"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!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
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8 comments:
Thank you for your blog. I'm a Balboa Island resident and a part-time employee of the Village Inn. Checkout my blog: MY V.I. (a soap opera). It's a fictional, episodic story about a VERY real place. www.myviasoapopera.blogspot.com
p.s. I'm planning to use the underground utilities issue as another fictional/not so fictional thread in my story.
thanks, ken edwards
It is amazing how many people want us on Balboa Island to spend our money at a time when we cannot get a HELOC for this improvement. People who aren't risking a dime in the process. Unlike the older individuals who cannot take money out of their houses in this economy to pay for this. Underground Utilities do not fall in the necessity catagory- they are a "would be nice."
Ms. Carr,
We do appreciate the state of the economy. We do appreciate that compromises have to be made. But we do know that the telephone poles and electrical lines.....are not Newport Beach. We won't mention any other beach cities...but we are supposed to be the best place on earth to live.
One thing is for sure...your property values will rise...by about double of whatever the cost may be. For example: $15K line charge and $4K for the connection.
The value of your property up $40K without a doubt. This raises all ships on the island...and in fact
raises all the comps! Just something to think on!
have a friend that is a real estate appraiser - the comps on Little Balboa Island have not risen as a result of Undergrounding. Their values are, and always have been a certain percentage - unchanged - higher than ours. There is a fixed amount of land on Balboa Island - people either want to live here or they don't. I don't know one person who looked at the telephone pole issue when they bought. Fixed land - elastic demand - price does not depend on aesthetics - simple ECON 101.
This project is about timing. There is a huge propertion of retired people on fixed incomes who cannot afford this. As you know, the mortgage market it such, at this time, that even if you own a house, paid for that is worth millions, you still have to have a certain INCOME STREAM to take money out of the property to pay for improvements. Right now this cannot happen. Talk to your local mortgage broker. I have. I have talked to people who can't qualify for anything but a reverse mortgage which should be saved, as a worst case senario, for medical expenses for a person who is dying.
When we first started this project I signed on as a YES - different economy - 1/2 the price - this is a bad time and a bad deal. Us NOS want the city to rebid just like the Army Corps of Engineers is doing in the back bay.
Ms. Carr,
There is little doubt that you are bright as a button and know your stuff. The problem arises however that "Not at this time!" is always the answer. No, we can't fix the Balboa Bridge....at this time. No,
we can't get the new Fire Dept... at this time!
We recall vividly that the thought
of buying duplex in Irvine Cove..even with a great $5000 dollar down payment would still have cost $360 dollars a month - when we could rent one of the pink apartments on the cliff in Corona Del Mar for $100 a month unfurnished! It just wasn't the right time! That was 1964!
The reason...that Little Island is not enjoying the full rewards of undergrounding is that the rest of the island hasn't completed the project.
Making a non payment plan with a
Real Estate Lien.....should still be an option for anyone that cannot afford the upgrade. Ask Homer about it!
Thanks for all those who discovered my blog: MY V.I. (a soap opera) on here and checked it out. www.myviasoapopera.blogspot.com
As I mentioned before, I've used the topic of underground utilities in my fictional story (Episode 12) and I've used the subject again in Episode 14. If you get a chance - please check it out! thanks, ken
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