Welcome To The A Bubbling Cauldron Storage Closet

SOME HISTORY 
As some know, I began posting entries in A Bubbling Cauldron in July, 2005 using a "bare bones" blog tool by Earthlink.  Eighteen months later I migrated this activity to the current host - a Google tool called Blogger.  There are more than 3200 entries on that site.

FORCED TO TAKE ACTION 
I kept the "Old" A Bubbling Cauldron site open for reference, but have recently been notified by Earthlink that, in the first quarter of 2020, my site will be shut down and will no longer be available. - poof!  That, of course, was disappointing and it forced me to create this site, which will act as a repository of all those old entries.  So, that creaking sound you heard was the hinges on the door this seldom-used storage unit.  It is my intent to keep this open forever, just in case you want to refer to something I wrote between July, 2005 and the end of October, 2006.  Each entry will have it's own URL, so you can link to it individually if you choose.  Keep in mind that these are OLD entries.  Also, comments are disabled on this site.  There's no sense to dredge up old stuff.  If you REALLY need to contact me you can reach me at this address.

ABOUT ME 
On that old blog entry I posted a short essay about me. I will post it as the second entry here.

PREDICTION OR FICTION
As a sidebar to the old blog format I was able to post links to unrelated things.  One of them was an essay making some presumptions about a possible earthquake on the Newport-Inglewood Fault.  I posted it shortly after Hurricane Katrina, when everyone was aware of natural disasters.  Some of the things I presumed turned out to not be the case, but you can read it for whatever it's worth to you.  That will be the third entry.

THE TASK BEGINS - BE PATIENT
As I type this I am about to begin this laborious task at the peak of the holiday season, so this blog probably won't see the light of day until the new year.  If you've stumbled upon it before I get it finished, please be patient.  I will announce it on my new blog and on my Facebook page when it's ready for you.

About The Author - July 2005

WHO IS THIS GUY? 
After residing in Costa Mesa, California, for nearly three decades, I finally began paying attention to important issues in our community and to the way the town was being governed. Prior to that time, I did what 99.99% of the residents of this city do - I buried my head the sand, crossed my fingers and trusted the elected officials.

Eventually, I realized that some elected officials are no more skilled at governing than the guys mowing your lawn, bagging your groceries or serving you a cool beverage at your favorite pub, so I began to tighten my focus on the issues and the handful of people in our community who show up, stand up, get involved and actually get things done. 

I began writing to the Daily Pilot, our excellent local community newspaper - which is owned and distributed by the Los Angeles Times - after a column written about leadership in Costa Mesa struck a chord. Since that time - more than three years and counting - I've continued to express my observations and opinions in letters and commentaries to the Daily Pilot and other local newspapers, many of which have been published. I'm extremely grateful for those opportunities to present ideas for my neighbors to ponder.

The editing process, though, seems to work a little like our alimentary canal - what goes in one end doesn't necessarily resemble what comes out the other. One never knows why a piece is changed or rejected - it could be my bad writing, a shortage of space, politics, or simply the whim of an editor. Having one's work edited - whether trimmed with surgical precision or disemboweled like a flounder at the fish market - can be frustrating. I do admit that the editing process frequently made my contributions much better.

So, in the middle of 2005 I decided it was time to create a web log - a place to provide the opportunity for a broader distribution of my observations and opinions - unedited.

I realize this is a dangerous move, because editors do perform a valuable service. This will become very apparent as you read my thoughts - typos, punctuation errors, malaprops and all. I fully intend to blame such transgressions on my advancing years - I'm told that we old fellas can get away with it.

My goal with this web log is to ask questions and offer opinions that might stimulate dialogue on important issues facing those of us who live not only in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, but throughout Orange County and our entire region.

If reading these pages motivates you to become more involved in your community, my goal will have been accomplished. I've tried to provide links to organizations that might be helpful to you and will add to the list as time moves on.

I'm interested in your opinions, so please drop me a note if you feel so moved. If you think I'm off base, let me know. If you think I got it right, I'd like to hear that, too. From time to time I might quote you, so watch your language. Anonymous notes will be treated like any other spam - they will be deleted without being read.

With ladle in hand, I invite you to visit often. This site is a work in progress, so your patience is much appreciated. Enjoy... 

The Big One - Fiction or Prediction? (Originally published 9/2005)

WHAT IS THIS?
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina I began thinking about natural disasters and how my area might be affected by, say, a major earthquake.  So, I researched the heck out of the issue and presented the following essay.  The predictions would be more severe if such a quake happened today.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina I offer the following scenario for you to consider. The scene is set sometime in the future - perhaps the not-too-distant future - and is viewed from the prism of a Newport-Mesa perspective.

PREAMBLE 
Wednesday morning was typical of a late September day in southern California. By nine o'clock it was bright and sunny, with any hint of coastal overcast rapidly burning off. There was a mild off-shore breeze which promised to push the temperatures into the high 70s. It was the kind of day that chambers of commerce all over the southland love to tout.

In the Newport-Mesa area things were buzzing along as usual. The school children were back at their places with bright, shining faces. The shop owners were beginning to unlock their doors and freshen their inventory. The realtors were pounding themselves on their shoulder pads, getting ready for another "game day", when they might close a deal on a $5 million house. They could almost see that new Bentley convertible in their garage now.

The local police and firefighters were settling in for another routine day. It's long past the 7:00 a.m. shift change, so the patrol officers were comfortably snuggled into the seats of their cruisers and the motorcycle officers were busy staking out a nice, shady place from which to spring on unsuspecting transgressors. Radar guns were being warmed up.

At the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa city halls the public servants were busy checking plans, designing recreation programs, scheduling street repairs, collecting business tax dollars and generally going about the people's business.

Most commuters had long since left their homes in the Newport-Mesa and made their way to their offices - some as far as 50 miles away - and were on their second cup of coffee as they went about making a living so they could continue to live in this most perfect of locations.

The early morning rush of flights out of John Wayne Airport has eased off by now, with those air commuters to Sacramento already on the ground at their destination and busily lobbying for this or that in the state capitol.

Immigrant fast-food workers are walking to the bus stops enroute to their first job of the day, a 6 hour                                     shift wrapping tacos and burritos, before heading to their janitorial job that evening. Such labor is necessary to live here and provide food and clothing for their handful of bright, bilingual American citizen children who have been at school for nearly two hours by now.

The regulars at the local Starbuck's, Deidrich's and Peet's are comfortably slumped down at their favorite tables, slurping jolts of caffeine at twenty-five cents a gulp and reading their newspapers in search of rare good news on this planet.

A neighbor is outside on a ladder, scraping his house in preparation for the application for a much needed fresh coat of paint. Another is in his garage, tinkering with the hot rod he's been building for most of the past decade. An elderly neighbor using a walker makes her way to the curb to check her mailbox, looking for anticipated treasures in the form of birthday cards from her great-grandchildren.

A covey of "soccer moms" bustles past the window on their post-carpool walk-and-chat, spurting out conversation at the rate of about ten words per step.

It was a normal day in this little slice of paradise... Then the world changed forever.

THE EVENT 
It began as three seconds of an almost imperceptible sound, somewhere between a groan and a grind, followed by a loud crash - more like an explosion - and louder grinding, which seemed to go on forever. These sounds would be joined by more crashes, loud pops, explosions... and screams.

At precisely 9:00 a.m. the Newport-Inglewood Fault slipped, causing what would later be calculated as a magnitude 8.3 earthquake along it's more than 50 mile length. The epicenter of this event was located midway along the fault at approximately the entrance to Huntington Harbor at Anaheim Bay. The shaking lasted two minutes and ten seconds and was felt as far away as Las Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland and Salt Lake City.

