The word in academic circles is that the CSUF is busted. Or at least it doesn’t have the wherewithal to swing a deal under consideration to buy back property it once owned across Nutwood Avenue.
The site is the current home of Hope University and it contains some wonderful buildings designed and constructed as part of a modernist master plan. The rough idea was that the CSUF Auxiliary would acquire the property, and, after a lease-back period to Hope, would start knocking everything down – presumably to throw up more out-of-scale, hideous erections. We first wrote about it here. And our expert consultant defined the term “exaggerated modern” here.
So the recession may have a silver lining anyway – at least as far as historic preservation is concerned, but we shall see what the future brings.
In the meantime, just to the south, the giant hole in the cityscape left by the demolition of perfectly fine modern-style buildings to make way for the Jefferson Commons swindle are a silent yet eloquent testimonial to the lack of foresight exercised by our elected leaders.
Those rascals in the white van have been hard at work lately. Or a least that’s what they keep telling us; and we keep providing them with vicodin tablets and Everclear.
Our narcotic investment seems to have paid off the other day for the boys have provided us with the the transcript of a conversation between members of the Tom Day for Supervisor campaign and a blogger from what used to be known as “Red County.” The conversation here seems to be about how the latter can help the former. Believe it or not.
John Lewis: Okay. Chris are you with us?
Chris Jones: Yeah I’m here.
JL: Okay, good. Raining up there? Aw, who the hell cares. Okay. Matt Cunningham is, um, here too.
CJ: Yeah. Hi Matt.
Matthew Cunningham: inaudible, high pitched squeak.
JL: Okay. Let’s get to it. We need some blog presence to go after Nelson, right?
CJ: Yeah. I’ve been trying for almost a year, you know, anonymous comments here and there. No traction, you know.
MC: And you got busted for that.
CJ: So did you, Jerbal.
JL: Forget it. Cut it out. We’re supposed to be working together. You both screwed up. Okay. What we need is a real person to start hitting Nelson on Red County.
MC: We’ve gotta be careful, not too obvious. Chip might pull the plug. He’s not too smart, but I think he’s starting to get, you know, um, suspicious.
CJ: Yeah, but it’s gotta be a real person. Then we’ll start commenting under different names.
MC: I can’t do it. What about Gordon?
JL: Gordon? Who the hell is that?
MC: Some dummy that used to blog for Pedroza. From Santa Ana. Doesn’t know his ass from from a pothole on 5th Street. He doesn’t know anything about the 4th District.
CJ: Perfect. Can he write?
MC: No. Well, sort of. You’ll have to write it for him.
JL: He may not want to attack a Republican. Will he want something?
MC: Dunno. He’s not too bright but he’ll probably want something. We can tell him he’s getting even with Pedroza for something. That’ll work. If he wants something you can offer him a, um
CJ: A banana?
(general chuckles)
JL: Okay. Jones writes the thing up then stupid puts his name over it. Great. Good. Okay. Then Jones and you can add to the threads anonymously. You’ve both had practice with that. If, er, whats’ his name?
MC: Gordon?
JL: Yeah, Gordon. If he wants something we’ll tell him Daly’s gonna give him a job if he gets in.
MC: Hey wait a minute. What about, you know, Laura? How many jobs is Daly offering around?
JL: Oh hell don’t worry about it for chrissake. Nobody’s gonna hire…
MC: Gordon?
JL: Right. Gordon. He’s just a plausible…you know…
CJ: Stooge?
(more general chuckles)
JL: Okay. Lets get, um, him on the phone.
MC: Gordon?
JL: Yeah, him. Hmm, looks like the cable company’s working outside the office again. Okay let’s make the call…
At this point transmission was disrupted by interference, rendering the balance of the transmission inaudible.
The Tom Daly For Supervisor campaign being operated out of the back of the Mauve County blog offices enlisted an unlikely stooge today in an attack on Fullerton’s Shawn Nelson.
The individual’s name is Thomas Anthony Gordon (pictured, below), a participant in the byzantine and highly bitter world of Santa Ana politics. We had to do some digging to find out who this individual even was, and why he has all of a sudden taken an interest in the 4th Supervisorial District election.
When you get beyond the personal appearance issues things really start to get unattractive...
