CM PRESS # 378

ALMOST-DAILY, DAILY PILOT: DROP AND GIVE US 50!

Then, get over to the blackboard and write the following a million times and don't you ever get it wrong again!


"MARINES ARE NOT SOLDIERS. THEY ARE MARINES. The Army has soldiers. The Airforce has Airmen. The Navy has sailors."

In an article about the new Marine statue in Newport Beach, the Almost-Daily, Daily Pilot's Joseph Serna constantly refers to Marines as soldiers. They are not soldiers. They are Marines. There is a difference. LINK

Say, didn't we just write something else about Serna? Isn't he the guy who figures it's not important if he tells readers if illegal aliens are illegal or not? What the hell kind of loosey-goosey crap is the Almost-Daily, Daily Pilot putting out these days?
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PEEPER GETS NABBED BY COPS

A guy who was peeping under the stall in the women's restroom at the Stater Bros. Market at Baker and Fairview, was chased and wrestled to the ground in the parking lot by store employees and handed over to the CMPD last night about 7:30 pm.

The CM PRESS was on the scene and came close to clotheslining the guy. From the looks of the peeper, he's probably going to be put on an ICE hold.
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KID GETS HIT BY CAR IN THE FILLMORE-COOLIDGE SLUM

A young kid was hit by a car last night on Paularino Avenue across from Paularino School. Apparently he wasn't hurt too badly and was mostly just shaken up.
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EL CAMINO CENTER

Ever see a slow motion demolition? Go visit the El Camino Center. It's like watching grass grow.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 377

RETURN TO REASON DAILY PILOT KILLS MONDAY PAPERS

In a column today, Waving Tom Johnson, the publisher of the Return to Reason Daily Pilot, announced, that as a cost cutting measure, the paper will no longer publish a paper copy of the, er, paper on Mondays. LINK

As an expert on newspapers (I played a reporter in a movie once), I have to agree with Johnson when he writes: " Fact is, local community newspapers seem to be the light at the end of the tunnel for the newspaper industry."

Although we often disagree with the positions taken by the Pilot, we'd hate to see the paper fold, and we're glad to see Johnson take action.

Apparently, 14 people in the community newspaper empire, that includes the Pilot, also lost their jobs. We were sorry to hear that. Over the years, we've had to lay off people from various businesses we've owned or been involved in, and it was always the worst and saddest part of the job.

On a positive note, we think the Pilot made a smart business decision recently when it linked to some community blogs--and especially to the CM PRESS. It doesn't cost the paper anything, and it gets lots of free content and increased traffic to the Pilot's electronic version.

However, there is a problem.

We think the Pilot needs to tweak its linkage policy a little, because it presently links to an anonymous blog--cmtruth--written by an intolerant bigot and hater who may be mentally ill (seriously), and whose only purpose appears to be to publish defamatory material and then hide behind the anonymity.

We're all for a robust and free press including blogs, but if people are afraid to say things without hiding, they probably shouldn't be saying them, and the Pilot shouldn't be involved in helping them spread their hatred.

And, yes, this could eventually lead to legal problems for the Pilot. It's a long held legal principle that a re-publisher of defamatory material is as liable for that material as the original publisher.

So, here's hoping the now Almost-Daily Pilot survives, but also that it acts responsibly and only links to blogs when the writers of those blogs don't hide under sheets while they try to harass and smear others with veiled threats and serial name calling.

Yes, Daily Pilot, let bloggers call names and act like asses if they want, but don't cloak their identities and don't stoke the psychoses of the mentally ill.

Let each blogger take responsibility for what he or she writes, just as the writers at the Pilot take responsibility for what they write, and let everyone--including law enforcement, and mental health professionals--see who the bloggers are.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 376

DOES IMMIGRATION STATUS MATTER?
(photo of Pacific Blvd., Huntington Park)

Joseph Serna, who writes for the Return to Reason Daily Pilot, writes on his blog about an illegal alien named Luis Adan Ramirez, who was just sentenced to prison for 15 years for killing a man in a drunken driving collision. LINK

A reader had apparently taken Serna to task for not giving the immigration status of Ramirez in an earlier report of the incident by Serna that appeared in the Return to Reason Daily Pilot.

Showing his true colors, Serna tells readers that he doesn't think the immigration status of Ramirez matters and he asks readers: "Why does Ramirez’s immigration status matter?"

Here's why it matters.

The person killed by drunk driving, illegal alien Ramirez would still be alive if Ramirez hadn't been in this country where he shouldn't have been. It's no more complicated than that.

The unspoken attitude of those who think like Serna is: "Hey, accidents happen. Why, citizens crash into each other all day long. What's the difference if this guy is illegal or not? What's the big deal with this accident?"

The big deal is that this accident would not have happened if Ramirez were not in the picture; and an innocent man would still be alive today.

Yes, we have citizen on citizen accidents, but why should we put up with such things caused by people who shouldn't even be here? Such accidents with illegal aliens are preventable. Just deport them. Let them drive drunk in their own countries and kill their own citizens.

And, why wasn't Ramirez sent back to his own country? He had two prior DUI's before he killed this man.

Had Ramirez been stopped at the border or deported once he got here, he would not have been on that street driving drunk at exactly the same time as the man he killed, and that man would be alive today.

Those who are trying to turn all of Costa Mesa into an illegal alien sanctuary city and to make the Westside into a new Huntington Park want citizens to consider illegal aliens as just the neighbors next door. That's the attitude we see being reflected by Serna and by the Return to Reason Daily Pilot.

Remember back during the Westside Revitalization meetings how the lefties and the Tan Klan kept trying to include illegal aliens as legitimate members of the community by calling them "stakeholders"?

And, remember how illegal aliens and their pals wanted to make the Westside into a new Huntington Park and how they spoke with a gleam in their eyes about W. 19th Street and Placentia Avenue being transformed into a new Pacific Boulevard (the main drag through Huntington Park)?

Citizens rejected that vision, but the Tan Klan is still at it.

THE TAN KLAN HATES EUROPEAN-AMERICANS AND WANTS TO DRIVE THEM OUT OF COSTA MESA

The Tan Klan and their shills are still at it in Costa Mesa.

They hate European-Americans and want to chase you out of Costa Mesa--starting with the Westside. That's why they don't want the industrial area on the Westside Bluffs reduced in size.

That's their primary defense against the area becoming as nice as other coastal communities.

That's why they don't want executive homes built on the Westside Bluffs. That's why they want a new job center on the Westside. That's why they want all the charities over there. That's why they don't want the cops to take illegal aliens to the ICE agent.