Ten seconds after the beginning of the quake Newport Harbor resembled a huge toilet bowl, with water swirling and sinking as though someone had pressed the flush lever. Docks collapsed and boats tore from their moorings as the water disappeared below. Twenty seconds later sea water rushed in through the harbor entrance and over the peninsula and overfilled the void. This local tsunami, combined with the liquefaction of the low-lying, sandy areas, scoured every home and business from their foundations and piled the debris at the base of the bluff from the Santa Ana River to Corona del Mar.

The one-year old Newport Beach City Hall, that magnificent $50 million structure built amid much controversy at the site of the old city hall, was among the first casualties of the quake. The liquefaction caused the foundation to settle almost immediately and the surge from the tsunami drowned every worker trapped inside. The adjacent new fire station also sunk in the soil, trapping the equipment inside. The new parking structure also collapsed.

Hoag Hospital, even though it had gone through extensive retrofitting, had no chance. Perched on the bluff over looking the harbor, it sat squarely astride the fault line. When the quake hit the thrust tossed the buildings like a pup with a new toy. They first leaned north, then snapped back south in a whiplash-like motion. The parking structures pancaked, crushing more than 300 cars. Eventually, more than 1500 people would succumb to injuries or die in the fires that followed as flammable gases from ruptured lines ignited.

Behind the hospital, the condominiums on Superior Avenue collapsed, caught fire and slid down the hill toward Pacific Coast Highway.

The bridge over the Santa Ana River leading to Huntington Beach collapsed. The Arches Bridge which carried Newport Boulevard traffic across Pacific Coast Highway collapsed. The bridge over the Back Bay collapsed. The Reuben E. Lee, torn from it's berth, was pitched like an early morning newspaper onto the highway, blocking all lanes.

Two of the three Balboa ferries were found, upside down, near the Back Bay Bridge. The third ferry was later found sunk in the mud in the bay at what had been Balboa Island.

The tidal surge, a 45 foot wall of water, carried debris and water craft all the way to the Jamboree Road bridge. Most of the debris stopped there, but the water continued on to the San Diego Freeway. Unsuspecting campers at Newport Dunes, mostly snowbirds enjoying the weather in the shade of their mammoth retirement motorhomes, were swept away. Most were never identified.

Near the end of the Back Bay, the Fletcher Jones Mercedes dealership on Jamboree Road was destroyed by the tidal surge. Some displaced Mercedes automobiles were found along San Diego Creek near the 405 freeway, having washed that far in the surge.

Homes on every island in the harbor and on the peninsula were completely obliterated - not a single structure was spared as the harbor morphed into a shallow, level quagmire of mud and debris. The marine fuel tanks on the peninsula and Balboa Island ruptured. The spreading fuel, ignited by downed power lines, made a flaming cauldron one hundred yards in each direction. Those flames eventually ignited the remnants of structures nearby, which burned unabated for several hours. Balboa Island became a funeral pyre.

The boulders which formed the rocky spines of the jetties at the harbor mouth were tossed like so many marbles, blocking the entrance and exposing the harbor to damaging swells for months to come. The bait barge was first upended, then tossed onto the rocks by the surge.

The flow from the Santa Ana River mouth was re-directed as the jetties were destroyed. The flow turned south into West Newport which became an extension of Newport Harbor until jetty repairs were completed eight months later.

On the high ground folks fared better, but not much. At Newport Center the high rise buildings swayed and rocked. Two eventually collapsed completely before the shaking stopped, leaving 350 people dead or injured.

In an amazing bit of irony, in Newport Heights St. Andrew's Church - which was finally undergoing it's very controversial expansion - suffered major structural damage, caught fire and burned to the ground. The loss was estimated at $30 million.

Across the street, Newport Harbor High School - which had recently completed Measure A renovations - was so severely damaged that it was later declared a total loss. Five hundred children lost their lives that morning, with another three hundred severely injured, as the buildings buckled and crumbled around them. Corona del Mar High School didn't suffer the same extensive damage, but several buildings would require demolition and repair. Two dozen children were killed and another 150 were injured.

At Costa Mesa High School, Estancia High School and Orange Coast College extensive damage to buildings was reported. The brand new Olympic swimming pool fractured and was a total loss. Between the three schools, 480 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured. Throughout the school district more than 3,000 children, teachers and administrators were killed and 6,250 injured. The athletic fields at all the schools became triage centers as the overwhelmed emergency workers attempted to save the lives of survivors.

The San Joaquin Hills Reservoir below Pacific View Memorial Park suffered extensive damage, which resulted in it's contents washing down hill to the back bay. At the cemetery, significant earth slippage was reported, with many caskets exposed.

Up on Signal Peak, site of communication towers and a reference point for local flyers, the antennas whipped like willows in the wind but somehow managed to stay upright. Power to the towers was interrupted, which shut them down for more than a week.

Along King's Road, 90% of the homes on the edge of the bluff collapsed and became part of the debris pile created by the tsunami surge. Only 5% of the homes in the Newport Heights area came out unscathed. Most of those were the small, single story older homes which somehow managed to ride out the quake and the subsequent fires.

Bluff top homes along the coast south to Dana Point were severely damaged. The buildings at Crystal                                     Cove were destroyed - swallowed up by the sea, as were the trailers at El Morro.

Homes in Emerald Bay were badly damaged, some later declared a total loss as the temblor rippled south and caused landslides.

Pacific Coast Highway buckled, shifting as much as ten feet in places, throughout it's length. It became impassible in Corona del Mar - or what was left of it. The fires that started within fifteen minutes of the quake were driven by the mild Santa Anna wind that morning. Ruptured residential gas lines were ignited by fallen power lines. Four hundred homes on the south side of Coast Highway in Corona del Mar were burned to the ground because firefighters were unable to reach them and the water mains were damaged, resulting in no pressure in that area.

In the higher locations, Spyglass Hill and Newport Coast, the two-minute duration of the shaking caused landslides which eventually claimed another three hundred multi-million dollar homes. Laguna Beach suffered a similar fate, as the unstable canyons once again failed. 275 homes were destroyed by landslides or the resultant fires.

Los Angeles International Airport, Long Beach Airport and John Wayne Airport lost the use of all runways as the earth shifted and buckled. It was later estimated that it would take nearly $2 billion to repair LAX. Long Beach, with a main runway paralleling the fault destroyed by the quake, will require complete rebuilding to the tune of $1 billion. The terminals at John Wayne were so damaged that, along with the runway repair, costs would run to more than $1.75 billion. In another bit of irony, The Great Park in Irvine - site of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and potential site of an                                     intercontinental airport - suffered only minor damage as the quake spread on a more southerly route.

North along the coast, Huntington Beach lost every home in low-lying areas. Damage to the Santa Ana River channel walls would take months to repair. In the meantime, the tsunami surge forced sea water through the break and inundated the city, as well as parts of Fountain Valley. The hotels along Coast Highway in Huntington Beach were declared a total loss.

Pacific Coast Highway from the Santa Ana River to Long Beach simply disappeared below the sea and sand.

The power plant at Huntington Beach, built on the sand, failed within the first minute of the quake as the soil liquefied and the structure sank twelve feet in places. It will be a total loss.

