CM PRESS # 59

DEADLINES AND THE TWO COMMISSIONS

Back in mid-December when applications were being taken for appointments to the Planning Commission and the Parks and Recreation Commission, the CM PRESS asked City Hall for a list of names of applicants.

We were told that no information, no names, no nothing would be released, not only until after the application deadline had passed--5:00 p. m. December, 27, 2006--but also not until the names had been sent to the City Councilmembers in their packets, which would be a couple of days later.

We figured that sounded like a sensible way to handle things because it would keep anyone who hadn't applied by the deadline from having the opportunity to comb through the names and resumes of those who did apply to check out the competition before deciding if they wanted to also apply; and if they did decide to apply, how best to word their applications.

In other words, the stated City policy of keeping all cards face down and then having everyone turn them over at the same time seemed like square shooting to the CM PRESS.

On January 2, City Hall finally let the CM PRESS (and everyone else) see what was supposed to be the final list of applicants for the two commissions. We published the list in CM PRESS #50 on that date.

Today (1/12), however, we learned from the City's website that four people's names have now been added to that "final" list. Final is apparently not final.

Here are the names of these four applicants and the dates they applied for the commissions:

Dan Worthington applied 1/3/07 for Planning Commission
Bill Perkins applied 1/8/07 for Planning Commission
Brent J. Mazur applied 1/8/07 for Parks and Recreation Commission
James M. Righeimer applied 1/9/07 for Planning Commission

So, the question now becomes one of whether or not the City Council will vote to let the four late applicants be considered for positions, or whether the Council will hold to its own deadline of December 27.

And, if the Council votes to let these four applicants be considered, then shouldn't the Council open the process once again and let even more applicants apply?
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 58

ALL FIVE COUNCILMEMBERS GET IT WRONG ABOUT GANGS!

(It's time for the wrecking ball)

Ever see alligators living in places with no swamps?
Ever see gang members living in fancy homes in Newport Beach?

Alligators live in swamps.
Gangs live in slums.

Remove the swamps and the alligators will go find another swamp--they need their slum habitat.

Remove the slums and the gangs will go find another slum (in some other city)--they need a slum habitat.

If Costa Mesa is serious about ridding this city of gangs, then it has to stop with the gushy PTA level talk about education and social programs. They're bandaids on a cancer. It's time to cut the cancer out of our city.

Most of the gangs in Costa Mesa are territorial in nature. This means the gang members live in certain areas and they "protect" those areas from rival gangs.

In Costa Mesa, most of the gangs are concentrated in just a few slums: Mission-Mendoza; Coolidge-Fillmore; Shalimar and other barracks style apartment buildings on the Westside.

These slums are not going to get any better. Their time has passed. They are functionally obsolete. They are too dense. They are overcrowded. Most upwardly mobile people don't want to live in these Costa Mesa versions of tenements.

And, why should coastal Costa Mesa even have such slums? It doesn't make any sense. Industrial cities far from the ocean may have to have such places because they don't have anything else going for them, but we have Mother Nature's Pacific Ocean very close to us. So, why do we have housing that looks like it's from an industrial city with no ocean nearby? Hmmmm?

If the City of Costa Mesa will simply start buying up slum buildings in these slum areas as they come on the market and then tear the buildings down and put in pocket parks or parking or simply open areas--in the short term--with an eye to assembling larger parcels, as adjacent buildings come on the market, and then put in larger parks or sports fields, we'll see a reduction in gangs and crime in the city. We'll see a reduction in traffic. We'll see a reduction in crowding. We'll see the end of gangs. We'll see an improved Costa Mesa living up to what it should be as an ocean close city.

The Daily Pilot asked the five Councilmembers: "What do you think is the best way to eradicate gangs in Costa Mesa?" Read the paper to find out why the CM PRESS thinks all five got it wrong.
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CITY SHOULD REACH OUT TO HOME DEVELOPERS

The CM PRESS believes that the City of Costa Mesa should reach out more to home developers
and encourage them to start building upscale homes on our bluffs where these homes will have ocean views.
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ANOTHER YOUNG KID WITH BRAIN CANCER

The Pilot is reporting today (1/11/07) about yet another young kid (this one is nine-years-old) in Costa Mesa who has brain cancer.

Is there a link to air pollution from the Westside bluffs? The CM PRESS doesn't know. Here's a link that might be of some interest. If you do a google search "brain cancer + air pollution" you'll turn up many more links. http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/medicine_health/report-22130.html
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STILL NO WORD FROM JOE N. BELL OR STEVE SMITH

Joe still hasn't contacted us about when he wants us to help him put a job center into his Newport Beach neighborhood, and Steve hasn't told us his bright ideas about improving Costa Mesa's schools.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 57

CALLING JOE N. BELL AND STEVE SMITH OF THE DAILY PILOT

Joe N. Bell, who lives in Newport Beach, wrote in his Daily Pilot column that he's not happy that Costa Mesa (where he doesn't live and can't vote) has closed down its job center. Of course, Bell didn't offer to push to have a job center opened in Newport Beach.

Steve Smith has written, in his column, that he has ideas to improve the schools. But, of course, he didn't tell us those ideas.

So...

The CM PRESS has offered to help Mr. Bell open a job center in his own Newport Beach neighborhood and we've asked Smith to tell us his ideas about improving the schools.

So far, neither Bell nor Smith have responded.

Could it be that Bell doesn't want a job center near where he lives and that Smith really has no good ideas about improving the schools?

Could it be that these guys are just used to writing nonsense in the Pilot and are not used to being challenged on what they've written?

Could it be that these two haven't yet realized that blogs make it easy for ordinary citizens to question them and comment on what they've written even when the Pilot won't publish such comments and questions from citizens?

Come on Bell, how about a job center near where you live?

Come on Smith, how about telling us your bright ideas about the schools?
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CM PRESS # 56

DAILY PILOT'S NATURAL EXTINCTS

Here's the first line of the Daily Pilot's lead editorial today (Sunday, 1/7/07) "Finding blame for bad news is a natural extinct."

Soonds prety stoopid two us. Butt, that's the Pilet fer ya. Meybe it'll go instinct jest lik da Dinosaus.
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RETURN TO REASONER WANTS CONSENSUS (Laugh out loud)

Also on the editorial page of the Pilot is a Community Commentary from Return to Reasoner Chuck Cassity, in which Cassity gives us the usual tired cliches about consensus.

In his commentary, Cassity tells us that Mayor Mansoor's initiative to have our laws enforced was a "mess," and that Costa Mesa got "negative publicity."

Actually, Mr. Cassity, Mayor Mansoor's bold move was not a mess at all and it gave us positive publicity from those who matter--law abiding citizens. If you doubt it, Mr. Cassity, then please explain why Mr. Mansoor easily won against Return To Reason's candidates.

Cassity also wonders if the ICE agent in our jail will "defuse this issue."

Ah, Mr. Cassity, this is not an issue to be defused. It's a simple matter of enforcing our laws so the citizens of Costa Mesa are safe.

The truth is that Mayor Mansoor, Wendy Leece and Eric Bever have a mandate to improve Costa Mesa. And, it is a true mandate. The voters have spoken for improvement.

If Mansoor, Leece and Bever are listening to the voters, they will make many more bold moves this year to take our city back from those who have driven it down to Third World levels.

Will this cause controversy? Who cares? When the Untouchables started cleaning up Chicago, there was a lot of controversy from those who were benefiting from the conditions that then existed.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 55

COASTAL MESA

As improvement minded citizens work to help improve Costa Mesa in 2007, it's important to remember that Costa Mesa is a coastal community. It is not an urban city even though some big developers seem to want to turn it into one.

Yes, we're going to have new buildings and some high rises by South Coast Plaza, and we're also going to have new buildings on the Westside bluffs, but if we turn our back on that which makes us unique--our closeness to the ocean--we're going to lose out in the long run, and we'll end up with a city that might as well be a thousand miles away from the ocean.

As the CM PRESS has written many times; even a quick look at a map of Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach shows that something is missing from Costa Mesa that the other two cities have--an opening to the sea.

Costa Mesa's opening to the sea should be through the area below the Westside bluffs near the Santa Ana River.

In fact, there should be water all the way up to Victoria Street instead of the present dirt and weeds.

Go ahead, look at a map. See how Costa Mesa is between Newport Beach and Huntington Beach except near the ocean, and then Newport Beach (with some county land as well) has muscled us out of the way as it goes all the way over to Huntington Beach on land that should be ours?

That land along the ocean and PCH that puts Newport Beach and Huntington Beach cheek by jowl should be Costa Mesa's land. Costa Mesa should extend all the way to the ocean.

