Mayor Will O'Neill

Thank you to Ron Rus for sending this picture taken yesterday without filter. The most recent update from the OCFA Public Information Officer (PIO) is that the fire near Irvine and Lake Forest (called the Silverado Fire) has grown to 7200 acres with 0% containment. There is also a second fire called the Blue Ridge Fire that has required evacuations in Yorba Linda and stretches 8,000 acres with 0% containment at the most recent update.... Given my position, I’m going to quickly touch on Newport Beach’s involvement. But first, I’d like to express my sympathies to all of our neighbors in Irvine, Lake Forest, Chino Hills, Brea, and Yorba Linda who have been under evacuation orders estimated to include ~100,000 people. I’d also like to express my sympathies to the two OCFA firefighters who suffered critical injuries yesterday and their families. They are both hospitalized with second- and third- degree burns. As far as Newport Beach’s involvement yesterday, here are the updates. We have deployed three NBFD crews to the Silverado Fire. We also sent two NBFD crews to Anaheim early yesterday to backfill while they were recalling their own firefighters from home. All in, we had 5 full NBFD crews outside the city yesterday helping our neighbors. 2 have returned, 3 still out. I had also reached out to Irvine’s Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem and offered any additional assistance. Early yesterday afternoon, Irvine asked Newport Beach and Mariners Church to open as shelter sites, which we of course did. We opened the Newport Coast Community Center and filled up immediately. As did every hotel room in our city. I spoke to every family at NCCC, including a mother and father with three boys. The mom is an ER nurse at Hoag and had worked a shift that morning and wanted to know how she could help others in the area. The indominable human spirit cannot be conquered sometimes. NB is under no immediate or anticipated risk of an evacuation order, but wildfires are a constant threat during times like this. Please minimize your own risks today to avoid needing NBFD response. And let’s pray for all those affected. Resources: - OCFA’s twitter account: https://twitter.com/OCFA_PIO - OC Sheriff’s twitter account: https://twitter.com/OCSheriff - Newport Beach Fire PIO twitter account: https://twitter.com/NBFDPIO - Sign up for AlertOC at http://alertoc.com

We are aware of a fire in the Santiago Canyon area near Lake Forest and Irvine. OCFA has called for strike teams. NBFD is responding. This is the reason red flag warnings exist. Dry conditions, high winds. We have a good fire spotting approach inside and around our city. That said, be aware and be careful today and tomorrow especially. Do not take risks, do not light matches or sparks near fire zones. ... Be well and pray for our neighbors and NBFD.

Thank you to @tfisch926 for today’s pic! Today is a quick lesson on stats and how small variations can dramatically change the Governor’s blueprint data. You know by now that the Governor’s blueprint limits reopenings based on which of four tiers the county occupies. The tiers are based on case rates and positivity percentage. Positivity % is simply (positive tests) / (total tests). Case rate is how many people tested positive compared to the total population of a co...unty (divided into 100k increments). Each is a 7-day average with a 7-day lag. You can see every OC zip code’s information in each category on OC’s COVID page. Just keep perspective on total population of each zip code. 92662, for example, covers Balboa Island and only 2,841 people. Going back to high school algebra, you can calculate case rate with the following equation for that zip code: x/2,841 = y/100,000. In that equation, x is the true number of cases (divided by 7 because it’s a 7-day average) and y is the case count for tier purposes. Suppose there were 200 tests on Balboa Island and 1 person came back positive. The positivity percentage would be 0.5% (4th/yellow tier). The case count would be 5 (red/2nd tier). So, if Balboa Island were its own county, just one positive test in a week would keep it in the red/2nd tier. Our city’s largest zip code is 92660 at 36,043 people. If 92660 were its own county, just 10 people testing positive in a week would keep it in the red/2nd tier. One pic with this post shows last week’s figures in NB. As I read the numbers, if Newport Beach were its own county, we’d be in the orange tier (and would have been there weeks ago). To folks thinking yeah, but NB is much smaller than a county, think again. Newport Beach alone is larger than twenty (20!) counties. This helps put in perspective how incredibly difficult it will be for a County of OC’s size to reach the yellow/fourth tier; it would require less than 32 people/day testing positive in a county of over 3.2 million. Now you see why we’re stuck for a while due to a system based solely on testing data and not hospitalization capacity.

