The Balboa Underground!

"You can lead a horse to water...but you can't make
them drink!"....is the old saying! Heck, it doesn't
take much imagination to know how invasive those
telephone poles are in the alleys on Balboa Island.
If they had a buck for every time someone put a dent
in their car or someone else because of them....you
could be pretty close to a millionaire.

Well, cheap is cheap! There is always a reason why
people don't understand the benefit to a beautiful
surrounding. One of the best was Sid Souffer. He
had several rusted out Cadillacs that he thought were
art! He had no qualms about going to jail rather than
to move his beloved Jack N'the Beanstalk mantle pieces.
He even moved to Las Vegas...when the Judge wanted him
in jail for contempt! Hey, Newport Beach has heritage!

Today, Brother Bob....we will call him has taken up
the Sid Souffer mantle. He is directly against putting
all those exposed telephone poles and wires underground
unless he can get it for wholesale! You see Brother Bob
is part of the pavement on Balboa Island...for many many
years. He just so happens to have his house situated
on two lots. So, you can kind of understand why he may
not want to pay double....from everyone else..when it
comes to cleaning up an oversight of over 50 years!

The reality is that Undergrouding Utilities is not just
for artistic purposes. When an electrical line breaks
when overhead..it can land on a house and start a fire.
When undergrounded it will trip a breaker and could be
an inconvenience to a few people till Edison can get by
to fix it. The most important service undergrounding
accomplishes.....is freeing space for expanded alley
access, walk-ways and certainly less places for politicians
to slap their ugly electioneering! The other biggie is
the one we mentioned before: When people come down to
visit and want to park in back of your house....they may
in fact make it through the whole week-end without a dent
on their BMW or Mercedes. The kids won't crash into the
power pole either. And as far a mom is concerned: "This
is just great....and now our neighborhood is so pretty!"

So, to Bob and the rest of the curmudgeons that don't want
to clean up the neighborhood: "Those moths will fly out
of your wallet whether you underground or not!" It can
serve our community to a great degree, if this one time
you might just dummy up and take care of business!