EDITORIAL:

Perspective.

That’s what is needed in this current dispute regarding Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and the neighbors who live in the Villa Balboa condominiums next door.

Those are the keywords — next door.

When you move next door to a hospital, there is an assumption made. First, the home’s value will be less because of the proximity to that facility.

Next, the lesser price tag of the home and the knowledge of that facility’s closeness means those who live there have few rights to complain.

Villa Balboa residents seem to have conveniently forgotten those facts.

When Hoag officials announced their intentions to rearrange their expansion plans and move much of the build out of the facility to the upper campus, the Villa Balboa neighbors used that as an opportunity to pounce.

Plumes of steam from the hospital’s generator were ruining their view, they said. Noise from Hoag’s delivery trucks were too loud, they said. They wanted the council to force Hoag to act.

Hoag officials and the council gave the residents fair consideration, and compromises were made. But to hear the residents’ rumbling, it seems they still aren’t happy.

Now, time for that aforementioned perspective.

As happens in many public disputes over land or views, the larger picture tends to get blurred by a few squeaky wheels.

The health and safety of the residents of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa is the bigger picture. Making groundbreaking strides in cancer treatment and cardiovascular health is the bigger picture.

Extending the lives of local residents and beyond is the bigger picture.

Hoag Hospital is the bigger picture. Villa Balboa having to endure occasional steam plumes from a generator that is keeping the hospital immune from power outages is not.

What the hospital means to this community is immeasurable. As part of Newport-Mesa’s fabric for more than 50 years, Hoag’s contributions to the community’s health and well being is hard to surpass.

Instead of needlessly nettling the hospital over inconveniences, we should be celebrating the prosperity and growth of an institution that is in the business of saving lives.

That’s a perspective the Villa Balboa residents would be wise to grasp. Because someday they, like many in this community, will be thankful that Hoag is there.

We know we’re thankful now.