My sincere thanks to our OC Sheriffs Deputies for their endorsement. Though unopposed, I still appreciate our frontline support from our law enforcement community.

Yesterday morning, I sponsored a beach cleanup with Recycle For Veterans. We had a good number of active duty military and veterans in Newport Beach to help beautify our environment. I encourage you to spend some time getting to know about this organization. It was founded by two US Marine Corps veterans named Kyle Hansen and Andrew Levin. As they’ve defined it, Our mission is to provide a fun and interactive environment that is designed to help making clean up our Earth f...un. We want to be part of the solution, and by being an ethical and world conscious business we can make an impact! So join us, recycle for veterans and lend a hand. Meet some new people, get some sun, and make an impact in your community today! Yesterday’s cleanup has already inspired another cleanup in our area. My thanks to Dory Deli and Stag Bar for also sponsoring. My family and I enjoyed doing good for our environment and for our veteran community. We hope you’ll join us next time! #NewportStrong https://recycleforvets.com/about/

Thank you to @beckhamthomas for today’s pic! The New York Times published an article recently with the headline: At Disney World, ‘Worst Fears’ About Virus Have Not Come True. The NYT article notes that in the three months that Disney World has been open, public health officials and Disney World’s unions say there have been no coronavirus outbreaks among workers or guests. ... According to the NYT, new coronavirus cases in Florida have dropped steadily since Disney World reopened in mid-July. The Orlando area has had an even sharper decline. Instead of looking at the data and science of Florida’s experience, our Governor has gone the opposite direction. His response? We’re going to be stubborn about it. What’s his stubbornness costing? The Disney Resort area supports 78k jobs, according to economists Cal State Fullerton, who also estimate that Disneyland’s shuttering has cost the SoCal economy $3 billion already and will cost it another $2 billion through March 2021. Through this same time period, OC is estimated to lose 33k jobs. March, though, might be too optimistic. The Governor’s guidelines restrict Disney’s reopening until OC is in the 4th (yellow) tier. OC’s health director said this week: Personally, I think that we can look forward to a yellow tier by next summer [2021], hopefully. This is especially true because apparently the Governor won’t release vaccines to the public even if approved by the FDA unless his own (new) panel of experts approve. (I hope these aren’t the same experts who predicted an 89% spike in hospitalizations a month ago, but instead saw a 15% decrease.) And even if the experts approve, early doses will be limited to healthcare personnel at risk of contracting the virus, those at risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19, and essential workers. In sum: 1) a huge sector of our local economy apparently can’t reopen without a vaccine; 2) you’ll be denied a vaccine unless you fit into a special category designated by the Governor; 3) but only if he decides that an FDA-approved vaccine is ok based on his own selected experts; 4) unless he moves the goalposts (again). Resources: * - The Atlantic - https://www.theatlantic.com//schools-arent-supersp/616669/ * - NYT - https://www.nytimes.com//bus/disney-world-coronavirus.html * - LAT Newsom says California will review FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccines before releasing them to public https://www.latimes.com//newsom-california-statewide-plan- * - California’s COVID-19 Vaccination Plan - https://www.cdph.ca.gov//COVID-19-Vaccination-Plan-Califor * - AP California’s Feared Surge Of Virus Cases Hasn’t Happened - https://apnews.com//virus-outbreak-business-california-gav * - OCR: California allows theme parks to reopen, but Disney and Universal may not return until next summer - https://www.ocregister.com//california-allows-theme-parks/

We’ve got you. Take a few minutes to watch this video made by our stellar NBPD.