In Long Beach, which had suffered catastrophic losses when a quake hit that city on the same fault in 1933, was destroyed. The 1933 quake, a magnitude 6.3, resulted in 115 lives lost and 40 million in damage. The current quake is 100 times more powerful. Not one multi-story building was left un-damaged. All beach front properties suffered the same fate as Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. The business district was annihilated as building after building collapsed and burned.

The huge ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, which handled 40% of all cargo in the United States, were so damaged that the economic loss to this country over the next three years that it would take to return them to good working order was estimated at $2 trillion.

Oil wells in Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Long Beach and Newport Beach failed, dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil onto the adjacent areas. The fires which were ignited at those locations and at the refineries in Wilmington took two months to finally extinguish. The acrid smoke filled the entire Los Angeles basin for weeks.

In Costa Mesa, every bridge over the 55 and 405 freeways failed, stranding residents and travelers amid piles of debris. The damage on the 405 stretched all the way to LAX, making driving in the region all but impossible except for those on motorcycles. Downed power lines made most roads impassible for nearly a week following the quake. Water lines fractured, severely limiting fire fighting capability and calling for emergency rationing. Despite the recent seismic retrofitting, that erector set exoskeleton left incomplete by the original contractor, the City Hall suffered severe damage. No records were lost, although the severity of the quake knocked out communications. The Orange County Fairgrounds became a disaster relief point for nearly 60,000 displaced people from Costa Mesa and neighboring communities.

Bethel Towers, the high rise senior living facility, was whip-sawed back and forth for the duration of the quake. The residents and staff, who were just beginning their day, suffered 95% casualties. It took                                     three days to extricate the handful of injured elderly survivors. The building was so damaged that it was later demolished.

At South Coast Plaza, pedestrian bridges collapsed, killing dozens of people on their way to work. Both of the main plaza structures on either side of Bear Street suffered major structural damage, with the parts of the roof collapsing at both locations, trapping hundreds of early morning shoppers.

Actors and crew rehearsing at the Performing Arts Center were injured as parts of the structures failed.

In Fountain Valley, the effluent being treated at the sewage plant was pitched like you would toss the residue from a cup of coffee. The infrastructure was so damaged that it would take 8 months to repair,                                     leaving more than a million customers without sewage treatment.

In the distance smoke could be seen billowing from the tunnels of the TriTunnel Express, below Saddleback Peak. That multi-billion dollar boondoggle that was supposed to relieve traffic on the 91 Freeway had been open for a few months, carrying a much smaller volume of traffic than was predicted. During the quake two of the four active faults crossed by the three tunnels slipped, causing the tunnels to displace ten feet. Both oil pipelines carried by the tunnels ruptured, spilling the flammable fluid into the tunnels. One of the two 500,000 volt electric transmission lines were severed and ignited the oil. More than 2,000 automobile drivers and 400 truckers, with rigs being carried on the train through the third tunnel, were trapped in the 12 miles of smoke-filled tunnel and perished. It took 2 hours before crews could shut off the flow and 4 days before the smoke in the tunnels cleared enough for recovery efforts to begin.

On Catalina Island, with the exception of buildings higher than 50 feet above sea level, the city of Avalon was wiped out by the tsunami. The Casino building was left standing, although pulled off it's foundation and mortally wounded. It would later be demolished. Two Harbors was scrubbed of any structures as the surge crossed the island at that point.

The nuclear power plant at San Onofre, which suffered no structural damage from the quake, was flooded by the tsunami. The thirty foot high flood walls proved to be fifteen feet too short to handle the surge that reached the site at the same time Catalina was hit. The generators went off line, but no nuclear disaster occurred.

Offshore oil wells in the Catalina Channel were dislodged by the tsunami. Only one survived intact and emergency shut-off devices on some rigs failed, allowing thousands of gallons of oil to pour into the ocean in the channel. The ecological damage would make the Exxon Valdez disaster look like a mere oil spot on your garage floor by comparison.

The National Guard facility at Los Alamitos was severely damaged and was unusable. The Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro twisted, buckled and suffered a failure of a 100 foot section in the center of the span. It would take ten months to repair it.

Much of southern California resembled a war zone. Martial law was declared within days of the quake because desperate, starving people began looting to survive. Roving bands of armed thugs roamed un-checked until National Guard troops made their way to the area. Dusk to dawn curfews were imposed for months. Violators were shot by nervous guardsmen who had been fired upon as they patrolled the streets.

THE AFTERMATH 
In the aftermath of the quake, those residents who survived were forced to make difficult decisions. Some tried to remain in their homes, but it would take weeks to restore even the most basic electric, gas and water service. The sewer systems of all cities along the fault were destroyed, rendering even neighborhoods which came through the quake otherwise unscathed, uninhabitable. Residents were forced to evacuate to other locations, most of which were further inland.

Some of the most valuable real estate in the world disappeared, swallowed up by the ocean as the fault released energy equivalent to 2.5 billion tons of TNT.

Aerial video of the disaster area was almost incomprehensible. Locally, the Balboa Peninsula, once such a vibrant, happy place, has been reduced to a strip of sand and debris only twenty-five yards wide in most places. The remnants of the islands within the harbor are barely visible below the surface now. Since no insurance company will ever again provide coverage for homes in those areas, it was turned into a national seashore recreation area. It will take a decade to dredge the harbor to a depth sufficient for safe pleasure boat use again.

Throughout southern California the casualty count was almost beyond belief. At least 310,000 people were killed in the quake or shortly thereafter from quake-related injuries. 670,000 people were injured. 2.6 million lost their homes. More than 60,000 businesses were destroyed.

Once the regional refugee data base was created a month after the quake, it took many more weeks for families to be re-connected. Thousands of people were never accounted for and reports of bodies floating in the Catalina Channel were recorded for two months following the quake.

The inquiry into the quake and it's damage six months later determined that the direct cost to replace the damaged infrastructure would be more than $280 billion. Economic impact to the nation was conservatively estimated at over $5 trillion. Some communities ceased to exist. The peninsula and islands in Newport Beach were gone, never to be reclaimed. Seal Beach and coastal parts of Huntington Beach and Long Beach were gone, with the sea now covering those areas. Three major insurance companies declared bankruptcy and the California Earthquake Authority, overwhelmed by claims, was declared insolvent and disbanded.

It took a month for some local governments to begin functioning again. It will take a nearly a decade to re-construct Newport Beach public records because they all were lost when the City Hall was destroyed. Every civic leader with the exception of the Police Chief was killed in the quake. Costa Mesa, in a move prompted by the circumstances, annexed Newport Beach and changed the name of the combined city to Newport Mesa. The seat of government for this new city was located at the much-maligned former Triangle Square, which inexplicably survived the quake with almost no damage.

THE QUESTION 
Is this story fiction or prediction? You tell me. We've all watched the coverage of the damage and despair along the Gulf Coast caused by Hurricane Katrina in recent weeks. Do you think my little story over-estimates the damage that would be done by a major earthquake along the Newport-Inglewood Fault? Do your own research. Ask the experts about it. Think about it. Lose some sleep over it. Most of all, prepare for it. 

EMINENT DOMAIN AND THE WESTSIDE - 7/9/2005

Saturday, July 9, 2005
EMINENT DOMAIN AND THE WESTSIDE

The potential redevelopment of Westside Costa Mesa got a whole lot more interesting recently. On June 23, 2005 the United States Supreme Court ruled in a Connecticut case that eminent domain can be used to force property owners off their land so another entity can replace it to generate more tax revenue. However, the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution states, in part, "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation". In this case that term, "just compensation", is just another way of saying, "way below market value".

