CM PRESS # 346

THIS AND THAT...

FOLEY

Now that the snow is melting, where will Snow Bunny Katrina Foley go to avoid attending City Council meetings?
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SENIOR CENTER

Why won't those in charge over at the Senior Center answer some simple questions posed by Councilperson Wendy Leece? What do they have to hide? Maybe it's time to shake things up over there--starting with the board.
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AIR FAIR

Why is AIR FAIR helping Snow Bunny Katrina Foley with her reelection bid? Air Fair says it wants the support of the Costa Mesa City Council, but then it pulls this crap which is sure to antagonize the majority on the Council and many citizens in Costa Mesa.

Frankly, we've never been too impressed with Air Fair. We've listened to their rambling presentations that never seem to offer any real solutions, and we've looked at their Website which is more of the same. If this is the best we can do to stop the expansion of JWA, we'll all soon be living on the tarmac and waving to Foley as she jets off to the snow once again.
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WESTSIDE

We continue to ask when we're going to see the meaningful changes on the Westside that Bever, Mansoor and Leece were elected to bring in. Instead of meaningful changes, it appears that the trio have been co-opted by the mostly out of town industrialists. It seems we now have Chris Steel Mansoor, Chris Steel Leece and Chris Steel Bever as far as the Westside goes.

Come on folks, stop thinking you're now too important to actually do something and stop hiding from controversy. You're not going to please everyone no matter what you do, so do what you were elected to do.

You're supposed to be leaders, not wimps. Bring in the changes that will improve this city and damn the torpedoes. And if you don't have the gonads for the job, get off the damn dais.
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BEVER

As we've written before, some supporters of Bever are not pleased with what they perceive to be too much government secrecy and a lack of progress on the Westside.
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ICE REPORTS

It's been like pulling teeth to get ICE reports each month. The Council said that they'd have these put up on the City's Website, but so far it hasn't happened. So, each month, the CM PRESS emails the CMPD and the City Manager requesting a copy of the report that is given to the City Council.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 345

HOT NIGHT IN THE CITY
(Traffic--Absolutely. Earthquakes-- ? Crime--?)


The traffic from inland cities was something to behold at the end of the 55 Freeway in Costa Mesa's downtown this weekend.

That's the problem with being between the ocean and the desert when all of Southern California bakes. It's like being between Katrina Foley and a reporter from the Daily Pilot. You just get run over.

No doubt, some reporter from the Pilot is probably going to get Foley's take on the heat. Yawn. "Why, yes, I think heat is, well, hot." Hold the presses!

Some say that there's no such thing as earthquake weather--hot dry weather, as we're having now--and that it's just a coincidence that it seems that this weather often precedes earthquakes. The statistics on earthquakes seem to support the view that there is no correlation. Still....

This is also usually the type of weather when there are spikes in violent crimes. Lots of possible reasons for this. People are just irritable when it's hot, for one thing. And, in some neighborhoods, many of the people--including gang members--are sitting outside or in open garages in the barracks style apartments during the evening hours.

And, many of those garages open up on through-alleys. Say, did we mention that Katrina Foley's neighborhood of Mesa del Mar has many barracks style apartments with garages that open on through-alleys and that there have been a number of shootings in that neighborhood?

Did we mention that the City (at your expense) recently made at least one of those alleys in Foley's neighborhood even more easily navigated by a fast moving car full of crazed pistoleros, by replacing the old asphalt with nice smooth concrete?

Just for the record, it's 4:35 pm and the temperature in Costa Mesa is 97.9 degrees F.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 344

AIR FAIR TAKING A PARTISAN STANCE IN THE COSTA MESA CITY COUNCIL ELECTION?

According to liberal Democrat Katrina Foley's Web site, Air Fare (sic) (Actually, Ms. Foley, it's "Fair"-- as in being fair to the people of the area and not letting the friggin' airport take over all of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach) is helping organize a fund raiser for Foley on April 30. LINK

Foley's Website says it's going to be a "wine and cheese" affair. See, she also got that wrong. She apparently means "whine and jeez."

