CM PRESS # 336

SOUTH COAST METRO WANTS SOME CHANGES--OR, HOW TO MAKE ROCK STEW

At tonight's no-Planning Commission meeting (4/14/08), some folks from South Coast Metro will be asking for some changes to earlier approved plans for the area. Seems some of the things they agreed to in the past are now more costly so they want them removed from the plans or modified. LINK

This is the sort of thing we often see in Costa Mesa. Developers first come in to get their plans approved and, after much discussion and public input with various aspects of the plans being negotiated and agreed to, get plans approved that have some aspects that the no-Planning Commission, the no-City Council and the public think might be good for the city and mitigate some of the impacts of the development.

Then, months later, when the no-Planners, the no-Councilmembers and especially the public have forgotten all the details, the developers come back in after atomizing the original deal into small parts and ask that the plans be opened up, but only for "little" changes here and there, and only for the ones the developers want. The no-Planning Commission and the no-City Council then usually approve the changes in a rubber stamp fashion.

In other words, the original deals are often picked apart and changed so the final deal doesn't look much like the original deal at all. And, this is usually done a little at a time so that citizens, who might have been engaged when the plans were first presented, are now no longer engaged, and, in many cases, aren't even aware that what they thought was agreed to has now changed.

What an enlightened Planning Commission and City Council might do in such cases is say, "If the plans are opened up for one change, then they're opened up for all changes." Then, the Planning Commission, the City Council and interested citizens can make changes that will benefit the city and not just the developers. Don't count on this happening though.

This whole process reminds us a little of the old story about the guy who comes to a village and, to the amazement of the villagers, promises to make a delicious stew out of nothing but a big rock and water.

First, the guy puts the rock in a big pot of water and boils it for a time. Then, he tastes the rock stew and says it needs a little something--maybe some salt-- to improve the flavor. The villagers then bring him salt, which he throws in the pot. After a while, he tastes it again. Hmmmm. Needs potatoes for flavor. Those are brought by the none-too bright villagers. Hmmmm. Needs something to get that rock just right, how about some beef? Gee, the rock is still not right. How about some carrots for flavoring? They're then put in. And, so it goes. Then, after many more "flavorings" are thrown in, the villagers get to taste the rock stew and think the guy is a miracle worker--he made a delicious stew out of nothing but a rock and water!

ROTTING MIDDLE CLASS NEIGHBORHOODS

But, what really galls us is the fact that developers are being allowed to add hundreds and hundreds of high-end dwelling units (condos and apartments) in the South Coast Metro area without having to put in any low income housing there or elsewhere in the city.

What this does is increase the population of Costa Mesa which also increases the state requirement for low income housing. So, who will have to pay for more low income housing if the developers don't? The taxpayers. And, where will it go? Not in South Coast Metro.

And, because there is no new and modern low income housing going into the South Coast Metro area to replace older functionally obsolete slums in other parts of the city, Costa Mesa won't be able to remove existing old style low income housing on the Westside, in Mesa North and in Mesa del Mar without further reducing the number of low income units that the City is required to have by the state.

In other words, the no-Planning Commission and the no-City Council are creating a gold coast of rich folks in South Coast Metro--almost a separate city within Costa Mesa--while letting our middle class neighborhoods rot from within.

And, some on the no-Planning Commission and the no-City Council then brag that this shows they are for the little guy, by gum, and if you own a piece of property you can do what you want with it. Of course, that's the same specious argument they use for letting 60 acres of industrial properties sit on our Westside Bluffs.

What we're seeing from some on the no-Planning Commission and some on the no-City Council is a childish and incorrect mishmash view of property rights, libertarian philosophy and reality that is helping keep Costa Mesa from improving.

Of course, many dumb villagers in Costa Mesa actually believe this local version of the rock stew fable and don't realize that Costa Mesa is never going to improve until we have a strong City Council that starts looking out for the middle class citizens in this city and starts doing the necessary things that a municipal government does to improve a city. And, that means the City Council has to do more than fill potholes and plant flowers in front of slum buildings.

Don't get us wrong. We're all for proper developments in South Coast Metro, but we believe there has to be more done to help some of our older neighborhoods.

The way cities usually do things is to have new developments contribute to the overall health of a city--and not just in tax revenues. Want an example of an enlightened city? Look at Newport Beach and what they ask in return for new developments.

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GRAFFITI IN MESA DEL MAR

At 7:30 this morning (4/14/08), we observed a city worker, with a paint brush and green paint, painting over about thirty linear feet of white graffiti gang slogans with letters about a foot tall on the green fabric on the fence around the closed down and long time eyesore shopping center in Katrina Foley's neighborhood of Mesa del Mar.

So, instead of seeing white graffiti on the fence, residents can now see green graffiti. That's because the city worker seemed to simply be tracing and covering over the white letters with green paint that does not match the fence.

