Here's one of my national columns that will let new readers today, in 2014, get an idea of the struggles we went through to improve Costa Mesa.
This column is relevant today, because there are forces now working to try to turn back the clock to those dark days in the late '90's and early 2000's.
Today, the Eastside is a major recipient of the Improvement efforts. E. 17th Street was not the hippest street in OC back in 2000, as it is today.
The Improvers and their efforts to change the direction of Costa Mesa--starting with the Westside--helped the Eastside become what it is today and they helped property values increase all around the city.
But, the work is not done. The Righeimer Council is working hard to make sure that we don't return to those old dark, crime filled and downscale days. But, the lefties are trying to take over the city by electing puppets to the city council this year.
Don't let them return us to a Santa Ana past that we were facing back in 2000.
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| The opinions expressed in editorials, letters, e-mail and guest columns posted on this site do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Voice of Citizens Together. |
THE STRUGGLE
FOR THE SOUL OF COSTA MESA
By H. Millard (c) 2000
VCT Web Posted 1/25/01
COSTA MESA, CA. -- Down on the Orange County, California coast
there are three cities in a row. On the north is Huntington Beach, which
according to FBI statistics, is the safest city with more than 100,000
residents in all of Orange County.
On the south is Newport Beach, which is even safer than Huntington
Beach but because it has slightly fewer than 100,000 residents it doesn't show
up on the FBI report. Newport Beach is also one of the wealthiest cities in the
world. In between these two gems of the Orange County coast is something odd.
It's a piece of coal. It's Costa Mesa, a city with slightly more than 100,000
residents. Costa Mesa, again, according to the FBI, is the least safe large
city in all of Orange County.
Costa Mesa is full of slums and slum problems. There's something
unnatural about this. All three cities should actually be about the same in
quality. The three of them share the same cool ocean breezes in the heat of
summer that makes them very desirable. The three blend together on a map into a
seamless whole.
There's no logical reason why Costa Mesa is a dump when it's
immediate neighbors on the north and south are so nice. There's just something
fishy about this. So what's the problem? The easy answer is illegal aliens,
because the city appears to be absolutely overrun with them. However, WHY is
this city overrun with illegal aliens while it's two neighboring cities aren't?
|
|
"THE OUTSIDER", H. Millard's
novel of alienation in post- American America is available. Get it by
telephone:1-877-823-9235; at your bookstore, or at amazon.com.
|
Many good, decent citizens in Costa Mesa believe they know the
answer, and some have begun calling those behind the problems of this city the
Charity/Government/Industrial Complex. Others simply prefer the Establishment.
Whatever it is called, there seems to be a cohesive effort to keep Costa Mesa
mired in slums, crime and illegal aliens.
It's gotten so bad that many citizens of the city have joined
together in a loose Improvement Movement. This movement is a a collection of
individuals and groups who may disagree on many matters, but who have agreed to
agree that Costa Mesa can be a better city. These activists have put aside many
personal differences to work toward the common goal of making Costa Mesa as
desirable a place to live and visit as Newport Beach and Huntington Beach.
How did this Improvement Movement start? Back when talk of
"revitalizing" the worst section of the city--the Westside-- had
reached a point where it appeared that the city was seriously thinking of
making the Westside into some sort of official inner city illegal alien ghetto,
some citizens got together and started several grass roots
"Improvement" groups. These groups then presented their visions for
what the Westside and the city as a whole should be.
In 1999, when the city first talked of a
revitalization, some citizens picked up some subtle hints coming from the city
that some in city government wanted to turn the Westside into some sort of
Little Tijuana.
The city then hired an urban planning consultant, ostensibly to
garner "stake holder" input. However, many citizens believed it was
just a PR effort aimed at getting citizens to agree to what had already been
decided, and that the city had expected that "stake holders," and
"residents" (remember, these are two of the euphemisms use for
"illegal aliens) would "vote" for the Little Tijuana concept.
However, the unexpected happened to the PR effort. When the consultant held
public meetings, "to learn what the stake holders and residents
wanted--wink, wink," these meetings were filled to capacity by non-Latino
citizens, but very few Latinos. Instead of rolling over and agreeing that they
wanted the area to be a Little Tijuana, the citizens overwhelmingly said, in
various ways, that the Westside should be more like Newport Beach.
