Countdown to 2000: 1990s lifestyles

Greg Risling

“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”

This famous quote handed down through time from famed author Charles

Dickens best described how Newport-Mesa handled the last decade of the

20th century.

Newport-Mesa residents, along with millions of others, coped with an

economic recession at the beginning of the 1990s. It seemed everyone cut

back a little, or a lot, during those times as a new president was

ushered in with the election of Bill Clinton. Prices kept going up, from

the price of a candy bar to the price of a luxurious seascape home.

While people tried to deal with economic hardships, law enforcement

officials tried to bridge the gaping schism between the public and

themselves after the Rodney King incident.

Known as “community-oriented policing,” the concept was a collaborative

effort between residents and police departments. More neighborhood watch

programs were created, citizen police academies were begun, and police

agencies hired residents as volunteers. The relationship helped quell ill

feelings against law enforcement at a time when they were the most

strained.

As the decade progressed, crime rates also declined. New advancements in

technology and state and federal funding for more police officers

contributed to the drop.

While homicides were nearly nonexistent in the Newport-Mesa area the last

five years of the decade, fraudulent activity was a lingering problem for

police. Newport Beach is well-known in law enforcement circles as the

capital of telemarketing fraud.

As the decade came to a close, residents prospered off good fortune. The

stock market was booming, the real estate market was ripe for sellers and

the weather was, as usual, pleasant. Shoppers reportedly spent more

during Christmas and we still await the coming of the new year and the

new millennium. Can life get any better? We’ll have to wait and see.

Source: The Daily Pilot, 1991-1999.