No doubt, Foley will now step up to help improve her neighborhood and Costa Mesa by starting another canned food drive for people in...Zimbabwe or Tibet or whatever will get her name in the paper.

Someone please tell Foley that she's on the City Council in Costa Mesa and that she's not been elected to the United Nations.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 335

Here's another of my books that can be picked up at brick and mortar book stores or from Amazon.com
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Thanks for reading the CM PRESS.

CM PRESS # 334

COSTA MESA AS TRAFFIC ISLAND, ATTIC, AND CITY DUMP

I'm getting more and more convinced that Costa Mesa isn't a city at all.

It seems to be a traffic island between inland cities and the Pacific Ocean on the one hand and on the other it's the attic and city dump for Newport Beach.

On the first point, take this SR 55 business. I attended both meetings about this in Costa Mesa last week, and it seemed that some people who commented were dancing around the subject and acting like poor cousins who must rely on the kindness of strangers to get their due.

Some suggestions about the traffic from the SR 55 were along the lines of how we should synchronize our traffic signals along Newport Blvd. so traffic can flow more easily to the beach, and how we have to put in pedestrian walkways up above Newport Blvd. so those pesky shoppers on foot don't have to mess up beach bound traffic by actually wanting to walk in a cross walk from a store on one side of Newport Blvd. to one on the other side.

In a way, those calling for these elevated walkways have a point. After all, who would want a cross walk across the 405 Fwy up at the other end of our traffic island city?

And, my bringing up the 405 is intentional. The SR 55 is a FREEWAY--all capital letters. It is like the 405 FREEWAY except the 405 doesn't just stop in our downtown and suddenly become a regular little arterial street with stores lining its sides the way the SR 55 does.

What idiot ever thought to bring a freeway to the middle of Costa Mesa to pour traffic into our downtown and why should we put up with this nonsense? What is this, the Twilight Zone?

Look, what is Costa Mesa; chopped liver? We're a city of around 110,000 souls yet we've got a weak City Council that is out there acting like they're begging for some scraps from the table of Caltrans and the OCTA. "Please, please, sir, can you please do something to help us with our traffic problem," they seem to be saying while standing there like poor little orphan children in best Dickensian fashion. Our traffic problem? OUR TRAFFIC PROBLEM?! Good grief!

Our City Council should be shouting: "Listen up Caltrans and OCTA, get your stupid freeway out of our downtown and do it now. Get off your fat bottoms, grab some shovels, and dig a tunnel down to Newport Beach. Got it? And, when you finish that, go erase that stupid 57 Freeway extension off your plans that you want to run down along the edge of Mesa Verde. What the hell do you think we are--a friggin' traffic island?"

And, speaking of Newport Beach, this gets me to my second point. The reason that Newport Beach doesn't have a bad part of town is because Costa Mesa is Newport Beach's bad part of town, its attic, and its city dump.

On the Daily Pilot blog recently, a woman from Newport defended Newport residents who don't want a sports field near their homes in that city by saying that Newport doesn't need such sports fields because Costa Mesa has plenty that are used by Newporters. Oh sure, just put what ever you don't want in Newport in Costa Mesa. The people there are too stupid to care.

Don't get me going...oops, too late...okay, now I'm getting riled up. A few years ago, a politician from Newport whose family trust owns a strip shopping center in Costa Mesa wanted to put in an oil change business in his center.

Some of us argued against it because we didn't feel it was good for our city at that location. The Newport politician came to a Costa Mesa City Council meeting and the weak sisters on the Council let him put in the oil change business.

Then, in an ironic example of synchronicity, a few months later a similar oil change business wanted to locate near the Newport politician's home in Newport Beach and he then argued before the Newport Beach City Council that it was a bad use and shouldn't be allowed near his home. And, the oil change business didn't go in.

So, sports fields near homes in Newport Beach--bad. Sports fields near homes in Costa Mesa--good. Oil change businesses in Newport Beach--bad. Oil change businesses in Costa Mesa-good.

And, what about having sixty acres of industrial buildings on the Westside Bluffs of Costa Mesa that are mostly owned by folks from Newport Beach? Hey, how about putting some industrial buildings on the bluffs in Newport?

I get it. Industrial buildings on view bluffs in Newport Beach--bad. Industrial buildings on view bluffs in Costa Mesa--good. Industrial buildings blowing pollution over homes downwind from the bluffs in Newport Beach--bad. Industrial buildings blowing pollution over homes downwind from the bluffs in Costa Mesa--good. Homes on view bluffs in Newport Beach--good. Homes on view bluffs in Costa Mesa--bad.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking Newport Beach or the politicians there. They seem to usually do what is right for the citizens of that city. They actually seem to have some enlightened self-interest. In fact, I wish we could send our Costa Mesa City Council down to Newport and take theirs to Costa Mesa. Costa Mesa could use a little enlightened self-interest.