Many of you know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I’ve heard friends and residents discuss their personal connections to this insidious disease these past few weeks. Thank you to all who have shown unity and support through messages of hope. Read the full discussion in the LA Times link below.

Thank you to IG @autofocusedbyroycer924 for today’s pic! It was taken at The Lyon Air Museum with a Shelby Cobra owned by the museum’s director, Mark Foster. Air Force One is in the background. So cool. I’ve heard the Good Samaritan parable described as a Someone Oughta problem. Those are problems where we see it and think someone oughta do something about that. Worlds change and mountains move, though, when the mentality switches from Someone Oughta to I Will. ...Here’s an example. Two Newport Beach residents Shelby Coffman and Christie Frazier own The Hood Kitchen Space in Costa Mesa. Small ventures can rent space in a commercial kitchen with access to good vendors while launching a new business. I am a complete sucker for one of their clients, Valenza Chocolatier. Four years ago, Deidre Pujols approached Shelby and Christie with a pitch: use some of the space to provide job training and workforce integration. Deidre, you see, is an I Will person. She has seen the devastating emotional, social and economic impact wrought by human trafficking and other exploitive industries. She has seen the toll taken by homelessness and the need to train men and women leaving incarceration. She had taken huge steps to help (search Strike Out Slavery day), saw an integration and training hole, and aimed to fill that hole at The Hood. She formed Open Gate International, which is now a 12-week culinary program accredited by the American Culinary Federation Education Foundation. Upon graduation, each student is certified to work in an entry-level position in any food service establishment in the country. They also assist with resume writing, interview preparation, and job placement. I’ve met folks whose lives this program has changed. I’ll be attending another of their graduations in two weeks. Hope lives on. Which problem around you will be solved because the phrase someone oughta vanishes? Surely not all, but some and in that moment worlds change and mountains really do move. That is the spirit of our #YearOfTheVolunteer #IWill #StepIn #SpreadTheLight #NewportStrong To learn more about Open Gate International, or to support it with donations, go here: https://opengateintl.org/ogi-kitchen/

A Presidential campaign visit is, as you can imagine, organized chaos. The scheduled trip came together quickly and the President was in our City for a little over two hours. Preparing for those two hours required an incredible amount of work by not just the event’s organizers, but our public safety personnel too. Indeed, the number of law enforcement agencies operating inside NB yesterday is one for the record books. While the Secret Service ran point, they relied on loca...l public safety and I’m proud of our NBPD’s and NBFD’s sustained and professional efforts yesterday. We also had the OC Sheriffs, the CHP, the US Navy, and the US Coast Guard. And no doubt other agencies directly helping or on standby. I’d simply like to publicly thank all of our first responders (POTUS graciously thanked our NBFD specifically as he left). Some of you were probably wondering whether I attended. I did not. This just hasn’t been the year for me to enjoy the pomp and circumstance that normally comes with being Mayor. With all that has transpired across our country, it made a lot more sense for me to be in a position to help control our City’s response should anything go awry. We’ve seen too many Mayors fail at critical moments and it was just better to be prepared for something that thankfully never transpired. Once Air Force One was wheels up and I could relax, my son asked if we could go on a trail hike, just the two of us. Easiest yes of the day. The picture for this post shows my little guy leading the way. We told each other jokes, talked about his new friends at school, and looked for snakes (we didn’t find one). I also had time to reflect during the hike. I reflected a bit on an old quote: There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. It occurred to me that when all the flash of a big event fades away, the constant light in our lives is provided by those we love. We need to snag the moments to lead and be led, to laugh and cry, and just be in that moment. Because it is in those moments where we are able to #SpreadTheLight and make our lives, our families, and our community just a little brighter.

