You may not be able to go home again, but as residents of Santa Ana
Heights discovered this month, if you wait long enough, a new home
might come to you.
After decades and decades of waiting, lobbying and waiting some
more, Santa Ana Heights, along with Bay Knolls and nine homes known
as the Emerson Tract, officially became part of Newport Beach on July
1. With the change of address, the city's 1,250 new residents should
find, comes more than just the cachet of being in Newport.
There will be more street sweeping. Residents will have an easier
commute to deal with permits and other municipal business (just a
swing past the Back Bay to Newport Beach City Hall instead of over to
Santa Ana). They will enjoy Newport police service to go along with
the fire service that has been provided for years.
As city officials say: Not much will change, but what does will be
for the better.
The most important carry-over: Santa Ana Heights will still be all
about horses. Newport Beach officials have no plans to alter the
area's unusual zoning that allows for stables and horse trails. And
given that Newport is a city full of communities -- Corona del Mar,
Balboa Island, the peninsula, West Newport, to name a few notable
ones -- there is no reason to doubt that the horses will be around
for the long ride. The city knows how to maintain the neighborhood
feel.
Those communities, no doubt, contribute much to the character and
culture of Newport Beach. They give the city a bigger feel: Like New
York's boroughs, Newport isn't just the sum of one part. But they
also keep it feeling smaller, as a collection of neighborhoods that
residents can embrace as their own.
Santa Ana Heights will add nicely to that mix, at the least as a
counter-balance to the harbor. It should be a happy, lasting
marriage.
Now, next on the list: western Santa Ana Heights and homes near
Mesa Drive.