If I were a business property owner on the Westside of Costa Mesa I would be shaking in my boots about now. It was bad enough when the residential overlay was approved for the entire area that will permit a willing industrial property owner to sell to a developer and facilitate the integration of residential units in the present industrial area. This recent ruling makes it a whole new ball game. Now eager developers can sweet talk our City Council into using the sledgehammer of eminent domain to oust even the most reluctant of property owners. Do I hear the jingle of campaign finance coins in the air?

You're probably saying to yourself, "Nah, our council members would never do that." Well, don't be too sure. It takes lots of money to successfully run for public office. Eric Bever, for example, managed to round up over $50,000 for his war chest in his slim victory last November. He and his pal, Mayor Allan Mansoor, seem likely to run again - Mansoor in 2006 and Bever in 2008 - so developers with jingling pockets will probably start showing up on their doorsteps pretty soon with plans for the "mansionization" of the Westside.

Ambitious Mayor Pro Tem Gary Monahan, who theoretically is termed out of a council seat after his current tour, might be looking forward to higher office - perhaps County Supervisor. I imagine he will have his ear cocked for the sound of jingling coins, too.

Lest you think the ladies on the dais will be left out, I suspect Katrina Foley and Linda Dixon can expect the developers to come calling, too.

If you're thinking to yourself that this won't affect you, think again. If you own a one of those little, old homes on the Westside in an area that falls under the shroud of the residential overlay, you might be getting a queasy stomach right about now. If you had a cocky smirk on your face a couple months ago when the Westside Redevelopment Oversight Committee's recommendations were usurped by Bever's sleight of hand that put the residential overlay over virtually the entire Westside because you thought it would rid you of obnoxious industrial neighbors, think about this: As I understand this ruling, it would be entirely possible for a residential property owner living in a redevelopment zone to be forced to sell his home for "just compensation" so a new, larger one could be built that would generate more property tax. If your little bungalow just happens to sit on a sliver of land that might be a key acquisition for a larger development, we could soon be seeing your taillights as you head out of town, because you sure won't be able to afford another place in Costa Mesa with the proceeds of your "just compensation".

Are you nervous yet? You should be - especially in this city, where the ruling troika on the City Council has already demonstrated a smug willingness to play fast and loose with the rules.

I, for one, expect to have more than a few sleepless nights about this issue.

2:48 pm pdt

Adios, Human Relations Committee - 7/15/2005

Friday, July 15, 2005
Adios, Human Relations Committee

After voting to withhold funding for the Human Relations Committee at a recent council meeting, the Costa Mesa City Council will likely vote to disband that organization at its meeting on July 19th.

I'm trying to decide what this tells me about our City Council, and the city in general. The Human Relations Committee was created by an enlightened City Council in August of 1987, with the expressed mission to: "...advise the City Council on matters of social significance; to recommend and implement projects that will encourage interaction, sharing and understanding of each other's culture's riches; to be a catalyst for the resolution of issues that divide individuals; and to serve as a 'public forum' where citizens of Costa Mesa can address their concerns."

I listened to the comments by council members, Mayor Allan Mansoor specifically, as he stated flat-out that this committee has outlived its usefulness. Of course, since he is a former member of this committee, I guess he should know - right? Or is there more to it than that?

Some observers will recall that the same verbiage was used during the dialogue about the Job Center - that it, too, had outlived its usefulness. At that time I interpreted that comment to mean that the Job Center was in the way of development - an accurate interpretation, as it turns out.

I guess our current City Council no longer has the need to be advised on matters of social significance. I guess the relationships within our city are so trouble-free that we no longer need a group to "recommend and implement projects that will encourage interaction, sharing and understanding of each other's culture's riches". Yeah, right....

It seems to me that the exact opposite is the case. Obviously, there are factions within this city that are at loggerheads. Clearly, there are those who resent the presence of the dominant Latino population on the Westside of town, because they have worked diligently to expunge that group from our borders for many years. Is this not precisely the type of situation the Human Relations Committee was created to handle? What does the willingness of this council to cast aside a group intended to facilitate municipal harmony say about them - and us?

When this act is coupled with this council's reduction of funding for some charitable organizations earlier this year and the apparent distain the majority on the council has for the Recreation Division - the arm of city government which oversees many of the cultural elements within our town - it certainly does not bode well for us as a community.

I fear we are approaching some dark days for our city.

11:29 am pdt

Early Reviews and Westside News - 7/18/2005

Monday, July 18, 2005
Early Reviews and Westside News

Well, after a week, the jury's still out. Some of you who have visited this site apparently like what you read, because you've told me so. Other comments have been "guarded" - probably because they fear being quoted. Others are probably still seething with rage and have not yet been able to type a response.

One old friend, though, made what might be a telling Freudian slip when he referred to this site as "A Babbling Cauldron". I can hear the heads nodding in agreement out there as you read that last sentence.

One of the great things about this medium is that you can choose to read this stuff - or not. This site is not a newsletter, per se. I'm not going to send you a weekly reminder to visit the site. You can bookmark it and visit as often as you like - or not. I'm not going to add content on any particular schedule - I might post something new twice a day. Then, again, I might only post something once a week. As I said in the beginning, this is a work in progress...

On another note, on July 16th our local community newspaper, the Daily Pilot, saw fit to print yet another of my commentaries. As usual, the editors did a good job of polishing my original submission. And, as is sometimes the case, they also chose to delete a segment in it's entirety. They, for some reason, chose to delete my last two sentences, which read: "Thuggery is not leadership. This is not a happy time for our city."

I don't plan to point out editing decisions in the future, but thought this particular example might be informative for you.

***

Daily Pilot
Community Commentary

Published July 16, 2005
Westside war path

By Geoff West

Columnist Jim de Boom, and this writer along with him, were wrong. I whole-heartedly agreed when de Boom suggested, in his annual turkey of the year piece 18 months ago, that Eric Bever flew above that mob -- that he was an eagle -- because of his selfless act of citizenship when he stepped aside so Mike Scheafer could be appointed to the City Council, thus avoiding a costly special election. That was then; this is now.
Now on the council, Bever's smug willingness to virtually put a gun to the head of a property owner by threatening to condemn his business makes me very nervous.

Several months ago, Bever -- elected in November by the slimmest of margins -- quick pitched the process by ignoring the recommendations of the Westside Redevelopment Oversight Committee by moving to place a residential overlay zone over virtually the entire redevelopment area.

This should have been a wake-up call for every resident in this city, because he and the other men on the council have subsequently shown a willingness to play fast and loose with the rules.

Sadly, it comes as no surprise to me that Bever, in his writing to the Pilot on Thursday, reaffirmed his willingness to use the sledgehammer of eminent domain with Triangle Square.

I'm afraid this is just an omen of things to come for residents and property owners in the redevelopment area on the Westside.

All industrial property owners in that area should be quaking in their boots right about now.

With the recent Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain as back-up, the council can now begin to purge the Westside of those businesses they find so offensive and proceed to sell off the property to salivating developers -- who, coincidentally, might just become major campaign contributors.

Eminent domain is supposed to be but one of the tools, such as a scalpel, available to local governments to resolve blighted areas. The way it's beginning to look right now, the tools of choice for this council will be a billy club, brass knuckles or baseball bats, as they flog reluctant property owners into submission.

It sure looks like the majority on the council -- rather than negotiate and provide incentives -- plan, figuratively, to simply drag reluctant property owners into an alley and beat the daylights out of them.

I wonder just how many of us will simply stand by and watch the muggings take place without comment.

