(continued)

Balboa Ferry. Photograph by Douglas Miller, 1974. Courtesy OC Public Libraries

Seymour Beek, current head of the ferry operation, reported early estimates of $3 million to electrify the first ferry and perhaps $1 million each for the other two (at the height of summer it is a three boat and 24/7 operation, one boat even running the graveyard shift) but recently reported increased costs are now estimated at $12 million, obviously a prohibitive investment for a small family business. The Balboa Ferry now charges $1.50 per car and $.50 for bicyclists and pedestrians (less for kids, free for 75 and over and in my experience often they don’t even ask for ID.). The fares have increased from the good old days—-in my youth pedestrians were a dime then a quarter, but my late father, who crewed in the 1930’s on the ferry as a summer high school job with his good friend Barton Beek, remembered fares of nickels and maybe some pennies for older kids. So it appears the fares cannot be raised enough to invent or meaningfully advance new technology.

The current situation of the Balboa Ferry is illustrative of a larger failure in Newport Beach and Orange County more generally to survey and protect historic resources. Newport Beach has historic surveys dating as far back as 1988, last updated in 2014. [check update date]. The surveys are inadequate, and have never included the Balboa Ferry. I personally recently have pointed out the need for an updated more complete historical survey by way of public comments to the City Council and Planning Commission without success. Newport Beach has solid finances but despite a passing nod to the importance of historic resources, even including an icon on the general plan literature and podium, has focused in recent years on infrastructure and other improvements and stabilizing and gradual recovery of pension funding following the Great Recession. Unhappily the failure to conduct and keep up to date adequate historical surveys despite their relatively modest cost in the scheme of things has resulted in the recent loss of the Irvine family connected “Big Blue” house at the coastal end of Acacado Avenue and will soon result in loss of some older homes on Bay Island, notably including one designed for the LA Times owning Chandler family by Stanley Gilbert Underwood, a renown prize winning early twentieth century architect who designed the Ahwanee Hotel in Yosemite national park. These losses are by way of ordinary course city permits issued without so much as requiring photographic or other documentation of the existing homes. Without a suitable survey the City staff has little way of knowing about the problem until interested citizens come by and notice
the disappearance. This problem of inadequate surveys is of course not unique to Newport Beach but county wide. At least in this case of the the problem has been identified before the Ferry is irretrievably lost.

What is being done? Local politicians and citizens are rallying to the cause and now supporting a broad effort to make the public aware of the matter and save the ferry. There are videos, podcasts and a pr effort and a “Save the Ferry” petition campaign underway. Preserve Orange County plans to be a part of the effort and may even try to enlist the National Trust for Historic Preservation—- the ferry seems an obvious candidate for its “Most Endangered” list (started there at NTHP by a friend and former colleague years ago as a top ten list but now up to eleven). The thrust of these efforts is to convince CARB, a state body made up of and staffed largely by central and northern Californians (depending on one’s definitions of those terms), to delay and extend its technology-forcing initiative. CARB has made noises that it may be open to those and has suggested technology development grants. But those grants are available currently largely to nonprofits but not businesses, family or otherwise. The very obvious and easiest path forward—— demonstrating that without the ferry fewer Californians will visit and have easy access to the coastal areas of Newport Beach, the numerous additional cars that will make the six mile drive around to Balboa Island from the Peninsula will spew forth far more carbon than the ferry, not to mention the additional traffic on the one bridge to Balboa, Little and Collins Islands and travel inconveniences to residents of Collins and the western reaches of Balboa Islands——seems to be of little or no interest to CARB, which is mandated to force and accelerate improved technology.

More than two generations ago the loss of the old Pennsylvania Station fueled a significant preservation movement first in the NewYork metro area and then nationally. Let us hope that CARB will see the light and balance the need for cleaner air with at least some minimal need for historic preservation in Orange County without the loss of the Balboa Island Ferry, and that the mere threat of its loss will give rise to a similar movement locally in Orange County and its cities. As I repeatedly tell my many eastern friends and colleagues —Yes there are historic resources that are worthy of preservation in Orange County. The Balboa Island Ferry is certainly among the foremost of those.

Update—-As TRACTS neared publication there were promising developments. It was announced that the Ferry operation had received a significant grant (approximately $8 million) from CARB to allow electrification of two of its three ferries and a delay in implementation to the end of 2026 for two of the ferries. The owner characterized this as “a big chunk” but not all the funds needed for electrification and also noted that even 2026 will be “hard to meet.” Hopefully the future may hold similar positive developments in this saga. Stay tuned.

By Bill Kroener

Photographs courtesy of Andrew Schmidt, Socal Landmarks. For more images of the Balboa Island Ferry, check out Socal Landmarks.

Promising Development for Threatened Balboa Island Ferry