Then City Councilwoman, now Mayor, Libby Cowan apparently wasn't
pleased with this. She sent out a letter dated Sept. 8, 1999,co-signed by Ms.
Cowan and by Maria Elena Avila (of Avila's Ranchito Restaurants) who actually
lives in Corona del Mar (an expensive part of Newport Beach), not Costa Mesa,
to various high profile Latinos--more than half of whom also don't live in
Costa Mesa.
This letter, on official City of Costa Mesa stationary, invited
those addressed to form a Latino group to give input on the Westside. After
this letter was sent, it was claimed that a Latino group was formed (the city
then denied it had a hand in the formation). This group then said it had held
meetings with hundreds of Latino "stake holders" in private (not
public) living room dialogues. It was later said that these "stake
holders" were "shy." No kidding.
On January 19, 2000, Ms. Avila commuted to Costa Mesa from her
expensive Corona del Mar home and appeared at the regularly scheduled City
Council session and (surprise!) told the City Council of Costa Mesa (a city
where she doesn't live and can't vote) that the Westside should be turned into
a new Huntington Park (an inner city 50 miles away in Los Angeles County near
Watts), because that's what the shy stake holders had said in the private
living room dialogues.
After this, the urban planning consulting firm and (surprise,
again!) it mirrored the report brought in from the shy stake holders and totally
ignored the wishes of the hundreds of citizens who had attended the public
meetings.
Citizen anger reached a feverish level and the Improvement
movement called a meeting at a local school on short notice. This meeting was
standing room only and citizens let it be known that they wouldn't let the
Westside be turned into an official ghetto.
The citizens also said that illegal aliens should have no say in
the future shape of Costa Mesa and that to consider their opinions would be a
little like asking a burglar who had broken into your house how you should
redecorate. Many of those using the terms "stake holders," and
"residents," however, apparently want illegal aliens to have a veto
vote on plans for the city. To defuse the criticism of citizens who don't want
illegal aliens to out vote them, those who do want illegal aliens to be
included, switched the conversation from"illegal aliens," to
"Latinos" and then screamed "racism." So far this hasn't
worked and those who are screaming racism are being seek as the phony race
hustlers that they are.
Behind the illegal aliens and feeding off them is the
Government/Charity/Industrial Complex at work in the city that has developed a
symbiotic relationship among the various elements of this Complex. What keeps
this Complex going is a constant infusion of poor--mostly illegal
alien--people. To attract them, there are various "magnets" drawing
people to the city who can't afford to live in Costa Mesa.. Once they're in the
city, they pack themselves into tiny apartments. Then, to make ends meet they
receive various charity handouts, often paid for with citizen tax funds that
the City Council gives them.
Now, it must be understood that many charities are big businesses.
Although many of them are non- profit corporations and can't, by law, make a
corporate profit, those who head up these charities often make very attractive
salaries. In order to grow, the charities, like any other businesses, must
attract many new customers or clients. The Community Development Block Grant
report issued by the City of Costa Mesa shows that charities are growth
businesses in Costa Mesa because there are more charity "clients each year
than the year before.
But, there are more pieces to this Complex than just the
charities. There are Slum Lords who make a profit by charging high rents for
slum apartment buildings and who get the rent they want by allowing fifteen or
more people squeeze into tiny apartments and share the rent. These people then
often use the Job Center to make their portion of the rent. Businesses that
need cheap labor find it at the Job Center. Thanks to the City of Costa Mesa
which pays more than $ 130,000 per year of tax payer money for the Job Center,
these businesses have a one stop hiring hall. According to records seen by the
CM PRESS, about half of the people hiring day laborers from this Costa Mesa tax
supported facility are actually from other cities. In fact, the City of Newport
Beach, which has its city yard right down the street from Costa Mesa's Job
Center, sends trucks to pick up day laborers to clean the beaches. However, the
City of Newport Beach doesn't pay one cent toward the bill for the Job Center.
The day workers don,t make much money from what are often under
the table jobs where they are paid in cash by some employers who often don,t
pay taxes as they should. Also the employers don't have to pay medical and
other benefits. But what about medical and dental needs of the day laborers and
their families? Don't worry dear souls. The Community Development Block Grant
mentioned above has the answer. In 1999-2000, 2,215 Hispanics received free (to
them) dental care from one charity in the city. Also during that period
1999-2000, a grand total of 25 whites received free dental care (that's not a
typo). See a pattern here? Read on.