And, we're probably talking about less than three quarters of a mile of land, proceeding south from the mouth of the Santa Ana River along the beach, that would turn Costa Mesa into a true ocean community.

Isn't it time that Costa Mesa's politicians started working to get us our beach and/or marina?
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GOD'S GIFT TO COSTA MESA?

Remember how people used to say that men or women who are full of themselves think they're God's gift to the opposite sex?

That expression came to mind when we read some recent letters sent to the City Council by some applicants for various positions in the city.

Hopefully, the City Council will appoint people to various positions who have lived in Costa Mesa for many years and who have been active in improving our city.

This is not a time for unknown Johnny-come-latelies.

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IF YOU'RE A HIGH RANKING CITY EMPLOYEE, YOU SHOULD LIVE IN COSTA MESA

Improvers are telling the CM PRESS that they're tired of city government hiring high ranking employees who can easily afford to live in Costa Mesa, but who choose to live in other cities.

Improvers are saying that they want these high ranking employees and their families to experience the same conditions as the citizens experience.

Violent crime on our streets becomes very real and personal when you see shot up bodies lying in your neighborhood near your home and your kids, but if you're only punching a time clock in the city and your own family is in a safer community, you don't care as much about such crime.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 54

LUPE MORENO IS RUNNING FOR BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

City Hall watchers in Costa Mesa will recall that Ms. Moreno has spoken at public comments at some of our City Council meetings about the dangers of illegal immigration and that she defended Mayor Mansoor when he was under attack by crackpots.

Here's a message we just received from Peter Gadiel about Ms. Moreno. Mr. Gadiel became an advocate for strong borders after losing his 23 year-old son in the twin towers on 9-11

Anyone who can help Ms. Moreno, should contact her at the numbers below right away. It's an uphill fight for her to win a seat.

CM PRESS
-------------------------------------

Lupe Moreno is running for the Board of Supervisors in Orange County's First District. Lupe is a strong advocated of secure borders, and as the aunt of a young boy murdered by illegal alien gang members she is

very sympathetic to the need to protect Americans from such crimes.

Below is a message from her campaign with contact information. If you are able to help her you will be helping to fight illegal immigration.

Regards,

Peter Gadiel

--------------------------------------------

January 4, 2007
Dear Friends,
Just want to let you know that Lupe Moreno is running for Supervisor in the
1st district in Orange County. It is a Special Election to fill a seat left vacant
by someone who won a state seat.

The election is in 4 weeks, Feb. 6, 2007. Therefore, there is not much time.
If you know anyone in Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Westminster or Midway
City, California, please ask them to consider voting for Lupe Moreno.

If you live close and or know of someone who would like to help Lupe walk
her fliers, please let her know. She really needs help walking the district.
She believes there is a chance of winning this because of the short time,
the number of candidates (10) and that it is a Special Election. Not that
many people vote in these kinds of elections.

As you know, Lupe Moreno is a Patriotic American anti-illegal immigration
activist who is fighting to keep America a Sovereign Nation.

Also is President of Latino Americans for Immigration Reform.

We need more people like Lupe Moreno in office.

Please any amount of campaign contributions you can send will be greatly
appreciated. Make checks payable to Lupe Moreno.
Lupe Moreno for Board of Supervisors
P.O. Box 6312
Santa Ana, CA 92706
Cell Phone: 714/ 514-7360
Email address: lupe-moreno@sbcglobal.net
Website: latinoamericans.org
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Thanks for reading the CM PRESS.

CM PRESS # 53

THE CM PRESS TALKS REALITY ABOUT GANGS IN COSTA MESA (AGAIN)

In Costa Mesa, most of the gangs and gang members are located in the following slums: Mission-Mendoza in Mesa del Mar; Coolidge-Fillmore in Mesa North and in various similar barracks style apartments on the Westside including Shalimar and some in the Wilson Street area near Rea School.

These slums are the equivalent of forts that keep the gangs and gang members safe.

From these forts they sally forth to commit crimes all around the city and then retreat to their forts to be safe.

So long as those gang safe slums--those forts--remain, the gangs and gang members will continue to thrive in our city.

Most of the PTA level, gushy, feel-good programs about diverting people from being in the gangs--such as the ones being pushed by Katrina Foley--are a waste of our money. They're voodoo sociology. They're garbage.

