Would Fullerton be a Ghost Town without Redevelopment?

Here’s a revealing exchange between Fullerton City Councilman Bruce Whitaker and his two dinosauric RINO colleagues Don Bankhead and Dick Jones. The subject is Redevelopment.

Whitaker points out that Redevelopment property tax diversions from school districts are back-filled by the State and that absent Redevelopment diversions back, taxes could go up. He also takes exception to Bankhead’s assertion that without Redevelopment Fullerton (or downtown, take tour pick) would be a ghost town. Bankhead loves big government economic central planning; Whitaker has faith in the private sector.

Naturally the ever-increasingly disheveled Doc HeeHaw (say that haircut sure looks like blight to me) stimulates himself by babbling about about stim-u-lus and even mentions Prez Obama and how Fullerton’s government stimulus is real stimulus. Thanks, Comrade Heehaw.

Well, there you have it Friends. A clearer distinction between calm, conservative opinion and rambling, emotional, Jurassic nonsense could not be drawn.

Kudos to Whitaker. And shame on all the Fullerton voters and repuglican string pullers for making sure nincompoops like Jones and Bankhead re-elected.

35 Replies to “Would Fullerton be a Ghost Town without Redevelopment?”

    1. Is this a straight line? Quirk has always been a stooge. She just can’t help it. She’s afraid of her own shadow.

  1. What the hell was Jones trying to say about ponies? Last week he was talking about Hitler when this subject came up. So there used to be pawn shops downtown? And now with redevelopment there are bars, tattoo parlors and a bonafide lingerie/sex shop. Nice job boys! Maybe it would even be worth it if the cost of cleaning up and policing the downtown didn’t exceed the revenue the businesses generate.

    Bankhead has a pretty selective memory about redevelopment saving old buildings. They have four of them on the demo list for the idiotic Amerige Court, and there are numerous old homes that were torn down to make way for cheap looking apartment buildings, or a now empty lot next to the Fox Theater. Don’t forget the Boys and Girls Club that was just flattened with redevelopment money.

    Oh, and what did McKinley have to say on the subject? Nothing, of course, because he has very little to say about anything.

    1. You’ve got to got Bankhead some slack because:

      1) He’s been listening to redevelopment propaganda for over 20 years; and

      2) his mind is going.

  2. “say that haircut sure looks like blight to me”

    Doc Heehaw is getting more and more frayed along the edge. Pretty soon I expect he’ll just unravel completely.

    The blight exists in his (lack of) thought process.

    The ghost town exists between Bankhead’s ears.

  3. This meeting was held with no notice at all. It was not listed on the city calendar online. At the end of the last regular council meeting it was announced that the next meeting would be March 15, not March 9. Does anyone know if it was even legal?

  4. Good to see that Whitaker is finally rolling. He practically smacked Bankhead with a 350 lbs. frozen tuna.

  5. Don Bankhead’s “ghost town” remark is a slap in the face to every Fullerton business owner who hasn’t taken a Redevelopment handout.

  6. “The sky is falling, the sky is falling” For years now the long time city council has wanted us to think that without their wise decisions, like keeping the fires burning high under the RDA that the sky would start falling over Fullerton. Truth is, the CSU football field, built with redevelopment funds, was a waste of money, no team there now, and who said that an empty space is “blighted”…pushed that one by us and if the University wanted to have a stadium, they would probably have built it on their own. Oh and then there was this “blighted” hilltop called the Elks Lodge and surrounding property. The great housing project, built for the faculty …this ended up being a waste of redevelopment funds too. What a shame to take a beautiful hilltop and smash all of that housing together. Elks lodge looks good..is that what we wanted redevelopment funds used for? Did someone say “infrastructure” and “pot holes”? Getting off my soapbox for now but I have sooo many more examples of the past councils poor judgement. But hey guys hang on to your delusions that you are doing it “for Fullerton.”

  7. Imagine if Greg Sebourn and Doug Chaffee were on the council, then none of this monkey business would have happen!

  8. Here’s what he was quoted as saying:

    “Without redevelopment, Fullerton would be a ghost town,” Fullerton Councilman Don Bankhead said at Tuesday’s news conference, “especially the downtown area.”

    The only tumbleweeds blowing around are in Bankhead’s empty cranium.

  9. Um, sorry but downtown Fullerturd was a complete dump before it was redeveloped into the destination location it is today. It gave people a reason to visit the most culturally vacant city in orange county. Just think, if you douchebags didn’t have redevelopment to rail against you’d actually have to get a life! I feel sorry for all you imbeciles…..you lead such pathetic lives.

