CM PRESS # 82

CITY COUNCIL NEEDS TO GET INVOLVED TO CLEAR UP THE CONFUSION ON THE WESTSIDE

It became clear at the No-Planning Commission meeting held last night (2/12), that there is much confusion about the City Council's intent regarding improving the Westside.

The particular issue at hand was the proposed conversion to condominiums of 51 industrial units in an industrial park on a four acre parcel on the southeast corner of 17th Street and Placentia.

The owner of the industrial park wants to convert his park to industrial condos, and he apparently wants to keep them completely industrial, and not let them be used for live work--as in artists moving in and living and working in the same "loft" units.

The owner's stated intent to keep them exclusively industrial appears, on its face, to be at odds with what many improvers believe the City Council's intent was when it put in dual zoning--both residential and industrial--over all of the same properties, including this park.

No-Planning Commissioner Eleanor Egan was on the side of the improvers and said that the project should be turned down because, in her view, it did not meet what she believes is the intent of the City Council regarding the evolution of the massive Westside industrial area to more residential (and retail store) uses.

City employee and Development Services Director Don Lamm addressed the Commission and said that his understanding of the Council's intent with the dual zoning was to not give preference to either residential or industrial zoning but to simply let things develop as they may.

The CM PRESS view is similar to that of Commissioner Egan's. We believe that the Council's intent was to nudge along the evolution to more residential uses and that this intent was communicated in many ways, not the least of which was the fact that the area already had industrial zoning--for many years--but the Council then brought in residential zoning to overlay all the industrial zoning.

To us that Council action looks like a clear signal of legislative intent and is a strong signal that the Council wants the area to take on more of a residential nature. After all, if the Council wants the area to remain exclusively industrial, why would it put in residential zoning on top of the industrial zoning?

Following the reasoning in the immediately preceding paragraph, one is logically led to the conclusion that any requests that come before the No-Planning Commission that would frustrate the intent of the Council to move toward residential should not be approved.

When the vote came, it was Eleanor Egan and Sam Clark on the side of helping bring in residential uses, and Donn Hall, Jim Fisler and Jim Righeimer on the side of keeping it industrial.

Now, to be completely fair, Donn Hall did try to go along with Commissioner Egan by asking that the matter be continued for further study. However, staff told the Commission that it must decide one way or another because state law mandates that a decision must be made within fifty days of when the application is made.

Of course, no one on the Commission bothered to ask what would happen if a decision were not made within the fifty day time limit. Our guess is that if there were no decision, it would count as a turn-down of the applicant's request and he would have to wait six months to resubmit an application.

And, to be fair to Jim Fisler; he did argue that the intent of the Council would be satisfied because one of the conditions of approval to allow the conversion was that prospective buyers would be notified of the dual nature of the area.

However, Fisler's position is not nearly as strong a position as the one taken by Commissioner Egan. For example, if the owner of the property, as he has stated, wants to keep the units exclusively industrial, he can make that happen by controlling the Condo Association.

So, say you buy a unit and you want to live in half and do your art work in the other half. The Condo Association can tell you that you can't do that. End of the argument. No live work. No residential.

At any rate, this is an issue that is now ripe, and the City Council really should wade into this and stop all the confusion that may be hindering the revitalization of the Westside and clearly indicate what it wants to happen in that area. Then, it should have staff do the necessary paperwork--and put it all in clear and concise written form--to avoid any future confusion.

A good place to start with clearing up the confusion would be to ask Commissioner Egan to share her research on this issue with the Council.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

Here's our link:

http://cmpress.blogspot.com/

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CM PRESS # 81

FIRST NO-PLANNING COMMISSION COMPOSED COMPLETELY OF COMMISSIONERS WHO HAVE TIES TO IMPROVEMENT MEETS TONIGHT

There is a no-Planning Commission meeting tonight, Monday, 2/12, starting at 6:30 p.m. in City Council chambers.

This will be the first no-Planning Commission meeting with new no-Planning Commissioners, Sam Clark and James Righeimer.