And, speaking of politicians and how cities run themselves, here's another example of how the two cities do things. The reason that we're talking up here on Goat Hill about ending the SR 55 at Industrial Way in Costa Mesa just before the Newport Beach border, is because Newport Beach has a provision in their city charter that requires a vote of their citizens if any freeway is to go into Newport. Yup, you read that right.

Of course, Costa Mesa, the traffic island, attic, and city dump has no such provision in our charter. So, I ask you again: What is Costa Mesa; chopped liver?

Freeways through Newport Beach--bad. Freeways through Costa Mesa--good.

And, get this. When John Wayne expands; and it will, guess where the expansion will be? That's right, folks, it'll be on the Costa Mesa side and may eventually go over as far as SR 55. What?! SR 55?! Now you're getting me riled up again.... You have noticed that there are no tall buildings on the Costa Mesa side of John Wayne near Red Hill Ave. as there are on the Newport Beach side, haven't you? Do you think that's an accident? Hmmmm? It's far easier to remove one and two story buildings on the Costa Mesa side of the airport than the skyscrapers on the Newport Beach side.

Airport expanding into Newport Beach--bad. Airport expanding into Costa Mesa--good.

And, here's something else. Remember the job center that was closed in Costa Mesa? Lots of folks from Newport Beach complained about it being closed down. Seems they liked driving up the hill and picking up day laborers. One guy from Newport even wrote a letter to the Pilot telling how he had picked up about 50 day workers over the past few years and really liked them working around his home in Newport and how it was mean for Costa Mesa to close down the job center.

Then, a minister who lives in Newport Beach and whose church is in Newport Beach actually had the nerve to come to a Costa Mesa City Council meeting on the pretext of giving the blessing and, instead, used his time to castigate the council for closing down the job center. I later emailed this guy to see if he wanted any help in opening a job center on his church's property in Newport or near where he lives in Eastbluff. I didn't get a response.

In fact, I haven't heard a single Newporter, who has complained about the closing of the job center in Costa Mesa, offering to help open one in Newport Beach.

Job centers in Newport Beach--bad. Job centers in Costa Mesa--good.

A couple of years ago, residents of a neighborhood in Corona del Mar actually went into the streets to cheer when the last low income apartment complex in their neighborhood was torn down. In Costa Mesa we have many such complexes and our weak City Council isn't doing a thing to thin them out and replace them in other locations with modern low income housing.

Low income slums in Newport Beach--bad. Low income slums in Costa Mesa--good.

Now, maybe the following says something about the Newport Beach City Council and the Costa Mesa City Council, and maybe it doesn't. You be the judge. When Newport's Council adopted a military unit, they chose the front line, highly decorated 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, whose official job is to: "Locate, close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver." When Costa Mesa's Council adopted a military unit, they chose Katrina Foley's brother's back of the lines unit of Army helicopter mechanics.

Finally, and here's my plea. Can Costa Mesa please send its City Council to manage Newport Beach and can we have Newport's City Council take over Costa Mesa? Costa Mesa really, really needs a Council that is smart and tough and has the appropriate level of self-interest.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 333

RACIST BONE MARROW REPORTED BY RACIST OC REGISTER*

I don't usually write about genes and related matters in the CM PRESS, but since some local bigots and tiny brain ignorant individuals, including one pitiful loser who appears to have deep seated psychological problems, keep calling names, I thought some readers might like an example of what I often write about in various ways in my national columns and books. And, since the Register is running an article about this, there's a logical local tie-in.

DID JIM CROW SNEAK INTO THE BONE MARROW?

In a story in the OC REGISTER ( LINK) readers are told that people have to find bone marrow matches from their own race or ethnicity. What is this, Jim Crow? Separate drinking fountains? Blind prejudice? Nope. It's simple genetics.

Genes matter.

As reported in the Register, if you're a Caucasian you have a greater chance of finding a bone marrow donor because there are more Caucasians who have agreed to be donors.

But why does race and ethnicity matter at all? Don't we all bleed red blood? Aren't we all the same except for different paint jobs?

Again, genes matter.

Before proceeding, though, you need to note that what was glossed over in the Register story is the fact that if you are mixed race, your chance of finding a donor is like finding a needle in a haystack because of all the variables involved.

Here's a quick (and over simplified, but still reasonably accurate) back ground lesson about why genes matter and why you need someone like yourself if you need a bone marrow match.

First, you have to understand that DNA is composed of just four chemicals that are abbreviated A,T,C,G. Every living thing, both plant and animal, that we know about has these four chemicals making up its internal blueprint (genotype) and its external appearance (phenotype). Just four measly chemicals. Sounds simple, right? Hold on.

