Art Pedroza over at the Orange Juice blog speculates about it, here.
Well, we have been waiting for some sort of decision by Daly for months as he weighed a tough political battle versus a fairly easy walkover in a re-election as County clerk – a job that pays well, requires little, and is unencumbered by term limits.
We don’t know how reliable Art’s sources are, but if they are, an announcement could be coming soon. If Daly does pull out it will be a bad blow to John Lewis who had been counting on getting Daly on to the BoS where he could be energetically lobbied like a rutting mink.
But if the story turns out to be true, it will be a glad day for Matthew J. Cunningham and his Red County blog who will no longer have to do pirouettes around the embarrassing fact of his uber-mentor supporting a (pause for gasp) Democrat!
For dyed-in-the-wool government apologists like Dick Jones, Jan Flory, Dick Ackerman, Sharon Kennedy, Don Bankhead, et al., Redevelopment blunders are conveniently overlooked, when possible; when not possible, some lame defense is mounted, such as: mistakes were made (passive voice obligatory) but we learned and moved on; hindsight is 20/20 (Molly McClanahan’s motto vivendi); the problem was not too much Redevelopment, but too little!
But when any reasonable person contemplates the collection of Redevelopment disasters along Harbor Blvd. between Valencia Drive and the old Union Pacific overpass, the only conclusion he or she could draw is that the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency should have been shuttered years ago, and the perpetrators of the manifest failures crowded onto a small raft and set adrift with the Japanese Current.
We have already described in nauseating detail the “Paseo Park” debacle; and the Allen Hotel fiasco; we haven’t yet had time to talk about the “El Sombrero” pocket park give away (we will).
But instead of wasting too many perfectly good words, we will share with you Friends a Redevelopment pictorial essay with just a little piquant commentary.
First there’s the strip center known as Gregg’s Plaza. Brick veneer, of course. Even the veneer is so disgusted it’s trying to jump off the building.
The standards of the RDRC were established early.Pop goes the brick veneer...
Across the street is the Allen Furniture Store. When they got their rehab loan somebody forgot to tell them that a storefront is a storefront – not a jailhouse. So why are there bars on the dinky little windows? And pink stucco?
Stone walls do not a prison make; nor iron bars a cage...
Jumping back across the street we re-introduce ourselves to the egregious Allen Hotel, perhaps the biggest Redevelopment boondoggle of all, a mess that we have already admirably documented, here. As we noted then, the add-on was unspeakably awful (and expensive). The front is, well, pretty awful, too.
The once and present tenement...
It could have been worse. Well, no, it couldn't...
What was sold, in part, as an “historic preservation” project ended up violating just about every standard in the book. The original windows were ripped out and replaced with vinyl sashes; the transoms were destroyed and replaced with sheets of plastic and surface applied strips supposed to simulate leaded glass.
Just say something. They'll believe anything...
Across Harbor we discover the “El Sombrero Plaza,” another sock in the face to any Fullerton windshield tourist. Forget the stupidity of the sideways orientation and the Mission Revival On Acid stylings (which attain a kind of crazy Mariachi deliciousness); this development included the give away of part the adjacent public green space so they have parking for a restaurant. The owner never did develop a restaurant, of course (more on that story later).
Ay, caramba! The extra parking that was supposed to be for a restaurant is now used for a storage container!
And finally we come to exhausted collapse at another one of the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency’s low points. And by low point we mean the complete, unmitigated disaster of the Union Pacific Park, ably chronicled here; and in a whole series here, here, and here.
Maybe the less said, the better...
The poisoned park: dead as a doornail. An aesthetic, pratical, and policy disaster. And no one has ever stood up to take responsibility for the total waste of millions of dollars.
Embarrassing from the beginning. How many $100,000 pensioners had their fingers in this pie?
Well, there you have it, Friends. Redevelopment in action; Redevelopment creating blight, not eradicating it. No accountability. None. Zero. Zilch. And some people wonder why FFFF has sued to keep Redevelopment from expanding.
Update: here’s a post we did last July that was just so darn comical we decided to run it again. This falls under the heading of weird self-delusion; or, just say anything – maybe somebody will believe it!
Here’s a fun clip:
“being fiscally conservative as the five of us are”
Say What? She’s gotta be kidding. Does she really believe this nonsense? Can she possibly believe anybody else does? She supported last year’s pension proposal plus the plan to hush it up. She was defending the multi-million dollar McDonald’s move mess right up to the point she realized the jig was up. We could go on and on.
The fact is that only Shawn Nelson can lay any claim to the title of fiscal conservative at all. Quirk can’t, and neither can the two RINOs on the council. Keller is a proud liberal Democrat, seemingly. We read her gushing report from the local Obama rally, a few months back, and we have got to conclude that she goes for all that stuff Obama likes. Now, this is all well and good. Lots of our Friends are libs; Hell, some are even Green! But why for God’s sake pretend to be something you are not? Pam, be proud of your political philosophy. Embrace it. Shout it out loud – you’re a fiscal liberal, and you’re proud! Don’t run from it; it got you elected.
Pam, dear, you may be many things to many people, but a fiscal conservative you ain’t.
Here is Fullerton’s own congressman, Ed Royce, taking a rather, er, informal pose with a tall willowy blond woman at a recent White House function. Why this woman’s hand is on his chest is anybody’s guess, but judging by the happy look on Ed’s face he has granted his willing assent for this familiarity by a new friend.
Come back to my place and I'll show you my stamp collection...
Oh, and by the way, this is the female half of the uninvited couple who crashed the White House party, setting off a bit of a storm, security-wise. Since Ed is a super-duper foreign affairs expert, let’s hope she didn’t pump him for any high-level information.