According to Air Fair's Web site, the group "...is constantly striving to establish a line of communication with officials at all levels of local, state, and federal government." LINK

Some folks might wonder about the message Air Fair is sending by seeming to get involved in Costa Mesa's City Council race this way. Isn't it reasonable to assume that those running against Foley might not like this?

It seems to us that the airport issue is non-partisan and should remain that way.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 343

MORE GRAFFITI IN MESA DEL MAR

There was more gang graffiti in Snow Bunny Katrina Foley's Mesa del Mar neighborhood this morning. No, we're not going to tell you where it is. Whenever we do that, the City rushes out and covers it up. Then, the FOFs (Friends of Foley) say "Graffiti? What graffiti? Why, we don't have graffiti and we certainly don't have gangs."

Perhaps the next time Foley feels like attending a City Council meeting, she can talk about how to get rid of the gangs. You know our idea: get rid of the slums--the habitat of the gangs.

Maybe Foley will suggest we collect more cans of food for the folks who live near the Great Park in South County. Or, maybe she'll suggest that she and her pals will go out and plant more flowers in front of the slums in her neighborhood and have a group hug as they did last year. Funny, those flowers and the group hug don't seem to have helped with the gang problem.

More than likely, if Foley does speak about the issue, she'll suggest the usual liberal appeasement plan of sending so-called at risk youths to a couple of the local Return to Reason charities whose officials support Foley and Return to Reason candidates and who can ask for more money from the city if they get more clients.

Some of these charities have been around for decades, yet the gang problems that they're supposed to solve aren't being solved. Wonder why? Because they don't have the right answer to the problems here in Costa Mesa and they have a vested interest in staying in business to give life long employment to the charity bosses. So long as Costa Mesa has gang problems, the charities remain good businesses for the bosses. Stop the problems, and they'll have to find real jobs.

Folks, Costa Mesa is not Santa Ana or Los Angeles. Our gang problems aren't the same as in those cities, and we shouldn't try to rely on those cities' non-working appeasement solutions to solve our unique problems.

As we've written many times before, even a casual study of Costa Mesa's gang problems will suggest the way to solve our problems.

Here's the anatomy of our problem by the numbers:

1. Most of Costa Mesa's gang members are Latino.
2. Most have some connection with illegal aliens and the illegal alien infrastructure and support groups that have developed in this city.
3. Latino gangs are mostly territorial. That is, they are neighborhood oriented. Their neighborhoods are their habitats and safe harbors.
4. Costa Mesa only has a few very intense gang habitats and they're mostly where there are barracks style apartments: Shalimar, Mission-Mendoza, Fillmore-Coolidge, and an area around Rea School.

So, what's the solution suggested by the above?
A. Stop being an illegal alien sanctuary city with magnets that draw illegal aliens here.
B. Destroy the gang habitats. Remove or thin out the barracks style apartments and replace them with modern affordable housing units more spread out around the city instead of being concentrated in some areas.

By spreading out the affordable housing, it will be difficult to form and maintain gangs. This is so, because the critical mass of people needed to form and maintain gangs in a given neighborhood won't be reached. A gang of one or two is not much of a gang.
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SPEAKING OF ILLEGAL ALIENS

The Daily Pilot reports that three people have been arrested on drug charges and are now on ICE holds because they're in the country illegally. What? You mean there are illegal aliens in Costa Mesa? Who'd a thunk it? LINK
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COLLEGE FOR THE WESTSIDE

The CM PRESS continues to talk it up about encouraging a college to open a campus on the Westside. Perhaps a college with a heavy emphasis on medical professions would be appropriate because of the closeness of Hoag Hospital. Perhaps some of the Hoag folks could even be encouraged to help with getting such a college in their area (but, on the Costa Mesa side of the border, please).
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 342

THE INQUISITION CONTINUES

Ring, ring...

CMPD: "Hello, Costa Mesa Police Department."

MUFFLED MALE FALSETTO VOICE: "HELLO, er, Hello, my name is, By...ah, tee hee, tee hee, I mean, ah, wah, wah, wah, sniffle, sniffle, like, Sarah, and I'm, like, 16 years old and, like, I'm, like, being held captive in the basement of the Senior Center by Wendy Leece and a couple of old people and they're abusing me by asking me questions.