These two will join regulars Donn Hall, Eleanor Egan and Jim Fisler on the dais.

Something that may have gone unnoticed to many is the fact that this will be the first no-Planning Commission on which every member, in one way or another, and whether they know it or not, owes his or her seat to the improvers and what they started about seven years ago.

Notwithstanding the above, it would be incorrect, right now, to say that this is an "Improvement Commission," because many of the members do not directly come out of that movement.

However, even those who don't come out of that movement received a nod from improvers or those elected by improvers as potentially being on the right page to help improve Costa Mesa.

Time will tell whether or not this Commission will just be a caretaker commission or will be activist and work hard to make our city the great place it should be.

You can count on having improvers watching every official move of the no-Planning Commissioners to find out what they're really made of.

And, you can count on the CM PRESS to report on good and bad decisions as they are made.
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CORRECTION TO DAILY PILOT ABOUT NO-PLANNING COMMISSION MEETING

In it's Planning Commission Preview appearing in the Pilot today (2/12), it was incorrectly stated that the owner of the West 17th and Placentia industrial park [51 units on 4 acres] "could develop [the present industrial units] with live-work units [read artist's lofts] but the proposed condos will be residential only."

In fact, the present owner has stated that he wants to keep the units as industrial only. This does not please some in the community who want to see a transition of the Westside to a higher and better use.
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CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION--TUESDAY, 2/13, 4:30 p.m.-- CITY HALL

At the City Council study session starting at 4:30 p.m. in conference room 1a, the Council will discuss Katrina Foley's Youth in Government Program ("Foley Youth" to some wags). This program, which the majority on the Council previously voted to receive and file (which means, throw it in the trash), was brought back for discussion at this meeting at the request of Foley.

Some observers believe this program, that will use $3,800 of your tax funds for eighteen students to "learn" about government, is little more than an attempt by Foley to help develop a voting base and/or cadre of precinct walkers for the election in two years in which she is expected to run again.

Observers point out that it seems that Foley is constantly coming up with programs and plans that appear to be attempts to endear her to sports teams, PTA types, charity bosses, and assorted liberals by using your money. In other words, some believe that she's trying to build a liberal political base with your dime.

Remember the controversy when Foley donated part of her Councilmember discretionary funds to non-profits and was told that's not a proper purpose for those funds?
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SCHOOL BOARD MEETING--TUESDAY, 2/13, 7 p.m.--DISTRICT HEADQUARTERS

The NMUSD Board will meet at 7.p.m. at district headquarters, 2985-A Bear Street to decide what to do about our schools that are failing to produce sufficient numbers of students who can pass standardized tests to put these schools in the passing grade with the feds.

It seems the feds are saying that students should learn something in the schools. This apparently does not please the NMUSD.

Note, 2985-A Bear Street is on the south east corner of Bear and Baker Street about a half mile west of Bristol.

Even if you don't have kids in school, this is worth your time. Home values are partly linked to the quality of our schools, and the quality of our schools is directly related to the number of illegal aliens in our city.

Go and watch how the mumblers on the Board try to work around Costa Mesa being turned into an illegal alien sanctuary city by liberals who are trying to obstruct the improvement of Costa Mesa.

Listen as some in the education establishment gush over each other in this mutual admiration society but fail to say anything of substance.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
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CM PRESS # 80

CAMP PENDLETON IS THE RIGHT PLACE TO PUT A NEW AIRPORT TO TAKE THE PRESSURE OFF JOHN WAYNE!


Not only was former Mayor and present Planning Commissioner Donn Hall ahead of most people in the plan to put a marina in below the Westside Bluffs, he was also about twenty years ahead of most people in suggesting that a small portion of Camp Pendleton could be used for an international airport.


Consider:

Los Angeles International Airport has 3, 425 acres
John Wayne Airport has 501 acres.

Camp Pendleton has 125,000 acres and 17 miles of coastline.

