Hello Back Bay Ballasts, happy Friday!

If you were born today, July 17th, you share a birthday with David Hasselhoff. Maybe we should have named this newsletter The Back Baywatch. The dog days are bringing flooding to the peninsula, Yardhouse is leaving the Triangle after 27 years, and the OC Fair is once again turning the 55 on-ramp into a parking lot.

To our new readers—welcome! The Back Bay Buzz delivers just the right amount of news and events for locals in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. No crime, no politics, no spam—just the good stuff. We scan newspapers, blogs, social media, business journals, and Google alerts so you don’t have to.

In today’s Buzz:

— Jon Dougher, Publisher, Back Bay Buzz

The proposal in Newport Heights seeks to form an underground utility assessment district to relocate existing overhead power lines and utility poles beneath the ground. Proponents of the initiative, such as the Safer Newport Heights community group, argue that the project will significantly reduce the risk of wildfires caused by aging overhead wires, improve grid reliability during high winds or winter storms, beautify the neighborhood by removing unsightly poles, and boost overall property values. Conversely, opponents argue that the existing overhead service is already reliable and that the project imposes an unnecessary and heavy financial burden on residents, alongside the physical disruption of tearing up local streets and alleys for construction.

Budget estimates from past iterations of the neighborhood's undergrounding efforts projected a total cost of around $10.4 million—translating to roughly $1.5 to $5.5 million per mile—which could cost individual homeowners anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on their lot assessment and out-of-pocket expenses to connect private conduits. The timeline for such a project is notoriously lengthy, often requiring a year or more just to gather the requisite 60% of resident property owner signatures needed to initiate an engineer's report, followed by a formal community vote and a multi-year construction phase, though advocates warn that delaying the process will only drive up future construction costs. The thought of a powerline-free neighborhood is attractive, but the significant costs are worth full consideration.

🌊 Water temp = 69º
Suit Rec: Spring suit 3/2

Thanks! Please ignore any typos, our editor’s laptop has sustained significant damage due to excessive sweating…

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