Subject: Economic Development

• Voice of the Forest

  March 26, 2009

• Atomic Action Beanball

  A coincidence, but one which raises a question. The coincidence: last night Japan won the title game in the World Baseball Classic, and last night I happened across a curious minor relic of the relationship between baseball in the U.S. and baseball in Japan. The question it raised in my mind: do the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Orange County of California of the Pacific Time Zone of the United States of America have an officially stated policy on matters of war and peace and the use of nucl

  March 21, 2006

• SpongeTodd: Mr. Spitzer masters the freebie

  Proving once again that the driest of bureaucratic documents often contain the most interesting things, Judy Lin of the Sacramento Bee digs through the disclosure forms that state lawmakers are required to file and discovers: ... from January 2005 to June 30, 2006, groups with business at the Capitol gave lawmakers and their staff at least $218,000 in free passes to 85 assorted sporting events, concerts and shows at an assortment of venues. Often, the free passes were accompanied by access to l

  August 8, 2006

• Prop 90: Enriching the Rich, Making Us Their Bitch

  Congressman John Campbell (R-Irvine Company) has signed on to support Proposition 90, the Taxpayer Trap Initiative (or Save our Homes, if you're gullible). This is no surprise; back in September 2005, Prop 90's main backers poured $120,000 into Campbell for Congress, the campaign committee formed to help Campbell seize the seat left vacant by Christopher Cox's appointment to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Campbell's cash windfall came in a matter of days from over 850 separate donations

  October 13, 2006

• Slumlord Moonbeam

  Do not continue reading if, like millions who clamor for the latest Multihousing Professional magazine, you do not want to know what's in the March/April 2006 issue. The cover boy is former California Governor/current Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, whose face is fuzzed out enough to make you wonder if he's a hologram. Guess they don't just do that for Elizabeth Taylor. The headline? "Uptown, Turn Around Jerry Brown." Cute, no? But there's something even cuter. Under the "Also in this issue" heading

  April 5, 2006

• You've Been Warned: Pacific Legal Foundation, CATO Institute come to Chapman

  Someone from the Chapman U Federalist Society asked that we notify our readers about the event we're going to notify you about in a couple secs. But, as we explained to the chap/chapette, we will not be able to notify readers in the print edition about this event because we got the notice from the Federalists a few minutes ago--and the hard copy this would appear in was printed the night before due to the early Best of OC deadlines. Of course, getting it to us Wednesday afternoon would be too la

  October 18, 2006

• Register, Times Slam Santa Ana Good--And a Challenge

  If there's one thing that Orange County Register editorial writer Steven Greenhut hates more than Sheriff Mike Carona, it's city-controlled urban planning, and he ripped SanTana officials a new one and then some yesterday in a piece blasting the city's much-ballyhooed Renaissance Specific Plan. Proponents say the Renaissance Plan will transform the city's downtown; opponents say the same, except use the word "gentrification." Greenhut, in one of his increasing moves to the Left, sides with the o

  December 24, 2007

• Why Santa Ana Natives Fear the Hipsters

  Tonight, SanTana officials hold yet another meeting for their much-vaunted, much-derided Renaissance Plan. A slew of different interests will attend, from loft dwellers who want to turn Orange County's largest city into another Aliso Viejo to activists who fear the Plan's gentrification purposes to those hell-raising boys at Orange Juice!. I won't be there, alas, busy as I am in Oakland doing...something. So I'll leave ustedes with what I hope everyone can universally deride: clueless hipsters.

  January 17, 2008

• "We Do Gentrification Right!"

  The Measure D gap has shrunk--a tiny amount, but shrunk. The No on Measure D crowd are getting more optimistic. They have no other choice. "We already saw the bulldozers driving up Flower Street," Orange Juice blogger Thomas Anthony Gordon cracks. I tell them to pray hard, or to at least move to Anaheim. "We do gentrification right!" I offer, which the semi-drunk Measure D folks think is the funniest thing in the world. "We should put that on a bumper sticker with Curt Pringle's face on it!" Go

  February 5, 2008

• Sad Restaurant News :-(

  The souring economy has closed two Orange County hole-in-the-wall favorites, is threatening a third, and changing a fourth. Closed for unknown reasons is Irie Jamaican Restaurant in Cypress, long the only local Jamaican restaurant. Shut down as a casualty of downtown Fullerton's continuing gentrification is Ruben's Panaderia, which I've been frequenting since a kid, so I know it didn't close for lack of business. Jason's Downtown in SanTana is now only open for dinner Thursday through Saturday b

  June 3, 2008

• Gary Quite Contrary

  As the video from June 26 reveals, Gary Rapport is ultra sincere as he tells a business group how important entrepreneurism is to the future of Wood River Valley, Idaho. But the newly hired Ketchum Community Development Corporation executive director abruptly resigned his post on July 8. And now the former director of a Garden Grove seniors meals nonprofit is returning to Orange County—in handcuffs. A Blaine County, Idaho, judge on Thursday cleared the way for Rapport to be extradited to Sa

