News: Council Member Nancy Gardner

city council district 6 v corona del mar & newport coast

Nancy Gardner

council member v newport beach, california

newsletter: august 2010

YES, WE ARE A CHARTER CITY, BUT NO, WE’RE NOT BELL
For those interested, you can go to the city’s web page, get the budget and get all of the salaries and benefits. We’ve posted all this information for years. Also, the council does not boost its stipend by sitting on city committees. No council member is remunerated for sitting on a city committee or task force. That is just part of the job.

AB/FAB LANDSCAPING
People don’t usually swoon over medians, but I drove down Superior recently and was bowled over by the landscaping of the median. Steve Rosansky’s instruction to staff was to think of it as someone’s front yard rather than the middle of a busy street, and the results are a wonderful example of just how great drought-tolerant plants can look with a good design.

FARMERS’ MARKETS
We now have two in town. Saturday mornings, it’s Corona del Mar which has been a fixture for years, and for the other side of the bay there’s now one on Sundays in Lido Village. A different mix of vendors makes each unique, so you can spend your whole weekend squeezing peaches and thumping melons.

WE DON’T SWIM IN YOUR TOILET . . .
I’m sure most of you remember the rest of the sign that was often posted at swimming pools. We could say the same thing of the bay. We spend a lot of time and money on water quality, and people have often inquired why we don’t do a dye tab program like the one in Avalon. Well, now we are. The Harbor Master has agreed to handle this for all visiting boats–one more layer of protection.

EXPANSION OF SMOKING BAN?
There is no smoking on public beaches, and now the Environmental Quality Affairs Committee is considering a recommendation to extend that ban. Among the areas under discussion–public parks, walkways, outdoor dining areas. Rejected as being too far reaching was eliminating all outdoor smoking, although it has always seemed a little odd that smokers don’t want the smell of smoke in their residences, so they go outside and smoke, exposing their neighbors to the smell.

AND SPEAKING OF ODORS–LEAF BLOWERS
After some delay the city is sending out a survey to property management companies to see what the effect would be if there was a complete ban on leaf blowers or a ban of gas-powered blowers. The other day my neighbor’s gardener was blowing leaves between the houses when I had the windows open. The exhaust blew in and was so unpleasant I had to vacate the house, so it’s more than simply noise that’s an issue.

ORANGE COAST RIVER PARK
The concept of OCRP (unifying the management of various open space properties along this end of the river to improve habitat and recreational opportunities) has been widely accepted, but getting a management structure has been difficult. Frustrated, Jean Watt has stepped up and organized a new non-profit, OCRP, with the mission of acquisition, restoration, management and maintenance of properties along the river to accomplish those goals. Aiding her are Gary Gorman, a founder of the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy who managed the acquisition and restoration of Talbert Marsh, and Dennis Baker who just completed a three-year term as chair of the Newport Bay Naturalists, leading that group in a number of restoration projects. Look for a lot of activity from this group and some real benefits to that area of the river.

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FUTURE TOPIC SUGGESTIONS

This is a two-way process, so please don’t hesitate to contact me with your ideas and opinions.

Council Member Nancy Gardner

QUALITY OF LIFE Advocate FOR NEWPORT BEACH

City of Newport Beach | 3300 Newport Blvd | Newport Beach, CA 92663

Phone: 949.644.3004 | EMAIL: gardnerncy@aol.com