As you can see, if a tiny 3 % of Camp Pendleton is turned into an airport, this would amount to 3,750 acres or 325 acres larger than LAX and it would be 3,249 acres larger than JWA. Also note from the map above, that planes could take off over the ocean.

Donn Hall pointed out that because Camp Pendleton extends from the 15 Fwy to the 5 Fwy, that a road from the 15 could serve the needs of the expanding population in that area. In addition, Mr. Hall noted that Amtrak goes right through Camp Pendleton, and thus can easily bring passengers from Orange County as well as from San Diego County to the airport.

So, why aren't our political leaders moving at light speed to get something going to put a real airport on Camp Pendleton and save Costa Mesa and Newport Beach from being gobbled up by JWA--an airport that should be used only for small planes?

Sorry, we don't have an answer. Maybe they're too shy or are afraid to bring this up with our Congressmen?
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YOUTH FOR FOLEY?

Those who want the City Council to fund Katrina Foley's plan to give $ 3,800 of our money to a youth in government program serving 18 students, are expected to be at Tuesday's (2/13) City Council study session starting at 4:30 p.m. in Conference Room 1a at City Hall.

Will the City Council buy Foley's plan? Will they be afraid of looking as though they don't like kids if they say that this is not the proper function of City government? Or, will they understand that this is a waste of our money and show some backbone in telling Foley that if she and her liberal pals want this plan, then they should pay for it out of their own pockets?
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 79

WHY DIDN'T LINDA DIXON OR KATRINA FOLEY ANSWER THE PILOT'S QUESTION? (No, this is not a picture of Dixon and Foley)


In Thursday's (2/8) Daily Pilot, Costa Mesa's five Councilmembers were asked a simple question by the newspaper: "Would you support a citywide program that requires developers to provide affordable housing?"

Mansoor, Bever and Leece all answered the question correctly by essentially saying that such a program--which was before the City Council two meetings ago--would cause the price of housing to rise for those who do not qualify for the subsidized affordable housing as the developers simply add this tax under a different name to the rest of their units.

Mayor Pro Tem Bever also used the actual number of $ 19,000 per new housing unit that some in the city want developers to pay for each housing unit they build. In other words, if that plan had been put into effect, and if you wanted to buy a new home, you could expect it to cost $19,000 more than it should in order to subsidize affordable housing someplace else in the city.

Mayor Mansoor correctly told the paper that "This will hurt the very middle class you are trying to help."

Councilmember Leece spoke of market driven approaches to help with affordable housing.

These were good answers.

But, the real story here is that ultra-liberal Councilmembers Linda Dixon and Katrina Foley did not respond to the paper's question.

Wonder why?

Here's our opinion. Dixon and Foley are largely supported by liberals in the city who are in favor of forcing developers to provide affordable housing. At the same time, Dixon and Foley need to stay in the good graces of mega-developers such as the Segerstrom Company--which is involved right now in developments in South Coast Metro. The housing tax of $19,000 per unit would cost these developers many millions of dollars initially before being passed on to home buyers. And, by adding this amount to each unit, the units might be priced right out of the market.

So, it appears that Dixon and Foley were, as usual, trying to have things both ways by not answering the Pilot's question.

We doubt that Dixon and Foley fooled anyone with more than a two digit IQ by ducking the question, but what it did was give them cover both with developers and their liberal pals and kept them from actually having to take a stand for something.

We see you Dixon and Foley. You can't hide.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 78

INSTANT UPSCALE CITY--JUST ADD WATER!

(DIG OUT COSTA MESA'S SILTED-OVER BAY)

Take a drive down PCH into Huntington Beach and cast your eyes over the area near the Santa Ana River and our Westside Bluffs and the bridge further north on Victoria.

What's that area that is mostly full of dirt and scrub brush look like to you?

Right. It looks like a basin--a bay-- a bay that has been silted over.

And, that's what it is.