That's why they don't want the slums thinned out. They're terrified that the area will improve. They're afraid that the Westside will become gentrified.

Folks, before you think that Huntington Park and its Pacific Boulevard are good models for Costa Mesa, visit the place.

Is that what we want to turn Costa Mesa into? Huntington Park is Santa Ana on steroids.

We have our own Pacific here in Costa Mesa--the Pacific Ocean. Costa Mesa is not a sanctuary, landlocked, inner city such as Huntington Park. Costa Mesa is a coastal Orange County city, and because of this, it makes no sense to let it become an inner city.

The fact that Costa Mesa, today, has diverged so much from its traditional position of being the slightly less pretty sister of Newport Beach is not the natural state of affairs for our city.

Our downscale conditions are artificial. Those trying to keep Costa Mesa down are like those who try to hold back the ocean with a little wall of sand. The ocean of change is coming to Costa Mesa, dear friends, and it will pick up speed with your help.

Costa Mesa is going to find its natural level, once the artificial things that are keeping it down are removed.

And, as we've been writing for several years, the key to improving all of Costa Mesa is the Westside. Improve the Westside and the whole city will improve.

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THE TAN KLAN DIDN'T LIKE IT WHEN I WAS ON THE 3R COMMITTEE

The brown racists didn't like it when I was on the 3R Committee helping decide which charities got our tax money.

Do you know why?

It's because I wanted the Committee to not fund charities that discriminate based on race or ethnicity.

I tried to get the Committee to adopt President Kennedy's dictum against discrimination in the awarding of our money to charities:

"Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races [colors, and national origins] contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes or results in racial [color or national origin] discrimination."

Why did the brown racists not want that fair statement used in giving out our tax money?

It's because they know that our tax money is now going to charities that do discriminate and which also give citizen money to illegal aliens.

If you like the crime, the gangs, the graffiti, the abandoned shopping carts, the drunk driving illegal aliens, the slums, the failing schools, the discrimination against European-Americans, then do nothing.

If, on the other hand, you want a nice, safe American city where you can raise your family and live the American dream, then you need to support political candidates who also want Costa Mesa to be the great coastal city it can be.

You need to support candidates who will not discriminate against you because of the color of your skin.
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Don't forget that you can find my essays on everything from genetics to sub-atomic particles all over the internet.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 375

DEMOLITION GOING SLOWLY AT EL CAMINO CENTER

(stock photo)

So far, the demolition of El Camino Center is going very slowly and we've never seen more than two people on site doing the demolition. Of course this may be because they're mitigating asbestos or doing similar work that must be done before the buildings can be torn down.

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MORE GANG GRAFFITI

There was more gang graffiti on the wall on Baker Street near the Fillmore Slum today. If you want to see it, it's about in the middle of the wall east of Coolidge and is painted in gold paint.

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NEW JOB CENTER?

If Costa Mesa has to open a new job center to meet Constitutional guidelines, Improvers say it should not be on the Westside and should not be in the north part of the city, except, perhaps, near South Coast Metro.

The Eastside has had so many loudmouths--including a former police chief--saying we should have a job center [so long as it was on the Westside], that putting one over by Dover Shores on the Costa Mesa side of the border or near the east end of 19th Street would be sweet and ironic justice.

Watch as the loud mouths, who have been trying to make the Westside into a new Huntington Park, suddenly come down with a case of NIMBYism if the city tries to put a job center near their homes.

The real problem may be the CMPD

The real problem with a new job center may be the same as the old problem.

In the past, we had both a job center and we had day workers loitering all over the city.

The reason we had that problem is that some police officers seemed unwilling to handle quality of life issues and simply wouldn't respond timely to such issues.

Sure, our ordinances did need some tweaking, but it was more than that. There was/is a passive resistance to responding to such calls. That's why the dispatch center logs are full of "unable to locate," or "gone when arrived," entries from officers who respond too late, or who claim they didn't see anything.

And, because these cops don't respond to these minor issues, those who don't respect our property rights or our laws are emboldened. The downward spiral then continues.

An example

It took almost exactly an hour for the CMPD to respond to a quality of life call made by a citizen the other day. During that hour there were at least ten CMPD officers and five patrol cars in the area just finishing up an earlier sexier call.

In fact, the watch commander had all his officers return to the station or do something else instead of simply handling the matter that was right in front of them--literally.

Police clique?

One Westside Improver suggested to the CM PRESS, that the CMPD may be being run by mid and low level officers--a clique within the department--because the problem of not responding to quality of life calls seems to continue no matter who is Chief.

Too many commuting cops?

The last time the CM PRESS checked, about 75% of Costa Mesa's cops have chosen not to live in our city but commute in. This statistic is a few years old, but we think the percentage of commuting cops may be higher now. We tried to get new statistics, but city hall refused to supply them.

When you don't live in a city, and you're just punching the time clock, you're less concerned about quality of life issues. Oh, you'll go after bank robbers all day long, but the smaller things--our municipal codes--forget it.

It's not your wife and kids who are walking past gang graffiti or gang members loitering on sidewalks. It's not your family that has to run a gauntlet of shopping carts or walk through trash. It's not your neighborhood that is full of the sound of vending truck horns or boom boxes.

It's not your neighborhood where there have been gang killings.

As the City Council considers the Orange ordinances, we hope that they are mindful of the above and that we don't just end up with business as usual.
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TO J, ah, CMTRUTH

Yes, we know you don't usually use the J, but....

You say you want a discussion, but that you can't have one because the CM PRESS doesn't take comments.

Tell you what.

Grow some spine and tell everyone your real name and we'll start taking your posts. We don't discuss things with cowards and white haters who hide under rocks. Come out from under your Tan Klan sheets and let everyone know who you are.

Afraid folks will be upset that you're spewing your hate on the taxpayer dime?
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DOING PR FOR US

Oh, J, ah, CM TRUTH, and his sissy pal, want you to know that you can find some of my essays at New Nation News. They usually appear at the bottom of that site, and there's also a long list of my insightful earlier essays there.

You can also find some of my stuff all over the internet and in some MENSA publications, and also at AMERICAN PATROL, at AMERICAN NATIONALIST UNION and, from time to time, you may even read some in the Return to Reason Daily Pilot.

Now, I want to be clear that I don't agree with everything in the Return to Reason Daily Pilot that also appears when my stuff appears, so don't tar me with a guilt by association brush.

And, if you want to cough up the bucks, you can buy my books at brick and mortar book stores or at Amazon. com. They sound like fiction, but there are hidden messages in them. Wink, wink.

