Redevelopment Archives - Page 12 of 24 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

October 27, 2010October 27, 2010Harry Sidhu

The Sidhu Crew; The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

I just changed the title to this piece. Checking out this band of government for sale repuglicans made me do it. Yes, it is an organized mob. Well, disorganized, at least. But look what they’ve got to work with.

– Joe Sipowicz

The other day The OC Register ran this image in a story about the Shawn Nelson/Hairbag Sidhu race. The story was erroneously titled “Nice Guy Finishes Second” or some such BS which as we know is not true. “Perjuring Carpetbagging Assclown Finishes Second” was the original title until the editor felt sorry for Hirsute Sidhu.

Anyhow, the picture above was absolutely priceless. Enjoy the facial expressions of Hairball’s election backers as the bad news flashes across the screen. John Lewis already seems to be scheming on how to shit-dump Sidhu; and Pringle, well Pringle’s thinking about all the personal credit he tied up into this bozo and how he can possibly ever recoup even a small part of that investment. The fellow behind the computer looks like he just had the Shrimp Special at Roland Chi’s place. The two guys on the left obviously wandered into the picture by accident from a Saturday Night Live skit.

But check out the grinning Assclown chowderhead Sidhu – oblivious to the electoral disaster! Good news is only just around the corner! I am #2!

October 18, 2010October 18, 2010Arts & Architecture

Fullerton Transit Center: Amerige Court on Steroids?

by Travis15 Comments

We just received the following notice from Friends for a Livable Fullerton:

The Fullerton Transportation Center “Specific Plan” is an approximately 40 acre project at the southeast corner of Harbor and Commonwealth. Built over the next few decades, it will take up over 6 full city blocks at one of our prime city intersections and will have a huge effect on our historic downtown and on alternative transportation for years to come. Maximum buildout would be about 2 dozen (!) 3- to 9-story buildings:

1,560 multi-family residential units
100,000 square feet of retail
100,000 sf office space
120-room, 120,000 sf hotel

Note the density and scale compared to the surrounding area:

While the plan doesn’t yet have specific building designs, the approval of this Plan and its 2,290 EIR will allow it to proceed.

City Admits Many Unavoidable Impacts

An unusual aspect of this plan is the large number of City–admitted significant environmental impacts the City Council will be called upon to “override” due to the project benefits outweighing the impacts:

(more…)

October 13, 2010October 14, 2010Behind Closed Doors

BIG SIDHU SUPPORTER IN DEEP FECAL MATTER WITH FEDS?

by admin16 Comments

Last December we posted about a character named Ajit Mithaiwala who had built a heavily subsidized low income housing fustercluck project in Fullerton in the 1990s that epitomized the futility and incompetence of Fullerton Redevelopment Agency.

Remember? His name popped up on a host committee list for a fund raiser thrown by high speed rail impresario and con man Curt Pringle, in honor of his boy, Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu. Since the name appeared to be mispelled we had fun with the notion that it might be somebody else.

Harry'sFriend — Oh, no, no, no! That is another guy, I tell you. There are hundreds of them. Thousands of them.

In the post we wondered aloud what had become of Mithaiwala, and what he had been up to the past ten years.

It turns out we weren’t alone. Federal government auditors, prosecutors, and the FBI have been wondering too, according to an L.A. Times article forwarded to us by an alert Friend.

All sorts of misbehavin’ have been attributed to this guy and his development company that found a niche building subsidized, low-income housing projects, including fraud, failure to report income, and building shoddy, unsafe buildings. His politcal contributions have been scrutinized, too.

Here are a few choice morsels in the article from the Federal investigator:

“virtually no financial records,” no general ledger, no balance sheet and no bank reconciliations. Working with forensic accountants, he said he had discovered “potential fraud and criminal activity.”

On Tuesday, he told the court he was still trying to gain control of company assets and had identified 400 bank accounts, as well as $600,000 in gold bullion and three cars, including a Bentley.

It transpires that besides Fullerton, Mithaiwala has left a trail of tears behind him in cities across Southern California, including our neighbor to the south, Anaheim, where the Mayor Pro Tem is none other than Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu.

Yikes. You don’t mess with the Treasury Department, boys. Even Al Capone could tell you that.

October 9, 2010October 9, 2010Fullerton 2010

Barry Speaks: Redevelopment Loans and the Lack of Public Input

by Travis13 Comments

This just came in from council candidate Barry Levinson:

Last Tuesday night was the vote on the issuance of housing bonds by the RDA in the amount not to exceed $29 million. The Mayor spoke and indicated that there will be no public comments on this issue.