The area below our Westside Bluffs starting at about Victoria Street on the north, PCH on the south and the Santa Ana River on the west is a silted over bay. That area should be full of water, not dirt. I mean, where are we? The desert?

We've got the ocean right next door to Costa Mesa and some "leaders" in this city are acting as though we're a thousand miles inland as they push various projects that they claim will improve our city, but which often means turning our back on our greatest natural asset--the ocean.

That silted over bay should be dug out, and the ocean should be allowed to reclaim that dusty bowl. Then, the present bridge across the Santa Ana River at PCH, which connects up Newport to Huntington Beach, should be made longer and raised high enough for the passage of boats.

If the dig is done correctly, Costa Mesa's bay can be a self-flushing and self-cleaning wonder that will secure our city as a true ocean community. This will lead to increased property values, more revenues and a nicer city.

A lot of newer citizens of Costa Mesa are probably unaware that Donn Hall, who now sits on our Planning Commission, is a former mayor of Costa Mesa and that he's the guy who spearheaded a marina plan a couple of decades ago--only to have the plan squashed on a two to three vote as the liberals on the council killed the marina.

Before that vote, the marina seemed to be a done deal. That's why we have a neighborhood in Costa Mesa near Victoria Street that is called Marina Highlands and why there's a landlocked part of Newport Beach at the end of West 19th Street called Newport Terrace. Those neighborhoods are there because there was going to be a marina full of water right next to them where now there is just dirt.

Instead of improving our city back then, the libs worked overtime to turn Costa Mesa into the landlocked illegal alien sanctuary city that you see today.

Well, this is a new day. With the advent of the improvers and their success in our elections, the marina/bay/beach idea can be given new life.

It just takes some political will and some smarts to get the ball rolling.

Here's the City Council's email address in case you want to tell the Council to start digging our bay (Note: This blog's software has kept this email address from being clickable in the past, so if this happens just cut and paste it into your own email address book and use it from there).

"CMCouncil@ci.costa-mesa.ca.us"

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 77

THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL AND THE
FAILING PLAN FOR FAILING SCHOOLS

So, what's the big plan to keep the state from taking over Wilson Elementary (94.2% Hispanic and 2.8% White), Pomona Elementary (93.5% Hispanic and 2.8% White)
and TeWinkle Middle School (68% Hispanic and 26.8% White)?

Apparently, the major points of the plan are to extend instruction time and to teach more English to the children of Mexico who are in these schools.

The plan won't work.

Get ready for the state to take over these schools which will be another embarrassment for Costa Mesa as the world learns that the libs in this city have turned our once nice coastal community into a Third World dump and a sanctuary for illegal aliens.

And, these three schools are just the tip of the iceberg. There are more failing schools right behind these that will soon be in danger of being taken over. You'll be reading about these in the coming months. The problems of the Westside are spreading city wide.

Frankly, we wouldn't be surprised if Newport Beach parents try to take their schools out of the NMUSD. Costa Mesa schools are lowering the reputation of Newport Beach schools. Newport may tell us to go link up with Santa Ana.

As we've written many times before, the NMUSD has its hands tied in trying to make Costa Mesa's schools better. NMUSD has to work with the students that the city supplies. And, Costa Mesa is supplying thousands of non-English speaking children of illegal aliens.

Our bad schools are also keeping upwardly mobile people from wanting to move here. This creates a vacuum that is filled by more illegal aliens.

It's a downward spiral that has to be reversed. And, the way to reverse it is to upscale our city and make it a desirable location for upwardly mobile families once more.

We can do that by using our greatest natural resource: our closeness to the ocean.

Maybe we should dump Linda Dixon's "City of the Arts" slogan for this city and return to the old "Hub of the Harbor," as starters.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 76

THIS AND THAT...

OUR COMMENTS ON THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING HELD LAST NIGHT (2/6)


WESTSIDE BLUFFS --CITY NEEDS TO BE A SALESMAN

When the CM PRESS suggested to the Council that we need to aggressively pursue developers to come in and start the evolution of the Westside Bluffs away from industrial uses and to homes, Councilmember Leece replied that the Council does talk to developers.