I wonder if those Westside residents who stood with cocky smirks on their faces a couple months ago when Bever cast the shroud of the residential overlay over them -- figuring it would solve all their problems -- realize that they may be hoisted on their own petard.

I wonder if they realize that if their little bungalow happens to be in the way of future redevelopment plans, they might also be plucked out and cast aside like some unwelcome weed in a garden.

I wonder how many of us realize that we just might be among the next group of property owners to be threatened, pummeled and pitched overboard.

* GEOFF WEST is a Costa Mesa resident.

10:48 am pdt

Human Relations Committee - R.I.P. - 7/20/2005

Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Human Relations Committee - R.I.P

Well, the deed is done. As predicted, the Human Relations Committee is history.

When, during the council meeting July 19th, Mayor Mansoor used as part of his smokescreen for disbanding the committee the fact that no council member had volunteered to be the liaison to the group, up jumped councilwoman Linda Dixon, who called his bluff. She volunteered not only to be the liaison, but to use her discretionary budget to fund the committee's activities if the council was reluctant to restore the funding it cut in June.

There was no stopping the male majority on the council, though. After councilwoman Dixon made a motion to not disband the Human Relations Committee and for the council to restore funding in the amount of $4,000 per year - a motion that was seconded by councilwoman Foley - Mansoor made a substitute motion to disband the committee. That motion passed, 3-2, with Foley and Dixon voting no.

So, after almost two decades of serving this city, the Human Relations Committee is gone. The Mansoor-led council, in the same callous style they used when they de-funded the committee in June without any advance notice to the members, cut this group loose without any kind of acknowledgment of their service - no "Thank You", no nothing. It was like they were trying to shake dog poop off their shoe.

This is just another example of where this council, under Mansoor's leadership, is taking this city. It looks like they are intent on extracting from government any element that does not involve fixing potholes or public safety. It seems to me that they are methodically draining the heart out of this town. Don't be surprised if we next see a full-on attack on other, in their view, questionable functions - the Recreation Division, for example. They have already shown their attitude about that organization by chopping $100,000 from it's budget last spring.

12:19 pm pdt

Daily Pilot Plug - 7/21/2005

Thursday, July 21, 2005
Daily Pilot Plug

Thanks to the Daily Pilot today for their plug for this blog. The following note appeared below the "Politics and Government" banner in the "Political Landscape" column:

"West's taking it to the Web

When you're politically minded and writing to the local newspaper is not enough, you can always start your own blog. Geoff West, a Costa Mesa resident and frequent Daily Pilot contributor, announced last week that he's taken the electronic plunge and created A Bubbling Cauldron, a web log about Costa Mesa and Newport Beach politics.

West also reserves the right, according to the site, to "launch off into some philosophical rant" -- which may well be considered a blogger's inalienable right. Readers will learn he began the blog partly to free himself from the shackles of the print media's editing process.

"I realize this is a dangerous move, because editors do perform a valuable service. This will become very apparent as you read my thoughts -- typos, punctuation errors, malaprops and all. I fully intend to blame such transgressions on my advancing years -- I'm told that we old fellas can get away with it," West writes.

We should all be so lucky.

West's blog can be found at http://home.earthlink .net/~ thepotstirer."

***

On related note, I've made it a little easier for you to tell friends about this blog. Just refer them to www.abubblingcauldron.com - that's a lot easier than the actual URL.

10:51 am pdt

Political Irony and Unfulfilled Expectations - 7/26/2005

Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Political Irony and Unfulfilled Expectations

Those of us who pay attention to such things got a clear view of one of the interesting ironies in local politics at the Costa Mesa City Council meeting on July 19th.

A long time activist - a woman who meets the definition of "seasoned citizen" by any stretch of the term and who, for years, has fancied herself "housemother" for the Westside - presented herself before the council during the Public Comments segment and proceeded to rip the members for not doing enough for her part of town. She singled out for special condemnation Mayor Allan Mansoor and Councilman Eric Bever - two men she had supported during their candidacy.

I found myself wondering just what it will take to make this woman happy! The Westside has absorbed a disproportionate share of municipal funds over the past few years for street improvements and undergrounding of utilities. It has benefited by an increase in law enforcement and code enforcement presence. Bever's quick pitch of the process that ended up applying a residential overlay over the industrial Westside has made it possible to evict those industrial businesses she has complained about for years. The Job Center, which has been stuck in her craw for a long time, is on it's way out. What is she expecting next - for buses to line up on 19th Street, waiting to load up the "illegals" in her neck of the woods to be transported back across the border? I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

Perhaps she's frustrated by the failure of her "chosen" candidates to live up to her expectations. First there was Chris Steel - arguably the least competent elected official in this city for decades - who took up valuable space on the council dais without making any discernible contribution during his tour the first four years of this decade.

Now she watches as Mansoor and Bever attempt to turn the council into a body devoid of compassion. Their definition of local government apparently starts and stops with fixing potholes, extinguishing fires and catching bad guys, period. A measure of their compassion was the recent de-funding and subsequent disbanding of the almost two decades old Human Relations Committee - a committee organized specifically to help bridge issues between diverse constituencies within the city.

This activist was one of the people behind the controversial Concerned Costa Mesa Citizens web site a couple years ago. Mayor Mansoor was an active participant for many months. That site, while it was up and running, opened a window into the minds of many Westside activists as they posted rant after rant, many of which were laced with racial intolerance. However, once Daily Pilot reporter Lolita Harper cast light on it in her excellent three-part series and the county Human Relations Commission stuck it's unwelcome nose under the tent, the door was slammed shut. Despite much "progress" being made on the Westside it seems impossible to satisfy this activist and some of her cronies. She may, in fact, precisely represent the attitude of many of the "Westside activists" who appear eager to return Costa Mesa to the days when it was known as Goat Hill - when English was the primary language of most residents.

***

Thanks to the Orange County Register for publishing my comments on eminent domain in The Current, a weekly supplement distributed in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, on Friday, July 22nd. That letter was an abbreviated version of the first entry on this blog - dated Saturday, July 9th - if you wish to refresh your memory.

***

Those of you who watched the brief July 25th Planning Commission meeting had a chance to see Chairman Bill Perkins display his complete lack of leadership on the dais once again. Perkins, who as "mini-me" to Mayor Pro Tem Gary Monahan, demonstrates in meeting after meeting just how ill-prepared he is for any kind of leadership role in public life. Although he seems like a nice enough young man, Perkins continues to demonstrate his immaturity as he blathers on and on, apparently seeing no need to filter his thoughts before he blurts them out. If the Planning Commission is the de facto "prep school" for a shot at a spot on the City Council, Perkins needs to enroll in several remedial courses before trying to take that giant step.

2:52 pm pdt

Judi Berry and the Smokescreen - 7/29/2005

Friday, July 29, 2005
Judi Berry and the Smokescreen

Judith Berry, vivacious activist and self-appointed budget watchdog in this town, has become a fanner of the flames that produces the smokescreen initiated by the male majority on the city council.

In her Mailbag contribution in the Daily Pilot today she demands that those of us who write letters stick to facts, then fails to do so herself. She accuses those of us who point out the testosterone tilt on the city council, so evident in vote after vote, of trying to set back the emergence of women by attempting to portray Katrina Foley and Linda Dixon as, in Mrs. Berry's words, "weaklings". I agree with Mrs. Berry when she states in her letter, "Councilwomen Katrina Foley and Linda Dixon are very strong, independent, intelligent women. They can stand up for themselves against the best of them -- men or women." Anyone who has spent any time in proximity to those women will tell you that "weak" is not a word that fits either one. I've neither heard nor read about them being referred to as such. What they are, though, is outnumbered. That's a fact.