Yes. At least based on the abilities of those who have preceded her. People like Dick Jones, Don Bankhead, Mike Clesceri, Leland Wilson, etc., etc. Well, you get the point. To use a Harpoon line: a ling cod could do the job.
Yes. I could do that job.
Yes, Friends it’s that time of year, when the largely brain-dead city council selects one of their own to preside over their meetings as they habitually rubber stamp what’s put in front of them by their staff. And so we pose the question in our title.
But let’s refine the question to address the idiot woman who showed up with Pam’s Pamette posse last week, and who insisted on framing the issue in gender terms: is Pam Keller qualified to be mayor because simple because she is a woman and it’s her turn? Here the whole thing breaks down into a pathetic little skirmish to see who can produce the stupidest reason for doing something.
If a food fish could do it, so could Pam, we think...
The Ed Royce/Dick Ackerman team that recently crashed the Ackerwoman dirigible in a Raymond Hills fireball, will no doubt have been working hard behind the scenes to keep Keller out, using the same, brainless argument they always have: Fullerton is Republican so the mayor shoud be too; forget the fact that every RINO Royce and Ackerman have foisted on us in the past 20 years have virtually identical voting records with the handful of Democrats on the council. They probably will work the very two RINOS they have backed in the past – Bankhead and Jones to keep Keller out.
It wasn't pretty when she went down. Oh! The humanity!
Counter that with the petulant fulminations of The Yellowing Fullerton Observers and the dopey gal at last meeting’s mike whose only recourse is: it’s her turn (hands clasped in fervent prayer, eyes transfixed on acoustical ceiling)! These alleged innocents proclaim their freedom from nasty political interests but never mention the fact that using the title “mayor” in her campaign propaganda will help Keller get re-elected.
We don't know our cloaca from a hole in the ground.
Yech.
Apart from the fact that these cretins generally deserve each other, we will repeat the same thing said elsewhere on these pages: the person who can get two other votes is the one who “deserves” to be mayor.
Friend, author and staunch proponent of limited government Steven Greenhut will be hosting a 3 hour show on KFI AM 640 this Sunday from 7 – 10 PM. Tune in online at kfi640.com for a great show.
Steve’s message has been getting an enormous amount of traction lately, primarily because a floundering economy has substantiated the truth that challengers like Steve have been warning us about for years: that big government equals big failure.
Death of Socrates; Jacques Louis Davd, oil on canvas, 1787 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Because Socrates was teaching others how to think for themselves, the Athenian government found him guilty of a crime and sentenced him to death. Things had been going badly in Athens, freedom of thought became a casualty.
Since we at FFFF like sharing so much, I thought we would share this email with our Friends. I wonder if it ever occurred to Hilda Sugarwoman that her old pal Linda Ackerwoman moved to Irvine a long, long time ago. It’s been 10 years.Maybe, just maybe, Hilda lost track of time? You know… being so busy with all her laptops for all the kids programs and critical school stuff like that.
Did you notice how she used the school’s official email address to send out a political message? Sorry Hilda, but that sort of thing is a no-no – although FSD officials mixing work and politics has a long and noble history. It’s all about the children, right? Anyway, enjoy:
From: Hilda Sugarman <hilda_sugarman@fsd.k12.ca.us>
Subject: Linda for Assembly
To: im-protecting.my@sources/identity.com
Date: Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 9:35 PM
Dear Friends:
Today I received an Absentee Ballot regarding our open Assembly seat. That prompted me to share with you my reasons for supporting Linda Ackerman.
I have known Linda Ackerman for over 25 years. We started as PTA Board members together. She has evolved into an experienced, knowledgeable leader through the years. When her husband, Senator Dick Ackerman went to Sacramento as an Assemblyman, Linda moved with him. She has been at Dick’s side in support of our community. Linda knows Sacramento, elected representatives and how to accomplish what needs to be done within the system. Her knowledge and experiences will enable her to make the right decisions. She is equipped to step right into the job. She is the best qualified candidate for the job.
We received the following cell phone message from The Fullerton Harpoon who is currently on a fishing trawler in the vicinity of the Sea of Japan and, apparently, has no computer access.
Dear Friends, Happy Thanksgiving. Some of you may wonder what an old, crusty, salt-bitten sea gherkin like the Harpoon is thankful for (some of you may not, and may not care). I am thankful for being part of a society in which I can hurl my outrageous barbs (i.e. my current working version of the truth) at powers-that-be, and not get locked up;
I am thankful for having a bunch of fertile words and ideas bequeathed to me by people a lot smarter than I am, who happily deigned to bestow their gifts, Bodhisattva-like on the rest of us;
I am thankful for our Friends – a rare few who are able to view the socio-political terrain, and realize that we can do better – a lot better, and who are not terrified by the thought of criticizing the Chimps in Charge.
I am thankful for all the inert Clumps in the dead, sterile center, who peer out to the fertile, incubatorial edges of their paltry weltanshauung and start to sweat yellow fear pellets; for without them we fringers would have no frame of reference ourselves.
And so, from the cold, green-grey waters of the Sea of Japan, I wish one and all of the Friends a Happy Thanksgiving.
We got a spam-mail from Harry Sidhu yesterday touting this or that. Attached was this dynamic Harry for Supe ad with Old Glory dissolving into an orange soda pop sea, out of which rises a solar avatar of the County Seal! Priceless!
We Need Experience, all right
The funny thing is if you go to that generic Harry website, there’s a link:
This takes the naive explorer to a basically regurgitated Harry website – right down to the multitude of luminous endorsements – from Abraham Lincoln to the Ghost of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The only problem is that none of these people or organizations have endorsed Harry for his carpetbagging 4th Supervisorial run! And Chris Norby has already endorsed Fullerton’s Shawn Nelson.
Bad boy, Harry, bad boy! Very misleading. If you want to supervise, you’d better start supervising your website!
