Damage Offends All Neighbors

There was a very disturbing incident that occurred in the wee hours of Friday night or early Saturday morning. The incident took place in the very quiet and peaceful Mesa Verde neighborhood known to many as the State Streets. Which, not surprisingly, takes its name from the fact that all the streets are named after States.

According to Realtor Larry Weichman, president of Weichman Associates, this neighborhood is known for its sense of community and cohesiveness. “This is your typical friendly Costa Mesa neighborhood where they have neighborhood Fourth of July barbecues and everyone knows each other. It is the reason people choose to live in Costa Mesa instead of the more ‘master planned’ communities to the south where nobody knows who lives next door.”

It all started off when a resident of Montana Street, Charlene Ashendorf, received an anonymous typewritten letter in her mailbox asking her to remove her portable basketball hoop from the street. Though the hoop had been there for more than two years, Ashendorf told me the letter stated that the hoop was an eyesore and that it was lowering property values.

I have heard about a lot of things that lower property values. Uncut lawns, yes; Christmas lights hanging from eaves in July, yes; cars parked on lawns, yes; but in my 30 years in the real estate business, portable basketball hoops in the street was not one of them.

In fact, just take a drive to the “Port Streets” neighborhood in Newport Beach, where the homes go for more than $2 million apiece, and you’ll find a portable basketball hoop every sixth house. In fact, the number of portable basketball hoops is only exceeded by the number of USC flags hanging from every fifth house.

Three days after getting the disturbing letter, when the Ashendorf’s were not home, a City of Costa Mesa flatbed truck came by to remove the basketball hoop only to be stopped by several of their neighbors who convinced the driver not to take it as they quickly rolled it up onto the driveway. Now that’s the difference between a Costa Mesa neighbor and a “fill in the blank with any South County master-planned city” neighbor. Costa Mesa neighbors watch out for each other.

Now the story only gets more bizarre. That Friday evening with the help of her neighbors, the portable basketball hoop was moved down to the end of the cul-de-sac off the street. At 8 a.m. the next morning, Charlene Ashendorf noticed a group of her neighbors, still in their slippers drinking coffee, at the end of the street. She walked out to see what was happening only to be stunned by the sight of the basketball hoop’s metal pole and backboard cut up in pieces and dragged out to Gisler Street.

Now, even though I am a planning commissioner for the city, I am not sure what the codes say regarding portable basketball hoops. But what I do know is this type of vigilantism cannot be tolerated. If you have a complaint with a neighbor and for whatever reason you do not want to confront them about it, the city has a code enforcement department that will handle the complaint.

The fact that some disturbed person, in the middle of the night, would cut up a steel pole and backboard and throw it out onto a main street makes the hair on my neck stand up. Costa Mesa police should not treat this incident as some minor act of vandalism.

This is an act of neighborhood terrorism. The person or persons who displayed this act of cowardice, in the cover of darkness, was trying to settle a score with not only the Ashendorfs but the whole community when they threw the metal carcass into the middle of Gisler Street. This is an offense against the community, and I hope our fine police department is treating it that way. This terrorist needs to be brought to justice.

Costa Mesa is a great place to live because of the neighbors that Charlene Ashendorf has on Montana Street. Great neighbors make great neighborhoods. In the long run that is what really affects real estate prices. If people want to live there, the price goes up.