My books and national essays don't have anything to do with Costa Mesa, but if you're interested in my musings about some of the bigger questions of existence, including things such as ending genocide, evolution, self-determination for distinct peoples, etc. that's where to look.

Be assured that a tiny part of the money received from my books will go into my world domination fund as I try to become king of the planet by taking over one almost coastal Orange County city at a time. At last check, the fund had grown to about $43.54.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 374

HOW THE CREEPS OPERATE

Here's what J..., ah, anonymous blogger "CMTRUTH" recently wrote on his blog about U-Know-Who:

"Also ask yourself if you want any member of your elected council to be re-elected when you know they both support & are supported by a racist separatist who denies the holocaust?"

If you read this creep's hate filled diatribes, you already know that he's pretty stupid. For example, he always seems to use "your" when he means "you're."

Let's analyze just a few of the defamatory things this creep wrote about U-Know-Who:

"Racist"---Actually, if this creep means someone who has racial hatred, which is the usual definition of racist, he's completely wrong.

Most half-bright haters who want to attack me, and who can understand a little of what I write, have now switched to the term "racialist," which may be slightly less toxic than "racist"--but which still mischaracterizes my positions, my views, and my ultimate concerns.

Something such as "genist" or "DNAist" or "naturalist" or anti-genocidist" would be more accurate, but even these terms are too small for my views that I write in my national columns and books; which mostly are concerned with the ultimate questions of existence.

Humans, and even all living things, are just part of what concerns me, and most of the terms above, with the possible exception of "naturalist," are too narrow and limiting.

"Separatist"---Hmmm. I think this dope is referring to my many columns about the genocide that white people face and how reproductive and geographic isolation lead to the development, first of varieties, then of species, and how survival requires expansion and effort while extinction needs no more than contraction and a lack of effort.

Of course, this is just basic Darwin, but some of these creeps don't reed or writ veri gud so dey dont no dat.

"Denies the holocaust"--Nope. Not true. I hardly ever write about the Holocaust, but I have brought it up in some of the hundreds of essays I've written, mostly as an example of how some small minded bigots try to stop others from using their brains to think about and talk about things that the bigots want to be off limits.

My position is that all historical events (also all science and the natural world) should be open to robust examination, study and comment, and that we shouldn't genuflect before sacred cows.

I've also written that it is wrong for governments to send people to jail if they do question the Holocaust or any other historical event or nature (in the largest possible meaning of this latter term). Truth is truth and we should try to determine it. In fact, one of the side-effects of our brains is that we are compelled to do so. We are driven to question and understand. It is a built in part of our nature as surely as the curiosity of cats is a part of their nature.

My attitudes about humans needing the freedom to think and express themselves, start with my belief that nature has given every living thing at least one special and primary "tool" in order to survive to reproduce and expand.

The special and primary tool given to humans, is not our opposable thumb, as you so often may have read, but our brain. It is our fang and claw. To limit the human brain by saying that we can't discuss historical events or scientific theories because some other humans say we can't discuss them, is to rob humans of our basic humanity. It is to defang and declaw us.

Such prohibitions bring us back to the Dark Ages and flat-worldism. It is the tyranny of the ignorant and bigoted over the intelligent and open-minded, and should be resisted.

Councilmembers supporting and being supported by U-Know-Who--This is the standard line of another dimwit who is pals with J..., ah, CM TRUTH.

The truth is that I was not a part of any City Councilmember's election campaign and I didn't donate any money to any of them.

And, how do they support me? That's absurd on its face.

I criticize all Councilmembers when they do the wrong things and I praise them when they do the right things.

Here's another thing these creeps and small minded bigots do.

They send made-up anonymous tips to some phony "anti-hate" websites and groups and then when these phony websites and groups publish the made-up anonymous tips, these creeps cite the websites and groups as their authority for their own made-up anonymous tips that they, themselves, had made up and sent in.

One phony group wrote--apparently on the basis of one of these made-up anonymous tips--that U-Know-Who and Mayor Pro-Tem Mansoor carpooled to city council meetings together.

The truth is that U-Know-Who and Mansoor have never even been in the same car, boat, train, plane, truck, tractor, motorcycle, toboggan or any other means of conveyance together. And, they've never gone to each other's homes or had dinner together or anything like that.

I think Mr. Mansoor does a pretty good job much of the time in helping get our city back on track, but I've been critical of him when I think he's made mistakes (such as not having the developers in South Coast Metro do their fair share for our affordable housing requirements).

POSSIBLE PROBLEM

Now, here's a possible problem in Costa Mesa.

J..., ah, CM TRUTH, has bragged more than once that he has a relationship of some type with some (Return to Reason?) cops. Exactly how much schmoozing and information passing is going on may need to be looked at by the proper authorities; perhaps by the Grand Jury.

Certainly, we don't want to think that any Costa Mesa police officers are involved in criminal activity as was the case in San Francisco a few years ago when a police Lieutenant or Captain was secretly going into police department records and computers and then passing information--unlisted telephone numbers, etc.--to a radical group that may have then been harassing citizens or passing the information on to other extremists.

Last we heard, the creep cop had fled the country rather than go to jail.

Come on J..., ah, CM TRUTH, crawl out from under your rock and tell everyone your full name, and how it is you claim so much gang expertise and how it is that you know what some cops think about Improvers in this city.

And, we hope you have a good explanation for the false assertions of fact that you've been making against us. You got them from your pal didn't you? Yes, you know who we mean.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 373

GOOD COLUMN ON THE GENOCIDE WE FACE

The Way Our World Ends

By Patrick J. Buchanan

“This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang but a whimper,” wrote T.S. Eliot in the closing couplet of “The Hollow Men.”

Eliot’s poem was written after the Great War of 1914-1918 had carried off 9 million soldiers, wounded twice as many more, brought down the Romanov, Hohenzollern and Habsburg empires, and ushered onto the world stage Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini and, soon, Adolf Hitler.

Readers have ascribed various meanings to Eliot’s words. One college professor of English suggested Eliot was looking back to the “whimper” in the cradle in Bethlehem that signaled the end of the old world, the Pax Romana, and the coming of the new Christian age.

Some saw it as the whimper of a man facing the executioner’s axe. Others say Eliot was referring to the middle-aged protagonist of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” who had “measured out my life with coffee spoons” and soon would “wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.”

Recent reports suggest God has another end in store for us.

An Augusta, Ga., group, The National Policy Institute, has meshed the figures on fertility rates with the continents and races on Planet Earth — to visualize what the world will look like in 2060.

