Friday, June 6, 2008

The Great Beekster!

When the full history of Newport Beach is written...
(Oh, they already tried that!)..well, our edition will
include the legend of Alan Beek. The Harry Potter
series will look like child's play....oh my...two in
one paragraph! We are talking Fantastic Finishes and
the Fantastic Four when it comes to great story lines.

For the uninitiated, Alan Beek and the Beek family run
the Balboa Island Ferry. A Newport Beach icon since...
1919...that's right...1919! Talk about "legacy" when
it comes to both the history and even the concept of
Newport Beach..must include the famous Beek connection.
Seymour Beek continues to run the day to day operations.

Recently, the inimitable Alan Beek has been fighting
another "Don Quixote" issue regarding the taking of the
dedicated parkland by initiative for a new City Hall.
In this fight, our local Man from LaMancha is fighting
the likes of another Newport Beach icon: Bill Ficker -
Captain America..as helmsman of the 1970 America's Cup
aboard "Intrepid"! The one local boy to make good on the
great world stage of America's Cup sailing! So, this is
really a battle of the titans! By the way, Newport Beach
has been home to a variety of Olympic sailing champions,
so don't bother beating us up...that we didn't recognize
the multitudes of other sailing champs around town!

In the great game lawyers play..of "Dismissed!"...the
Ficker attorney says that the Beek lawsuit is just to
cause the City of Newport Beach to use valuable tax
dollars for the defense of a very valuable initiative!
Knowing Beek as well as we do....that characterization
may not truly represent the situation accurately. Beek
is mostly a contrarian..but there is little doubt, when
it comes to spending his own cash.....well, he is most
likely serious!

Putting the new City Hall issue to bed is like trying
to take your nephew to a Baseball game, feeding him
lots of hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn and coke and then
rushing home to put him to bed! The shifting of the
location from beautiful downtown near the Lido theatre
...to the bleek, barren land mass just above the Main
Newport Beach Library in "Facist Island"..has been quite
a journey! After the rather close election; City Staff
and Elected Officials that had opposed the new location
quickly folded their tents and wanted to "Move on!"
The good doctor Beek was not so easily swayed!

In any event, we wish the good Alan Beek best wishes in
fighting those "Blue Meanies" and the powerful Captain
of the seas - Ficker himself! Whatever happens...it is
much like the journey of a long time resident Long Pham.
Long has been running for Public Office since 1994...in
the recent June 3rd Primary he won a spot on the County
Board of Education Trustee Area 1. Congratulations to
Long, Mary and the entire Pham family! Hey, persistence
appears to pay off sometimes - so maybe Alan Beek still
has a chance!

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