Lawn

In January, television crews descended on the Mesa Verde home of Kevin Doane, who quickly became Costa Mesa’s biggest celebrity. Months later, his saga ended quietly. Doane, an unemployed contractor who lost his job with an Anaheim company when construction slowed down, stopped watering his lawn last fall, letting it decay into a heap of dirt, to save money on his water bill. When the city fined him $150 for not maintaining his property, Doane didn’t pay. When the city tacked on an added fine and threatened to put a lien on his house, Doane showed up in the City Council Chambers with a passionately defiant, pre-written harangue, dripping with sarcasm.

Last weekend was hot — 85, 90, even 100 degrees in some areas. It was the first hot few days of the year. Lawns all over the area had a similar reaction to the heat. You probably noticed it too. Grass areas, maybe even on your own; showed dry, wilted, discolored or parched patches. Last weekend it seemed like every second lawn at homes, in homeowners associations or on city landscapes showed the same wilted patches. It was hard to miss. Like clockwork, at the first heat spell every year we see these patchy, wilted lawns.

If there’s anything scarier than seeing a school bus lose control and careen onto someone’s lawn, it’s being inside that house and seeing the yellow beast headed straight for you. In what can be considered both a terrifying and miraculous crash at once, police said a Newport-Mesa school district bus ran a red light at 30 mph, collided with an SUV, lost control and steered into a house only to stop before smashing into it by...

City work crews recently came out and planted three trees on the barren parkway in front of Costa Mesa resident Kevin Doane’s house. This ordinarily would not be a big event — the city does it all the time — but in the past few months the out-of-work contractor has thrust himself into the public spotlight as “that guy with the dirt lawn.” In the past few weeks he has even told his story to television news crews from big networks and has been blogged about from Los Angeles to San Diego.

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.

A Costa Mesa man named Kevin Doane made it perfectly clear to the City Council that he was not going to pay a $400 citation the city issued him for allowing what was once a lawn in his front yard to dry out, die and turn into a dirt patch. “No. 1, I will not pay that — ever — and you can do whatever you want to do,” the brusque, bearded man told the council Tuesday night. Although he acknowledges that he’s violating a city ordinance that requires homeowners to landscape their front yards, he says he was encouraged to do so by Councilwoman Wendy Leece, who constantly tells residents from the dais to cut their water usage because of the impending drought.

Editor’s note: This letter is in response to columnist Ron Vanderhoff’s July 26 article, “Moving closer to obsolete front lawns.” Ron, you and I have known each other for many years, and it saddens me that you are marching in step with the “politically correct”(wearing blinders) philosophy. You have called on that philosophy (which dares not to show both sides of the story) in your column. Lawns are a benefit to the environment and to you: 1. They absorb and entrap atmospheric pollutants (carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, etc.)

Gov. Schwarzenegger Proclaims May 10 Lawn Bowls Day in Southern California…Free Lessons and Pizza.   On Saturday May 10, The Newport Beach Lawn Bowling Club will be celebrating Lawn Bowls Day by offering lawn bowling lessons, pizzas and beverages to all who may wish to participate in this fun and social sport called Lawn Bowling. This “free” event is hosted by the Newport Harbor Lawn Bowling Club and the City of Newport Beach Recreation Department and is open to all families, couples and singles of all ages in the greater Newport Harbor coastal areas.