ON THE TOWN:It’s reasonable to consider change in Newport

We have been discussing change in this space. You have been reminded that most people resist change because change represents the unknown, and most people do not like the unknown.

Exceptions to that rule are found when we jump on a roller coaster for the first time, or when we are expecting a child and do not know whether it’s a boy or a girl, but ultrasound technology can take care of that mystery.

That technology represents change.

Change is a particularly hard adjustment for people in government.

Three of our schools are undergoing serious oversight because of the school board’s inability to make the drastic changes necessary to provide children with an education that meets the standards of a 5-year-old federal act.

Now we are witnessing a resistance to a change in plans for a park in Newport Beach where some say the new city hall should be built.

In an articulate, passionate commentary in this newspaper Tuesday, City Councilman Edward Selich argued why the new city hall should not be built on the Avocado Avenue site near the library.

One of Selich’s arguments was that changing the original plans from a park-only site to a combination city hall and park “will be detrimental to the faith citizens have in the integrity of the City Council.”

Selich uses the words “can’t” and “cannot” a couple of times — as in the site “can’t be both” a park and a city hall, and the park “cannot be done with a building underneath it.”

That type of negative language is detrimental to progress, for the fact is that the land most certainly can be both a park and a city hall and a park can most certainly be built on a rooftop if that’s what the council or residents decide they want.

Selich’s main point is a good one. The city has a covenant, formal or not, with residents to put a park on that property.

The fact that this is foremost in his mind should be a comfort not only to those who live in the 5th District, but to all of the people who will make use of the park, with or without a city hall.

But the City Council has also been charged with leadership. Sometimes that leadership means making tough decisions that go against an original plan.

Stuff happens, and inflexibility or resistance to change can stifle progress.

Selich goes on to describe a vision of the property, one that involves the relocation of the transit facility that’s at San Joaquin Hills Road and MacArthur Boulevard.

I endorse this idea, mostly because that is a hot corner that deserves to be something other than a big bus stop.

It appears as though, finally, the peninsula location is off the radar. If so, that decision would represent a change that would be beneficial to Newport Beach.

The concern of everyone should be that we are all open to suggestions — open to changes that are continuous improvements on the plans we have already made.

Whether Selich’s intelligent plan ever comes to fruition remains to be seen.

But in an era when technological progress and environmental concerns are accelerating the rate of change, we must be ready to at least consider any reasonable proposal that comes our way.