The Airport is Dead!

Mismanagement at the Great Park Has
Given Hope to Pro-Airport Forces

By Stephen C. Smith
Irvine Tattler Publisher
Posted June 12, 2008

Councilman Larry Agran, chairman of the Great Park Corporation, has failed to tear up the runways or build a sports park. (Photo Source: City of Irvine)

Measure W passed on March 5, 2002, changing Orange County's zoning for the closed El Toro Marine Corps base from an international airport to what would become known as a Great Park.

More than six years later, many promises have been made by Irvine elected officials who fought the airport, but few of those promises have been kept. A promised sports park remains no more than a dream. The runways that were the very symbol of the battle remain largely intact. And the Great Park Balloon, the only attraction they have been able to launch, was grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration after a complaint filed by one of its pilots led the FAA to cancel the balloon's operating permit.

On the sixth anniversary of Measure W, the Los Angeles Times published a scathing editorial that blamed “greed and politics” for Irvine's failure to build the Great Park. The Times opined:

The Great Park’s advocates persuaded the public to accept their grand vision; for that, they deserve credit. It is no small accomplishment to conceive of a monumental civic legacy. Where they err is in placing politics and extravagant promotion over sober planning for a project that might justifiably take decades to complete.

The Orange County Register published on the front page of their Sunday June 8 edition an article that echoed the same theme.

Great Park leaders have spent six years promoting ambitious visions of a majestic, 1,300-acre central park, where military runways, hangars and chain-link fences are transformed into expanses of sports fields, eye-catching natural landmarks and cultural gathering points. But in the same six years, the only attraction open to the public — an orange balloon ride — is closed down.

All this dawdling has renewed hope in the hearts and minds of the forces who spent millions of dollars trying to force the people of south Orange County to accept an international airport in their backyards.

Some People Don't Know When to Quit

The Irvine Tattler in recent weeks has received two e-mails from individuals associated with pro-airport forces, inquiring whether I would be interested in some sort of collaboration.

I made it very clear (1) the airport is dead, and (2) I will never work with pro-airport forces.

Back when Larry Agran was still a man to admire and follow, I joined him in fighting against the airport. Together we wrote In Defense of Our Community, a manifesto declaring our resolve to stop the airport.

Agran's failure to deliver on his promises has given pro-airport forces faint hope, however delusional it might be, that El Toro International Airport might still arise from its ashes. His failure to tear up the runways creates the impression for some that 747s could still one day fly out of El Toro.

It will never happen, of course, for one basic reason — the base is no longer in the hands of Orange County.

The base was turned over to the City of Irvine, which sold off part of the land to the developer Lennar. Neither will ever turn over their properties to an airport, nor is there any legal way for the County of Orange to seize the land.

The airport is really, most sincerely dead.

But with every new article published on the Register web site follow comments posted by pro-airport forces who take aid and comfort from the mismanagement of the Great Park Corporation leadership.

Here's a typical example:

Well well well, what happened to this great giant park that all you losers voted for years ago? What's this I hear about houses, commercial districts, etc., IN A PARK? Doesn't really sound like a "Park" does it? Sounds more like a scam to me. It's time you fools admitted you've been had and support the only sensible plan put forth - an AIRPORT! It's less polluting than the current plan, not as taxing on our ever dwindling water and energy supplies and it has the added benefit of actually doing something WORTHWHILE for the county as a whole. Or wasn't that what you all idiots had in mind?

Agran and his supporters praise themselves for not tearing up the runways. They say careful planning demands they wait until they decide the perfect place to store the concrete until it can be sold or recycled.

My guess is that explanation is a bit hard to swallow for the thousands of citizen-activists who were promised by Agran that the volunteers would join in a mass demolition ceremony.

That never happened.

What they got instead was an invitation-only ceremony where Agran and his political allies, Beth Krom and Sukhee Kang, posed for official photos. Council members Steven Choi and Christina Shea, who have exposed the three's misdeeds, had to make do with their own camera work. The public was not allowed to attend.

And the runways remain.

What's In A Name?

During the 2004 and 2006 elections, Agran and his allies ran their slate as the “Great Park Team.” They used the Great Park Balloon as the campaign logo. Their web site was GreatParkTeam.com.

That moniker is no more.

For the 2008 election, their new slogan is: Keep Irvine Great! With a great big patriotic flag banner across the top of their web site. (No balloon logo to be found ...)

Which suggests that polling showed the masses are pretty upset about their failure to build the Great Park as promised.

Agran and his allies are trying to distract the public with fantasies about their opponents secretly working as lobbyists and publicly available e-mail addresses being collected by their rivals for resale.

If they follow their past pattern, money laundered through slush funds collected from developers and others doing business with the City of Irvine will be spent on slate mailers this fall promoting themselves while falsely smearing their opponents.

But with the local press scrutinizing Great Park shenanigans, it's unlikely that this time the voters will fall for it.