Mostly what they accomplish is to give an income stream to those who practice this voodoo sociology.

We've had such programs in Costa Mesa for more than a decade and we have more violent crime and more gangs than ever. And, things aren't going to change until we understand that the way we get rid of the gangs is to remove their habitats--their forts--their cozy, safe slums.

This means that we have to start thinning out the slums.

How do we do this? As we've said many times before, we need to have the City of Costa Mesa, itself, to start acting responsibly and get out into the real estate market and start buying up slum buildings as they come up for sale.

Then, the City can tear them down and start assembling open space parcels to put in more parks or whatever might be needed.

And, wouldn't Costa Mesa be nicer with more open space and parks?

Remember, there are proposals on the table right now to build thousands of new condos and apartments in the north part of Costa Mesa. So, with all the new building, isn't it time we started removing old slum buildings instead of just building more and more housing units without doing anything to balance out the scales and keep our City a manageable size?

How many people should we try to stuff into Costa Mesa? Isn't our present population of about 110,000 about the maximum we can have to still retain some of the character and ambiance of our city?

So, the CM PRESS is saying, let new buildings be built, but remove old buildings at the same time and create more open space and try to keep the population about what it is right now.

This will help renew Costa Mesa, bring in much needed open space, and will help rid our city of gangs all at the same time.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 52

SAVE THE CRIMINALS AND THE GANGS!

Join Leave Our Criminals Alone

The habitats of criminals and gangs in Costa Mesa are being threatened by encroaching upscale homes and citizens demanding improvement. This is damaging the fragile slum ecosystem that we liberals have built up over the last two decades.

If something is not done, gangs and criminals will disappear from Costa Mesa!

Won't you please join with LOCA to help us stop this destruction of the slum ecosystem which allows so many of us liberals involved with the charities to live in the finest homes in the safest neighborhoods far from the charities and slums?

As you probably know, upscale homes have now been built on Harbor Blvd. near the golf course. These upscale homes are sure to attract more upwardly mobile people to Costa Mesa and their presence will raise the demographics so that more upscale stores might seek to locate here. This, in turn, may attract even more upscale citizens.

This is a horrible upward spiral that may eventually destroy our habitats for criminals and gangs. Act now to stop this horror!

Yes, dear friends, unless something is done--like opening more charities and having more charity programs, opening a new job center, doing everything possible to save barracks style apartment buildings, and increasing the welcome for a criminal element, the habitat for criminals and gangs will be destroyed in Costa Mesa.

Even now, citizens are clamoring for a thinning out of the Mission-Mendoza slum in Mesa del Mar (near where Katrina Foley lives), the Coolidge-Fillmore slum in Mesa North (not far from where Katrina Foley lives), and the slums on the Westside (on the other side of town from where Katrina Foley lives).

If these habitats for criminals and gangs are destroyed, the criminals and gangs will leave Costa Mesa to find habitats more to their liking. This will be a tremendous loss for Costa Mesans. No more will we have the privilege of paying to have graffiti removed or shopping carts picked up from our streets and we may find that our schools will start showing higher student test scores. We'll have fewer murders, less violent crime, less downscale conditions generally.

This coastalization of Costa Mesa and the turning it into a nice, safe community similar to our coastal neighboring cities must be stopped.

Criminals and gangs live in a fragile ecosystem, and if upscale homes are built nearby, that ecosystem consisting of over crowded barracks style slum apartment buildings (such as those near where Katrina Foley lives, by the way), charity services, and unscrupulous employers who hire illegal aliens off the books will be endangered.

This fragile criminal and gang ecosystem has already been destroyed in coastal cities surrounding Costa Mesa and there are hardly any violent crimes in those cities. This indicates how complete the destruction of the habit for criminals and gangs is in those cities.

Join Leave Our Criminals Alone to help save the habitat of criminals and gangs.

Demand that the City of Costa Mesa do nothing to improve the Westside.
Demand that the City of Costa Mesa keep giving our tax money to charities that mostly serve illegal aliens.
Demand that a new and bigger job center be opened.
Demand that the City of Costa Mesa not thin out the barracks style slum buildings.
Demand that the City of Costa Mesa not allow homes to be built on the Westside bluffs.
Demand that the City of Costa Mesa put out the welcome mat for more criminals.
Demand that the City of Costa Mesa stop allowing upscale homes to be built here.