These four chemicals, when combined with a molecule of sugar and a molecule of phosphoric acid make up the 3 billion base pairs of nucleotides in our DNA. Think of this as though you have a stack of playing cards as tall as one of the office buildings in South Coast Metro, and on each card is just one of these four letters: A, T, C or G. This stack of 3 billion cards made up of just four letters is the blueprint of human life. These 3 billion cards then make up the approximately 30,000 genes that we humans carry. And, the 30,000 genes are clustered on the 46 chromosomes in humans (other species have different numbers of base pairs of nucleotides, genes and chromosomes).

So, if all living things have these same four chemicals, why is there all the variety of animals and plants?

The answer is that it has to do with the shuffle of the four chemicals. Shuffle these cards one way and you have a human being. Shuffle about 4% of those same cards a different way and you have a Chimp. Shuffle about 15% of them differently and you have a mouse. Shuffle about 50% of them differently and you have a fruit fly.

Assume arguendo that current scientific thinking is correct and that life began on earth with a single cell that had the properties that we define as life. That cell would have had the original deck of DNA shuffled in just the right way so that the cell was alive. In a sense, that cell was the mother and father of all life.

By definition of one aspect of life, that cell would be able to reproduce itself. As it reproduced--making more like itself-- changes and mutations began to occur in copies of itself for a variety of reasons including mistakes, different conditions in the external environment, aging of the cell and more.

In other words, that cell, just like us, did not live in a static world. Things were changing all around it and within it as it ate and aged and moved about, and some of the changes caused changes in its offspring. Thus, life began to diverge. The DNA card stack that had made the single cell was being reshuffled a few cards at a time. The cell was evolving. And, because of the constant mutations that happen with DNA, the process went off in many different directions. To be clear, mutations are "mistakes" that change DNA from what it was before the mutation.

As far as humans go, scientists have now discovered that a small mutation in gene slc24a5 that occurred between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago is what makes white people white. Without that mutation, that began in a couple of individuals on their journey out of Africa, there would be no white people on earth.

So, why didn't this white skin mutation just disappear as is the case with so many other minor mutations? Now we get into natural selection and the survival of the fittest. The answer is that the white skin mutation gave an advantage to those with it over those without it, because it let those with it absorb more sunlight through their skin and produce more Vitamin D in the less sunny regions as they moved further and further away from Africa and into northern Europe. Those with the mutation lived longer and produced more children who also had the mutation. Those without the mutation often developed rickets (a softening of the bones caused by a lack of Vitamin D) and other problems and didn't live as long and didn't produce as many children. Over time, the gene pool of Europe filled up with the white skin mutation and the gene version that was not mutated died off.

As mentioned above, humans carry approximately 30,000 genes (actually, the exact number hasn't been established, but most geneticists seem to agree that 30,000 may be about right). These 30,000 genes are clustered on the 46 chromosomes in humans.

When humans reproduce, 23 chromosomes from the male join with 23 chromosomes from the female and we have a new human with a full complement of 46 chromosomes. If the male and female have a similar genotype and phenotype, their child will also have that genotype and phenotype. If that child ever needs a bone marrow transplant, a match can be fairly easily found by looking for matches from people of the same phenotype. In other words, if another person looks like you in major ways, they may be a good match. It's as simple as that; at least in the first cut to find a match.

OUR PRESENT DARK AGE

Today, we live in an anti-intellectual Dark Age where people are afraid to discuss race.

I've often written that it's funny/sad to hear certain "avant-garde" and "angry" stand up comics from the '60's who continue to think that their night club routines about the words we can't say on TV, or about sexual topics, are still taboo and cutting edge.

Today, the real taboos and cutting edge material involve race.

People freely discuss race when it relates to their pet dogs--in dogs, race is called breed--and they easily understand that breeds of dogs have different strengths and weaknesses, but when it comes to humans, they clam up lest some dimwit call them a racist.

I've been discussing such things in my national essays for years. If you're interested, you can find them all over the Internet.

Here's just one example of how silly humans are about race. In one of my national columns I wrote about an obstetrician in France who has a theory that the high rate of deaths of black babies is because black women come to full term earlier and their babies have to be delivered earlier than white babies. When he started delivering black babies earlier, the death rate of black babies dropped markedly. What did this guy get for his troubles in saving black babies? He was called a racist.

Meanwhile, in Costa Mesa we have some local nutcases whose lives are meaningless, and who are of an age where they are starting to realize it, who seem to be so obsessed with denying the reality of genes, that they evidently spend countless hours pouring over the hundreds of essays and short stories that I've written, looking for a word here and there that will "prove" to the world that I am this or that.

Then, these sad excuses for human beings, who also have political and social motivations and who don't want to see Costa Mesa truly improved--and especially not the Westside--try to tie me in to some local politicians in order to demonize the politicians and stop them from making the needed improvements in Costa Mesa.

