Watch your step — there’s poetry in this Orange County park
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While crews were pressing poetry verses into wet concrete last week as part of an exceptionally creative revitalization of Brentwood Park in Costa Mesa, the city’s poet laureate, Danielle Hanson, savored the moment.
“For me, what I’m super excited about is getting people who don’t normally encounter poetry in their daily lives,” she told reporter Eric Licas when he interviewed her for as lyrical a public works’ news story as I’ve ever read. “I mean, we’re all super busy. We seek out the things that we already like or get introduced to. I like putting poetry in front of people where they already are — so, a park setting. I adore it!”
The 2.6-acre strip at 260 Brentwood St. used to be “nothing but grass and an old picnic bench,” Costa Mesa Arts Commissioner Charlene Aschendorf said ahead of a ribbon-cutting scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Friday for the renovated site.
Other improvements to the park include updates to an aging play structure area, according to the story.
“Features like a sloped landscape allowing parents to easily spot their children from a distance and ultra-soft play surfaces that prevent injuries are the result of community feedback,” Licas noted.
“They rallied their children, they rallied the community and they spoke before the [city] council,” Ashendorf told the reporter. “They ... came to the Arts Commission as well, which I currently serve on, and said, ‘this is our dream.’ ”
Look for more verses in motion around the City of the Arts.
“Bringing poetry into public spaces is the goal of Costa Mesa’s Sidewalk Poetry Project,” Licas learned from Laurette Garner, the city’s arts specialist. “For its next phase, officials will solicit verses from community members to feature at Shalimar and Ketchum-Libolt parks, also under renovation.”
MORE NEWS
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has been transferring inmates to Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a high rate, according to this TimesOC article. The county Board of Supervisors learned in a report provided by Sheriff Don Barnes that the department screened inmates 824 times before releasing them from Orange County Jail at ICE’s request in 2025. “Mexican immigrants remained the most impacted demographic, followed by Vietnamese,” according to the reporting.
• Did the Newport Beach City Council violate the Brown Act the night in late February when it approved new restrictions on temporary shade structures? A law firm representing an advocacy group called “Beaches for All-California” alleges that is the case.
• While the city of Costa Mesa had planned to create a buffer, above and beyond the 11,760 residential unit goal it must meet, and had created zoning for a total accommodation of 17,042 units using a planned overlay, it was clear by the end of the March 17 meeting of the City Council that it would have to plan again because it’s now falling below the benchmark. Daily Pilot assistant editor Sara Cardine lays out how the numbers took a nosedive in this report.
• In additional Costa Mesa news, the City Council told its contracted animal adoption, medical care and shelter services partner Priceless Pets that it is way overdue on its obligation to provide and operate a shelter at the building the nonprofit leases at 126 E 16th St.
• A ground-breaking ceremony for an 18-month rebuild of the aging Balboa Branch Library and Fire Station No. 1 was held last week in Newport Beach.
• In recognition of a $10-million gift from a former patient and longtime Providence Mission Hospital supporter, it has been announced the new name of a center to be opened in Rancho Mission Viejo this spring will be the Kathy Williams Family Health Center.
BUSINESS
•S’long, Dizz’s As Is, an eatery that operated at the corner of South Coast Highway and Victoria Street in Laguna Beach for nearly 50 years. Owner Dominic Pitz recently hosted an auction and closing party attended by longtime customers where items auctioned off included, according to the Daily Pilot report, “artwork and framed photos of celebrities, from Marilyn Monroe to Elizabeth Taylor, along with unique wine bottles and many of the restaurant’s kitchen supplies.”
COURTS
• Former Orange County Superior Court Judge Israel Claustro, who’s currently awaiting sentencing for workers’ compensation fraud, has been removed from the bench, the Commission on Judicial Performance announced last week.
• On Feb. 27, 2024 an infant died following a circumcision at a private Garden Grove clinic. The newborn’s parents sued the obstetrician in civil court for wrongful death, medical malpractice and fraud, and now prosecutors have filed a felony count of involuntary manslaughter, my colleague Gabriel San Román reports here.
PUBLIC SAFETY
• A road rage encounter along Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach that was detailed in an Instagram video posted by bicyclist Luke Fetzer, led to the arrest of the driver of a blue BMW that had been hounding Fetzer and a fellow bike rider on March 21. Samir Sweiss of Corona was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and obstructing arrest. (Side note to those who may have read or heard in other media reports that his last name is Weiss, Newport Beach Police Department spokesperson Heather Rangel confirmed yesterday that it is Sweiss.)
• A high-speed collision in Anaheim at 12:45 a.m. yesterday killed two people, two others were in critical condition and several others were in stable condition at a hospital, City News Service reported. The fatalities were identified as 14-year-old Andrew Joseph Sanchez of Anaheim and 70-year-old Alberto Viveros Piedra of Orange.
• A motorcycle rider killed after colliding with a car in Sunset Beach late afternoon Sunday was a 28-year-old Cerritos man, police said Monday.
• Maria Ramierahmad, 53, of Anaheim, died after the subject of a police chase crashed a stolen U-Haul van into her SUV in San Clemente near the intersection of South Ola Vista and Avenida Granada at around 8 a.m. Monday. The suspect, Mathew Alexander Ronquillo, 39, of Cerritos, ran from deputies, CNS reports, and a short time later, sheriff’s dispatch was notified he was running across Interstate 5. A sheriff’s dog helped in the apprehension of the suspect.
SPORTS
• Pro golfer Stewart Cink finished last weekend’s Hoag Classic at Newport Beach Country Club on Sunday with a three-round total of 19 under par to win the tournament by four strokes.
• Our sports reporters have named the Daily Pilot Girls’ Water Polo Dream Team. Spoiler alert: Newport Harbor High junior Gabby Alexson took top honors as Player of the Year for the second year in a row.
LIFE & LEISURE
• Fans of TV’s Wheel of Fortune might have seen an Orange County woman taking a turn at the storied wheel a week ago last night.
• For an uplifting read, consider this feature story by my colleague Matt Szabo about Ryder’s Fight Club and the beloved 7-year-old boy who is living with a rare brain cancer.
• On the hunt for some Easter Day dining options? TimesOC’s Sarah Mosqueda has you covered with this roundup.
CALENDAR
•“Tom Everhart’s Peanuts Collection” is open at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in the Main Gallery through May 1. While the gallery is typically open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, the gallery will have special hours on April 11 and 12 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. For details, visit themuck.org.
• California Wine Festival organizers are gearing up for the event, which returns April 24 and 25 at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa in Dana Point. For further details and tickets, go to californiawinefestival.com.TimesOC
• The 18th OC Japan Fair returns to the OC Fair & Event Center this Friday through Sunday. Hours are 4 to 10 p.m. Friday, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday.
• Costa Mesa resident Peter M. Small will portray inventor Thomas Edison at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 11 as part of the library’s “America 250: Renewing the American Dream” series. For more information about the event, contact the Nixon Foundation at (714) 993-5075.
KEEP IN TOUCH
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