Grass

A wrongful death claim filed against Newport Beach blames a hole in a grassy public area for the death of an 83-year-old man who flipped his motorized scooter there. In a claim filed against the city in September, Sharon Neben Fogg, of San Diego, alleges that the hole in a patch of grass in the 400 block of Narcissus Avenue caused former Corona del Mar resident Marvin Neben, 83, to die after falling there April 25. The relationship between Fogg and Neben remained unclear. Filing a claim is the first step in filing a lawsuit against the city.

Kevin Doane, a man who is quickly propelling himself into the realm of local lore because of a dispute over his rights and obligations as a property owner in Costa Mesa, first appeared at a City Council meeting at the beginning of last month to tell the audience about his plight. The out-of-work contractor allowed the front lawn of his Mesa Verde home to deteriorate into a patch of dirt after he stopped watering it to save money on his monthly bills. He refused to pay the repeated citations the city issued him, which eventually totaled $400, and he came to the council Dec. 2 to let them know.

It couldn’t have been a prettier day Thursday. White clouds sprinkled the blue sky as a gentle breeze swept through the fresh green grass on Our Lady Queen of Angels School field. As if on cue, the clouds parted, and sunlight blanketed the field and the hundreds of children on it Thursday afternoon as a representative from USC talked about character, and just how much 7-year-old Carson Bosley embodied it. Family, friends and school officials at Our Lady Queen of Angels School in Newport Beach dedicated their renovated field to Bosley, who died earlier this year from a stroke.

Sports super agent Leigh Steinberg was arrested on suspicion of public drunkenness after police found him lying on the ground near Newport Auto Center on East Coast Highway last week, police said Wednesday. Newport Beach Police responded to a radio call of a man yelling about 7:45 p.m. Oct. 22 at 445 E. Coast Hwy. and found Steinberg “lying down in the dirt and grass,” Sgt. Evan Sailor said. “Upon contact, the subject was displaying symptoms of alcohol intoxication and was having difficulty speaking,” Sailor said.

HUNTINGTON BEACH — “Change” is a big word in the upcoming presidential election, but it could be said the Newport Harbor High field hockey team is more old-school. The Sailors at least partly adhere to the policies of President Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s — they usually try to carry a big stick. But, on Wednesday in their Sunset League opener at Edison, Newport Harbor had to carry a, well, smaller stick on the Chargers’ fast artificial turf.

Born in Buffalo, New York November 19, 1939   Joanie passed away in her home on Balboa Island, March 25th after a 2 year long hard battle with invasive cancer.  She had been with Balboa Island Realty and Coldwell Banker for many years. Joan was very involved with the Balboa Island Improvement Association. Chairman of just about everything from being the Head Photogher at any and every event, beautification committee, helping start the Balboa Island Historical Museum, and one of her favorites was   Christmas.

Newport Beach resident Connie Hollstein is just in love with her synthetic lawn. It keeps her water and gardening bills low, allergies at bay, and home ? once occasionally marred by her dogs? muddy paws ? conspicuously clean. ?It looks nice ? people walk by and don?t even know its artificial grass,? she said, adding neighborhood kids often knock on her door for permission to play on the lawn. Considering the significant amounts of water typically consumed by a square foot of conventional grass ?

A specter has emerged on Costa Mesa’s horizon that may have parts of this place looking like Toontown. It seems the folks who keep tabs on the water situation around these parts want the Costa Mesa City Council to noodle on the idea of tweaking the city law that pooh-poohs artificial plants in public places like street medians and parkways. And why? To give fake grass a fighting chance to take root in Costa Mesa’s public domain. Now it already occurs that water-minded Costa Mesans who don’t much relish lawn-mowing cardio can collect a rebate from the Mesa Consolidated Water District when they purchase and install plastic grass in their yards.

The difficulty of maintaining Costa Mesa's Bark Park, and especially its grass, has led the nonprofit foundation that operates it to ask permission to seek sponsors. Since opening in 1994, the popular public dog park has operated with money from donations and fundraising events held by the foundation. An agreement between the city and Bark Park Foundation bans advertising at the park, and the city's municipal code prohibits ads on city facilities, city recreation manager Jana Ransom said.