CM PRESS # 509

AW JEEZ! SOME FOLKS DON'T GET THE POINT OF MY COLUMN IN THE DAILY PILOT

In my column in the Daily Pilot [HERE] I wrote that Costa Mesa should try to compete for upwardly mobile residents with other cities.

Some readers apparently took that as an indication that I'm some sort of elite or elitist or that I want to run people out of town.

Banish the thought.

I've worked all my life; often at finger nail dirtying  jobs and starting at a very young age.  I didn't even think about college until I was in the Marines and then I started college by taking courses at an extension of a college that was on base. I still change the oil in my car myself and do most other routine maintenance.

My point in my column was that whether people think about it or not, cities attract people to them as surely as different types of bars attract different patrons. 

Open a bar with a cowboy theme and the bar will be full of cowboys.  Open a sports bar and you'll have a different clientele.  Many bar owners decide what type of clientele they want and then they tailor their bars to attract that clientele.  It's just good business.

The process may be more subtle with cities, but the basic principle is the same whether one knows it or not.

So, with that in mind, and with thoughts of the homeless problem that the city has, I was  suggesting that Costa Mesans might want to think about what type of residents they want to attract and how to do it.

If we do nothing, we're still going to attract people.  Why not set out to do it as consciously as a bar or other business owner?
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NICE COLUMN IN THE DAILY PILOT WITH LOTS OF FACTS AND FIGURES ABOUT WHERE OUR CITY REVENUE COMES FROM

The column also includes the usual gripe about Costa Mesa not charging a high enough business license fee.

We have a gripe about that also but we don't want to see the fees raised.

We want the City to do a better job of advertising the low fees as an incentive to move businesses to Costa Mesa.

Something along the lines of :  "Costa Mesa is business friendly and we have the lowest business license fees in Orange County.  Contact__________at City Hall for all the ways that Costa Mesa can help you and your business."
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FULLERTON GETS A GANG INJUNCTION

The above linked story is worth a read and especially for the map. 

Wouldn't you like to see Costa Mesa have a map or maps similar to that pinpointing violent crime and gang activity?

The CM PRESS requested something like that last year and we know there were some folks in City Hall working on it at that time, but we think the project got put on a back burner for a number of reasons, including the fact (if we understood this correctly) that the CMPD didn't have the right computer programs to implement such a program.
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SO MUCH FOR TRANSPARENCY

The CM PRESS has been getting the runaround from the City government that says it wants transparency.

Back around the 18th of  this month, two guys used a shotgun to rob a store in north Costa Mesa.

So, we tried to get a full description of the suspects. And, to narrow the universe of possible suspects, we asked if there was any racial/ethnic description.

Here's all the CMPD would tell us.

"There was no specific description that would help identify the individuals besides two males, 18-20 yrs old, and wearing dark clothing."

The CMPD then refused to give us any more information.

We then emailed the CMPD and City Hall and said that if the victims could say the suspects were between 18-20 yrs old, they  must have seen enough of their faces to be able to give a racial/ethnic description.

 We haven't received any answers yet. That's where we stand today. 

Oh, and we've now sent the string of emails to some of our local pols  to see if we can get descriptions to maybe help get tips sent to the cops by citizens to help nab the suspects and at the same time to help people in the area of the robbery from maybe walking into another robbery in progress and being shot by these suspects.

Maybe if more CMPD cops actually lived in Costa Mesa and had their families and their kids here, they'd be more concerned about people running around their neighborhoods with a shotgun and maybe they'd also ask for more complete descriptions of such suspects.

--DEVELOPING--
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DEMOCRAT UPSETS REPUBLICAN IN HEAVILY REPUBLICAN NY DISTRICT

How did it happen?  The Republican was seen as wanting to screw with Medicare.

The out of touch leaders in the GOP had better quickly learn that ordinary voters want their tax money to help them when they need help and not go into absurd foreign wars and into the pockets of people in other countries as foreign aid.

The only reason for having a country at all is to help the people who live in that country.
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CHECK OUT THE COMMENTS AFTER THE HOMELESS COLUMN IN THE DAILY PILOT

It seems like some of the responsible citizens of Costa Mesa are getting angry about not being able to use some of their parks or the downtown library.

Meanwhile, the Homeless Task Force says it's looking for solutions.

Here's the solution:  Get rid of the magnets for homeless people and illegal aliens.  Stop praising the charities and start treating them as the magnets that they are.

You don't discourage pigeons or alligators or rats or insects or homeless people and illegal aliens from being where they are by feeding them and taking care of them.  That just brings more.
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ANOTHER ONE OF OUR COLUMNS IS IN THE DAILY PILOT

All we're really saying in the above linked column is that Costa Mesa needs to compete better with other cities to attract and hold upwardly mobile people.
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