Ignore these low life punks, folks. They're loons and are mostly like dumber and puffier (think gonadless eunch) versions of the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons.

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*Some nutcases apparently define "racist" as anyone who indicates that the different races and ethnicities of man have differences.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 332

THANKS FOR THE PUBLICITY

The lefties at the DAILY PILOT just can't resist putting my name in the paper.

Even when the PILOT doesn't run one of my columns or letters, they let assorted whack-jobs, bigots, and sad, pitiful old men post smears.

Hey, just get my name right.

If you want to see what has bunched up the panties of some impotent sad sacks with flaccid brains, be sure to buy my books. You can get them at brick and mortar book stores or on Amazon.com.

Three of my books are in print right now and more are in the works that will be unleashed on an unsuspecting world when least expected.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 331

ANOTHER PITCH FOR GANG INTERVENTION

Hold onto your wallets, here comes another pitch telling citizens of Costa Mesa that we have to empower the usual gaggle of lefties and liberals to have special intervention programs to prevent "our" kids from joining gangs.

The CMPD will be making a presentation about gangs to the City Council at the Council's study session starting at 4:30 Tuesday, April 8, in Conference Room 1A LINK

If the above LINK doesn't work, try this LINK and navigate to the Study Session.

Here's the CM PRESS strategy for dealing with gangs:

1. Understand that all living things tend to go to and stay in places where they feel comfortable--such places become their habitats.

2. Get rid of the habitats and whatever finds them comfortable will move away.

In Costa Mesa, unlike some other cities, we have just a few gang habitats--so far. They are mostly barracks style apartment buildings in the following slums: Shalimar, Mission-Mendoza, Fillmore-Coolidge, and an area near Rea School.

The City should immediately start buying up and tearing down slum buildings--one here and one there--as they come on the market, and put in pocket parks or other desirable uses in their place. Then, the City should work with developers to put in modern low cost housing that is more spread out and which won't recreate the present over crowded and over concentrated slums that we now have.

No gang habitats=No gangs.

We need to understand that Costa Mesa gangs are primarily and overwhelmingly Latino, and that the members have strong links to illegal aliens.

We also need to understand that these Latino gangs are largely territorial. This means they "protect" their habitats. That's what the graffiti and neighborhood shootings are mostly about.

These gangs have helped drive Costa Mesa ever lower as middle class people simply move away from areas that these gangs have taken over. This is destabilizing Costa Mesa. The major problem is the Westside, and the gang problems on the Westside are exacerbated by do-gooder charities and individuals who are actually rewarding illegal aliens, gang members, and criminals for staying in the area.

Say you're a young professional and your employer has just transferred you and your family to Orange County. One of the first things you do is go out looking for a home. You'd like to be near the beach, but Newport is too expensive for you. Well, what about Costa Mesa and especially the Westside? Why, it's so close to the ocean that sea breezes keep it naturally air conditioned during the summer. You take a look at the school scores and are dismayed to see that they are at slum levels, but you don't believe your eyes. How can Costa Mesa which is right next to Newport Beach and which shares the same school district have school scores so low when Newport's are so high? You conclude that you must be looking at misprinted school scores.

So, you decide to look around for yourself. You drive around the neighborhoods of the Westside and what do you see? Sixty acres of industrial buildings on land that would be better for homes. And, what's that chemical smell? You're starting to get a headache so you roll up your windows. Then you see the slums and the graffiti and day workers congregating in parking lots.

When we next see you, you've pulled on to the 405 Freeway and you're heading down to South County to find a home in a City without all the problems of Costa Mesa.

And, as you drive, you may wonder to yourself: "Who are the incompetent twits who let Costa Mesa, and especially the Westside, become the mess it is and why isn't the City Council doing something about it?"

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 330

HASTA LA VISTA ORANGE

According to an article in the OC REGISTER today, day laborers are leaving the City of Orange en masse as a result of the new ordinances in that city. LINK

Many Costa Mesa citizens are wondering why the Costa Mesa City Council hasn't enacted similar ordinances.

In fact, many Costa Mesa citizens are starting to wonder about the do-nothing nature of our Council.

Our Council members seem to show up every two weeks and rubber stamp some papers put in front of them by staff. Where's the initiative? Where are the bold proposals to help improve Costa Mesa? Where is the leadership?
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 329

YOU WANT REAL RELIEF FROM THE 55? HA, HA, HA! PEOPLE IN HELL WILL GET ICE WATER BEFORE THAT HAPPENS.

It was a churlish standing room only crowd of about 160 Costa Mesans who showed up to listen to a PR talk about how OCTA "really wants citizen input" on what to do about the abominable 55 freeway that is screwing up Costa Mesa's downtown. LINK.

At the meeting, audience members had the opportunity to put green (I like) or red (I don't like) dots on various proposals that were on poster boards on easels around the room. These proposals ranged from do nothing to build a fly-over or dig a cut and cover tunnel down to Industrial Way. The proposal for the cut and cover tunnel received the most green dots and this is also the proposal that the CM PRESS favors and has for years. It's also the most expensive way to go. "Do nothing" received the most red dots.

The fly-over sounds good on paper until you realize that it would create a shadowy troll world along Newport Blvd. that would extend for more than a mile through our downtown.

Nope, the only proposal that really makes sense for the long term--and the 55 is going to be there for the long term--is to build a cut and cover tunnel to get that ever increasing inland traffic heading to the beach out of our hair and on to the sand.

At the meeting, OCTA reps were asked why the 55 doesn't extend all the way down to Newport Beach to drop all that Newport Beach traffic in the city where it's headed.

The answer given was that Newport [was smart enough to] put a provision in its charter that any freeway that is to go through that city must be approved by the voters of Newport. Of course, Costa Mesa doesn't have such a provision for our city. Good grief!

The CM PRESS then asked why Costa Mesa always seems to get the short end of the stick in everything, and is it because we have a weak City Council? We also asked how many votes Costa Mesa has on the OCTA Board of Directors.

Mayor Pro Tem Mansoor, who is on OCTA's Board of Directors, took our questions. He ignored the one about the weak City Council but said, in answer to our second one (With a look of triumph on his face?), that Costa Mesa has three votes on the board which is more than any other city. We then asked him how many directors there are in total. He replied "seventeen" (Actually, there are eighteen. But, maybe he meant seventeen in addition to him, or maybe one is non-voting. We're not sure. And, did his look of triumph just evaporate?).

Here's the rub, folks. No matter what input the citizens of Costa Mesa give on fixing the 55 mess, ultimately, the board of directors of OCTA will vote on how to proceed. And, that means that directors from other cities will probably tell Costa Mesa to go pound sand because these directors want to use the money to fix problems in their cities.

The reality is that a cut and cover tunnel would strip money from other projects in other cities, and the directors, who have the majority of votes and who represent those other cities, don't care about Costa Mesa.

Unless we get some people with backbones and brains on our City Council, Costa Mesa is going to continue to get the shaft on everything. We're being out thunk, out negotiated, out foxed.

What are we talking about? Count on much of the following to happen unless things change.

--The Westside will continue to rot.

--John Wayne Airport will expand in Costa Mesa, maybe over to the 55.

--Sixty acres of industrial buildings will remain on our Westside Bluffs.

--No slums will be removed. Why? Because the dimwits on the City Council didn't require developers near South Coast Plaza to put in modern low income housing in their projects which would allow us to remove older, functionally obsolete low income housing in our middle class neighborhoods.

--Banning Ranch will go to Newport, but its traffic will come through Costa Mesa.

--The area over by the Santa Ana Country Club and the club itself will eventually become part of Newport.

So, the citizens of Costa Mesa pay each of our five City Council members more than a thousand bucks a month (and then some), and what does this mumbling gang of five do? They grin like morons and scratch their asses and tell us they're fixing potholes and then they give raises to everyone in sight.

Look, folks, do you really think we need five Councilmembers to worry about fixing potholes?

Don't get us wrong on this. We think the improver majority on the Council is a hell of a lot better than what we could have had on the dais, but we think they've gotten soft and have forgotten why they were elected.

They weren't elected to become part of the good old boys do-nothing network that hides in the tall grass. They were elected to rock the boat and make the necessary changes in Costa Mesa to put us back on track to being more like our coastal neighboring cities.

We don't need five Katrina Foley clones on the Council. And, speaking of Foley, what has she ever done for Costa Mesa? Instead of working for real improvement in our city, she pulls PR stunts such as collecting food for South County fire victims. Screw South County! Collecting cans of food for them is even more meaningless than just fixing potholes. At least the potholes are in Costa Mesa.

What have South County citizens done for Costa Mesa? They blocked the El Toro Airport which means that John Wayne is going to grow and impact us much more than the fires impacted South County.

We're paying Foley's salary and she should be working to make our lives better right here in Costa Mesa. When South County chips in to pay Foley's salary, she can give us the PTA mom compassion routine.

We need Councilmembers who have some enlightened self-interest and who will take bold and decisive action to fix Costa Mesa.

And, while we're discussing local government, we think it's absurd that Costa Mesa has so many high paid upper echelon City employees who refuse to live in Costa Mesa.

The City of Boston requires that all City employees live in Boston. If the City discovers any employees who aren't living in Boston, they fire them.

California has a law that says that cities can't require employees to live in the cities that employ them, but you'd think that Costa Mesa would at least encourage high ranking employees--such as department heads--to move here. When high ranking employees actually live in the same conditions as the people who pay them, these high ranking employees have an added incentive to improve things.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 328

THEY DON'T WANT TO BE PART OF COSTA MESA--CAN YOU BLAME THEM?

According to the Daily Pilot, the folks over by the misnamed Santa Ana Country Club want a sit down with Supervisor John Moorlach to try to convince him to stop blocking their application to become part of Newport Beach. LINK

Now, why would these folks not want to be part of Costa Mesa--a city that is full of Latino gangs, slums, a high violent crime rate, lower than they should be home values, failing schools, 60 acres of industrial buildings on our Westside Bluffs, illegal aliens and magnet charities drawing even more illegal aliens here and then making them nice and comfortable so they'll bring their whole villages here?

Why would these folks not want to be part of a city with a dumbed-down City Council that knows or should know about all the problems in the preceding paragraph but still holds City Council meetings every two weeks where these idiots tell us their highest priority is filling potholes?

Of course, these folks who want to be part of Newport Beach, if they follow the precedent set by their neighbors who have already escaped the clutches of Costa Mesa's downward mobile policies, will tell Supervisor Moorlach, that the reason they want to go to Newport is because that city will fight hard to keep John Wayne Airport from growing. They won't anger him (he lives in Costa Mesa) by telling him the real reasons as I outlined above.

Look folks, smart people with a choice don't want to be stuck in a slum with a City Council that has no backbone to make the necessary changes to make things better for the middle class citizens of the city.

If Costa Mesa's City Council would start doing what it should be doing, we wouldn't see whole neighborhoods wanting no part of this city and we wouldn't have to fight to keep neighborhoods in Costa Mesa against their will.

Come on City Council. Fix Costa Mesa, it's broken.

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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 327

IF YOU DON'T WANT IT IN NEWPORT, PUT IT IN COSTA MESA--THE TOWN DUMP OF NEWPORT BEACH!

As the CM PRESS has been saying for years, the reason that Newport Beach doesn't have a bad part of town is because Costa Mesa is the bad part of town for Newport.

That's part of the reason why we continue to have 60 acres of polluting industrial buildings on our view bluffs and why we have rotting slums full of illegal aliens.

Now there's a controversy in Newport about a proposed site for sports fields in that city.

Here's a post from the Daily Pilot's blog put up by a Newporter that we found interesting:

Robin Daily wrote on Mar 24, 2008 12:11 PM:

" Do what the residents want and build a passive park [in Newport Beach] or leave the land alone. The AYSO is now using Costa Mesa soccer venues and no where did I read that this is a problem. There is no "dire need" for sports fields in Newport Beach because there are ample facilities in Costa Mesa. For once will the City Council stop it with all the development and impact it makes on peoples lives. I can assure you that if Steve Rosansky's view or ocean breeze was messed with the article would have a different ending. "

Here's the LINK to the Daily Pilot article about this park.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.

CM PRESS # 326

WHEN HALF-ASSED INCOMPETENTS RULE

You've probably read in the Daily Pilot that the Gap has now closed at Triangle Square. That's no surprise to anyone who knows a little about retail real estate.

Look, this isn't brain surgery. Triangle Square is designed wrong. It was functionally obsolete as a shopping center when it was still in the concept stage. It shouldn't have been built. Not the way it was built.

Here's what probably went on in the discussions back then. The developer tried to maximize the leasable square footage and his profits by putting the parking underground. His proforma projections that he took to the bank probably showed maximum rents and a very low vacancy factor (they always do).

The developer probably also had a handful of letters of interest from national and regional credit tenants and these letters of interest became part of the developer's pitch to the bank. The way it works in retail real estate is that many of these national and regional credit tenants will take a flyer on every new center that opens so long as certain minimum demographic figures support it and if certain other national credit tenants have also sent in letters of interest.

That's why when new centers first open they often look successful. However, the national and regional credit tenants always have performance clauses in their leases that let them bail out if their sales projections aren't reached by a certain time or if sales fall below certain levels or if certain other tenants go dark. That's why you'll see some centers that looked successful when they first opened (such as Triangle Square), suddenly starting to look less so as years go on.

On paper, and before it was built, Triangle Square probably looked like a winner. Paper isn't reality, folks. The problem is that in our climate and with our open space life style, it was a lousy idea. People have too many other choices in shopping and they prefer not to park in a damp and dreary cavern below a shopping center if they can help it. The psychology is all wrong. Also, it should have been clear that you couldn't get the right tenant mix at Triangle Square that would allow all merchants to prosper.

And, speaking of psychology, a slight digression might be instructive. There is a field where psychology and engineering/designing/development come together, called "human factors engineering." This is a field that started because engineers and others often design very efficient things including machines, but don't always factor in the human element.