Yes, LOCA, I've heard your plea and I want to help Costa Mesa stay criminal and gang friendly, please sign me up to:

__Hand out free bags of groceries in the slums.
__Write letters to the local liberal newspaper saying that improving the city is racist.
__Volunteer to be on the 3R Committee to give more tax money to charities.
__Here's my cash donation. I want to be a card carrying LOCA!
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The CM PRESS will continue to report on further activities of LOCA. With their help, we can keep Costa Mesa as slum central!
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33% OF THOSE INTERVIEWED BY ICE AGENT ARE ILLEGAL ALIENS!

The ICE agent stationed at the Costa Mesa jail interviewed 138 people brought to the station between Dec. 4 and Dec. 31. Forty-six of them had detainers put on them by ICE. Six of them have already been deported, and two who are in custody have been arrested multiple times and have also been deported multiple times. These two face up to 20 years in prison.

Now, if you read articles about the above in the main stream press, you may see them try to downplay the success of having the ICE agent in the jail. You may, for example, read that 10% of those brought to the jail were illegal aliens not the 33% that the CM PRESS is reporting.

Why the difference in percentages? Because the libs in the mainstream press are trying to fool you. They base their 10% illegal alien figure on the total number of people brought to the station during December which was roughly 450 people, not on the actual number of people who were interviewed by the ICE agent, which was only 138 people.
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MEANWHILE, THE DAILY PILOT HAS THEIR PAL KATRINA FOLEY'S TAKE ON THIS

(Say, did we mention that Foley lives near the Mission-Mendoza slum, that is full of barracks style functionally obsolete apartment buildings, that is the habitat for many criminals and gangs and where there have been several murders recently and where gangs own the turf and let you know this with their constant graffiti?

Did we mention that this slum is driving down the home values in Mesa del Mar--where Katrina Foley lives?),

Here's the essential part of what the paper says Foley said: "City Councilwoman Katrina Foley...[said] considering the number of people with detainers placed on them made up about 10% of the bookings in December, the city should focus law enforcement on the other 90% of people committing crimes who are in the country legally."

Ah, Foley, we see you. You can't hide. Read what we wrote above. The detainer rate is 33% of those actually interviewed. Your 10% figure is meaningless.
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JOE BELL, GIVE US A CALL, WE HAVE A JOB CENTER FOR YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD!

Liberal Joe Bell of Newport Beach, who doesn't like the fact that Costa Mesa has closed down its job center, still hasn't replied to our offer to help him open a job center in his own neighborhood of Santa Ana Heights (which is apparently now called Bayshore). Say, Joe, what do you say to those who might think it's racist to drop the name Santa Ana? Maybe you can petition to get the old name back.

Anyway, Joe has his usual column in the Pilot today (1/4/07). (Joe never seems to be able to remove those glasses he wears). Well, shucks golly, Joe tells us how his neighborhood is very neighborly and how his neighbors brought him some black-eyed peas. Why, it's downright Mayberry.

Joe, do you think your neighbors would stop by and be so neighborly if you opened a job center in your neighborhood? You know, Joe, the kind of place you want in our city Costa Mesa (where you don't live)?

We stand ready to help you open the Joe N. Bell Job Center in Santa Ana Heights, Newport Beach, Joe. Ah, correct that; the Joe N. Bell Job Center in Bayshore, Newport Beach. Give us a call.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 51

WE TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT APPLICANTS FOR THE TWO COMMISSIONS

As most readers probably know, Costa Mesa has a City Council composed of five elected Councilmembers and two commissions each composed of five members who are appointed by and who serve at the pleasure of the City Council.


The most important commission is the Planning Commission. Its members receive about $ 400 per month for their service and they are often the first public body that gets a whack at shaping much of the physical aspects you see around you in Costa Mesa.

The other commission is the Parks and Recreation Commission. Its members receive about $ 100 per month for their service. This Commission deals with things such as tree removal requests, use of parks and similar things.

Neither commission requires that its members come to it with much technical knowledge.

It is far more important to our city at this time, when so many citizens are saying they want Costa Mesa to be nicer and more crime free and a great place to raise our families, that those who serve on these commissions are on the same page as the majority on the City Council so that body doesn't have to keep appealing bad decisions by these commissions.