"Yes, it's, like, an INQUISITION...just like that nice young man--you know the one, that handsome guy who is very bright and who just makes the Daily Pilot what it is...yes, that's the one...the good looking one, the one who really, like, knows INQUISITIONS when he sees them.


"I, like, can't stand all these questions about, like, money and, like, why some board members don't, like, show up to meetings and, like, oh it's sooooooo horrible. The questions, the questions, I can't stand it.

"I, like, don't think non-profits that are using city property and spending citizen money should ever have to answer questions from elected officials. They should just be able to do whatever they want with no oversight.

"Just who does that Wendy Leece--that GRAND INQUISITOR--think she is? Doesn't she know we have a tradition in Costa Mesa of having City Councilmembers who don't ask questions and who don't do anything? She should be more like Katrina Foley and hardly ever show up for meetings, go on ski trips instead of going to City Council meetings, and collect canned food for people who live near the Great Park.

"Can you, like, send that tank I saw on TV that went to that place in, like, Texas and rescue me...no, on second thought, please send it to city hall, that's where you can usually find the GRAND INQUISITOR Wendy Leece when she's not asking questions.

"If you'll just, like, take her away and, like, maybe put her with, like, a foster family in, say, Ohio--and be sure to lock the door--I can make my escape and then the nice people at the Senior Center can go about their business using citizen owned property and receiving citizen money with no questions asked."
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for asking them.

CM PRESS # 341

RETURN TO REASONER BYRON DE ARAKAL GETS IT WRONG ABOUT GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT
(Shades of Torquemada)


In today's Daily Pilot, Return to Reason supporter Byron De Arakal writes that City Councilmember Wendy Leece has started...are you ready?-- an INQUISITION against the Costa Mesa Senior Center and is...are you ready again?--asking questions! Oh, no! Not questions! De Arakal doesn't think Leece or the City have any business asking questions. LINK

Baloney!

First, the Center is a non-profit and receives $ 1 dollar a year rent on a City building (that means the citizens own it) whose market rent should be north of $100,000 per year.

Second, the Center also receives HUD CDBG (Community Development Block Grants) funds (read, your tax money) that are funneled to it through the 3R Committee whose members are appointed by the City Council. Hold that thought about the 3R Committee, I'm coming back to it.

For the reasons given above, the City should, in fact, know what's going on at the Costa Mesa Senior Center. Ms. Leece should be asking questions and she does have a right to demand straight answers.

Return to Reasoner De Arakal then writes: "She’s [Leece] peppered the all-volunteer body [the Senior Center Board] — made up of some of this community’s longest-standing, most respected citizens — with a litany of accusatory questions. More than 40 in all."

Who are some of these longest-standing, most respected citizens? Well, according to the Senior Center's Website, members of the board include none other than De Arakal's fellow Return to Reasoners, and failed City Council candidates, Mike Scheafer and Bruce Garlich, as well as many other local libs. LINK

During the last election cycle, and right at a candidates' forum at the Senior Center, the CM PRESS asked Garlich what he'd do about pollution on the Westside Bluffs if he were elected, and he flatly said there was no pollution.

Ah, Mr. Garlich, take a drive over to Monrovia Avenue, not far from the Senior Center, and take a look at the seven acres of dirt that have to be taken away in special trucks, on a special safe route, at a time when there is little traffic on the roads, to a special hazardous dump, where the dirt will be incinerated to get rid of the toxic chemicals.

Mr. Garlich, you do know that Senior Citizens (also young kids) are in more danger from pollution than younger adults, don't you?

Garlich and Scheafer, it should be noted, were supported in the last election by some rich out of town Industrialists, who own industrial buildings on the Westside Bluffs. And, one very major property owner who lives in Newport Beach was also a member of Return to Reason along with De Arakal.

Now, about the HUD CDBG funds that the Senior Center and other non-profits solicit each year.
The 3R Committee interviews all the non-profits that ask for money under the HUD CDBG program and makes recommendations to the City Council about who gets what. This unpaid committee is supposed to make sure that your tax money is spent in the best ways possible and in ways that do not discriminate.