Mrs. Berry, based on her own words, would much prefer to have the men be referred to as "conservatives" and the women referred to as "liberals". Yeah, that's a whole lot better, Judi. Let's just label everyone with whatever tag we think is appropriate. What's next, Mrs. Berry? Do we begin using the dreaded "D" word - Democrat? Does she prefer us to allow the civil discussion of divergent viewpoints to degenerate into a school-yard name calling contest?

It is a fact, like it or not, that the arguments and opinions of the two highest vote-getters in the last election- two women - have been rendered inconsequential by the majority on the council - three men. Short of a gender transformation by one of the men, that imbalance will remain - at least for the next sixteen months, when the voters once again have a chance to be heard.

The fact is, under the guise of being "conservative", the three men on the city council have begun to disassemble much of the social fabric of this community. It is they, in fact, who will turn back the clock not the 30 years Mrs. Berry mentioned, but a half century - to a time when oppression and bigotry was rampant in parts of this country. Mrs. Berry, with her southern heritage, should certainly understand what that will mean.

The editors of the Daily Pilot hit the nail right on the head when they pointed out in their editorial on July 24th the distressing trend in Costa Mesa toward relegating local government to simply fixing potholes, fighting fires and catching bad guys. I suspect most of the residents of this city expect more - much more - from our city leaders.

Mrs. Berry and "the guys" can continue to blow smoke. Some of us will continue to find ways to see through it and speak out. That's a fact.

11:02 am pdt

44 - Not Just A Number - 8/2/2005

Tuesday, August 2, 2005
44 - Not Just A Number

When you see the number "44", what image pops into your mind? For you sports trivia fans, you might think of the #44 worn on the jerseys of three magnificent running backs for Syracuse University - All-American Floyd Little, Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis and the incomparable Jim Brown. Closer to home, 44 is the number worn by former Laker All Pro Jerry West - a great name, don't you think? For some of us guys with other sports in mind, the image of Dolly Parton - or maybe Jayne Mansfield, for us really old fellas - starts rattling around in our heads.

Today, an event in the not-too-distant past has conspired to muddle-up those images in my head. Today, the number "44" represents lost opportunity.

In the municipal election of November, 2004 Eric Bever squeaked out a slim victory - 44 votes - over then-Planning Commission Chairman Bruce Garlich for the final spot on the Costa Mesa City Council. Since that time some of us have found ourselves longing for what might have been.

Today, instead of Garlich sitting on the City Council dais - using his intellect, integrity, proven leadership, solid management experience and strong background of community service to help provide direction on difficult issues - we are saddled with Bever's unwarranted cocky arrogance, questionable motivation and demonstrated willingness to play fast and loose with the rules.

Fortunately, Garlich's well-reasoned debate, steady hand and calming influence continue to help guide this city from his position on the Planning Commission. Meanwhile, on the City Council, we see Bever's shoot-from-the-hip style as he and his pal, Mayor Allan Mansoor, attempt to find new ways to stifle discussion of important issues and implement pre-fabricated decisions.

If, during the campaign last year, two dozen voters had done their homework a little better, studied the candidates a little harder and observed them in action on the Planning Commission a little more closely, we would not now be watching our City Council scramble from one controversial slippery slope to another.

A year from now we will be in the midst of what will likely be another hotly contested election campaign. As we move toward that time I hope you will begin to pay attention and speak up when you see our elected leaders heading down the wrong path. The same team, and the ambivalence of the electorate, that gave us Chris Steel in 2000 burdened us with Bever in 2004.

In November, 2006 we have the opportunity to change the direction of this town by electing at least one new person, maybe two. If Allan Mansoor continues down his current path his re-election is certainly no slam dunk. Let's hope that more people will do a better job of selecting leaders for this city next year. It will take strong leadership to undo the damage already done by the current majority on the council, not to mention the harm they can do to this city over the next sixteen months.

44 votes - some lessons in a free society are learned painfully. Let's hope we learned from this one.

9:02 am pdt

Cloning Around In Costa Mesa - 8/7/2005

Sunday, August 7, 2005
Cloning Around In Costa Mesa

I've been reading and watching the news coverage of the South Korean scientist who apparently cloned an Afghan hound recently. Some of that coverage has included a photograph of the donor and it's "offspring", if that's what you call something created by scraping a few cells from the donor's ear then soaking them in some kind of magic potion in a test tube. Granted, there is a heck of a resemblance between the two. Amazing!

Most of the articles went on to talk about Dolly, the sheep that was cloned some time ago and then further speculated about when human cloning might occur.

Well, in case you hadn't noticed, it's already happened right here in Costa Mesa. Yes, sir - all you have to do is look at our lame duck Mayor Pro Tem, Gary Monahan, and then at his shadow, Planning Commission Chairman Bill Perkins and you'll understand what I mean. Since Monahan has taken young Perkins under his wing the two seem to be morphing into one entity.

Word has it now that Perkins is launching himself into a career as restaurant owner - just like his mentor. He's apparently teaming up with a fellow who has presented more than one project to the Planning Commission on which Perkins has served. His current project - the one in which Perkins is identified as a partner - is scheduled to be addressed by the commission on August 8th. Don't you find that interesting? I sure do. A skeptical person might be curious about that situation, don't you think?

It will be especially interesting to see if the remaining four members of the commission - without Perkins, because he must excuse himself from the deliberations - will follow staff's recommendations and deny part of the concessions being requested. If they do, will the applicant appeal it to the City Council and will the council - with Monahan voting - overturn the appeal? Should be interesting.

7:20 pm pdt

TriTunnel Express - Tunnels in Search of a Destination - 8/10/2005

Wednesday, August 10, 2005
TriTunnel Express - Tunnels in Search of a Destination

The TriTunnel Express, a scheme that has been bouncing around for a few years now and the most recent fantasy conjured up to resolve Orange County's transportation woes, has made the news again recently.

The first time I heard of it was during a presentation by Jack Wagner, Executive Director of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority as he peddled the idea before the Costa Mesa City Council more than eighteen months ago. His pitch at the time was that this project - three multi-use tunnels between Orange County and Riverside County - was the answer to Orange County's air transportation problems. Novel idea, huh? A tunnel to solve air transportation problems - imagine that.

During his presentation this contemporary reincarnation of P.T. Barnum told us not to worry about the cost. He told us that, even though this latest hustle would cost over $3 billion (that estimate has now risen to nearly $6 billion) it would be financed by bonds - but if it didn't "pencil out" it wouldn't be built. If that has a familiar ring to it, just remember the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road - the last "great" Orange County transportation idea that is now hemorrhaging money like a burst aorta. I find it interesting, by the way, that some members of the same management team that guided the San Joaquin Hills Toll Road into a quagmire of red ink are lined up to operate the tunnels, too.

He went on to tell us how the three tunnels would carry not only automobiles and trucks, but would also include a gasoline pipeline. I've gone to their slick web site recently, the link for which can be found on my Useful Links page, and found that, in it's latest permutation, two of the tunnels would each actually carry cars, fiber optic cables, an oil pipeline and a 500,000 volt electrical transmission line. Now, there's a formula for a real E-Ticket Ride!