In 1950, whites were 28 percent of world population and Africans 9 percent, a ratio of three-to-one. In 2060, the ratio will remain the same. But the colors will be reversed. People of African ancestry will be 25 percent of the world’s population. People of European descent will have fallen to 9.8 percent.

More arresting is that the white population is shrinking not only in relative but in real terms. Two hundred million white people, one in every six on earth — a number equal to the entire population of France, Britain, Holland and Germany — will vanish by 2060.

The Caucasian race is going the way of the Mohicans.

Arabic peoples, 94 million at the birth of Israel in 1948, outnumbered seven to one by Europeans, will rise to 743 million in 2060, a tenfold increase, and will be 75 percent of the white population.

Fleshing out the NPI picture is the U.N. population survey of mid-2007 that points to the 21st century disappearance of Western Man.

By 2050, a fourth of all the people of Eastern Europe will have vanished. Ukraine will lose one-third of its population. Russia, 150 million at the breakup of the Soviet Union, 142 million today, will be down to 108 million. Such losses dwarf what Hitler and Stalin together did to these countries.

CIA Director Michael Hayden said this week that Russia will have to import workers from the Caucasus, Central Asia and China, exacerbating already serious racial and religious tensions in a nation with thousands of nuclear weapons.

With Russians east of the Urals outnumbered 100 to one by the Chinese, there is little doubt who will control the oil, gas, gold and timber of Siberia and be staring hungrily across the Bering Strait at Alaska.

By 2050, Iran’s population will have risen from today’s 71 million to 100 million. Pakistan will add 84 million to reach almost 300 million, the U.S. population today. Afghanistan’s population will triple from 27 million to 79 million. Iraq’s will go from 29 million to 62 million. The destinies of these nations will be beyond the capacity of an aging, dwindling, dying West to dictate.

(Snip)

How can this be when only Iceland and Albania have fertility rates — 2.1 children per woman — that can stop population declines, and all the rest have birthrates that would put bears, birds and wolves on the endangered species list?

Answer: Western Europe’s populations are being sustained by immigrants from the Maghreb and Middle East, Asia and Africa — and the baby boom among these black and brown peoples is lifting and changing the face of the Old Continent forever. Islam is returning to Iberia, Italy and the Balkans. The Third World is coming to colonize the mother countries.

And America? According to the Pew Research Center, the Hispanic population of the United States will triple to 127 million by 2050, as Mexico’s population grows to 130 million. An erasure of the U.S. border, or merger of the two countries, or the linguistic, cultural and social annexation of the American Southwest by Mexico appears fated.

Yet, last October, in another Pew poll of 45,000 people in 47 countries, a majority in 46 expressed fear of a loss of their traditional culture.

Sixty-two percent of Americans told Pew we should do more to protect our way of life. Three-fourths of Americans wanted more restrictions on immigration. Yet all three presidential candidates voted amnesty for the 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens.

Hopefully, the peoples of Asia, Africa and the Middle East, who are about to inherit the earth as we pass away, will treat us better than our ancestors treated them in the five centuries that Western Man ruled the world.

Otherwise, we all go out with a bang.

Spread the Word!

Here's the LINK to Pat's blog.
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Thanks for reading the CM PRESS.

CM PRESS # 372

TERROR IN COSTA MESA--READ THE TRUTH AND YOU'LL KNOW WHY WE NEED TO KEEP IMPROVING OUR CITY

Whenever the CM PRESS tells the truth about the gangs that are terrorizing Costa Mesa, a couple of local dimwits try to counter the truth with lies.

These dimwits claim that we don't really have a gang problem. They say things such as: Oh, gee, we have a few gang members, but that graffiti that you see, well that's the work of taggers, not gang members.

The truth: According to CMPD stats on graffiti, about 40% is gang related and 60% taggers. And in either case it cost taxpayers $254,690 to remove in 2006 as opposed to $97,528 in 2005. (See Gang Status and Gang Initiative," infra)

These lies and attempts to minimize a very real problem are just an updated version of the lie that some previous City Council members used to tell; until we started having so much gang crime that the presence of gangs could no longer be denied.

"We don't have gangs, we just have people who wear gang looking clothes," said those former Councilmembers. The CM PRESS used to spoof that nonsense by saying, after every gang shooting or crime, that it was "fashion models" who were doing the crimes.

The truth: This is directly from the CMPD "Gang Status and Gang Initiative" report dated February 22, 2007 that was presented by the CMPD at the City Council Study Session on March 13, 2007 (You can request a copy of the report from City Hall or you can try this LINK).

Direct quotes from the report:

"Presently, seven local criminal street gangs are identified as being active and based in Costa Mesa. This is an increase from the four identified local gangs in the City ten years ago. The total local gang membership in Costa Mesa is approximately 300 adult and juvenile gang members, of which roughly 60% are juveniles and 40% are adults. This total is approximately three times the membership from ten years ago.

"A further indicator of gang activity is represented by incidents of graffiti as reflected by the Graffiti Abatement program. In 2006 approximately 2034 incidents (compared to 1,229 incidents in 2005) of graffiti were reported....

"Violent gang crime involving firearms has also risen during the last year."

As we get closer to the election this year, keep the above in mind.

While the CM PRESS is critical of all of our elected officials on various issues from time to time, there are three people on the Council right now who are generally right about crime and gangs. You know who they are. They deserve your support.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 371

DAY WORKERS
(stock photo)

Over at the Return to Reason Daily Pilot blog, some of the usual characters are trotting out their typical uninformed opinions about loitering, day workers, job centers, etc. LINK

Here's a quick Q&A about the issue:

Q. Why aren't the cops arresting day workers for loitering on public property?

A. Loitering laws that meet Constitutional requirements are difficult to craft. See: City of Chicago vs. Morales

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Q. Wasn't the loitering problem less when we had the job center on Placentia?

A. No. We had both. We had a tax payer supported job center that drew illegal aliens and helped them find work on the tax payer dime, and we had other day workers loitering up and down the street to get an advantage over those who were at the job center.

There are fewer day workers on Placentia now, than in the past.

The job center, which had been on the Westside for more than 15 years, also helped keep the Westside from improving.
--------------------

Q. What about loitering on private property?

A. Costa Mesa's ordinances are backwards. If private property owners want the CMPD to be able to automatically stop loitering on their property, they must post a City approved sign and send a letter to the Police Chief authorizing the department to remove those on the property. Few owners want to do this.

Q. What about the ordinances in the City of Orange?

A. They have some provisions that are better than those we have in Costa Mesa.

1. THE JOB CENTER PROVISIONS

For example, in Orange, owners of private property can give notes to loitering day workers allowing them to be on their property.