Newport Beach has always been a welcoming city and we have been fortunate to host a number of sitting Presidents of the United States. Most recently President Obama in 2012, President George W. Bush in 2003, President George H.W. Bush in 1991, and of course a number of visits from California’s own Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. A primary focus remains the same today as it does for every other day here in Newport Beach: public safety. I have faith and confidence... in our excellent Newport Beach Police Department, Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the Secret Service, and other law enforcement agencies. Presidential visits bring with them peaceful assembly and expression of speech covering a wide range of views. While we do not expect or tolerate violence of any kind, our law enforcement agencies will be sufficiently prepared.

Thank you @colinwinn for today’s pic! A friend recommended a book called The Codding of the American Mind months ago. My hold on our library’s Libby app came due this week. A passage of that book highlights the beginning of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book called Antifragile. It states: Taleb opens the book with a poetic image that should speak to all parents. He notes that wind extinguishes a candle but energizes a fire. He advises us not to be like candles and not to tur...n our children into candles: ‘You want to be the fire and wish for the wind.’ That passage reminded me of January 26 of this year when Newport Beach lost 8 people in a sudden, shocking helicopter crash. It made international news because the world lost a global icon. Locally, we knew that we had lost fathers and husbands, daughters and sisters, wives and mothers. We lost neighbors, colleagues, and friends. The more we learned about those we lost, the more we knew that these were people who wanted to be the fire and wished for the wind. They bonded over a hyper-competitive girls basketball team that reveled in facing challenges that they could overcome. Which made them better athletes and ultimately better people too. I’ve been reminded again recently just how painful the loss of a loved one can be. When I spoke to a friend about the pain and sadness that accompanies such a loss, he commented that the reason we feel that pain is because we love and enjoy people around us. We therefore feel their light’s absence all the more when it’s gone. Inside my wife’s and my wedding bands is 1 John 4:19: We love because He first loved us. That verse occasionally stirs Tennyson’s immortal passage: tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Indeed it is. No matter the challenge faced, we simply cannot allow our collective and individual hope to flicker. We cannot turn ourselves into extinguished candles. We must instead be Taleb’s fire and embrace Dylan Thomas’ entreaty that we Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. You’re loved. You’re supported. We’re #NewportStrong.

Thank you Greg May for today’s pic! With Hon. Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings taking center stage this week, all eyes are on the Supreme Court’s role in society. Day in and day out, though, it is the federal trial courts (District Courts) that make rulings that ripple across the legal system quickly. Yesterday, Judge Cormac Carney (a former star UCLA wide receiver btw) issued a ruling that will have major implications for our criminal justice system in SoCal.... Here’s a quick background. The Central District of California includes all federal trial courts in the counties of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, LA, San Bernardino, Riverside, and OC. The Central District suspended jury trials indefinitely on 8/6, but the state courts in OC restarted nearly four months ago. The Central District’s Chief Judge apparently stated that jurors will only be called when a county reaches the 3rd (orange) tier. Well, OC’s numbers came out yesterday, and though better than last week, they are still not close enough to expect a sustained and substantial reduction to reach the 3rd tier soon. Even then, it would apparently take 7 more weeks to call the jurors. Now, to the specific case. In 2017, a Federal Grand Jury presented an indictment against two doctors from OC for illegal distribution of drugs. One defendant’s trial was set for October 13, 2020, but the Chief Judge of the Central District has not summoned jurors in the Central District. Without jurors, there is no jury trial. Without a jury trial, Judge Carney says, the Federal Government is violating the Sixth Amendment’s mandate of a public and speedy trial. Consider the implications of this conflict between competing public policies. The Chief Judge is clearly trying to keep people safe, but that safety comes at societal cost. Judge Carney must rule on whether that juror safety decision violates the defendant’s Constitutional rights, requiring his release. And if a release is required for this defendant, wouldn’t it require release of many defendants soon, most of whom won’t be doctors? Like California’s decision to release tens of thousands of prisoners early in the name of health safety, are we really safer now?