When I was appointed to the 3R Committee, one of the first things I requested was that all non-profits seeking tax payer money be asked to supply their federal form 990's (their tax forms).

These forms are public records, and I was surprised to learn that even though the 3R Committee had been in operation for many years, with supposed citizen oversight, the citizens who had been appointed to the 3R Committee had never thought to ask for the 990's. I also learned that some members of the Committee were also involved with the non-profits that were asking for money.

A review of the 990's showed salaries (some very high) and revealed links between many of the non-profits--some of the same names kept popping up in different non-profits.

The second thing I asked for were the quarterly ethnic breakdown reports filed with HUD by the non-profits. HUD requires these reports to root out racial and ethnic discrimination in the use of federal funds. Seems no one on the Committee had ever thought to ask for these either.

What I discovered, after reviewing these HUD reports, was that some non-profits in Costa Mesa were, and still are, serving people of one ethnicity almost exclusively in a city where that ethnicity only represents about 30-35% of the population. So, how does that work? How can almost 100% of your clients be of this one ethnicity, when they only represent 30-35% of the population?

That raises questions about why the other 70 to 65% of the population, that is not of this favored ethnicity, is not being served. I also discovered that some of these same non-profits didn't care if they served people who are in the country illegally.

As I've previously reported, one non-profit even told a young citizen white girl that she was the wrong color and that they only wanted to serve Latinas (including, presumably, illegal alien Latinas). And, again, as I also reported, that non-profit was investigated and caught by the feds and was forced to sign a consent decree that it would no longer discriminate. It also had to send its staff for training on the subject. I have a copy of that consent decree.

It should be noted that I've long felt that Costa Mesa doesn't do enough for Senior Citizens. During my time on the 3R Committee I tried to have money given to worthy Senior programs, including many at the Senior Center. However, I applaud Ms. Leece for asking questions to make sure that we're getting the most bang for our buck. The public has a right to know that public money is being spent wisely. Full transparency is called for.

Keep asking those questions, Ms. Leece.

And, Ms. Leece, if you really want to do some good, take a look at some of the other non-profits in this city and ask them some questions. A good place to start (because you used to be on the School Board and have some knowledge of this) would be to ask questions of the NMUSD and the non-profits that are clustered at Rea School.

One of the reasons the neighborhood near Rea School can't improve is because of all the charities that are acting as magnets at that school.

I'll even make this easy for you, Ms. Leece. Just go to the fifth floor of City Hall and ask for the material on the non-profits. Make sure you get the 990's and the ethnic breakdown reports.

If you have any questions, you know where to find me: last row, end seat.
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SECRET CITY COUNCIL?

Some activists are saying that the Costa Mesa City Council is holding too many secret meetings. The Council does have the right, at its discretion, to bar the public from some meetings--notably, some legal and personnel matters--but the activists are saying that the Council is abusing this discretionary right and may be discussing business behind closed doors that the public has a right to witness.---DEVELOPING---
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NEW POLITICAL REPORTER AT THE PILOT?

We noted that an Alan Blank is now apparently a reporter at the Return to Reason Daily Pilot. Here's a link to Blank's column today. LINK
Alternate LINK

The buzz is that Blank is related to Chris Blank, Kathy Blank and Paul Blank who are all members of Return to Reason.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 340

A FREEWAY RUNS THROUGH IT

Say your neighbor intentionally cuts down a tree on his property and it falls on your house, making your house unlivable. Shouldn't he be responsible to make your house livable again? It was his tree and it was his action. Your house was just in the wrong place. How would you feel if your neighbor then said, tough nougies, it's your house so it's your problem?

That's a little like what's happening with the 55 abomination that ends in Costa Mesa's downtown.

At its regularly scheduled no-City Council meeting on 4/15, the no-City Council voted to spend $6,984,000 (mostly from Measure M funds) to, among other more minor things, speed up traffic along Newport Blvd. by adding a fourth lane northbound from 17th Street to north of 19th Street and a fourth lane southbound from the 55 to Broadway. LINK

A LITTLE REMINDER AND WHAT IT ALL MEANS

Years ago, the State of California wanted to make it easier for people to get from inland cities to beach cities, so they tried to build a major freeway--the 55 abomination--right through the center of downtown Costa Mesa. The 55, if it continued on its course through our downtown, would have effectively split the Eastside and the Westside of the city much as the 405 splits the city in the north.