The gist of Gordo’s post is that Nelson is a defense attorney, and because Nelson works to get his clients acquitted he is “soft on crime” and hence unfit to be a Supervisor. Some logic, huh?
This attack really isn’t too surprising. Daly’s campaign manager Chris Jones kept popping up here recently (until we busted him) using aliases trying to say the same thing. And it’s been obvious for a long time that Mauve County was just a vehicle for political promoter and Repuglican John Lewis who has been setting up the Democrat Daly as a lobbying target for years. But who orchestrated this little Valentine? It’s not very likely that Lewis, or Jones even know this Gordon character.
Aha! I think I’ve got it. The Mauve editor Matthew J. Cunningham is a prize pupil of Lewis and, of course a backroom Daly supporter. He’s been over here a lot lately commenting anonymously, too. It seems quite plausible that Cunningham stirred up Gordon, probably with the fact that their mutual enemy Art Pedroza has an ad for Nelson on his blog. What an idea! The stooge can do the dirty work and Cunningham can (try to) keep his hands clean.
Just call me up and I won't explain everything.
Sound sort of weird. Of course it is. But the mission of Mauve County is now clear. Promote the career politician Daly, and attack Nelson.
For a blog that keeps pretending to be right-of-center it’s pretty sad that they evidently will be working against the only true conservative in the race. And all so that John Lewis can make money lobbying his boy Tom Daly in the County Hall of Administration. Repuglicanism at its worst.
Just because we had nothing better to do we took a cyber stroll through Linda Ackerman’s Facebook site and lookit what we turned up. Note the name: Carol Rudat, the erstwhile candidate for City of Orange City Council who was busted as a carpetbagger and narowly escaped having her candidacy tossed out by a judge. And now she and her husband Dave strongly endorse fellow carpetbagger Linda Ackerwoman! Too funny!
O, bitter irony! Matthew J. Cunningham had a veritable conniption over Rudat’s carpetbagging in Orange, but now looks the other way when the wife of El Commandante does it in the 72nd Assembly District race!
The trustees over at the North Orange County Community College District have seemingly done the impossible, conjuring up a new football stadium at the FJC campus out of thin air. Apparently the neighbors aren’t too crazy about this sleight-of-hand since it means noise, lights, traffic, etc. They decided to raise their own ruckus, and in a democracy that’s a damn fine thing.
What happened was that the locals discovered the District had been guilty of “mission creep” or bureaucratic metastasis, or whatever you want to call it. But rather than our going on, let’s let neighbor Ken Bane speak for himself (courtesy of another FFFF thread):
“the EIR only contemplated a “renovation” of the track field. but when no one was looking, they added lighing, a PA system, and seating 2000+. When we caught their hand in the cookie jar they agreed to be a “good neighbor” and do the required supplemental CEQA review, like someone following the law makes them worthy, when in fact they wouldn’t have unless we busted them. And frankly, we’re skeptical they’ll do it right from here anyway.”
We recall a Ken Bane who used to work for the Fullerton Planning Department many years ago and wonder if this is the same fellow. If it is, we have confidence that his narration of the environmental deficiencies of the project is pretty accurate.
Now it may come as a shock to some of you Loyal Friends, but it is the government itself that is often the biggest scofflaw when it comes to abiding by CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act). Even when they don’t get a categorical exemption public agencies often find ways of dodging the intent of CEQA that could land you or me in the slammer.
NOCCCD Tries an End Run
As our own Fullerton Harpoon pointed out in response to Mr. Bane, this enhanced plan will require an amendment to an approved EIR including new facts not previously in evidence. Traffic, Noise and Aesthetic EIR categories will have to be addressed, and the new document should also include alternatives to the project – in this case one alternative could be to rent somebody else’s facility as a congenial part of a “no build” alternative; maybe it could be the Fullerton High School stadium a mere quarter of a mile away.
CEQA also requires that if there are unmitigated impacts (such as in this case lighting and noise will undoubdtedly be) a statement of overidding considerations be made identifying some objective public need for building the project. In this case it’s pretty hard to see how anybody could justify the necessity of a game-day stadium, especially for the few hundred spectators that show up for a typical Hornet game.
This may be one of the rare cases where a citizen/neighborhood group can take on a government agency – and win. We will try to keep our devoted readers up to date on this issue.