However, if an owner does this, he must get a CUP to be an authorized job center and meet various other regulations.

And, doing this is fraught with all types of potential legal problems. What if a day worker is injured at your new convenience market job center? Will your normal insurance as a convenience market cover that? Probably not. So you'll need to buy a new insurance policy. Good luck.

And, what if the worker claims he was injured on your property--perhaps by a car--and then hires an ambulance chaser Abogado, to represent him and sues you for negligence because you, in effect, said your property was safe for soliciting work, when it wasn't--as indicated by the worker's injury.

Here's a little of what you might hear in court: "You, Mr. Owner, knew in advance that your customers constantly drove into and out of your parking lot, did you not? And, you do know, do you not, Mr. Owner, that cars and people don't mix and that the purpose of a parking lot is to park cars, not run a job center business?

"And, knowing the danger your job center business posed, you still ran your job center business because your job center clients bought products from you in your store, isn't that right, Mr. Owner? So, you had a profit motive in running your job center business. Isn't that right Mr. Owner? Yet, Mr. Owner, in order to increase your profits, you knowingly allowed day workers to wander around that active parking lot--that mini-freeway--with cars constantly coming and going, in total disregard for the safety of the day workers.

"Is this your signature on a note you gave to my client allowing him to solicit work in your unsafe parking lot, Mr. Owner?

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, due to the negligence of Mr. Owner, my client, who is just 30 years old, and who was doing nothing more than trying to make a better life for himself, his wife, and his five children aged one to nine, will not be able to work for the rest of his life . That's my client's family sitting in the front row, right over there.

"It was foreseeable that someone might get hit by a car and be seriously injured in a parking lot, but Mr. Owner, in an attempt to make more money and in total disregard for human safety, put my client in danger by inviting my client on to his property to solicit work."
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In addition to the legal exposure, you as the owner of one of these convenience market job centers would have to supply restrooms for your workers and maybe a guard to prevent various types of problems.
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2. THE PUBLIC STREETS PROVISIONS

In Orange, people are prohibited from soliciting work from streets where there is no parking. This eliminates all the major arterials where most day workers would want to congregate.

Q. IS THERE A PROBLEM WITH THE ORANGE ORDINANCES

A. Possibly. In order to be able to stop work solicitation from other locations, the city has to offer a reasonable time, place and manner where people can solicit work.

If Costa Mesa were to adopt the Orange ordinances as written, we might have to offer a reasonable, time place and manner for people to solicit work. This means some sort of location where it is legal to solicit work.

A FEW SUGGESTIONS FROM WESTSIDERS

If Costa Mesa does have to have some sort of job center, it should not be on the Westside, but on the Eastside.

Two locations come to mind:

1. Down at the end of E. 17th Street near the Newport Beach border by Dover Shores.


2. Over near the end of E.19th Street near Irvine Blvd. Some of the biggest and stupidest blowhards in Costa Mesa who want to turn the Westside into a new Huntington Park, so they can visit it for an hour or so to have a taco and be one with humanity, live on the Eastside.

It's time that these blowhards be exposed to their neighbors as the phonies that they are.

Also, the Eastside is even closer to most of the homes in Newport Beach than the Westside.

Statistics we reviewed in the past show that the majority of homeowners who hire day workers in Costa Mesa live in Newport Beach.

One guy from Newport whined in a letter to the Return to Reason Daily Pilot that Costa Mesa was mean to close down the job center and that he had hired fifty or so day workers over the years and even fed them dinner [before returning them to Costa Mesa].

And, if a new job center is opened it should not be paid for by citizens.

SEE CM PRESS # 362, 5/12/08 for more info on this and links to Orange's ordinances.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 370

DAY 2--OF THE GREAT EL CAMINO CENTER DEMOLITION

7:45 a.m.--Two workers were seen with pickaxes on the roof of the former gas station. No other activity was observed.

Say, did we mention that the El Camino Center is located in Mesa Del Mar across from a major slum and that Katrina Foley lives in Mesa del Mar and that she planted flowers in front of the slum last year but that the flowers haven't had much of an effect on the crime problems in that slum?

Now that the snow has melted at the ski resorts, Ms. Foley may have the time to take even more drastic action to stop slum problems in her neighborhood.

In fact, we wouldn't be surprised to soon see a photo in the Return to Reason Daily Pilot of Foley standing in front of the slum singing Kumbaya while collecting cans of food for earthquake victims in China.

That should certainly improve her neighborhood.
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ANOTHER CONDO CONVERSION ON COOLIDGE

At its regularly scheduled meeting on 5/27, the no-Planning Commission will rule on whether or not to allow a Tri-Plex at 3028 Coolidge to be converted to condos. LINK

Many existing homeowners in Mesa North generally support such conversions--this will be the second one on Coolidge--because it is hoped that new homeowners will have pride of ownership and care about the neighborhood.

On the negative side of things is the possibility that the conversions will simply be on paper and that the units will continue to be rented out by absentee owners.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 369

DEMOLITION OF EL CAMINO CENTER TO START TODAY ?
(FOR UPDATE SCROLL DOWN)

At its regularly scheduled meeting last night, the Costa Mesa City Council granted the owner of the El Camino Center a requested one year extension on its plans to build 24 homes on the site.

This came after the owner said that demolition, which will cost the owner $100,000, will begin today.

Unfortunately, it appears that until homes are built, the site will remain a dirt covered empty lot with a chain link fence all around it.

Linda Dixon wanted the owner to plant the site with grass and let people use the site. The CM PRESS pointed out that this could cause problems including, possibly, a claim of an easement by prescription if the land laid fallow long enough.

NOTE: We'll update this report in this spot later today concerning the demolition.

About that slum in Mesa del Mar...

The CM PRESS suggested to the Council that one of the problems facing a developer who wants to build quality homes on the El Camino Center site is the fact that the city has done nothing to thin out the massive slum that is right across the street from the site.

We also pointed out that the City Council, in allowing hundreds of condos and upscale apartments to be built in South Coast Metro, with no requirement for affordable housing in that area, is not doing any favors for the central core of Costa Mesa which will be under increasing pressure to not only not thin out the "affordable" slums--such as are found in Mesa del Mar--but to build even more to fulfill the increased state required quota for such units that should have fallen on the developers in South Coast Metro since they're the ones who have increased our quota by adding to our housing stock.

After we spoke, Lisa Reedy, the President of the Mesa del Mar Homeowner's Association, told the Council that it's not helpful for people to talk about the slum in her neighborhood and that Mesa del Mar is just one big [happy] community.