Then, for a variety of reasons, including citizen complaints and lack of funding, the 55, as we all know, was stopped right by Triangle Square instead of going all the way into Newport Beach. That's where it is today. And, of course, by "stopped" we don't mean it really stopped. It just continued on in a narrower configuration called Newport Blvd.

So, in essence, and to put a point on this, we still have the 55 freeway through our downtown, but it's narrower and is called Newport Blvd. Because Newport Blvd. is narrower than the 55 and has crosswalks and many streets leading off it, we have troubling traffic problems in our downtown.

SO WHAT'S THE REAL PROBLEM?

Today, many people complain about all the traffic from the 55 in our downtown and they seem to think that the traffic is the problem. It's not. The traffic is just a symptom of the real problem.

The real problem is the 55 freeway. That's the problem that has to be fixed.

Folks, the 55 is NOT Costa Mesa's freeway. It belongs to the State of California. It is the state's problem that has been shifted to us. Like the guy in the tree example above, the state of California has said tough nougies to us, so now we're trying to fix the state's problem.

Most of the people who have attended recent workshops on what to do about the 55 say that it should be put underground down to Industrial Way and then come up to grade. That will make Costa Mesa whole once again and return our downtown to local traffic.

That's the only real solution to the 55 mess: put it underground and not let it split Costa Mesa in two.

This present move by the City Council to widen Newport Blvd. is not a solution to the real problem, it is an attempt to handle local complaints about traffic. All we're doing is twisting ourselves into pretzels to work around the 55 instead of demanding that the state find the money and the time to put the damn thing underground where it belongs. So, we hear talk about elevated crosswalks across the 55, and street widening, and new turn lanes, and traffic signal coordination. Folks, these are all bandaids.

And, these bandaids hide the real problem and the real solution and may cause many citizens to think the problem is solved and thus give up their activism to fix the real problem.

In addition, the present plan to widen Newport Blvd. will set a precedent so the state can come back in a couple of years and say there's no money to dig a tunnel, so Newport Blvd. will just have to be widened again, maybe to 6 lanes in each direction. A few more years, and it'll be widened to 8 lanes in each direction.

If the citizens of Costa Mesa don't demand a real solution to the problem--a tunnel--we're going to be split apart one little widening after another until we have a massive freeway right through the middle of our city that will be as wide and as fast as the 405.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 339

IMPROVERS HELPING OUT
(The game is about scoring, not endless dribbling)

When the Improvement movement started in Costa Mesa back in 1999, it was one of the goals of those involved to end a years old informal activism practice in Costa Mesa whereby people would only speak up and demand change when something was a problem in their own neighborhood but remain silent about problems in other neighborhoods.

The Improvers vowed to help improve all of Costa Mesa.

Because the Westside was the worst part of the city and, in the view of the Improvers, the key to improving the rest of the city, they put much of their effort into that part of the city.

With the Westside as their starting point, they then helped elect Chris Steel (and then helped unelect him), Alan Mansoor, Eric Bever and Wendy Leece. The Improvers were looking for citizen politicians, not professional politicians. The Improvers wanted people who would lead the charge for improving Costa Mesa, and then return to civilian life after they did the job. They weren't looking for toadies and boot lickers to the Republican establishment.

Unfortunately, as you've been reading in the CM PRESS, it now seems to some that Mansoor, Bever and Leece appear to have forgotten why they were elected.

These days, these three seem to be more interested in hob nobbing with the bigs of the Republican Party and pushing their own political careers instead of helping improve Costa Mesa.

We hope that they'll come to their senses and refocus their energies on making Costa Mesa the great city it can be and stop having their heads turned by the suits who make a living off being politicians. Unfortunately, we're not seeing many hopeful signs of this. All we're hearing is empty talk and seeing little action.

Most Improvers are on the side of those in Mesa del Mar who want the El Camino shopping center razed and replaced with upscale homes.