With all due respect to Ms. Leece, we need to do more than just talk to them. We need to invite them down for luncheons. We need to give them tours of our city. We need to sell them on our city. We need to say, "Here's what we want to do, how can we help you, Mr. Developer, make it happen for us? Do you need financial breaks to make things work? Do you need help with permits? Tell us, Mr. Developer, how can we make it happen?"
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55 Freeway

In answer to comments made by the CM PRESS about putting the 55 underground down to 15th Street to relieve the congestion by Triangle Square, Mayor Mansoor, who now also sits on the board of OCTA, said that OCTA has authorized $ 400,000 to conduct a study on how best to improve the 55, and that requests for proposals have been sent out to consultants.

Mayor Pro Tem Bever also moved this item up to Tier 1 of Council priorities.

This is good news for Costa Mesa, because now things may be moving forward to improve the downtown area and the gateway to the Westside.

Also, if something meaningful is done to fix the 55, then it may help prevent the 57 from being built on the edge of Mesa Verde all the way down to PCH.
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JOHN WAYNE AIRPORT

In answer to the CM PRESS's comments about finding a new location--such as on the northern part of Camp Pendleton--to keep JWA from expanding and ruining Costa Mesa, Councilmember Leece said that the Council is constantly getting information on various airport related matters from two groups concerned about the growth of JWA.

Again, with all due respect to Ms. Leece, that was not a good answer. We don't need information. We need action. The two groups she referred to are mostly interested in the impacts of JWA on Newport Beach--not Costa Mesa--and, they are mostly just working to put caps on the number of flights. This is not going to save Costa Mesa.

If you want an eye opener, visit JWA. It has a gigantic terminal but one dinky runway. Now, why would JWA need such a giant terminal for one runway? Hmmmm? The terminal could meet the needs of several runways. Get our drift? No? Look overhead.

What needs to be done is to mount a full court press to get a viable alternative location to JWA. Some have suggested airports in Ontario and San Bernardino. These are not good suggestions.

The air travel demand is along the coast. Again, the best location would be on the northern part of Camp Pendleton.

Our City Council should start thinking ahead and start talking to our Congressmen about getting a new airport location or you can expect most of Costa Mesa to be under a moving steel sky and you can expect JWA to expand over at least to Red Hill and maybe even further towards Bristol.
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SPORTS FIELDS

The City Council was told by staff last night that there are problems getting the state to sign an agreement so that Costa Mesa can lease the Fairview Hospital grounds to use as sports fields.

It appears, according to staff, that the state keeps throwing roadblocks in the way of this project. As soon as staff overcomes one roadblock, the state comes up with another one. Staff said that even after the state signs an agreement, if it ever does, that it will take two to three years to bring such sports fields on line.

You may recall, that many people had been pinning most of their hopes for additional sports fields on this Fairview Hospital land. This is not good news for them.

The CM PRESS suggested to the Council that it might be wise to have the City, as an entity, start investing in our city by buying up properties on the open market, right in the neighborhoods where there is a high demand for sports fields, and turning them into sandlot type fields.

We pointed out that there are three buildings all in a row on Shalimar that are for sale right now and that these could be bought by the City, torn down, and made into a sandlot sports field.
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CHARITIES ASKING FOR YOUR MONEY ALL THIS WEEK

On Monday night (2/5), the 3R Committee started interviewing the charity bosses who show up each year at this time to ask for more of your tax money.

Many of these charities, as we've written before, appear to act as magnets and pull in more illegal aliens to our city than we had before. With the aid of your tax money, many illegal aliens can live the good life in Costa Mesa on very little or no taxable income.

Yes, dear readers, you are helping support illegal aliens. You are helping them get free child care, free medical and dental care, free bags of groceries, free money to help pay their rent and utility bills, free English lessons, free homework help, and more.