Huh?

Bury your head in the sand, Ms. Reedy, but most people can read the police reports and people we know who live very close to the slum report much crime activity and an almost constant police helicopter overhead. You also have at least one of the most active gangs in Costa Mesa in that slum.

Your slum is a problem, Ms. Reedy. And, it's not going to get better by pretending it doesn't exist. Slums don't improve with age.
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DEMOLITION UPDATE: 12:15 p.m.--5/21/08--The CM PRESS saw a single passenger car and a single small Bob Cat type tractor along with its trailer on the site, but there were no people there that we could see. There was an approximately four foot high, four foot wide, pile of dirt on the parking lot pavement and a few metal poles lying on the ground, but it's not clear if they were there before today or not. There are no clear signs of demolition that we can report. Just the crew's lunchtime?

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MAYOR BEVER CALLS FOR COUNCIL TO STUDY ORANGE'S DAY LABOR LAW

Also at the City Council meeting last night, Mayor Eric Bever called on staff to prepare a report on Orange's day labor law for discussion at an upcoming study session.

When this is discussed, the CM PRESS plans on being there and will report what happens.

The Orange ordinance has some provisions that the CM PRESS believes will be good for Costa Mesa, but there is a Constitutional issue relating to a reasonable time, place, and manner that will have to be addressed and handled correctly.
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REA SCHOOL

During our comments to the Council, we again asked that the Council look into what's being done on the Rea School campus which seems to be stuffed with all sorts of non-profits and uses that are far beyond what one expects to find on an active school campus.

Whether the Council will look into this or not we're not sure.

The Councilmember most qualified to look into this is Wendy Leece who used to be on the School Board.

But, perhaps Ms. Leece is slightly shell shocked (we hope she's tougher than that) about the uproar from some numbnuts who didn't want her to ask some simple questions about where the money is going at the Senior Center, and who think it's not the City's business where taxpayer money goes.

Keep asking those questions, Ms. Leece. Ignore the haters.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 368

CM PRESS 3 MINUTE NEWS PROGRAM ON THE AIR TONIGHT CMTV24

(stock photo)

COSTA MESA--Be sure to tune in to the CM PRESS 3 MINUTE NEWS PROGRAM on Channel 24 tonight as we once again report on problems in Costa Mesa and possible solutions. LINK

As usual, the CM PRESS will give you the latest information about our City in a tightly managed 3 minute report at the beginning of the City Council meeting starting at 6:00 p.m. during Public Comments.

The CM PRESS will also have some succinct comments about the El Camino Center later in the program.

In between the comments by the CM PRESS, you can go get a snack. Nothing important will be happening. In fact, in between our comments, there will be little but the mumbling sounds of the do-nothing no-City Council members which is the Costa Mesa version of elevator music. Yawn.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 367

WHEN YOUR PARTICIPLES DANGLE

According to the OC REGISTER, a man is on ICE hold at Harbor Boulevard and Hamilton Street. LINK

As far as we can tell, ICE must have the guy locked up either in the Taco restaurant or in the community garden until he can be deported. And, we thought the jail was open again.

Here's the item from the OC REGISTER (Just in case they correct it in our link).

David Martinez-Rios, 44, of Costa Mesa was arrested on suspicion of hit and run causing property damage, driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs, using false information provided to the Department of Motor Vehicles, perjury, driving without a license and presenting false identification to a police officer and is currently on ICE hold at Harbor Boulevard and Hamilton Street on May 18.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 366

MORE GANG GRAFFITI IN MESA NORTH
(stock photo)

The CM PRESS spotted some more gang graffiti in Mesa North this morning.

No, we won't give the exact location. We want as many Mesa North homeowners as possible to see what is happening in the neighborhood and have their awareness raised to the terror of these gangs.

We know what will happen now. City staff reads the CM PRESS and even before most readers see this issue, the City will have its graffiti paint-over crew out searching Mesa North for the graffiti to try to cover it up before too many people see it and demand that the City Council start doing more than mumbling sweet nothings.

We dispatched the crack CM PRESS photographer to the site of this terror and we'll have a photo for the City Council meeting tomorrow night during the CM PRESS 3 MINUTE NEWS PROGRAM--at its usual time during Public Comments.

If you can't be there, be sure to tune in on your TV.
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I'M NOT A REPORTER, BUT I PLAYED ONE IN A MOVIE ONCE

Yes, dear friends, I once had a starring role as a reporter in a movie that also had Richard Dreyfuss, Gene Barry, Sondra Locke and some others playing lesser characters.* LINK

And that was after I had taught Robert DiNiro everything he knows about acting.**

And it was before I had made Woody Allen famous.***

And, it was close to the time that I made wine common in the US.****

And, it was before I made the All In the Family TV show a big hit.*****

And it was after I had made Pendleton Shirts a household name.******

And, it was after I told Andy Warhol....*******

*(Well, actually, what he meant to write was that it wasn't exactly a starring role.)

**(Well, he did do a play with Robert DiNiro in NYC and some believe DiNiro's ex-Marine character, Travis Bickle, in Taxi Driver was partly based on this guy, who was just out of the Marines when he met DiNiro and who used to dress like the Bickle character, had a similar walk-up apartment, etc.)

***(Okay, he was in a Woody Allen movie.)

****(So, he did a national wine commercial on TV. Big deal.)

*****(Aw, geez. Yawn. The guy had a bit part. Blink your eyes and you missed him.)

******(Phooey. This is getting to be too much. The guy did a print ad for Pendleton Shirts, and they even cut his head off when they published the photos in magazines.)

*******(Andy....That's it. We're going to kick this guy off the computer down here at CM PRESS Central. We're running out of asterisks.)

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 366

EL CAMINO CENTER AND A LITTLE QUID PRO QUO

At its upcoming May 20th meeting, the City Council is expected to sign an extension agreement with the owner of the closed down El Camino Center located in Mesa del Mar, where Snow Bunny Katrina Foley lives, that will give the owner an additional year to complete off-site and street improvements around the site.

These off-site and street improvements will consist of removal of existing improvements, new sidewalk, curb/gutter, cross gutter, spandrel, asphalt paving, storm drain inlet and pipe, and traffic striping and markings.

In exchange for granting the one year extension, the City is requiring the owner to demolish the center within 30 days after receiving a demolition permit from the city.

Here's the timeline: Council approves the agreement on May 20. Owner must apply for demolition permit within 5 working days--by May 28. Owner must complete demolition of all buildings on site within 30 days. The agreement is silent as to whether this 30 days is working days or calendar days, but assuming working days, all buildings should be demolished by July 10, 2008.