Most Improvers are on the side of the Eastsiders who want JWA stopped cold and traffic fixed from the 55 Fwy.

Most Improvers are on the side of the Mesa Verdeans who don't want the 57 freeway to be built next to their tract.

Most Improvers are on the side of those in all neighborhoods who want slums removed.

Most Improvers are on the side of those on the Westside who want real and meaningful changes to that area and not just medians and flowers in the middle of 19th Street.

Most Improvers don't want Costa Mesa to be an illegal alien sanctuary city and want the City Council to enact an ordinance similar to the one in Orange about soliciting work.

And, if Mansoor, Bever and Leece don't want the things that most Improvers want, then who needs them?

Did these three think they got elected because they were smarter, better looking, more competent, had better personalities, had better resumes? Did they think that there was and is some groundswell of support for them because of these characteristics? Perish the thought. They got elected, with the help of the Improvers, because they carried the ideas put forth by the Improvers.

They were put into office to score, not just mumble sweet nothings and endlessly dribble once the ball was put in their hands.

Has anyone seen the meaningful changes that are really needed on the Westside? Nope. We've seen minor things. We now see medians and flowers in the middle of W. 19th Street. Big deal.

We're in an election year again and most Improvers are saying they want to see change, not sweet nothings from Mansoor (who is not running), Leece (who is not running) and especially from Bever (who is running). Bever's fate in the election this year is going to be tied to what he actually does and whether or not he can get Mansoor and Leece on board to improve things.

There is already troubling news for Bever in this regard, as Leece (as we previously reported) has apparently set herself against the wishes of the folks in Mesa del Mar in their attempt to get rid of the decaying El Camino shopping center.

Most real Improvers are on the side of the folks in Mesa del Mar (even if that is where Katrina Foley lives).

There is also an increased activism from people on the Eastside who want change, not words.

The same can be said for Mesa North and some other neighborhoods.

If we're sensing things correctly, Bever had better know which way the wind is blowing or he'll be gone after the election. And, if that happens, watch as his new best friends, the bigs in the GOP, suddenly won't give him the time of day once again.
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WHAT YOU WON'T READ IN THE CM PRESS

We generally avoid commenting on private family matters of local politicians. We believe that politicians and their families have a right to some privacy when they are off the dais, unless there is a very direct link between something that happens in their families and their public jobs.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 339

LEECE GETS IT WRONG ABOUT EL CAMINO CENTER

Once upon a time, some developers thought that it would be a good idea to put small neighborhood shopping centers on the inside of large tracts of homes. You can still find a few of these in Riverside County (they're the buildings with all the graffiti and gangs around them) and you can still find one--El Camino Center--in Costa Mesa, in the middle of Mesa del Mar (where Councilwoman Katrina Foley lives). VIEW

Most of these centers are failures. The stores in them just can't compete with similar stores out on the main drags of their larger communities, and they can't get enough auto or foot traffic to their stores, short of giving their goods away for free, because of their inside the tract locations.

The El Camino Center has been empty and boarded up for several years and has had a graffiti covered fence around the perimeter of the property for just as long.

It's a big eyesore and should be razed and replaced with homes. After years of talk but no action from various owners, developers and the no-City Council, residents in Mesa del Mar are now fed up and are circulating a petition to ask the no-City Council to do something. Yeah, that's likely, this gang of nitwits has become part of the problem in this city and not part of the solution.

If you're a big developer or if you own industrial buildings on the Westside Bluffs, the present no-Council will protect your interests. But, if you're an ordinary citizen of Costa Mesa you'll get little but sweet talk from this incompetent no-Council.

In an article about the El Camino Center in the Daily Pilot today, we hear more talk, but no signs of action, from the present owners of the property, Oxbow 101 LLC. LINK

Councilwoman Foley suggested to the Pilot that the owners could be goaded into action by denying them an extension on their pending extension of their subdivision agreement with the city, unless the owners show good faith by tearing the center down. Foley is on the right track with this. It's just too bad that she isn't always on the right track about things on the Westside, and only seems to pop up about things in her own neighborhood or with things such as collecting food for people in South County.