When the subject of safety came up Wagner assured us that, despite the fact that the tunnels would cross four active earthquake faults, they would be perfectly safe. As mentioned again in a recent news piece, he quoted Dr. Charles F. Richter of Richter Scale fame as stating that a tunnel is the safest place to be in an earthquake. I suspect the good doctor didn't have in mind a tunnel crossing four active fault lines, filled with flammable liquids and containing a convenient 500,000 volt ignition source. The image of Saddleback Peak being launched toward Catalina Island following a quake and resultant explosion floats in my cranium as I contemplate this project. Yes, sir - I'm going to run for those tunnels at the first sign of "The Big One".

And then there's the engineering challenge of venting the exhaust fumes of 120,000 cars a day from tunnels twelve miles long below a couple thousand feet of Saddleback Peak. Sure, I suspect the technology is there but, like almost everything else in life, it simply becomes a function of time and money.

During that presentation near the end of 2003 we were also told that consultants would be paid a premium for the initial planning so it could be compressed into one year instead of the normal three required because time was of the essence - that Orange County freeways would be in a state of perpetual gridlock by 2010. That sounded a little suspicious, but to the proponents it made perfect sense. If you have an extremely questionable plan you simply speed up the process so it can slide past the residents of the county unnoticed. Here we are, more than eighteen months later, with the proponents in a flat-out sprint and gaining momentum.

The Metropolitan Water District of Los Angeles has jumped aboard this project recently because it apparently sees a way to move water from the Inland Empire to Orange County at a reasonable cost by piggybacking the transportation tunnels. To me, that's the only part of this thing that makes sense.

As bizarre as this project was initially, it has become even more so recently. Recent news reports now inform us that the good folks in the Inland Empire don't want a commercial airport at the site of the former March Air Force Base - the primary reason for this triple hole in the ground in the first place. So, much as the now-dozing CenterLine light rail project was a train to nowhere, this hole into which somebody will be asked to dump money by the ton is a transportation corridor in search of a destination. The proponents of this plan are in a tizzy trying to figure out how they can hang a left turn mid-tunnel and end up popping out of the mountain somewhere close to the Ontario Airport to meet their objective of relieving Orange County's air transportation problems.

Let us summarize: Nearly $6 billion to build it; no destination; four active earthquake faults; two oil pipelines; two 500,000 volt electric lines; the exhaust from more than 120,000 cars and a management team with track record of red ink on these kinds of projects. Yep, that sounds like a great idea to me. This is yet another pie-in-the-sky scheme being foisted off on the gullible residents of Orange County. Hopefully, enough of us will wake up, stand up and speak up against this one before it goes any further.

I'm not saying everything is wonderful transportation-wise in Orange County. The 91 corridor through the Santa Ana Canyon is a disaster almost any time of any day. Clearly, it's time to solve that problem, but double-stacking that right-of-way makes much more sense than the tunnels. All the TriTunnel Express does is divert precious fiscal and intellectual resources from actual, workable solutions.

10:24 am pdt

St. Andrew's Church Expansion - A Pasture Too Small - 8/11/2005

Thursday, August 11, 2005
St. Andrew's Church Expansion - A Pasture Too Small

Like many residents of this area, I've been following the whole St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church expansion issue closely. I've tried to keep an open mind while digesting the views presented by both sides. I do not attend that church, but have friends who do. I don't live in the immediate area, but have friends and relatives who do. My daily travels take me in close proximity to the church location, so I'm familiar with the neighborhoods in question.

It's hard for me to imagine a more emotional issue. On the one hand you have a highly respected community church, going about it's business of "doing good" and providing religious guidance to it's congregation. On the other hand you have the neighbors surrounding this church who, while not in disagreement with the mission of the church, are impacted daily by it's current size and are staggered by the proposal for it's expansion, which will be considered by the Newport City Council tonight. After years of negotiation, there certainly seems to be no common ground to be found.

The arguments have escalated from reasoned discourse to accusations of, at least, faulty memories on both sides - maybe more than that. The demonstration by residents last weekend certainly illustrated the passion some in the neighborhood have for this issue. The local newspaper of record, the Daily Pilot, today published an extremely well-written editorial in favor of the proposed expansion. On the same page they published a commentary from a resident that described the demonstration Sunday in very negative terms, comparing it to the raucous and sometimes violent desegregation demonstrations in the deep South in the 1960s - an unfair and inaccurate comparison, but one sure to inflame opinions on both sides. In it's defense, the Daily Pilot has seemed to try to present arguments from both sides of this issue over many, many months.

So, into the arena of opinion I toss mine. This actually seems to be a pretty simple problem. It's a question of size. St. Andrew's - formerly a nice, comfortable neighborhood church - began to morph two decades ago when it first expanded. No longer is the congregation made up primarily of neighbors who could walk to services. Now, according the recent reports, the vast majority drive significant distances to receive spiritual guidance from a very dynamic pastor, Dr. John Huffman.

It appears to me that this good shepherd has allowed his flock to grow too large for his pasture. It has certainly over-grazed the good will of the neighborhood. The only good solution to this problem is for Dr. Huffman to do what any good shepherd would do - find a new pasture, gather his flock and move on to a location where it can flourish. The proposed church is just too big for it's present site.

11:02 am pdt

St. Andrew's Decision Lacked Solomon's Wisdom - 8/12/2005

Friday, August 12, 2005
St. Andrew's Decision Lacked Solomon's Wisdom

After years of planning, negotiation, debate, and demonstrations - during which it seemed that neither side of the issue could be satisfied - I guess I'm not really surprised that the Newport Beach City Council, in the wee hours of the morning Friday, made a decision that pleased no one.

At a time when the good people of Newport Beach were looking to their elected leaders for the proverbial "Wisdom of Solomon", they came away disappointed. Unlike the outcome of Solomon's decision in the "disputed baby" story, each side in the St. Andrew's case is left holding their respective halves of the divided child. The church finds itself with a project slashed by nearly 60%, probably wondering if it's worth the time, expense and trouble now. The residents of the adjoining neighborhood find themselves burdened with the specter of more traffic, noise and turmoil - just not quite as much as originally planned.

Our friends in Newport Beach learned something early Friday morning that we here in Costa Mesa have known for a long time - politicians usually don't make good decisions when their meetings stretch beyond midnight.

9:45 am pdt

Daily Pilot Exposes Bloggers Among Us - 8/14/2005

Sunday, August 14, 2005
Daily Pilot Exposes Bloggers Among Us

Many thanks to the editors of the Daily Pilot, and to reporter Elia Powers, for the terrific article today covering blogging and, specifically, a few of us bloggers here in the Newport/Mesa area.

For those of you who might be interested, the URL for that particular article is as follows:

http://www.dailypilot.com/news/story/21566p-30506c.html

I think it will remain available for reading online for a few weeks, after which it will disappear into the ether.

10:58 pm pdt

Missin' Chris Steel - 8/16/2005

Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Missin' Chris Steel

A strange feeling has come over me lately. It's slightly humiliating and difficult to explain, but I'll try...

I've found myself missing Chris Steel. I know, I know - you're asking yourself, "How can you miss that guy?! Wasn't he the most useless excuse for a city councilman we've had in recent years?" Of course, the answer to that second question is "Yes!"

However, today I long wistfully for the days when Chris would show up at council meetings with absolutely no clue about the agenda items. I miss the evenings when he would forget to vote on an issue, or vote the opposite of the way he intended. I miss those evenings when I would yell at my television set as I watched the city council meetings because Steel, with that deer-in-the-headlights look on his face, tried to follow the proceedings with limited success. I miss the failed attempts I made to stifle a laugh as he would bungle procedural matters. I miss him because he was clueless, hopeless and mostly harmless.

