Time for An Explanation

Hey Pam, put your arms out and see if you can catch this, ready
Hey Pam, put your hands out and see if you can catch this, ready

Dear Friends, we have spilled a lot of cyberink on the subject of the McDonald’s relocation fiasco, and it really seems to us that it is about time for our elected leaders to explain just what is going on and how they got to this point.

No doubt Bankhead, Quirk and Keller believe that they are simply following an inevitable path dictated by years of planning and simply can’t be altered.

Knock-knock! The contract hasn’t even been voted on yet! It’s scheduled to come before the Council/Agency July 7th. Until then, there is no inevitability, only careful deliberation….we hope! You’re  rubber stamps for the daydreams of long-departed staffers! You were elected by US to be stewards of our cash. Is this the best use of $6 million of OUR $$$?

When you are spending $ 6 million to move a fast food franchise 150′, you had better be damned sure why you are doing it, and you should be able to explain clearly why there are no better alternatives.

We suggest that it is high time for a complete review of the entire Fox project history, strategy, and consequences, especially while there still may be time to consider intelligent alternatives.

7 Replies to “Time for An Explanation”

  1. Isn’t there a community workshop tonight on the Fox Block? I wonder what they will talk about…

  2. As if the city has a SERIOUS developer who is SERIOUSLY in line to develop and fund the Fox Block. What about tenants??? SHOW US THE MONEY!

    Yeah I know they have their architect, but who’s going to invest in this pig with lipstick? That’s all this really is after all…and it’s moving at the pace of all of the city’s other major projects. Nothing here gets done. By the time they break ground for anything, the Council that voted for it is long gone (unless you’re Jones/Bankhead), and not responsible for the fiasco.

    Come on, save us the money. Fix up a park or something, this project will never even be built.

  3. Ivy Leaguer, you can’t keep an entire Redevelopment staff employed by just fixing parks. Unless you give them shovels. Hmm..

  4. yeah I know ‘just a guy’, i feel like the entire red-dev dept is just looking for ANYTHING to do to stay employed–or until we are all redeveloped and we look like Irvine…just tired of them wasting money on stuff that never comes to fruition. It’s no longer “build it they will come”, it should be stop building, we are full.

    I guess we can add this to our ‘ghost town list’ of projects once Fox Block is done along with Pinnacle, City Pointe and the enitre SOCO lofts/condos nightmare. Nice, good work city staff!

  5. went to the meeting… maybe you all should have too before you started judging the project with your preconceived notions. Not saying it will be some monumental success but at least these developers act genuinely interested in working with city members in developing (not just with being a shoe-in for the city). Just sayin’…

  6. workshop attendee, “…….but at least these developers act genuinely interested in working with city members”, of course they are genuinely interested in working with city members (they are not putting up a dime), the point is how much will it cost the tax payers and is it really necessary to spend $6 million in tax dollars to move McD’s? If thy are so “genuinely interested” then they should do an alternative plan that leaves McD’s “as is”.

  7. Hello capable administrator,

    If McDonald’s Six Million Dollar Redevelopment expenditure indeed requires more Council or Planning Commission oversight, then your effort to continue to stump this issue hasn’t gone in vain.

    I’m ambivalent to the entire Fox Redevelopment scheme. I do applaud Jane Reifer and her plucky band of preservationistas, who’ve demonstrated grassroots organizing works. That they’ve chosen a suspect architectural specimen, probably unworthy of conservation, when so many other proud period pieces already exist in Fullerton, never ceases to amaze me. We need lovely older buildings to be reminded of our storied past, but not in a way to paralyze or jeopardize our futures.

    Burning issue at hand isn’t whether to painstakingly save or lovingly adorn Fox Theater, but that City of Fullerton has willfully chosen to throw its largesse –our money–to a global corporation who intends to do us long-term harm.

    Maybe Fullerton doesn’t need another so-called insipid condominium complex in its downtown, but residents could also use a little relief from expensive, potentially unproductive, even unsuitable public consumption of its street corners and taxable parcels.

    McDonald’s and its franchisees have rights to lawfully locate restaurants, subject to necessary approvals, and operate them based on prevailing laws and regulations. This isn’t in dispute.

    What’s at issue is an apparently poor job by City staff on cost-benefit breakdowns, to propose large public expenditure. Three Council members–Bankhead, Quirk, Keller–who voted for this initiative, no doubt did so with confidence their vote was supported by extensive analysis which prudently considered what was best for Fullerton’s voters, its children, and its future.

    Contrastingly, Redevelopment staff, in cloven effort to accommodate McDonald’s Corporation, might well have well had Golden Arches emblazoned on its shirt pockets! No thought was given to ask one of 100 largest global corporations, under guise of a local businessman, to pay going rate for another adjacent lot! No thought was given to impropriety of giving one restaurant special preference over others! Lastly, no thought was given to absolute wrongness of financially aiding and abetting a company which lives to reduce long-term health and longevity of its young customers!

    As I did before on this important civic issue, I again ask our three esteemed but errant Councilpersons to carefully reconsider their votes to provide relocation and redevelopment assistance to McDonald’s Corporation. I ask Council Member Bankhead, Quirk, and Keller to do the right thing, and put Fullerton first!

    Respectfully Submitted,

    The Enabler

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *