, the council has been handcuffed with

political terror. It seemed to dally over how to implement the rules of

the initiative, gave the Koll Center Newport expansion a cold-lipped peck

on the cheek, and looked to be moon walking in a tepid nod to the

proposed Marinapark project on a procedural vote.

Nevertheless, Ridgeway’s speech clearly signals a shift in strategy,

in my book. The nice-nice is over. The political fanny covering is done.

And, more interestingly, the Greenlight movement may have overplayed its

hand. After all, fewer than half of the city’s registered voters gave

the nod to Greenlight in November 2000.

The real test of Ridgeway’s leadership is yet to come. If he can

mobilize the other half of the city’s electorate -- the younger and less

affluent residents -- to side with development policies and projects that

will ensure Newport Beach’s economic vitality over the generations ahead,

that’s when we’ll know he’s comfortable in combat boots. Stay tuned.

* Byron de Arakal is a writer and communications consultant. He

resides in Costa Mesa. Readers can reach him with news tips and comments

via e-mailat o7 [email protected] .