In a column celebrating Orange County voters’ approval of a park at the site of the decommissioned El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in 2002, then and current Mayor Larry Agran said it was time to “begin planning and creating the magnificent park that was envisioned by Measure W—an Orange County Great Park twice the size and every bit as beautiful as San Diego’s Balboa Park.”
That was 23 years ago and, as this Editorial Board predicted, there’s nothing that lives up to the hype let alone match Balboa Park. Sure, some of the private developments are nice (albeit typical), but the public-park portion has been mired in problems and delay. One of three critical grand jury reports blasts Irvine for “serious mismanagement.”
The park plan was never anything more than window dressing for an “anything but an international airport” plan. Instead of building a nice regional park in a transparent and cost-effective way, Irvine officials continue to believe their own grandiose rhetoric. The latest example is a plan to build, as the Register reported, a “futuristic gondola-like system” based on technology that’s “yet to be deployed anywhere in the world.”
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Elon Musk and Rand Paul are right. The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is just a bloated mess. Newsom finally starts tackling Medi-Cal cuts Yet another antisemitic terror attack Trump’s tax hikes should be blocked, or we’ll all pay Cop pay antics shine spotlight on pension mess The concept itself is absurd, given the modest park features. Typically, monorails and the like become a reasonable option when an attraction is overflowing with tourists. The project would cost the city $75 million in vehicles and infrastructure—and fancy transit systems always end up costing more than predicted. The park already has a silly orange balloon ride.Adding to the outrage, the Register reported that over the last year the city staff signed four contracts with the startup that provides these automated systems without going to the board and making it public. “For $715,000, I would have spent it on something else,” said Vice Mayor James Mai. “These slides are basically AI.”
The staff said it followed procurement guidelines. If that’s the case, Irvine needs new guidelines.
But, mainly, the city needs a more realistic and taxpayer-friendly vision for the park—one that focuses on attainable objectives rather than costly fantasies.
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