After the 3R Committee interviews all the charity bosses, by the end of this week, it will make recommendations to the City Council about how much of your money to give to each of the charities.

If the Council really cares about the quality of life of the citizens who live in Costa Mesa, it can help shape our city by not funding those charities that are magnets for illegals.

The Council can make reasonable guesses as to which charities are magnets by looking at the demographic reports that the charities are required to file. If a charity is 90% Hispanic in our city that is only about 30% Hispanic, one can guess it's a magnet.

Some of these charities have been at it for more than ten years, yet they can't show that they've helped improve the quality of life for Costa Mesa citizens. They only say they're helping more people than ever--which helps make the CM PRESS's point that they're acting as magnets.

Some charities that are involved with after school homework help say that they're helping "kids" (pull out the violin) succeed, yet most of the kids that they've "helped' are in the three schools that are now in danger of being taken over by the state. So, what kind of help is that? Why are we paying for failure?

As we've reported before, one of these charities even told a white girl that she was the wrong color to use their after school homework help service. Also, as we've previously reported, this isn't just an empty claim by the CM PRESS; we've obtained copies of the federal papers filed against this charity forcing them to stop discriminating against white citizens in favor of non-white suspected illegal aliens.

Some charities say they are keeping kids out of gangs, yet Costa Mesa has more gangs than ever and more gang crime than ever.

The Council may buy liberal double speak and voodoo sociology when "kids" are mentioned, but we think most citizens in this city are more grounded in reality and don't buy the sweet talk.

Will the Council have the backbone to stop the magnets? Stay tuned.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 75

WE SAY IT AGAIN--A BAD CITY EQUALS BAD SCHOOLS. PERIOD.


The Newport-Mesa Unified School District is going to have a public hearing tonight(2/6) about what the district intends to do to improve Pomona Elementary School, Wilson Elementary School and TeWinkle Middle School to keep them from being taken over by the state just as we see schools being taken over in various big city slums.

The problem with these schools, as we've written many times before, is with the students. The reason we have our schools packed with students who can't pass tests is because the city of Costa Mesa is packed with illegal aliens--it is the children of illegal aliens who are causing Costa Mesa school scores to be in the dumpster.

These students shouldn't be in our schools at all. They should be in schools in Mexico and the citizens of that country should be paying for their education and worrying about why they test so low on standardized tests.

Aside from the hard truth about why schools in Costa Mesa are showing low test scores for students, the CM PRESS has a problem with the NMUSD and its constant sweet nothings gushiness. We got that when the district and it's hug-a-lot pals pushed through a bond. Remember that? Have the schools improved because many voters were fooled into passing it? You know they haven't.

In the Daily Pilot today we get these gems from Susan Astarita, the NMUSD assistant superintendent of elementary education:

"I don't know of any other district in the state of California that's been forward-thinking enough to work with the union and come up with a procedure to handle the Program Improvement sanctions the federal government has implemented."

We translate: We're just a swell bunch, we administrators and teachers, and we all love each other. Too bad the feds are about ready to take over the first three of many failing schools, but, hey, let's have a group hug and use a lot of words to say nothing substantive.

And...

"To have teachers, classified employees, parents working with the administration in this effort is really to be commended."

We translate: Let's have another group hug. The students are testing at slum city levels, but we can talk about community involvement instead of substance, just like they do in the big city slums. Naturally, we won't accomplish anything but we'll all feel good. We're a swell bunch and you are too and life is swell and the schools are swell and all is, well, swell.

The NMUSD meeting tonight on this nonsense conflicts with the Costa Mesa City Council meeting, that is also being held tonight, so many activists will probably pass on the NMUSD meeting. Maybe things were planned that way.
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HERE'S HOW THE NMUSD CAN KEEP POMONA, WILSON AND TEWINKLE FROM BEING TAKEN OVER BY THE STATE (Yes, Ms. Foley and Ms. Dixon, this is tongue in cheek, sort of.)

