Saturday, February 18, 2006
There's Good News Tonight!
It's been an interesting couple of days here at A Bubbling
Cauldron. Friday, The Current - the Orange County Register's
weekly supplement distributed to Newport Beach and Costa Mesa -
provided a profile of our young jailer/mayor, Allan Mansoor. As
part of that profile they included comments from residents and
included some of mine - as well as a nice plug for this web log.
I'm very grateful for both. Then, this morning the Daily Pilot,
our fine daily community newspaper distributed by the Los
Angeles Times, published another of my commentaries. This one is
very similar to my 2/2/06 blog posting entitled, "Hidden Wires -
Who Pays and Is It Worth It?" You can review it by going to the
bottom of this page and clicking on the link marked 2006.01.29.
***
I heard through the grapevine late last week - since confirmed by several newspaper articles this morning - that a man in our community who very much resembles my theoretical character, "Your Neighbor", has recently tendered his resignation from the Redevelopment and Residential Rehabilitation (3R) committee. I'm sorry, but when I heard the news just the slightest trace of a smile crossed my face.
This man has become a lightning rod for much discontent in this city for several years. Eyebrows were raised a couple years ago when he was appointed to the committee and even more so once the impact of his presence was exhibited during the committee's recommendations on the distribution of community development block grant (CDBG) funds. Contributions to some charities were reduced the last time around, with more reductions anticipated this time.
This man has been under fire from several sides recently, including this forum. He and I have traded barbs on our respective web logs for several months. He was the subject of critical comments, both in news articles and editorials, in La Opinion, the Spanish language newspaper which has the second largest circulation in Southern California, trailing only the Los Angeles Times. In fact, his resignation made the cover of that newspaper this morning, accompanied by his scowling photograph. His presence on the 3R committee has been denounced by speakers before the City Council in recent weeks.
While I'm happy to see his departure from this particular committee, I really don't expect much to change as far as his influence on certain members of the City Council is concerned. Personally, I would love to see him slide back under the rock from whence he slithered, but I fully expect him to continue to be a vocal presence before most official city bodies - the City Council, Planning Commission and Parks and Recreation Commission. I doubt if he will cease his persistent demands on the city staff, with frivolous Freedom of Information Act requests and not-so-veiled threats of lawsuits if action is not taken on fabricated "crises".
I doubt if we will see him back off from his attacks on the minority community. His blog will continue with inflammatory rhetoric and his essays on the far right-wing web sites to which he contributes will almost certainly continue the same thread of intolerance that they've contained for years.
I don't really know how to interpret his resignation. I don't, for example, know whether he was asked to resign or not, but I think his departure is a good thing for the city. Perhaps now the focus of activists can be directed toward other more positive, productive efforts - like identifying strong candidates to fill two positions on the City Council in November.
11:42 pm pst
***
I heard through the grapevine late last week - since confirmed by several newspaper articles this morning - that a man in our community who very much resembles my theoretical character, "Your Neighbor", has recently tendered his resignation from the Redevelopment and Residential Rehabilitation (3R) committee. I'm sorry, but when I heard the news just the slightest trace of a smile crossed my face.
This man has become a lightning rod for much discontent in this city for several years. Eyebrows were raised a couple years ago when he was appointed to the committee and even more so once the impact of his presence was exhibited during the committee's recommendations on the distribution of community development block grant (CDBG) funds. Contributions to some charities were reduced the last time around, with more reductions anticipated this time.
This man has been under fire from several sides recently, including this forum. He and I have traded barbs on our respective web logs for several months. He was the subject of critical comments, both in news articles and editorials, in La Opinion, the Spanish language newspaper which has the second largest circulation in Southern California, trailing only the Los Angeles Times. In fact, his resignation made the cover of that newspaper this morning, accompanied by his scowling photograph. His presence on the 3R committee has been denounced by speakers before the City Council in recent weeks.
While I'm happy to see his departure from this particular committee, I really don't expect much to change as far as his influence on certain members of the City Council is concerned. Personally, I would love to see him slide back under the rock from whence he slithered, but I fully expect him to continue to be a vocal presence before most official city bodies - the City Council, Planning Commission and Parks and Recreation Commission. I doubt if he will cease his persistent demands on the city staff, with frivolous Freedom of Information Act requests and not-so-veiled threats of lawsuits if action is not taken on fabricated "crises".
I doubt if we will see him back off from his attacks on the minority community. His blog will continue with inflammatory rhetoric and his essays on the far right-wing web sites to which he contributes will almost certainly continue the same thread of intolerance that they've contained for years.
I don't really know how to interpret his resignation. I don't, for example, know whether he was asked to resign or not, but I think his departure is a good thing for the city. Perhaps now the focus of activists can be directed toward other more positive, productive efforts - like identifying strong candidates to fill two positions on the City Council in November.
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