The city attorney right before the vote was to begin, rightly reminded Mayor Bankhead that since the people cannot vote on whether or not to approve the bond issue, we should at least be allowed to voice our non-binding opinions.

Here are some of my comments I presented to the council:

Mayor and council shame on all of you for almost forfeiting our right as Fullertonians to speak out on this housing bond issuance.

We need better oversight over the RDA projects. The city council and the rest of the RDA should not be the ones policing themselves.

The RDA is the only taxing authority that requires no voter approval. We as taxpayers, S/B given more information and more time to review these bond measures before it comes to a vote by council.

Since there will be 2 possibly 3 new council members as of November 2, I suggested that this item be postponed to after the next election.

The council’s answers largely were defensive. No one touched on the third rail issue of no voter participation! Mayor Bankhead remained conspicuously quiet throughout the council’s responses to our objections.

And there you go; another council meeting where our rights as citizens were eroded and $29 million was obligated by the city council without a single vote cast by the people!

October 5, 2010Fullerton 2010

Will Redevelopment Borrow Another $29,000,000 Tonight?

by Greg Sebourn17 Comments

Acting as the Redevelopment Agency, the City Council will be voting on a $29,000,000 bond tonight. City staff estimate the total cost to taxpayers for the bond at about $45,500,000 over the next 16 years. $45.5-million! The RDA is the only agency that can issue bonds without voter approval. It is completely unethical for our elected council members to break out the taxpayers’ credit card while our library’s hours are reduced, workers are furloughed, and employees salaries are cut. Shame on the Redevelopment Agency staff and shame on any council member who votes for this bond!

Why should we be upset about the RDA spending $29,000,000? Because, as the OC Register reported in July, the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency spent $22,700,000 to evict 600 low-income residents, bulldoze their homes to make room for a few low-income condos. This is on top of another half-baked idea to move a McDonald’s 150 feet at a cost of $6,000,000 to taxpayers. $6-million to move a burger stand 150 feet! Fortunately, the RDA gave into public pressure and the project was shot down.

Some council candidates like to point at Downtown Fullerton as a shining example of the great work Redevelopment does. Indeed it is. Had we not “revitalized” our downtown, we would have fewer calls for police and fire to respond to drunk and disorderly conduct.

Please take a minute to think about the untold damage done by our own City Hall under the direction of our City Council, often acting as the Redevelopment Agency.

September 17, 2010September 17, 2010Arts & Architecture

And Now for Nothing Really Different: Yellowing Observer Bemoans Loss of Fox Block Boondoggle

by Mr. Peabody25 Comments

The folks who write stuff for the Fullerton Observer are either really dumb, or really….

Aw, Hell I can stop right there.

Here’s a bit from page 5 of the recent edition of the bird cage liner noting the reconstruction of the McDonald’s outlet on Chapman and noting that the Council’s failure to blow six million bucks to move it a couple hundred feet has caused the Fox Block project to go belly up and implies that somehow this put the renovation of the Fox Theater in jeopardy.

Wrong! The council finally acted responsibly last summer when they pulled the plug on an emergent disaster of their own creation. And wrong about the “renovation” bullshit, too. Notice how the Observer casually insinuates the idea of “renovation” into the “Fox Block.” Apart from the theater there is nothing to renovate, of course. But the two things were never tied together – except to manipulate the under intelligent.

The whole monstrosity was tied to the Fox Theater restoration to tap into the emotional support for that and gin up support for another downtown monstrosity of corporate welfare. Of course the crew of the S.S. Observer is devoted to the idea that keeping Redevelopment bureaucrats and parasites employed is job one, and common sense be damned.

the-observer-ostrich4-300x225 — What? I can't hear you.

Added to the unintentional high-larity is the writer’s assertion that the developer “spent hours” designing a new Mickey D’s that matched the FHS architecture. Well, he may very well have spent a few hours. The product looked like it.

Instead of bewailing the loss of a sure-fire failure, the Observer should be asking what sort of accountability is going to be demanded of the idiots who cooked up the Fox Block mess in the first place – bureaucrats and electeds, alike.

August 24, 2010August 24, 2010Behind Closed Doors

A Colorfully Gesticulating Norby Loses The Skirmish, But Wins The Battle

by admin3 Comments

Who will win the war? Follow the money.

The GOP Initiatives Endorsement Committee met this past Saturday to debate whether it should recommend to the State GOP to endorse Proposition 22.

Watch and see what happened during the questions and answer period. The proponents for Yes on 22 focused their argument on misdirected “local control,” and the fear that if it doesn’t pass Arnold Schwarzenegger will raid the cities’ Redevelopment funds and give them away to the schools. Hooray! The only problem is that by the time this is voted on Arnold will about as lame a duck as Daffy, and probably already reading the script for Terminator 5.

Did the most vocal Yes on 22 proponent, Jon Fleischman (hot dog alert @ 3:18), really think the voting members in the room would be dumb enough to buy that “Arnold will cook up a bad budget” line? Well, they did – the vote was 9 Ayes and 8 Noes. However, good news came on Sunday when the recommendation of the Initiatives Committee was tossed out by the GOP party who gave a thumbs down to the Prop 22 proponents.

Check out Chuck Devore, one of the few non-repuglicans in office. He gets it.

And yes, I really do have to wonder if Fleischman was on the Yes on 22 payroll. The Howard Jarvis group was no doubt bought off by the purchase of a slate mailer.

August 23, 2010August 23, 2010Redevelopment

California GOP Initiatives Endorsement Committee Hashes Out Prop 22

by admin6 Comments

Proposition 22 here, is an initiative supported by the California League of Cities and Redevelopment agencies and their lobbyists.

Voting yes on 22 would prohibit the State from restricting the use of tax revenues dedicated by law to fund local government services, community redevelopment projects, or transportation projects and services. It would prohibit the State from delaying the distribution of tax revenues for these purposes even when the Governor deems it necessary due to a severe state fiscal hardship.

The question boils down to whether the State should have the authority to redistribute redevelopment property tax increment funds and use it for schools, and fire departments.

The clip below was taken at the GOP state convention held this past weekend in San Diego and features the Yes on 22 proponents debating State Assemblyman Chris Norby at the Endorsement Committee meeting. Each party was given 3 minutes to make their pitch, the Yes on 22 proponents spoke for 3-1/2 minutes, however when Assemblyman Norby was only 2-1/2 minutes into his speech (6:58) one of the 22 proponents rudely interrupted Norby and yelled “TIME” even though Norby still had 30 seconds left of his 3 minutes.

My next post will feature video footage of questions and answers by both Norby (No on 22) and the Yes on 22 proponents. There’s also a little treat at the very end of the clip, enjoy!

July 25, 2010Big Brother

The Wishing Well, Once A Mayor’s Crib; Now A Bottomless Money Hole

by admin11 Comments

IMG00037-20100723-0855 — The Wishing Well Apartments. Someone's wish just came true.

For those interested in obscure Fullerton history, Louis Valasquez lived in the Wishing Well apartments at 466 West Valencia Dr. while serving as the Mayor of Fullerton in 1979.

Those more curious about modern-day Redevelopment Agency boondoggles, may be interested to learn that this past week the Fullerton City Council voted to sell the Agency owned Wishing Well Apartments to an out of town “developer” for $100.

The Fullerton Redevelopment Agency purchased the ol’ Wishing Well for $1,993,433 and paid an additional $60,930 to kick out (relocate) all the tenants that resided in the 16 unit building. On top of that the Agency is going to give the out-of-towners an additional $184,347 to “rehab” the apartments, provided the developer rents the apartments to low income tenants. Here in Orange County “low income” is 50% of the median income – which for a family of 3 is $70,890. This means that people that make around $35,445 will be living in the Brand Spanking New Wishing Well. I’ll bet ya the previous tenants made less than $35,445 per year. So in reality the city kicked out the poor folks in order to replace them with richer poor folks.

Now that’s not very good is it?

And if the units were so dilapidated, why didn’t City Code Enforcement simply cite the landlord and require the units to be standard units?

I think I’ll do a follow-up post and focus on code enforcement failures under Don Bankhead’s and Dick Jones’s years of “leadership.”

July 18, 2010July 18, 2010About Us

To Hell In A Handbasket

by admin7 Comments

If you spend much time driving around Fullerton you become painfully aware of the sad state of the streets. The deteriorating infrastructure underneath is a disaster just waiting to happen. Some folks might characterize this as blight. I know I do. And yet when it comes to dealing with blight, the one and only mission of Redevelopment law, our agency would much rather spend millions on subsidies to commercial developers, land “write-downs,” low income housing, crummy remodels, fire sprinklers for dance clubs, transforming a useful alley into an elevated pedestrian paseo, purchasing a poisoned park, and relocating a McDonald’s for $6,000,000, etc. etc.

One of the key points of our settlement negotiations with the City over its Redevelopment project area expansion will be to require the Agency spend a significant portion of its funds on infrastructure replacement – the very “talking point” that the pro-expansion mouthpieces used at the public hearings in the first place.