Today, as I watch our city council in action, there is no joy in my heart - only trepidation. Sometimes I feel a little like a batter at the plate, looking for a looping curve ball, but only seeing sneaky fastballs being fired past me. I frequently check my pockets after watching a council meeting, to make sure they haven't snatched my wallet - yet.

Today, I worry about the direction this city is taking, who is at the helm and, more important, who is navigating the course. What is clear to me is that this city took a neck-snapping hard turn to the right last November when Eric Bever was elected to the City Council and he joined Allan Mansoor and Gary Monahan - who, after ten years on the council, has finally shown us his true colors - in absolute control over this city.

As each day passes it becomes more and more clear just who is providing direction to this ruling troika. It becomes obvious to even the most casual observer that one particularly persistent activist in this town has become "Edgar Bergen" to the council majority's "Charlie McCarthy", as they echo his words and move his own personal agenda forward. This activist is so far to the right that, compared to him, Barry Goldwater would look like a communist.

It's easy to tell that this city is in trouble, because this activist smiles a lot these days. Basically, if he's happy, the city should be worried.

Because of his obvious influence, I fear for the first generation Americans living predominantly on the Westside of town. I worry for them and for their parents as the majority on the council proceeds down their path toward the methodical expulsion of this ethnic group from our borders. I fear that Costa Mesa, under the "leadership" of this council, may be the first city in the United States to try to enact it's own foreign policy.

While this is happening, the vast majority of the residents of this town just cruise along in blissful ignorance, oblivious to the shift taking place. I find myself wanting to reach out, take each one by the shoulders, give them a good shake and yell, "Wake Up!"

These are precarious times for Costa Mesa.

11:00 am pdt

Does Anyone Care? - 8/18/2005

Thursday, August 18, 2005
Does Anyone Care?

In response to my last entry - now available for viewing via the link to archive 2005.08.14 at the bottom of this page - one person here in town who apparently shares some of my views dropped me a little note to comment on my observations. This person concurs with much of what I said, but wondered how many other people in our city know or care. Comments, taken directly from the email to me, are as follows: "Like you, I wonder if anyone notices and if so, do they care? By the time they care will too much harm have been done? Why is yours seemingly the only voice out there? Is it possible that a majority of the thinking people in this town agree with what's going on?"

That last question is particularly interesting. I find myself hoping the answer is a resounding "No!", but it's hard to tell. As the old saying goes, "The silence is deafening."

Here in Costa Mesa there is a small cadre of people who appear before the City Council or appointed commissions with any regularity. Having watched for the past few years, I estimate that fewer than two dozen people are "regulars", with an equal number appearing sporadically. Yes, many others appear and participate, but usually only when their particular ox is about to be gored.

That small group of people control the destiny of this city as they attempt to influence the decision-makers. Unfortunately, a few - too many, in my view - of this group are disciples of one particularly persistent and insidious activist - the "navigator" I mentioned in my last posting. The objectives of this person have become crystal clear over the years and he now has a City Council over which he can exercise much influence.

My correspondent and I are uneasy about the direction this city seems to be taking and are concerned that so few people seem to be aware of it, much less care about it. We both fear that, without more light being cast on this change in direction, the city may slide down this slippery slope to a point where retrieval may be impossible.

Here's a little quiz for you. See how many answers you can come up with:
What are the names of the current members of our City Council? When were they elected and when does their current term expire?
What are the names of their appointees on the Planning Commission and Parks and Recreation Commission?

These fifteen people affect our lives every single day. They make decisions about how our streets are maintained, how many police officers and fire fighters are hired and how large a home can be built next door to you. They decide what kinds of trees will adorn our parks, who may use our playing fields and when. They establish the ordinances and policies that, for example, decide whether there will be a Job Center in our town, whether graffiti will be removed, whether abandoned shopping carts are to be retrieved and where you can park in this city. The list goes on and on. If you don't know their names, you should. Go to the city web site - a link is available on my Useful Links page - to find out the names of these people who so directly affect your lives.

The Daily Pilot, in their feature article last Sunday which discussed local bloggers, quoted me saying that if, by reading my blog, 50 more people in the community decided to get involved I would be a happy guy. That's very true. If you read these pages and are enticed, motivated or provoked to take a more active part in our community, my goal will have been met.

For those of you who read this and are curious, please find a way to begin following the activities in our city beginning right now. There are resources available to you on the city web site and in the archives of the Daily Pilot to help you get up to speed. You can attend the City Council, Planning Commission and Parks and Recreation Commission meetings - there are usually plenty of seats available. Or, you can do as I usually do - watch the proceedings on our local cable television channel.

Of course, you could visit this web log frequently to see what I think about issues, but I don't recommend it as your only source of information. My opinion is only that - my opinion. It's based on my observations of conditions within our community. If you wish to include my opinions among the viewpoints available to you for consideration it's fine with me, but please cast a broader net and make your decisions based on an informed position. That same city web site mentioned above will also provide you a way to contact your elected and appointed officials directly - just in case you have an opinion to express.

To those of you who don't care, please feel free to jam your head back in the sand, cross your fingers and hope that I'm wrong. We'll find out soon enough...

2:26 pm pdt

Apparently Someone Does Care - 8/22/2005

Monday, August 22, 2005
Apparently Someone Does Care

My entry dated August 18, 2005 entitled "Does Anyone Care?" seems to have hit a nerve with some folks in this little slice of paradise. I've received several comments on this issue and want to share a couple of them with you.

***

One note came from a local educator - a person with impeccable credentials and a unique perspective on local issues. The following is excerpted from her message:

"It is not just the cities of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach where there is a lack of interest and participation in government. And it is ironic that we are fighting a war and spending billions of tax dollars to bring democracy to the Middle East when most of our citizens don't participate in the democratic process in their own country. The underbelly of a democracy is an informed electorate, and clearly that is lacking in our country. News has to be entertaining and visual and reporting about complex issues does not lend itself to those formats. As Neal Postman said over 30 years ago, "we are amusing ourselves to death." I have been teaching MBA students at UCI for 25 years, and increasingly find many of them don't read a newspaper, are not aware of who represents them, don't vote, and appear to have no concern about how laws and appointments made by their elected and appointed representatives impact their lives. And these students are our future leaders. Not sure how to change this. Wish I knew!

Judy B. Rosener, Ph.D.
Paul Merage School of Business
UCIrvine"

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Business owner and community activist Mirna Burciaga wrote to share the difficulties she encountered when she first decided to get involved. After a lengthy description of the trials she and her family experienced as she tried to fix a problem in this community - in which she took on the powers-that-be and prevailed - she commented, "Many people don’t voice their concerns or participate because they don’t want to put themselves in risk of retaliation or to be criticized."

She went on to comment that she intends to continue to be involved in community activities because she's concerned about this city's direction. Again, to quote her as she addressed her perception of the feelings of most of the residents of our city: "I believe that the majority are very concerned about the road that our city is taking, to see how our city council is voting, how the majority of the council is making decision after decision based on their political or personal agendas."

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Those are but two voices from within our community - one from a concerned academic and the other from a person battle-tested in the municipal trenches. Each, for different reasons, affirmed my opinion and left me even less comfortable with the current condition of political awareness and community involvement.

I suspect there might be other viewpoints floating around out there and I'd be happy to hear them. Those would be shared only after specific permission is granted by the writer - and maybe not at all. If you choose to enlighten me, please go to the "Share Your Opinion" page, click on the link to email me.

10:59 pm pdt