COSTA MESA / NEWPORT / IRVINE : NEWPORT BEACH : Fun Zone Neighbors Fete ‘Secret Season’

For residents near Balboa’s Fun Zone, the carnival-like atmosphere of summer can lose its appeal in the time it takes to block a driveway.

So it is with no small joy this month that neighbors of the Newport Beach amusement park welcome the “secret season,” as some call it, characterized by flawless weather, tamer visitors and lighter traffic.

“Everyone gets tired of the mass of humanity down here during the summer,” said police Officer Bob Stephens, who patrols the Fun Zone on the Balboa Peninsula, between the ferry landing and the Balboa Pavilion. “Now it’s back to a small-town atmosphere.”

Charles Meyer, who manages Mrs. Fields Cookies in the Fun Zone, agrees. “Winter crowds are more friendly. A lot of people come in and introduce themselves. You get on a first-name basis. It’s a day-and-night difference from the summer.”

Tom Isensee, a captain for the Fun Zone Boat Co., said that usually only locals and tourists who stumble on the area take advantage of autumn’s slow pace and good weather. “The Indian summer is like a secret season,” he said. “As soon as school starts, the weather turns perfect. We’ll have six weeks of crystal-clear days.”

Although the throngs of summer tourists bring more business, weekend traffic jams, boisterous crowds and parking headaches often result. The off-season crowds are more easygoing, Isensee said. “People are not as crabby from fighting the traffic.”

Live Gorla, 14, knows that living near the Fun Zone has its trade-offs during the summer. “It’s like a carnival or fair; I kind of like it,” she said. However, there are “people everywhere and no parking. Sometimes my parents have to walk four or five streets from their car.

“At night, people cruise up and down, up and down (Balboa Boulevard). They like getting in traffic jams, it seems.”

Traffic is one reason many of the peninsula’s 7,200 residents flee the area in the summer.

Ed Ketcham, a 70-year-old retired boat captain, said he leaves Newport Beach during the summer in part to avoid the crowds.

“When it gets busy here, you get out. Most people my age usually take the summer off,” he said. “I try to go to Las Vegas or Florida.”