    1. A destination? Oh, yeah. For bar hoppers, drunks, rapists, pukers and all sorts of losers. Your own department gets some job security out of it, true, but the rest of of have to cover the $1.5 million annual deficit.

      Oh, I forgot the beauty parlors and sex toy store, the broken sidewalks and gum/sticker mosaics on the street lights. Thanks Redevelopment!

      By the way Mr. Historian, downtown Fullerton has had Redevelopment for almost 40 years. Which part of it are you referring to when you describe “downtown Fullerturd?”

      Ignoramus.

      1. Ah, I knew I could count on the King of all Douchebags to weigh in! $1.5 million deficit, hardly….that’s a lie propagated by Chris Meyers and the rest of the Fullerturd elite as a hedge against naysayers like yourselves who constantly piss and moan about what a success downtown’s renovation has become. Go piss up a rope, Joe. You should think about moving elsewhere and take your bile with you. We don’t need bitter malcontents such as yourself around here.

        1. Redevelopment’s own cheerleaders confessed to a $1.5 million a year sink hole in downtown Fullerton. What a freaking disaster.

          And I’m supposed to believe you?

          Hahahahaha!

  10. Without passing judgments on anyone I think Redevelopment help city’s to develop and polish their little towns.

    Like few years ago South Harbor wasn’t the most appealing place. But now at least you can visit. Although I think those houses are the most impractical I’ve seeing structurally. Don’t mean the offices down. That is good. But those houses are built for young and energetic to climb those stairs. Ha! ha! And I’m not over the hill yet.

    Yes I agree too many bars in downtown and all that. Bar owners are angry about that. And I also like the Redevelopment going on Valencia Drive. That area looks like you can breath again. It was so densely populated before and looked ugly.

    There are some truths in it we should admit and appreciate. I don’t agree misuse but like to see the town nice, clean and livable. The businesses don’t take anything personally. Most of the down town businesses never saw any Redevelopment funds.

    The program is not going to be around for too long. As long as it’s around the city’s should use it wisely and for the good of the majority of the people. That means some may not get the benefits like housing.

    But at least we would have a town with some good looking areas.

    1. “The program is not going to be around for too long.”

      I’m sure that’s what they said back in 1974.

      Redevelopment is not and never has been about helping a majority of the people. Actually it’s the reverse.

      1. And if any parts of Fullerton are “good looking” it’s not because of Redevelopment, it’s in spite of it.

        1. Wrong, dimwit. Downtown Redevelopment has created ZERO jobs. Unless you count bureaucrats and cops.

          1. Of course he counts cops. And also the guy who moves Jack Franklyn’s keg so he can park in a public space.

  11. “I don’t agree misuse but”

    Sorry, it’s a package deal. When you give government the ability to choose winners and losers, that power will be abused.

    “It was so densely populated before and looked ugly. ”

    Just about all of the redevelopment projects I’ve seen actually increase density.

    “Most of the down town businesses never saw any Redevelopment funds.”

    True, and that’s why Bankhead’s “ghost town” nonsense is so absurd.

  12. No jobs, jerkoff? I guess the forty plus restaurants and bars in downtown Fullerturd are operated by ghosts and goblins…..you couldn’t be any dumber.

    1. Just putting aside for a second the value of waiter/bartender jobs, or the tens of millions of dollars “invested” in downtown Fullerton, has it ever occurred to your pea-sized brain that those were merely jobs that were stolen from other, existing restaurants? Or that they would have been created without the City’s interference?

      QED, GED.

      1. Joe, what makes you think this clown has a GED? My guess is his pappy took him out of skool in the third or fourth grade. Then lying on the Fullerton Police Academy application was so easy. And Hell, nobody could tell the difference!

        After that it was free beers and burgers at heroes!

  13. Mango redevelopment didn’t create any jobs. The business owners did! Those the problem with pro-big government types they make ridiculous insults and always resort to making non-sensical comments.

  14. Maybe some of you should watch the documentary called, Roger and Me.
    Michael Moore’s first and best film is a look at the closing of several General Motors plants in and around Flint, Michigan.
    But more than this, if you watch it through to the end it illustrates the redevelopment boondoggle that the city government launched to save Flint from becoming a ghost town.

    Release year: 1989
    Studio: Warner Bros.

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