Take a car, for example. To get the weight down, you, Mr. Engineer, may have designed the seats to be too hard. Or, you may have designed the radio knobs that are out of reach of the average human. Or you may have chosen interior colors that are psychologically upsetting, or put in gauges that are the wrong shape or color. Or, maybe, the materials you wanted for the interior you designed just smell wrong. To avoid costly mistakes, major automobile manufacturers usually have human factors engineers as part of their design teams. Same with airplane manufacturers. Your machine may be very efficient, but if people don't like it, you'll go broke.

Here's another example and another digression. Years ago, an old style chain of coffee shops in New York had a problem. Some customers would come in and sit at the counter for hours on end nursing a cup of coffee and thus keeping other paying customers from taking their seats. A human factors engineer was called in and he designed seats that were perfectly comfortable...for about ten minutes. Problem solved.

A team of competent uninvolved retail retail estate professionals would have served the function of human factors engineers for Triangle Square and would probably have advised the developer and the City that such a structure at that location might work as a government building or a college or for some similar use where people "had" to go. They would have told the developer and the City that it wouldn't work as a shopping center unless some changes were made.

And, today, even those who don't know much about retail real estate realize that Triangle Square is not working, despite all the happy face talk we've heard over the years from every new leasing team that takes over from the past failing leasing team.

Again, Triangle Square is designed wrong and is functionally obsolete. And, part of the problem is the stupid 55 Freeway causing major traffic problems right at its doorstep. You can't design a building without taking into account what's around that building. You have to look over the fence to see what's there and you have to realize your lot isn't in a vacuum.

How could Triangle Square be made to work and be an asset?

There are two alternatives that I've written about before:

1. The 55 could be put in a covered trench down to about 15th Street and the area above and near Triangle Square would become a pedestrian friendly open air shopping area with Triangle Square as the hub--think downtown Huntington Beach or the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. To be successful, Triangle Square would have to be opened up so that it became part of the outside.

2. Triangle Square could become a new City Hall or other government building or a college.

That's it. Those are the only two options besides tearing the place down that I see as viable.

But, here's the scary thing about the Triangle Square experience. We still have incompetents on the City Council making similar decisions for our city. In fact, we have an election every two years where we elect more incompetents who, for the most part, don't know much about City planning and who don't seem to be able to discern between good ideas and bad ones.

Today, we have incompetents on the City Council screwing up the Westside because they seem to bow to every little puff of smoke blown up their shorts by out of town industrialists who want to keep the Westside as slum central so they can continue to live the high life in Newport Beach upwind of the pollution that is going into the lungs of our kids from their massive industrial area on the Westside Bluffs.

And, what do our latter day incompetents tell us? "Oh, we're going to fix potholes and plant flowers in front of slums to fix the Westside." And, they mumble that they sure don't like eminent domain (having Councilmembers say this makes the out of town industrialist millionaires very happy), even though most of them don't understand that when properly used, eminent domain is a tool that can work to break the stranglehold of out of town money interests that won't let the Westside bloom.

Meanwhile, our present incompetents let big developers put in upscale condos and apartments all around South Coast Plaza without any state required low income units. What that does is force the city to keep rotting, overcrowded slums in our middle class neighborhoods to fulfill state mandated low income housing requirements.

Some of these incompetents have a childish view of what a free market economy really requires and they promote a laissez-faire system as though they're reading a class paper in their sixth grade class.

They fail to realize that the free market can't work unless everyone starts at the same time or until the playing field is truly leveled. In Costa Mesa, the out of town industrialists have had their 60 acres of industrial buildings on our view Westside Bluffs for many years and the City and other government entities including taxing entities have been protecting them.

So, our City Council put in a residential overlay on the Westside Bluffs. Big deal. Without doing more, things are not going to happen fast enough to turn things around, plus, and speaking of looking over the fence, Newport Beach is moving forward on the other side of those Bluffs to take all of Banning Ranch. And, they'll succeed. Why? Because Costa Mesa's half-assed politicians haven't done the right things over the years to make Costa Mesa desirable.

It's all connected, folks. If Costa Mesa were made more upscale instead of remaining an illegal alien sanctuary, many good things would start happening. To make it more upscale requires that we build upscale homes on land that is rare and desirable--such as view lots on the Westside Bluffs. And, some of our Westside Bluffs land is as desirable for homes as similar bluffs in Newport Beach where homes regularly sell for many millions of dollars.

Here's another example of what our half-assed politicians have done: They got rid of the job center but failed to put in a proper city ordinance to prevent day workers from congregating in parking lots and on street corners. Again, this isn't brain surgery. All these half-assed incompetents have to do is copy the ordinance recently enacted by the City of Orange.
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Those are our opinions about our half-assed politicians. Thanks for reading them.