What concerns us, though, is that City Councilwoman Wendy Leece told the Daily Pilot that she favors giving the owners an extension because they've told her they're moving forward.

Well, Ms. Leece, let the owners tell the citizens what they told you in private and let us see if what they have to say is persuasive. Let's see a simple Gantt chart from them (example of Gantt chart is shown above).

Our guess is that Leece just heard more talk from the owners with no firm dates to do anything.

Speaking of being bothered by Leece. She's starting to bother more than a few Improvers. They complain that she never seems to do anything but talk about school issues and she hasn't even come forward with anything concrete to fix the Westside where she lives.

The only reason Leece is on the no-Council is because Improvers worked to put her there. And, they expected much more from her than happy face talk about the latest conference she's attended about schools.

Action, Ms. Leece, action. You weren't elected to be a PTA mom or to just do nothing. If you think that you're doing something because you attend a lot of school related meetings, we're here to tell you that you're just spinning your wheels. We're paying you and we expect to see this city improved in meaningful ways. You're not on the School Board anymore, Ms. Leece.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 338

THE NO-CITY COUNCIL DOES IT AGAIN! SLUMS FOR THE MIDDLE OF CM, GOLD FOR SOUTH COAST METRO

At last night's no-City Council meeting, the no-Council voted to approve a General Plan Screening Request to change 10 acres of state land at the Fairview Developmental Center, with views of the Costa Mesa Country Club golf course, from Public and Institutional uses to High Density Residential uses. LINK

WHAT THIS MEANS

There will be a very dense 32 units per acre development of very low, low and medium income apartments right near the golf course, Harbor Blvd. and Fair Drive. That's 320 units.

At the meeting, Don Lamm, the City's Development Services Director, strongly requested approval from the no-Council because the City is mandated by the state to have more affordable housing and we must comply.

WHAT'S THE DEEPER STORY?

As we previously reported, earlier this year, the no-City Council let developers, who are going to build hundreds and hundreds of high end units in the South Coast Metro area, get away with not providing any affordable housing units in their developments in that area.

That puts pressure on finding locations for such units in the rest of the city.

In essence, the no-Council said that the developers in South Coast Metro should be able to do whatever they want on their property. After all, by gum, it is their property. If they don't want affordable housing there, then the no-Council wasn't going to make them put any in. In fact, the no-Council said the developers didn't have to help put any such affordable housing anyplace else in the city either.

The developers appeared happily shocked by the no-Council's decision. That's because the developers had already planned on either putting in such low income housing or contributing to a fund to build it elsewhere. The no-Council said they didn't have to do either.

What the no-Council did with their largess was to condemn the inner core of Costa Mesa to have more and more affordable housing built there while letting the outer rim around South Coast Metro become a new gold coast with no-low cost anything. That's good for South Coast Metro, but what about the rest of Costa Mesa that must now take up the slack and have the affordable units built in neighborhoods that already have too many?

That's the problem with those who can't see the big picture and who can't think straight. They think they can mouth noble sounding individual property rights platitudes and that the piper won't have to be paid.

It doesn't work that way, folks. The piper will be paid. The state does require us to have a certain number of affordable housing units. We can't avoid it.

When you concentrate too many affordable housing units in one area, they eventually negatively impact the surrounding neighborhoods. A better plan is to spread them out around the city. When you do that, such units--because they are sprinkled in the midst of more expensive homes--often rise to reflect the nature of the majority of the homes in the area.

The developers in South Coast Metro should have at least been held to their fair share of affordable housing units.
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EASTSIDERS UP IN ARMS

Meanwhile, the folks on the Eastside are energized and organizing. They're really mad about all the traffic they see in their neighborhoods every day and they're mad about the 55 mess. They're starting to regularly show up at no-Council meetings and they're speaking out.

The CM PRESS hasn't seen such vigor since the Westsiders (with a little help from some in the north part of the city) began organizing back in 2000.

As you probably know, the Westside Improvers were so fired up that they were instrumental in electing (and then un-electing ) Chris Steel. Then, they helped elect Alan Mansoor, Eric Bever and Wendy Leece.