Bus 90% of the failing students from these schools in Costa Mesa to schools in Newport Beach and fill their seats in Costa Mesa with a corresponding number of high performing students from Newport Beach.

The feds will then be amazed at the miraculous increase in student test scores in Costa Mesa. Overnight, Costa Mesa schools will have gone from DENSA to MENSA.

Then, next year, when the feds see three formerly high performing schools in Newport suddenly failing, and they threaten to take those schools over, you can put the original high performing Newport students back in those schools and move the failing Costa Mesa students back to schools in Costa Mesa.

There you go NMUSD, just keep those bus engines fired up for quick transfers and you'll fool the feds with this shell game.

Of course, if the City of Costa Mesa starts upscaling itself and stops being an illegal alien sanctuary, the schools here will improve automatically as citizen parents put their kids back in our neighborhood schools.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 74

BAD CITY EQUALS=BAD SCHOOL SCORES

IMPROVE THE CITY AND YOU AUTOMATICALLY IMPROVE SCHOOL SCORES

Let's get the terminology correct right away. When you hear people talking about bad schools, you need to correct them and tell them that what we're really talking about is "bad student scores," which means that the students are scoring too low on tests and their low scores are causing the schools to get failing grades.

That's what we're seeing in Costa Mesa.

Costa Mesa's schools and teachers are every bit as good as the schools and teachers in Newport Beach.

The problem is that our students aren't testing as high as the students in Newport Beach. The problem isn't with the schools, but with the students. And, why is this the case? Because Costa Mesa's schools are full of the children of illegal aliens and Newport's aren't.

And, our bad school scores are helping keep Costa Mesa from improving.

Say you're a young, upwardly mobile professional couple living back in the snow and cold, and say you're also the parents of a couple of grade school kids and further say you're now planning on moving to sunny Orange County.

One of the first things you'll do is check on the quality of the schools in various communities near where you'll be working. After all, as a responsible parent, you want the best education for your kids and you want them to have a leg up on life.

Would you move to Costa Mesa's Westside?

On the plus side, on the Westside you may be able to find a home that's close to the beach so you can bicycle down there.

On the negative side, there's a massive industrial zone taking up the best land in the area and there are slums and there are three schools--Pomona, Wilson and TeWinkle that are about to be taken over by the state because the student scores are so low.

You might be able to put up with the industrial zone and even the slums--so long as they're down the street and around the corner--but you know you don't want your kids in a slum school. So, maybe you'll decide to move to Mission Viejo or Irvine, or, if you have the money, Newport Beach.

In other words you may bypass Costa Mesa completely.

And, Costa Mesa will have lost a chance to attract another family that might be an asset to the community.

That, dear friends, is one of the things that we've been seeing in Costa Mesa.

We're not only not attracting upwardly mobile people, we're seeing many of those who already live here flee to safer communities with better schools and a higher quality of life.

And, it is people who make a difference. A city is its people.

Not being able to compete for upwardly mobile people with some other cities does not please citizens who understand that Costa Mesa has incredible potential to become one of the nicest ocean close communities in the state.

The Point: To improve the schools we need to improve the demographics. It's no more complicated than that.

So, how is that done?

1. Build the types of homes that attract upwardly mobile families.
2.Thin out the slums.
3. Replace some of our industrial buildings with homes.

Yes, if we build them, they will come. Why? Because we have the ocean right at our doorstep, while cities such as Mission Viejo and Irvine don't. In the heat of summer, Costa Mesa is naturally air conditioned via ocean breezes. Mission Viejo and Irvine swelter.

But there's more here.

Even though improvers have been successful in several past elections and some things are moving in the right direction, there is a feeling among some citizens that there may be some in City Hall who are not helping matters.

Oh, some of those who aren't helping will smile and shake hands with folks who want improvement, but at the same time, they may not be taking the aggressive steps necessary to invite in home developers and they may not be doing all they can to get things moving in the right direction. Call it a passive resistance to improvement.

