The other day on our post detailing Pam Keller’s love-in blog, one of our readers made reference to “a stack of yellowing Observers,” and another clever Friend inquired whether he was referring to the paper or its writers.
Today we had a visit from another Friend on our latest post about the Fullerton Observer and its hackish ways, using the great handle “They All Live in A Yellow Submarine.” This set us a thinkin’ about what a great metaphor the submarine can be, especially one that can’t blow its ballast tanks to surface and see what’s happening in the outside world. Its denizens are hermetically sealed in. Think Das Boot.
Who needs fresh air and sunshine? Not us!
Given The Fullerton Observer’s rather nasty penchant for submerging itself in a sea of City Hall Kool Aid we think the image is apt. Plus we’re getting a little bored with:
Back not long ago from Savannah, and now off to grab some work in NYC. Next month it’s another airport, another city, another hope that the little TV in the seat in front of me works. I hope the flight attendants don’t get snarky, and I wish one would give me the whole damned bottle of water rather than offering a little cup. I also hope the TSA doesn’t rifle through my bags and take things. So before I make friends with the seat tray table on Jet Blue, I wanted to mention my thoughts on Councilwoman Keller’s suggestion of a city blog.
If the city wants to blog, fine. There’s always room for more blogs in the blogosphere and there’s nothing anyone can do to prevent it. Doesn’t matter to me what format they take, but a blog without comments really isn’t a blog at all. What she describes is a Q&A page tacked onto their existing website.
After all, what makes blogging relevant and exciting is the participation of commenters who can add to a given topic.
For a very long time, it seems there was one primary means of public communication in this town. Whether or not you agreed with The Fullerton Observer, it was pretty much the only deal out there. There wasn’t a regular outlet for the mass dispersal of a differing viewpoint, so then it seems the slogan of Fullerton becomes, “More, more of the same!” But one day, along comes the blogosphere. Suddenly there’s a free and easy way to express oneself. So the Admin starts it. He’s just a basic blogger, not a techie, but it doesn’t matter. He has about 3 decades worth of stuff to say. More writers join. The sucker takes off. FFFF is horse with wings. It’s linking to other blogs and soon more and more people know about it and people can’t stop clicking on it because it’s saying so many things that people have felt for a long time.
It’s like someone said, “Okay, you can talk now,” and a torrent came pouring forth. At times it’s articulate, other times it veers into the lunacy of The Three Stooges. It’s not always a happy, jolly place where the birds sing and everyone holds hands in a permanent Stepford trance. No, there are rants, pouts, and the occasional barfing onto the screen. In other words: welcome to the blogosphere. Once you start, there’s no way of stopping.
The lessons for everyone to remember, but most especially those who detract from the blogosphere, are that it’s incorrect to think blogs have less importance and impact than publications in print. It’s also faulty to believe that blogs exist separate from the rest of the world. In fact, they are a reflection of it. All blogs, including FFFF are a vital part of the community. Their voice is as valid as any other.
A few days ago a guy named “Alan” left a nasty-gram on our blog accusing me of being a hypocrite because I fought the amplified music being performed illegally at Roscoe’s Famous Deli while outdoor amplified music was being performed at the Santa Fe Depot.
Well, I really don’t mind being called a hypocrite since I’ve been a called a lot worse things, especially since I started this blog; but I do want Fullerton Friends to know what’s going on.
My brother George and I have a long-term lease on the historic Santa Fe Depot which we restored in 1993. We sublet the old baggage room to our sister Salma who runs the cafe there with her daughter. Salma rents the outdoor patio area (where the music is being played) from the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency. She also has a permit from the Fullerton Police Department for entertainment, although this is not relevant to our lease with her. Any pertinent violations of city code at this site should be cause for revocation of that permit – no argument from me or the Friends. If anyone is aware of such violations please report them to the landlord – the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency.
And Alan – thanks for stopping by. We appreciate all points of view. Keep ’em coming!
A few months ago we went after Sharon Kennedy and her Observer’s shameless pandering to City Hall when she passed along a letter from OC Supervisor Chris Norby opposing Redevelopment expansion to her pals in the government. Some Redevelopment flunky put together the “official” response, Don Bankhead affixed his X to it, and the two were printed side by side.