But, how can these day laborers afford to
live in Costa Mesa? Easy. Remember, many are squeezed into tiny apartments
where they share the rent. Figure it out with simple math. Each of ten people
sharing a $900 per month slum apartment only has to pay $90 per month in rent.
Food? It,s free from the charities. Medical and dental care? Free to them. We
pay for it. Clothes? Free or cheap from the charities or from the second hand
stores that always open in such environments. Welcome to the slum cycle. If
this cycle isn't broken, the Westside as it is today may be the future of all
of Costa Mesa.
Part of this Government/Charity/Industrial Complex includes the single
unified school district that encompasses both Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.
It's one district, yet one school in Costa Mesa has a Stanford 9 score that is
almost 500 points lower than a virtually identical school in Newport Beach.
What's going on? Some activists believe that as with the Job Center, Newporters
are taking advantage of Costa Mesa and are using our city as their other side
of the tracks. In addition, because of the unified nature of this school
district, the district as a whole can say, on paper, that it is diverse.
However, all the diversity is actually located in the Costa Mesa part of the
district.
Who is harmed by this informal Government/Charity/Industrial
Complex? The good decent citizens of Costa Mesa who have to live with the crime,
the failing schools, the slums, the gangs and all the rest. The actions of this
Complex act like a cap on the improvement of Costa Mesa and explains why Costa
Mesa--which sits between Huntington Beach, the safest large city in Orange
County, and Newport Beach, one of the richest cities in the world--is so
different from both of those cities, and why Costa Mesa has urban inner city
problems that its two neighboring cities do not have, and which are being
artificially maintained in Costa Mesa.
Without the machinations of this informal
Government/Charity/Industrial Complex, Costa Mesa would quickly and naturally
rise to a level of quality that is very close to that of Newport Beach. Such a
prospect has some members of the Government/Charity/Industrial Complex worried
that citizens will catch on and demand that this merrygo-round that is keeping
Costa Mesa mired in slums and crime end. Thus do we see shrill, hysterical and
absurd cries of "racism" and all the rest aimed at those who want the
city to be improved. It's a desperate attempt to stop the improvement of Costa
Mesa with the usual all-purpose smear word "racism, and it,s cousins
"bigotry, "hate, "prejudice and "xenophobia.
One of the major players in this Complex appears to be Mayor Libby
Cowan. A look at Ms. Cowan's campaign literature from the last election reveals
the names of many of the charity leaders in the city. It also reveals some of
the names of have been vocal in hinting at "racism when talk of improving
Costa Mesa comes up. This isn't to say that all the people who supported Ms.
Cowan are of like mind, but among them are those with an agenda that is not
good for the stable citizens of Costa Mesa.
Was it any surprise then, that when citizens said at a City
Council meeting that there were too many charities in Costa Mesa that Ms. Cowan
defended the charities? Is it any surprise that Ms. Cowan votes to take tax
money and give it to the charities? Is it any surprise that she wants to keep
the Job Center? Is it any surprise that she doesn't want citizenship to be a
requirement for the commissions and committees appointed by the City Council?
The Government/Charity/Industrial Complex doesn't want the
Westside to really be improved through a genuine Redevelopment, because if it
is, they'll be out of business. They need the slum conditions to survive.
One of the Government/Charity/Industrial Complex,s other tactics
is to make some minor improvements on the Westside such as planting trees,
while keeping the slums, the charities and all the rest. This gives the
illusion of improvement when there isn't really anything meaningful done.
Oh, you may also have heard that Costa Mesa's Police Department
announced that it doesn't check for proof of auto insurance on routine traffic
stops. One rumor in the city about this is that the police department doesn't
want to get into a position where it has to arrest illegal aliens and take them
to the city jail where the INS has an agent stationed.
Did I mention that Costa Mesa's police chief lives in Newport
Beach and that only about 18% or so of his officers actually live in Costa
Mesa? Did I forget to mention that photos of the police chief handing out free
food to "Latinos" in Costa Mesa also often appear on the front page
of the local ultra-liberal DAILY PILOT ?
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