Will we actually see the buildings gone by July 10?

Hopefully, yes. But we wouldn't be surprised if a number of requests for extensions aren't suddenly received by staff. On what basis? Oh, we can think of about a hundred things an owner could use if he wanted to.

And, there's not much teeth in the agreement except a performance bond, and that's the same performance bond that was in the agreement the last time the owner asked for a year's delay that was granted by the City Council.

What then? When will homes be built on the site?

Even if the present buildings are demolished, there will still be a large empty lot with an ugly chain link fence around it until homes are finally built on the site. And, there's no telling when that will be.

Still, at least something seems to be moving forward and that's a step in the right direction.

Now, if the City will thin out the slums right across the street from this site, a developer might be more inclined to put in some homes that will be an asset to the community.

With the slums remaining there, a developer is risking his investment.

Say you're a home buyer from out of the area and you're not yet sold on the benefits of Costa Mesa, as are so many of us who choose to live here--cool breezes, close to ocean, close to Newport Beach, a certain "feel."

Would you buy an expensive home across the street from a slum in a city with the negatives that some of us are trying to fix--failing schools and gangs, etc., and an establishment that is fighting to keep the slum status quo?

Or, would you, as have so many others, simply flee Costa Mesa and buy a home for about the same price in South County and not have to put up with the crime and problems that our successive City Councils have allowed to grow in Costa Mesa?

In other words, would you trust that the Improvers can fix broken Costa Mesa or would you be fearful that they'll fail, and instead of improving, the city will go in the other direction and become a new Santa Ana?

Would you risk being trapped in a slum by buying a home on the El Camino Center site while a massive slum sits right across the street from your home and all you see happening in the slum is that Snow Bunny Katrina Foley and her fou fou pals are planting flowers in front of the slum and telling you that everything is now fixed?
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HOT THIS WEEKEND

According to the Daily Pilot, merchants in Newport Beach are expecting to make a lot of money this weekend as people from inland travel to the ocean to cool off.

Maybe those merchants should cough up some of their profits to help put the 55 Freeway in a tunnel so their customers don't keep screwing up Costa Mesa as they rush right past our merchants to the sea.
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CHUCKY DOESN'T LIKE GAY MARRIAGE AND GETS SMARMY

The California Supreme Court said yesterday that gay marriages are okay...under the law.

It didn't take long for Assemblyman Chuck Devore, as reported in the Daily Pilot, to say that the ruling will now stop the state from being able to ban "polygamous marriages." LINK

We've heard that argument before. What those saying this are really saying is "I don't like gay marriages, but gays are militant. And, because of their militancy, they've become PC and will have some moral high ground to attack me if I attack them. So, being a typical politician, I'm only going to attack gay marriage obliquely by attacking polygamous marriages [such as practiced by the FLDS down in Texas], because polygamists haven't become militant enough yet and are still easy targets for bigotry."

Or, in good old boy speak: "Why, shucks, gay marriages are okay with me boy, but gee if we allow them to marry, then those evil polygamists will also get a pass."

Bigotry doesn't change. It just changes targets.

Our position on marriage

Marriage is a contract between individuals and is not the business of the state.

However, as with many of our positions on the bigger questions of existence, we look to what we can observe or infer from nature for a deeper understanding of existence and our place in it.

It seems clear to us that nature's primary directive, written in the genes of everything that lives, is "expand yourself [no matter who or what "yourself" is] by making more like yourself." We see that as part of the eternal struggle to be.

If we are right, then all arrangements, including polygamy, that help you expand yourself by making more like yourself, are in concert with nature, and all arrangements that do not do this are counter to nature and what can be called the life force [but not used here as it is sometimes used in esoteric philosophies].

In either case, and to repeat, we don't think marriage is the business of the state, or at least not in our culture that pretends to want diversity in all things. Of course, this leads off into a long discussion about the nature of the state and nations and peoples and religion and even physics (yes, physics), but we'll forgo that for now.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 365

HEY KIDS, LET'S MAKE THE WESTSIDE A LATINO BARRIO JUST LIKE HUNTINGTON PARK!

These days, you won't hear many brown racists and assorted anti-white bigots and special interests put it as directly as the headline above, but that's been the plan of some for many years, and that's exactly what they said they wanted to do several years ago.

And, those who want the Westside to be an official Latino Barrio have allies in their plan--some of the charity bosses and some out of town industrialists along with a few dimwit liberals who wrongly think they're on the side of social justice in helping keep the area downscale and full of pollution.

"Pollution?" Why, according to former City Council candidate Bruce Garlich--who was supported by the out of town industrialists and the crowd that wants to turn the Westside into an official Latino Barrio--there's no pollution on the Westside.

Baloney.

There is pollution and it's been well documented. And, worst of all, the 60 acre swath of industrial buildings on our Westside Bluffs is upwind of most of our homes and schools full of people--including vulnerable kids and senior citizens--who are forced to breathe air that first passed over the industrialized Westside Bluffs.

You don't think there's pollution? Go look at the seven acre site on Monrovia that has to have its dirt trucked away because of the toxic soil.

And, guess what? The source of that pollution is not on that site, according to representatives from the state, but migrated there from another site that they wouldn't officially identify. The implication is that this source site may still be putting dangerous chemicals into the ground.

And if that site on Monrovia doesn't convince you of pollution on the Westside Bluffs, just drive down Placentia Avenue with your windows down. That odor is not flowers, folks. That odor is caused by chemicals being put into our air where it is quickly blown over our homes and into our lungs.

THERE'S MONEY IN SLUMS FOR SLUM PROFITEERS

As a very rich guy once told me: "There's money in slums." This guy had made his first millions in the slums of Detroit before moving to Southern California where he now lives in a custom built mansion and is making money in the slums of LA.

I know of another guy, who lives in a mansion in Beverly Hills and who belongs to the most private and exclusive millionaire's club in the state, who makes his money from an old factory he owns in the worst part of Los Angeles.

Neither of the above two industrialists would want any changes to their respective golden goose slums and would fight any changes should any of the people who live near their factories start trying to improve the area for the people who actually live there.

Of course, these industrialists would never think of living near their factories. They're not crazy.

So, what about the middle class people who live in those areas? They're not there anymore.

They all moved. They've been replaced by illegal aliens who work off the books in the factories. That's the stuff of a falling tide lowers all boats; that is, all boats except the yachts of the rich who sail in to collect their money during the day and then sail away on the evening tide.

We're seeing the same thing on the Westside of Costa Mesa. A few people are making lots of money by keeping the Westside as slum central.

