Seeking a More Upscale Image for Costa Mesa

As person after person came to the microphone to explain why they didn’t want to be part of her city, Costa Mesa Councilwoman Linda Dixon kept a tight smile on her face.

But when the residents of a 55-acre patch of unincorporated land erupted into applause at the council’s recent vote not to annex their homes into the city, Dixon’s face fell into a frown.

“It was hurtful,” she said later. “Why wouldn’t they want to be part of Costa Mesa?”

It’s a question that’s puzzled Costa Mesans for generations. Although the city boasts some of Orange County’s premier cultural and shopping destinations, it has been snubbed by planners, businesses and residents, almost all of whom prefer to identify with neighboring Newport Beach.

“It’s kind of like being Cheryl Tiegs’ good-looking sister,” said Fred Smoller, chairman of Chapman University’s political science department. “You can be very attractive, but if Cheryl Tiegs is your sister, you are always going to be overshadowed.”

It’s hard to say when, exactly, Costa Mesans became aware of the city’s image problem. Maybe it was back in the 1940s, when people started calling the area “Goat Hill,” a reference to the animals that once dotted what is now the city’s west side. Or perhaps it was when the Virgin Megastore in Triangle Square opened in the early 1990s with promotional T-shirts that read “Virgin Megastore--Newport Beach.”

Not even the shoppers who flock to Triangle Square and South Coast Plaza are sure where they are.

“Santa Ana?” guessed one Los Angeles resident who rarely ventures to Orange County.

“Newport Beach?” guessed another.

“Orange County,” one said.

The confusion isn’t surprising, given the way Costa Mesa’s top attractions are advertised, experts say. Instead of being directly linked to the city, like The Block at Orange or the Westminster Mall, Costa Mesa’s main draws have less specific names: South Coast Plaza, Orange County Performing Arts Center, Triangle Square. All of which leads to an identity crisis for the city.

“The perception is that there is a Newport and Irvine and . . . you turn left on Bristol and there’s the South Coast Plaza,” said Hamid Shirvani, a professor of architecture and urban planning at Chapman. “Costa Mesa doesn’t even come into play.”

Major retailers say they have a good relationship with the city but also insist that they have to protect their brand names.

“We have built a lot of equity in this name over the years. . . . It’s not to say that Costa Mesa is not important, but we have our own brand name that we need to capitalize on beyond the area,” said Debra Gunn Downing, a spokeswoman for South Coast Plaza.

Adding to the problem is Costa Mesa’s location. Sandwiched between tony beach communities and working-class inland areas, the city is in no man’s land, several real estate agents said.

That leads to situations such as the recent council meeting at which residents from the neighborhoods of Bay Knolls and Santa Ana Heights pleaded with the Costa Mesa council not to include their homes in the city’s annexation application. Although the group listed reasons it did not want to join Costa Mesa, the root motivation was economic.

“I’ve lived in this house for 30 years,” said Ed Hall, an Indus Street resident in Santa Ana Heights who meets with neighbors twice a month to strategize on how to be annexed to Newport Beach. “I don’t intend on moving, but I want a return on my investment.”

Many Santa Ana Heights residents have a Newport Beach mailing address. But the homes are within Costa Mesa’s “sphere of influence”--a planning term--which would make it easier for Costa Mesa to annex them.

Real estate agents say Santa Ana Heights residents would see their property values soar if they did manage to officially join Newport Beach, although their homes lie directly under the flight path of John Wayne Airport.

“If you take your house across the border to Newport Beach, your house suddenly gains $200,000 more just with the name recognition,” said Costa Mesa-based real estate broker Joseph DiCarlo. “You can go anywhere in the world and they will recognize the name ‘Newport Beach,’ but ‘Costa Mesa’ . . . well, that’s not quite the same.”

Costa Mesa leaders have tried to polish the city’s image. Five years ago, they created the Costa Mesa Conference and Visitors Bureau. But even bureau President Joe Bann admits that promoting the city isn’t easy in the shadow of Disneyland and Newport Beach.

“Those are probably the two areas people recognize the most outside of Southern California,” he said. “Our progress has been slower.”

Visitors Bureau leaders go to several trade shows a year to promote the city. They run aggressive ad campaigns in magazines, particularly in Arizona, where Costa Mesa promotes itself as a place to “Beat the Heat.”

The campaign appears to be paying dividends. Occupancy rates are up nearly 5% this year over last at the city’s Hilton Hotel, of which Bann is the general manager. The Westin South Coast Plaza has had nearly 15% more guests than last year, while the Holiday Inn has experienced a 4% increase in occupancy rates since 2000.

Sheryl Spickler, the Holiday Inn’s director of sales and marketing, gives much of the credit to the Visitors Bureau. “Five years ago, [people would say] ‘Costa what? Costa where?’ But it’s become much better.”

Bann said the city’s sales tax receipts have also steadily grown throughout the last decade. In the fourth quarter of 2000, Costa Mesa received more than $8.8 million, which is third in the county behind Irvine and Santa Ana. By comparison, in the second quarter of 1994, the city received about $5.5 million in sales tax.

Still, that progress is cold comfort to Dixon when people tell her they don’t want to be part of her city. A former planning commissioner who is serving her first term on the City Council, she “loves the city like another child,” she said after watching the streams of Santa Ana Heights and Bay Knolls residents leave the council chambers.

“[But] how can you be happy when someone’s insulting your beautiful child?”