SOUNDING OFF:

The arguments both pro and con about placing the Newport city hall on the Avocado property seem shortsighted.

The argument most often cited in favor of Measure B is that it will save the city $8 million. Fifty years from now no one will remember that $8 million but the city hall will still be with us, as will decisions we make concerning the Avocado property. At the risk of shocking local Greens however, of which I count myself one, people should realize that open space and parks in an urban setting are not always good.

The city hall should be more than just a cubicle pad for city employees. It should serve as a source of civic pride.

The structure itself and its immediate surroundings can include features that attract people, like a lecture hall or theater. Why not make it mixed use? Restaurants and coffee shops attract people and bring them together. Why not include private offices, especially those of community-based organizations encouraged through reduced rent?

The immediate question we face next Tuesday is whether the city hall should be placed in the open space on Avocado or whether that space should be reserved for a park. Part of that decision should be: Will that property make a good park? People arguing in favor of open space should realize this property is not open space in the sense of limiting sprawl. It is already surrounded by sprawl and close to the economic center of Newport. If it is to be a park, it will be an urban park. Jane Jacobs in “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” made some remarkably perceptive observations about urban parks. She noted that good parks, like Boston’s Public Garden, can be a joy to the community and enhance property values. Other parks become places of squalor, shunned and feared.

One concern Jacobs did not foresee that is perhaps more relevant to California is that open spaces in an urban setting discourage walking and push us into cars. People in favor of keeping the Avocado property as a park have raised concerns about traffic congestion. The best way to reduce traffic congestion would be to get people out of their cars and create walking and public transportation corridors around Newport. The city hall, wherever it is, should help establish such corridors.

The public rancor about the Avocado site may blind us to the bigger issues involved. For some of the same reasons that the Avocado site is not a great place for a park, it is not a great place for city hall.

A location more closely connected to Fashion Island, for example, or even the existing site, might be better. On the other hand, successful decisions usually involve compromise. If our city fathers will commit to using the money saved by the Avocado site to create a better city hall that our grandchildren will appreciate, then I for one would be willing to give up the park.

James Gula is a resident of Newport Beach.