These slum profiteers don't want real improvement. Some minor cosmetic things such as flowers along the streets are okay with them, but they begin howling when there is talk of making the structural changes that are truly needed.

As we reported before, a group actually came to a Costa Mesa City Council meeting several years ago with a formal scheme to turn the Westside into a new Huntington Park. They even used the name Huntington Park and held it up as a model for the Westside!

Huntington Park, for the uninformed, is a city near Watts and Compton in LA and is more Tijuana than Tijuana. LINK

The slum profiteers, the out of town industrialists and the assorted haters and bigots are afraid that any changes--especially to the Westside Bluffs--would start bringing in upwardly mobile citizens who see the area as a more affordable version of Newport Beach, and that the presence of these people would kill their golden goose.

These slum profiteers are one of the main reasons why the Westside is not improving and that's why Improvers want a tough City Council that actually does something to improve the lives of the citizens and voters of Costa Mesa instead of the slum profiteers from Newport Beach and other cities upwind of their factories on OUR Westside Bluffs.

Improvers have consistently said that they don't want Costa Mesa split up into ethnic neighborhoods or barrios but to be a typical American city where people can live in any neighborhood that they choose.

They want the City Council to jump start the transition of the Bluffs to their highest and best uses. They want to see homes built on the Bluffs where people will stand in line to buy them.

They don't want to be under the iron heel of out of town rich industrialists or brown racists or left wing kooks or special interests.

And, they don't want to hear the Councilmembers mumble sweet nothings and high school level theories about the free market as an excuse for doing nothing.

It's as though some of these elected officials think that a city will improve spontaneously. Sorry, it doesn't work that way.

Thinking that way would be a little like thinking that if you want to go someplace, all you have to do is jump in your car and it'll start itself up and drive you to your location with no effort on your part.

THE REAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COSTA MESA AND HUNTINGTON PARK

The Pacific Ocean.

Because of Costa Mesa's closeness to the ocean and tony Newport Beach, we have a unique opportunity to pull ourselves up by our flip-flops that Huntington Park does not have.

Come on City Council, you've been given the power to improve Costa Mesa--make it happen!

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 364

REPORT FROM THE 5/13/08 CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION ON GANGS

The CM PRESS was at the City Council Study Session yesterday when Captain Gogerty of the CMPD and Deputy District Attorney Tracy Rinauro presented the "Gang Enforcement, Intervention and Prevention Strategies," report. Bever, Leece, Foley and Dixon were present. Mansoor was absent.

The initial presentation was short and simply told what Anaheim and San Juan Capistrano are doing about gangs.

We felt sorry for Captain Gogerty because he appears to have been blindsided about this meeting and seemed unaware that his presentation had not been requested by the full Council (as would be proper) but that Snow Bunny Katrina Foley had unilaterally asked for the presentation without consulting with other Councilmembers.

And, as Mayor Bever and Councilmember Leece correctly pointed out, Costa Mesa is already doing things that are similar or identical to those being done in Anaheim and San Juan Capistrano.

What was unsaid by Bever and Leece but which seems to have been just beneath the surface of many other comments they made, was the question: "Why is this presentation being made at all?"

At one point, the session got pretty silly as Councilbumponalog Linda Dixon said she was taking a college class and that her professor told the class that melatonin works differently in kids, and that we may have a problem in enforcing our 10 pm curfew because schools start too early in the morning and kids are not fully awake until, say, 11 pm. So, ah, the school day should start at 11 pm?

Oh, and by the way, Ms. Dixon, it's Captain Gogerty, not Sergeant Gogerty. (He got a couple of promotions)

Mayor Bever also mentioned, more than once, that the CMPD had made a presentation about a gang prevention plan last year that promised to "eradicate gangs" in Costa Mesa in five years and that he wanted to see the results of that plan. The CM PRESS agrees.

One good thing that came out of this meeting was that Bever and Leece asked Captain Gogerty a number of times to come back to the Council with hard statistics about gangs in the city.

Deputy DA Rinauro, who is helping Anaheim and San Juan Capistrano fashion their programs to combat gangs, was asked if there was a model being used to design such programs, and she indicated that they were looking at what Los Angeles is doing wrong to stop gangs, to avoid the same mistakes in OC.

We agree with this approach. But we'd go even further. The CM PRESS has long held that the gang situation in LA is so markedly different from our situation in Costa Mesa that it's absurd to try to use LA as a model for Costa Mesa.

Specifically, in large areas of LA, the gangs are scattered throughout very large neighborhoods, and there are two types of gangs: Black gangs and Latino gangs. They have different characteristics and require different approaches.

Costa Mesa doesn't have any Black gangs. We just have Latino gangs.

Also, in Costa Mesa, the Latino gangs have not yet spread into every neighborhood, but are mostly just confined to specific areas with barracks type apartment buildings and in areas where there is an over concentration of charities that are acting as magnets for criminals.

In other words, the cancer of gangs has not yet metastized in Costa Mesa and can be removed with a surgical approach--if we act now.

Speaking of charities; some of them aren't part of the solution but are part of the problem. Some appear to be little more than gang hangouts and recruitment offices for gangs, while others seem to only attract nerdy goody-two shoe kids who wouldn't join gangs anyway. In both cases, they are wasting taxpayer funds.

The CM PRESS also learned something at this meeting that we weren't aware of and which troubles us. Apparently, the City Council has been holding closed sessions (meaning secret meetings out of view of the public) on gangs.

As we've reported before, many activists are saying that the City Council is holding too many secret meetings on matters that the public has a right to attend and participate in.

The CM PRESS will now attempt two things:

1. Request a copy of the gang statistics supplied to the City Council by the CMPD.

2. Request that the public be informed of what was discussed in the closed meetings and that the Council stop holding these secret meetings on matters that the public has a right to hear and participate in.

We understand that on matters relating to law suits and personnel matters, that closed sessions are appropriate. On most other matters, however, the public should be included. This is OUR city and the City Council works for us.

We have a right to know what's going on and to participate. We do not need a City Council that acts like a star chamber.

WE SHOW SOME GANG GRAFFITI

Also at the Study Session, the CM PRESS held up a picture of graffiti that some gang terrorists on the Westside had painted on the side of a home. The graffiti was put up some time during the night of 5/12 or early 5/13 and an alert neighbor took a picture of it and emailed it to us.

The Westside is being terrorized by illegal aliens, brown racists, and Latino gangs. When will the City of Costa Mesa take strong action to stop the terror and the attempts to drive U. S. citizens out of the Westside?
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.