Well she’s at it again. Check out page 8 of the July edition. Same technique, same result.
Now, we have nothing against the City getting out its propaganda, even if it is full of baloney. But this habit on the part of Kennedy of sharing an editorial writer’s submission so that it can be immediately rebutted without counter response is so unfair that, well, we feel justified in accusing Sharon Kennedy of being just a wee bit biased in the stuff she prints.
Why not print the submission and let the City respond if it feels inclined to do so? Why not let the debate go back and forth – fairly, and see who can develop the more compelling argument? Oh, yeah. That’s right:
We’ve kicked around some names of potential candidates for the 2010 city council election, but here’s a new one: Chris Norby.
Norby is termed out as a county supervisor next year and so he would be available. He wants to run for County Clerk for some reason, but we have the sneaking suspicion that that post won’t be vacated by the incumbent, Tom Daly, after all.
There are all kinds of reasons for desiring a Norby return to the city council. He’s good on Redevelopment, is hip to staff’s encroachment on popular sovereignty, and maybe best, it would absolutely drive the yellowing Observer crowd bananas; not mention what it would do to the Jones, Bankhead, Ackerman RINO herd.
Glad you could make it. Now sit down and be quiet...
During a recent City Council mind unwind, Pam Keller suggested that what Fullerton needs is a city blog. But no bloggers! Here’s what she had to say:
You see, Friends, folks like Pam are all about “education,” not discussion. She thinks that all that the good people of Fullerton need to be happy is to be properly “educated” – by people like her. But Heaven forbid that somebody should post something unwanted, or unexpected, or critical, or true. No. Better to be spoon fed Pam’s pabulum of feel good nonsense.
NEWS FLASH PAM! THE CITY OF FULLERTON HAS A BLOG, AND IT’S CALLED FRIENDS FOR FULLERTON’S FUTURE.
Here we deal with the sometimes unsavory stuff that you’d never read about on Pam’s blog, and that the Observer won’t touch, and of which Barbara Giasone is blissfully unaware. And better still, we offer anybody a chance to opine. We’ve given anybody who wants an opportunity to argue and dispute every single post we’ve ever put up. Now there’s a novel concept!
See, we believe in democracy, even if it’s a little rough around the edges. Pam really seems to believe in bureaucracy. And that’s just the way it is.
While watching the youtube clip of David Espinosa tee off on the Union Pacific Park and the comment by City Manager Chris Meyer that the park was being shut down, we got to thinking. The Mayor was clearly not told by anybody that the park was being closed down – observe the standard “we’ll fix it, thanks, move along” comment by Bankhead followed by Meyer’s explanation.
Meyer went on to say that the problem of what to do with this “park” was being passed to the Community Services Commission for ponderment.
And we say: who in Hell gave Chris Meyer the authority to shut down a public park? Why wasn’t the Council asked to make this decision and how come they were never even told about it before the apparent revelation at the council meeting? Who gave Meyer the authority to assign this problem to anybody, let alone a lower committee without even informing the Council of his plans? Why wasn’t this issue agendized and discussed, in public, by the City Council?
These are mostly rhetorical questions, of course. The City’s staff wants to sweep this acute embarrassment under the municipal rug and the only way to do that is not to tell anybody. Even their bosses.
It also makes us wonder how much else in Fullerton has being undertaken by the City Manager on his own hook. It’s one thing to execute policy laid down by elected officials; it’s quite another thing to start taking on major policy decisions, and worse still, not tell anybody. Unfortunately this situation is symptomatic of two long-standing problems in Fullerton, two problems that fit together like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.
First is the perfect willingness of our elected city council persons to abdicate their own policy-making responsibility and simply show up for the meetings, the Rotary lunches, the Chamber mixers, and the ribbon cuttings; second is the perfect willingness of the city managers to step into the authority void and run the show any damn way they please. It’s a perverse symbiosis.
This has got to stop. The results have been amply catalogued on the pages of this blog. And they aren’t very pretty.
Former Fullerton Councilman and tax fighter Conrad DeWitte points out why redevelopment expansion is nothing more than a can of spray paint. We can always count on clarity and comedy from Conrad.
Please note the running dialog between DeWitte and our beloved target Dick Jones at the end of the clip. See if you can determine who came out on top.