In # 50 we published a list of applicants for these two commissions. Here's a few words about each of them that we've gleaned from their application papers, and/or from our personal observations of the local scene. What follows are clearly our personal opinions.

A few candidates have applied for both commissions and are noted with an asterisk.

Planning Commission Applicants (in alphabetical order):

Paul Bunney--Long time improvement activist. Has lived in Costa Mesa all of his 55 plus years. Lives on the Westside. Was on CRAC and WROC and a member of the Westside Improvement Association. Would be a good addition to the Planning Commission to keep Costa Mesa moving forward.

Chris Bunyan *--Came in last in the recent City Council election. Fairly new to the City.

Sam Clark--Ran for City Council a couple of years ago. Has lived in Costa Mesa for more than 20 years. Has become increasingly active in improvement issues.

James Fisler--Improvement activist. Presently on the Planning Commission. Ran for City Council several years ago. Will probably be reappointed. Watch for him to run for City Council in two years.

Jeffrey Harlan *--Attorney. Recently moved to Costa Mesa.

Robert Norling--Came to Costa Mesa in 1964. Moved away. Came back in 1997.

Jonathan Zich *--Has lived in Costa Mesa since 1980. Is on the 3R Committee.

Parks and Recreation Commission Applicants (in alphabetical order):

Mike Brumbaugh--Has lived in Costa Mesa for about 4 years. President of Halecrest HOA.

Chris Bunyan--See above

Kurt Galitski--Real estate agent.

Jeffrey Harlan--See above

Terry Shaw--Long time resident and activist .

David Stiller--Presently on Parks and Recreation. He opposed Mesa North residents when they wanted to have their small community park made safe for its intended passive uses. Supported Bruce Garlich and Mike Scheafer in the just past election

Jonathan Zich--see above

* Denotes the first choice of candidates who applied for both Commissions.

The process for Commission interviews and appointments will be discussed at the January 16, 2007 City Council meeting.

IMPORTANT: Some present members of the two commissions didn't have to apply because their terms are not up. This doesn't mean that the City Council can't ask for resignation letters from all of them, and then reappoint them if they wish--and this is something that the CM PRESS believes the Council should do. Sweep the commissions clean and then start fresh and bring in your own team.

Some Improvers are telling the CM PRESS, that they believe the following lineup on the Planning Commission might be good for improvement: Donn Hall,** Jim Fisler,** Paul Bunney, Sam Clark, Jonathan Zich.

And, on the Parks and Recreation Commission, they think the following might be best to move our city forward: Mark Harris,** Bob Graham,** Terry Shaw, Mike Brumbaugh, Kurt Galitski

**Already on the commission with a term that is not up.

Note that it's often difficult to know how applicants are going to vote once they're on these commissions, and some who get on the commissions often vote against improvement. Note also, that some of the choices above aren't that well known, but might be worth a try.

Never fear, dear readers, the CM PRESS will keep an eye on them. We'll watch the votes of whoever finally ends up on these commissions and we'll let you know whether they're for an improved Costa Mesa or not. And, if they're not, you'll be reading even more about them in the CM PRESS.

# # #

Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them. If you want to know more about the applicants, check with the City Manager's office. The application materials are public documents and you have a right to see them.

CM PRESS # 50

PLANNING COMMISSION AND PARKS AND RECREATION APPLICANTS

The following is a list of the candidates for the Planning Commission and/or the Parks and Recreation Commission. A few candidates have applied for both and are noted with an asterisk.

Planning Commission Applicants (in alphabetical order):

Paul Bunney

Chris Bunyan *

Sam Clark

James Fisler

Jeffrey Harlan *

Robert Norling

Jonathan Zich *

Parks and Recreation Commission Applicants (in alphabetical order):

Mike Brumbaugh

Chris Bunyan

Kurt Galitski

Jeffrey Harlan

Terry Shaw

David Stiller

Jonathan Zich

* Denotes the first choice of candidates who applied for both Commissions.

The process for Commission interviews and appointments will be discussed at the January 16, 2007 City Council meeting.

The CM PRESS will have additional information on the applicants in the next exciting issue. Stay tuned.

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Thanks for reading the CM PRESS

CM PRESS # 49

HAS KATRINA FOLEY SEEN THE LIGHT?