Cities that want to improve, tell staff that they need to do more than just sit back and wait for developers to show up--they need to call them on the telephone, email them, mail them, invite them down to view our city and its potential, invite them down for luncheons, build relationships, set up meetings between the developers and the Mayor.

This is not a time for business as usual. This is a time to move Costa Mesa forward by major bounds. This is a time for everyone in City Hall to start marketing our city.
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AIRPORT CREEP

The Daily Pilot has yet another story in today's paper about Newport trying to hold John Wayne Airport to certain growth limits.

Unless a new airport is found, and found fast, Newport is just dreaming and JWA will continue to grow.

It's a simple matter of supply and demand. We have too little supply and too much demand for air travel. Flight caps won't work for long and anyone who is half bright knows that.

And, please don't pretend that airports in Palmdale and Ontario will take the pressure off JWA. That's a bunch of crap. The answer is to start planning on building a new airport on the northern part of Camp Pendleton. Period. To do that, we need to start getting more than local city councils involved. We need to get our county, state and federal elected officials thinking and talking about such an airport. It can be done, and it needs to be done.
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CM PRESS # 73

MAKING COSTA MESA SAFER

Jeff Overly has a good column in the OC REGISTER today (Friday 2/3) about the results so far of having an ICE agent in the Costa Mesa police station. The column gives a breakdown of the crimes that led to the detention of 104 suspected illegal aliens.

No doubt the usual lefties will try to prove that they're for law enforcement (sure they are) by saying that it's good that the 44 individuals on hold for felonies were caught, but gee, golly, gosh, shucks what about those Bible reading and church attending souls who were caught for misdemeanors...whine, whine, whine?

Well, libs, 15 of those illegal aliens who were caught for misdemeanors were driving without a license or they showed fraudulent ID. You think that's minor? You might not think so if you got into an automobile accident with one of them and then had your insurance premiums raised. You might not think so if one of them was using your ID.

Another misdemeanor was for possession of a loaded firearm. Now, what might that illegal alien have been planning to do with that loaded firearm if the cops hadn't caught him?

Two misdemeanors were for hit and run.
One misdemeanors was for an assault.
Eleven misdemeanors were for driving under the influence.
Four misdemeanors were for petty theft.

And, it goes on and on. Read the Register column for a complete breakdown.

Illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. All illegal aliens should be deported.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 72

HIRE A DAY WORKER--GET YOUR HEAD BASHED IN
(They only come to work?)

Earlier this week, a guy who owns a landscaping company hired a day worker off the street in Santa Ana. Big mistake. The day worker later bashed in his employer's head with a shovel and a pickax, killing the employer.

Although the news reports are vague, we can make some working assumptions about this story that might be of interest to Costa Mesans.

1. The location where this day worker was hired was probably near the Home Depot on MacArthur and Harbor where most of Santa Ana's day workers congregate. This is right on the border with Costa Mesa. In fact, this location is so close to our city that some Costa Mesans may have hired this killer previously.

2. Police said they are not sure of the day worker's name or whether he is legally in the country. In other words, he may be an illegal alien and he may not have ID or he may be using phony ID.

3. He's not the only day worker who has killed citizens. There are many reports of such murders as well as reports of burglaries, rapes, etc. resulting from day workers being taken into residential neighborhoods to do day work but where they can also get a good look around and case the area to come back later to prey on the citizens. So, if your neighbor is hiring illegal aliens to do a little yard work, you might keep an eye on them and see if they're looking over your fence.

In a sad but karmic case, an illegal alien day worker murdered an employee of the liberal Daily Pilot a few years ago. The Pilot doesn't like to mention this as the paper continues on its merry way of telling you that illegal aliens only come here to work.

Be thankful that Mayor Mansoor, Mayor Pro Tem Bever and Councilmember Leece are taking action to make sure that criminals are properly identified and removed from our streets.

As far as Councilmembers Foley and Dixon go--forget it. They're out of touch and don't have a clue. These two shouldn't even be in charge of a knitting bee, let alone be on the City Council.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.