  July 18, 2008

• Slippery When Wetlands

  March 11, 1999

• Virtual Tax

  November 4, 1999

• Stealth Wealth

  November 22, 2001

• Dollars and No Sense

  March 27, 2003

• OC GOP Goes Back to Its Mexican-Bashing Roots in Fullerton City Council Race

  In my latest book, I devote a chapter to the many sins of the Orange County Republican Party but also hinted that they were finally evolving from the slimeball campaigns of the past when it came to scoring easy points off of demonizing Mexicans. Specifically, I pointed to the 2006 Tan Nguyen affair, where GOP chair Scott Baugh fully repudiated Nguyen and only the farthest extremes of party activists (i.e., the CCIR crowd) stood by their Tan. So much for that goodwill. As noted by OC Blog, the

  October 24, 2008

• There Goes the Neighborhood

  August 3, 2006

• Koo's Now Booking Shows at Santa Ana's Yost Theater

  Chris Ziegler reported for us back in October about Koo's returning to Santa Ana and taking over programming at the long-dormant Yost Theater, and now shows are beginning to pop up on the venue's schedule. It's a move that generated some degree of grousing--particularly around November's SoundDowntown festival, which was organized by Koo's founder Dennis Lluy and used the Yost among other venues--namely, that it marks gentrification of downtown Santa Ana. (One commenter in the above linked story

  January 30, 2009

• OC Toilet-to-Tap Plan Wins Funding in Omnibus Package

  Included in the land- and water-conserving Omnibus Public Land Management Act signed into law today by President Obama is a bill providing $6 million in federal funding to help finance future phases of the Orange County Groundwater Replenishment Project--a.k.a. the "toilet to tap plan." The project takes sewage water, cleans it well beyond public-health standards and then infuses it into central Orange County's groundwater aquifers, where it will remain until being drawn up and further fil

  March 30, 2009

• Mike Pace

  December 25, 2008

• [Hey, You!] What a Wickhead

  May 8, 2008

• Great Pork

  May 16, 2002

• Dying Another Day

  ‘Spy-Fi’

  August 16, 2007

• Back up to Speed

  February 8, 2001

• German Healthcare, Santa Ana Politics

  December 18, 2003

• Decadence

  Web Exclusive! The result of an art conference, Catalyst 18s Wonder-Room has a little of everything

  March 8, 2007

• Diary of a Mad County

  August 17, 2006

• The CPCs Hidden Empire

  June 8, 2006

• Toll Road Rage: Ken Ryan and Friends

  March 16, 2006

• Malled

  June 3, 2004

• German Healthcare, Santa Ana Politics

  December 25, 2003

• A Very Brady Scandal

  Placentias mayor runs aground on redevelopment regulations, doesnt care

  November 20, 2003

• Letters

  June 13, 2002

• Yes, In My Back Yard

  June 6, 2002

• Spin Recycle

  November 8, 2001

• Shut Em Down!

  April 20, 2000

• Gang Bank

  December 2, 1999

• Downtown Santa Ana Loncheros Find an Ally Against Renaissance Plan

   Taco Man appreciates those who help his preparers...​ My cover story on Orange County loncheros sparked an outraged letter from Sean Mill, longtime SanTana activist, sometimes-blogger for the wonderfully libelous Orange Juice!, and current SanTana planning commissioner. What got his attention was this part of the piece:But the taco-truck battle in Santa Ana isn't over. Santa Ana officials have created the Renaissance Specific Plan (RSP), an ambitious redevelopment project for the city's

  July 30, 2009

• Embattled County Planning Director Announces Retirement

  Bryan Speegle, director of Orange County Public Works and head of a planning department that was recently lambasted in a government audit and blasted by county supervisors, has announced his retirement, according to a statement from the county CEO's office."County Executive Officer Thomas G. Mauk has named Jess Carbajal to serve as Interim Director of OC Public Works, effective immediately," reads the statement. "Carbajal, previously the department's Chief Deputy Director, has served in manageme

  August 10, 2009

• Racist OC Register Fustercluck of the Week: Special Kennedy Appreciation Edition

  Until brain cancer ended his career, Senator Ted Kennedy was one of the hardest working legislators in American history, someone who even right-wing ideologues like Orrin Hatch admired and loved for his tireless dedication to public service. Ok sure, he had his faults. The man liked to drink. He caused the death of a young woman by crashing his car off a bridge and then walking home to call his attorney and sleep it off rather than going straight to the authorities. That was a long time ago, how

  August 28, 2009

• Authorities Trumpet Largest Orange County Curfew Sweep

  ​About 300 officers from 20 law enforcement agencies made sweeps through various Orange County communities last night and early today and swooped up 67 kids in violation of city curfew laws, the District Attorney's office announced. Curfews begin at 10 or 11 p.m., depending on the city, and last until 5 a.m. the following day. During those hours, minors can't be out in public unless they are accompanied by a parent or guardian, working or taking part in an 

  November 13, 2009