City Councilperson Katrina Foley gave the following New Year's resolution to the OC REGISTER
(page Local 5, 1/1/07):

"My resolution for the city for 2007 is to work toward making Costa Mesa surpass Huntington Beach as the No. 1 city for raising a family. We'd be number one in public safety, education, quality of life and community parks and trails. If you can be number one for raising a family, you'd be number one for anybody wanting to live here."

Now, those are sentiments that most improvement minded citizens would agree with and we truly hope that Ms. Foley means it and works to help improve our city.

Unfortunately, Ms. Foley often seems to say one thing and do another. Readers will remember how she said things about protecting our border and then refused to sign a letter that all four other City Councilmembers signed asking President Bush to do just that. At the time, Foley said she'd send her own letter with more details than the one the Council sent. As far as we know, Ms. Foley has never sent such a letter.

It's not that Ms. Foley and her liberal pals want to screw up Costa Mesa and turn it into a slum city--who would want that?--but, it seems to us that Ms.Foley and her friends have some incorrect mind sets that causes them to be blind as to what is needed to fix our city.

Our guess is that when Ms. Foley says what she says above, that what she really means is that she wants more charities and more Midnight Basketball type programs instead of real improvement. (See following article).
# # #
AS YE SOW, SO SHALL YE REAP

Costa Mesa has seen an increase in gangs and killings and the number of failing schools and other social problems. Why?

The answer is because a liberal establishment in this city has done just about all the wrong things. Instead of making our city nicer, they've made it worse. And, they've been doing the wrong things for at least two decades.

Who should be blamed for the recent killings in our city and our failing schools and all the rest of the social problems we have? Forget the glib PC answers. You've heard them a thousand times, and mostly they're shallow and incomplete answers.

The deeper answer about who is responsible--or at least who shares the responsibility--for the way Costa Mesa is today, is that it is those who have made our city a sanctuary city for a criminal element. They have sown weeds and now they want to maintain weeds.

Let's step back for a moment. Many events in our world are broadly predictable. One may not know exactly who will be killed in gang killings or when they will occur. However, with a high degree of probability, one can "guess" that such things will happen in downscale areas where people are stuffed into barracks style apartments [And, in Costa Mesa's case they're stuffed there for those who benefit from having a low wage underclass conveniently at hand].

If you are responsible for the downscale conditions, then you are at least partly responsible for the crime and other problems that grow from those conditions.

Yes, the seeds of our problems in Costa Mesa were planted years ago and they're now bearing their evil fruit in all the negative things we see in our city. And, what are these seeds? Some of them are the aforementioned downscale, functionally obsolete, barracks style apartments in our city that are like sardine cans for people.

They are the breeding grounds of many of our problems.

So, what do the liberals want to do to solve the problems that they caused? They want to spend more of your money on social programs and on some cosmetic improvements to the slums. Neither of these will work

What's the real answer? Thin out the slums. We've written it many times before. The City of Costa Mesa should use part of its huge revenues to start buying up and removing slum buildings. Then, the City can assemble the parcels it has bought and turn them into parks and sports fields, or it can sell the land to developers for senior housing or pride of ownership homes.

Another way of looking at this suggestion comes to us from the corporate world.

When a company starts up, it often raises money by selling stock in the company. This makes the stockholders part owners of the company. It also gives up some control by those who founded the company.

What often happens is that if a company becomes very successful, the founders will start buying up the outstanding stock so that they regain control of the company.

In our situation in Costa Mesa, the City (that means all of us), owns some land in the city. Parks, City buildings, etc., and other land is owned by private parties and others.

Why not have the City of Costa Mesa, which is mostly built out and which is financially successful, follow the lead of the corporate world and start buying back some properties as we've suggested above?

Isn't it time we got control of our future in this City? Why should we continue to be victimized by slum lords, out of town industrialists, illegal aliens, criminals, charity bosses and neurotic libs?

Isn't it time that we boldly moved to take back our city for the good, decent middle class citizens who are the backbone of this city?

Isn't it time we said that we've had enough phony programs that only appease a criminal element and which are leading us ever downwards?

Isn't it time we said that it's time to stop doing stupid things such as paying $ 40,000 per year to pick up shopping carts abandoned on our streets? That's not our responsibility. Arrest those who steal them and/or make the merchants pay for this. And, this is just one of the appeasement programs that we're paying for. We say, take that money and use it as a down payment on slum buildings and then tear them down.

Isn't it time we stopped funding goofy Midnight Basketball programs instead of thinning out the slums?
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.