Column: Give the Great Park a kick for effort

Everything is made better with balloons.

A birthday, a graduation, a beleaguered Orange County Great Park.

Throw a party, invite the Blues Brothers and for one hot day in August, feel better about the future.

That essentially was the message during an all-day soiree Aug. 5 at the grand opening of the Orange County Great Park Sports Park.

The facility itself is impressive, especially if you like soccer. Considered a championship stadium, it holds 5,000 people and has all the luxury box accouterments that you would expect.

Local dignitaries came out, including what seemed like the entire West Wing of the Irvine political establishment.

But what was clearly evident was the power of FivePoint Communities Management, the developer that made it all happen. If you recall, it was FivePoint, the largest developer of mixed-use communities in coastal California, that bailed out the Great Park by offering Irvine a package of homes and park guarantees that were too good to pass up.

Now, with FivePoint well on its way to nearly 9,500 new homes, and the Great Park actually showing life, people are getting excited.

When FivePoint CEO Emile Haddad took the mic at the ceremony, it was as if the gods had ordained it.

“Today marks a new chapter of the history of the great land,” he said.

In his mind, it probably did feel like a milestone of biblical proportions.

Something finally is getting done at the Great Park. It’s as if the politicians are now out of the way, and the bulldozers have been given the green light to have all-terrain races in the dirt. Everywhere you look there is construction activity — a lot of it.

Whether the park will resemble anything like the original vision of renowned New York designer Ken Smith remains to be seen. With all of the compromises and untold chefs in the kitchen, there’s little chance this massive patchwork will compete against the world’s finest.

But that doesn’t stop civic boosters from believing it.

During his time at the mic, OC Supervisor Todd Spitzer went on at some length bad-mouthing the initial failed plan to turn the site into an airport, then promised that the Great Park would be better than the San Francisco Golden Gate Park and New York’s Central Park. As proof, he pointed to the Blues Brothers concert later in the evening.

When the politicians were done with their speeches, “Eye of the Tiger” blared over the loud speakers.

The band? Survivor.

If public expectations are lowered now over the park — and it would be hard to argue that they are not — then any activity is a bonus.

Indeed, the new plans have a built-in, feel-good factor.

What’s not to like about a cool water park?

Why not have a fancy live music venue? (Unless you’re a neighbor.)

Who doesn’t want more soccer, tennis, baseball, basketball and displaced beach volleyball?

After years of getting pummeled by residents and the press, the organizers are not going to make the same mistake twice.

Just build flat easy stuff that people want.

Do you know how much time and money it takes to build a soccer field?

Well, technically, depending on when you’re counting, it took Irvine more than 10 years and $250 million, but for most people in the world, it doesn’t cost anything.

You just go out onto a dirt field and play.

Ask Haddad, now the highest paid CEO housing developer in the country. He grew up in war-torn Beirut.

Earlier this year he won the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. It’s an award that was founded by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations. The group recognizes the challenges of the immigrant experience and the contributions made to America by immigrants.

I’m guessing when Haddad looked out over the dirt fields of the Great Park, he probably saw more than soccer fields.

When it’s all said and done, the former El Toro Marine base and now a fledgling entertainment park, will net housing developers about $4 billion.

That’s a lot of balloons.

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at hansen.dave@gmail.com.