However, now that they have Mansoor, Bever and Leece on the dais, many of these Improvers are saying that these three aren't doing much to improve the Westside or the city and have now become part of the problem instead of being part of the solution.

In our talks with Improvers, we find many are discouraged with the lack of progress on the Westside and the don't rock the boat business as usual approach that seems to now pervade the no-Council.

This thinking from the traditional Improvers and the new activism of the Eastsiders may not bode well for some in the election this year unless things change.

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CM PRESS # 337

Evolution

When you were a tadpole and I was a fish

In the Paleozoic time,

And side by side on the ebbing tide

We sprawled through the ooze and slime,

Or skittered with many a caudal flip

Through the depths of the Cambrian fen,

My heart was rife with the joy of life,

For I loved you even then.




Mindless we lived and mindless we loved

And mindless at last we died;

And deep in the rift of the Caradoc drift

We slumbered side by side.

The world turned on in the lathe of time,

The hot lands heaved amain,

Till we caught our breath from the womb of death

And crept into light again.




We were amphibians, scaled and tailed,

And drab as a dead man's hand;

We coiled at ease 'neath the dripping trees

Or trailed through the mud and sand.

Croaking and blind, with our three-clawed feet

Writing a language dumb,

With never a spark in the empty dark

To hint at a life to come.




Yet happy we lived and happy we loved,

And happy we died once more;

Our forms were rolled in the clinging mold

Of a Neocomian shore.

The eons came and the eons fled

And the sleep that wrapped us fast

Was riven away in the newer day

And the night of death was past.




Then light and swift through the jungle trees

We swung in our airy flights,

Or breathed in the balms of the fronded palms

In the hush of the moonless nights;

And oh! what beautiful years were there

When our hearts clung each to each;

When life was filled and our senses thrilled

In the first faint dawn of speech.




Thus life by life and love by love

We passed through the cycles strange,

And breath by breath and death by death

We followed the chain of change.

Till there came a time in the law of life

When over the nursing side

The shadows broke and the soul awoke

In a strange, dim dream of God.




I was thewed like an Auroch bull

And tusked like the great cave bear;

And you, my sweet, from head to feet

Were gowned in your glorious hair.

Deep in the gloom of a fireless cave,

When the night fell o'er the plain

And the moon hung red o'er the river bed

We mumbled the bones of the slain.




I flaked a flint to a cutting edge

And shaped it with brutish craft;

I broke a shank from the woodland lank

And fitted it, head and haft;

Then I hid me close to the reedy tarn,

Where the mammoth came to drink;

Through the brawn and bone I drove the stone

And slew him upon the brink.




Loud I howled through the moonlit wastes,

Loud answered our kith and kin;

From west to east to the crimson feast

The clan came tramping in.

O'er joint and gristle and padded hoof

We fought and clawed and tore,

And cheek by jowl with many a growl

We talked the marvel o'er.




I carved that fight on a reindeer bone

With rude and hairy hand;

I pictured his fall on the cavern wall

That men might understand.

For we lived by blood and the right of might

Ere human laws were drawn,

And the age of sin did not begin

Till our brutal tush was gone.




And that was a million years ago

In a time that no man knows;

Yet here tonight in the mellow light

We sit at Delmonico's.

Your eyes are deep as the Devon springs,

Your hair is dark as jet,

Your years are few, your life is new,

Your soul untried, and yet --




Our trail is on the Kimmeridge clay

And the scarp of the Purbeck flags;

We have left our bones in the Bagshot stones

And deep in the Coralline crags;

Our love is old, our lives are old,

And death shall come amain;

Should it come today, what man may say

We shall not live again?




God wrought our souls from the Tremadoc beds

And furnished them wings to fly;

He sowed our spawn in the world's dim dawn,

And I know that I shall not die,

Though cities have sprung above the graves

Where the crook-bone men make war

And the oxwain creaks o'er the buried caves

Where the mummied mammoths are.




Then as we linger at luncheon here

O'er many a dainty dish,

Let us drink anew to the time when you

Were a tadpole and I was a fish.




Langdon Smith (1858-1908)

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Thanks for reading the CM PRESS.