Robinson Eyes GM; Santa Ana Name Game; OC Hoop-La

Don’t be surprised if Mark Robinson surfaces once again as a key player on the national stage, now that General Motors is facing the legal music on a defect in ignition switches that appears to have kept some airbags from working and has been linked to 12 deaths. The founding partner of Robinson Calcagnie Robinson Shapiro Davis in Newport Beach is a dean of the legal field when it comes to product liability cases for autos, with a resume that ranges from the landmark Ford Pinto litigation of the 1970s to the current Toyota acceleration case. Robinson is keeping his powder dry on GM—for now. “GM has been ordered by the federal government to put together all the documents that show what they knew and when they knew it—and as I understand the response is due April 3,” Robinson said last week. “I don’t want to make a public comment about GM until I see their response.” … Avenue of the Arts already is taken for a thoroughfare that runs alongside the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. What about the culture-rich stretch that starts at the Orange County School of the Arts on Main Street in Downtown Santa Ana? Head a bit north to 18th Street, and you’ll reach the Bowers’ Kidseum, which is next to the Wooden Floor, a nonprofit that helps local youths “discover and pursue their potential” with “intensive dance education supported by academic and family services.” It’s a block and a half to the Bowers Museum proper—and only a good stretch of the legs from there to the Discovery Science Center. Bowers President Peter Keller has suggested coming up with some name that could tie the individual strengths of the institutions together as a subsection of the cityscape. A&E Avenue? Arts & Science Street? Suggestions welcome here. … Fizzle: UCI’s men’s basketball team, which finished a season of big promise with a loss to Cal Poly SLO in the Big West tournament at the Honda Center. That got the Anteaters a ticket to the NIT, where they bowed out to SMU in the first round … Sizzle: Vanguard University men’s basketball team, which won the Golden State Athletic Conference regular season title and tournament to reach the NAIA Division I tournament. The Lions traveled from Costa Mesa to Kansas City, scored a win over Life University of Marietta, Ga., in the first round, and faced a second-round tilt with Benedictine College of Atchison, Kan., as the Insider went to press. … No news about Chapman University sports, but school President Jim Doti was a sport about St. Patrick’s Day, especially for a son of Italian immigrants. Doti climbed to the top of a 160-foot crane to scatter paper shamrocks across the campus for good luck. He also took the opportunity to eyeball progress of the Musco Center for the Arts, which is rising on the Orange campus … Hidden Gem: the Depot Walk Lofts in Orange … Not-So-Hidden Gem: the Ruby’s Diner Orange Depot & The Streamliner Lounge, with an interior that’s an Art Deco delight—and just a short walk from, you guessed it, the Depot Walk Lofts.