Voice of OC Played By Trail to Nowhereists
Addendum: I apologize for not providing a link to the story in Voice of OC. Here it is. And after reading it again and Elattar’s phone interview with the egregious Egleth, I really have to wonder if he even went to the site at all. Why would he have to call her if he was there listening to her nonsense? Could this whole tale be simply the result of phone interviews? If so, that would be pretty bad, and seeing Leopo’s pictures still should have made his journalist’s antennae go sideways – if he has any.
DE-H
People who read the online news source known as the Voice of OC know that it reflexively leans toward stories that promote the notion of the local underdog up against monied interests entrenched in the corridors of power.
And that’s okay – up to a point. And that point is crossed when their “reporters” buy into some shenanigan or other without delving at all into the issues. It’s the narrative that counts, of course: rich vs. poor, good vs. evil, and the narrative must not change.
And so when Voice of OC reporter Hosam Elattar got a call from Ahmad Zahra (or one of his brain-washed followers) about the “popular” uprising in Fullerton about a rejected “greening” grant it must have been irresistible. And so the Voice scribe showed up for some sort of Trail to Nowhere romp where the usual suspects – Egleth Nunnci and Saskia Kennedy of Fullerton Observer infame – were ready for him, with a gaggle of followers bearing the usual “home made” signs of protest.
It doesn’t seem to have occurred to Mr. Elattar to ask why protesters with signs were parading down the abandoned UP right-of-way where exactly nobody could see them, except Julie Leopo, the Voice “photojournalist.” A real reporter, or an honest one at this point would know he was being played. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to him to inquire into Nunnci’s absurd statement that he later published:
“This is an area that is overpopulated, overdeveloped – where people are not thinking about green spaces,” Nuncci said. “Mental health (issues) are happening because our children don’t have the opportunity to go and play and run and enjoy.”
Elattar didn’t ask why those poor, mentally affected kids couldn’t “play and run and enjoy” themselves in nearby Richman Park or Lemon Park or Independence Park. Nor did he inquire into the question of how these little victims of society were going to get to the Trail to Nowhere, since only one street – three short blocks of Truslow Avenue – is closer to the right-of way than to Richman Park or Independence Park. And he didn’t bother to notice, or at least inquire about the graffiti and ask Ms. Nunnci if maybe the industrial zone with its obvious blight, might not be the best place to build a linear park. The Leopo pictures themselves betray the problem by showing the beloved Trail to Nowhere as it runs along the no man’s land next to and lower than the Santa Fe mainline tracks.
Did Elattar bother to continue along the route to see what it passed through? Did he even bother to look at a google satellite image?
Did Elattar bother to interview any of the residents of the adjacent Liberty Walk community at the western end to find out if they were even notified of the Trail to Nowhere proposal that had lights shining into their backyards? What about SOCO Walk on the eastern end? Did he ask anybody who actually lived on Truslow whether they would use this silly facility? Why would he do that? He already had his tale from the get-go.
Elattar, moreover, took it as gospel that this rump trail would have provided connectivity to other trails and “several parks.” It would not have – previous lies that even City staff have finally abandoned, although The Fullerton Observer keeps using to dupe the gullible kids and the elderly Observers who just can’t know better.
And finally I would be remiss if I didn’t share this charming image:
This is Saskia Kennedy, directing traffic for her photo op actors, creating the news before her Fullerton Observer writes opinion “news” articles about it.
One hopes that Hosam Elattar’s superiors at the Voice of OC cotton on to the scam pulled on their ace reporter and advise him to delve into the issue more closely. But I’m not counting on it.
Good thing Julie has a wide angle lens.
Good god, half the frame. Not enough running and playing.
Yeah, the reporter got duped, but they gave him what he wanted even before he started.
He also didn’t ask who was going to clean up the graffiti so as not to offend the tender young minds of Egleth’s mentally afflicted kiddies.
A reliable source told me it wasn’t Zahra who called Hosam Alattar alerting him about the staged uprising in Fullerton about the city’s Urban greening project being rejected by the City Council.
What troubles me is why all this effort is being exhausted by the Observer’s owners, the Kennedys, staging protests disguised as community uprisings – when almost 3 years ago the City Council requested City Staff to put the reopening of the UP Park on the Council’s Agenda, Yet, it remains closed for 20 + years and counting.
My source said it was Zahra. If not he was certainly in on it. It must have been tough for him to avoid the photo op.
Could have been that Skaskia Kennedy. You’ll notice the reporter knew her connection with The Fullerton Head-in-the-Sand, “independent news” operation.
It was the oppressed minority angle that really sealed the deal for Voice of OC,
I guarantee the Voice of OC(EA) reads this blog regularly.
This would have been the most embarrassing park project of all time. And in Fullerton, that’s sayin somethin.
And yet City Hall knows nothing about embarrassment. You just go from one disaster to another and then your retire with a six-figure pension.
You got that right. Look at the players who were behind the UP Park mess and are now $100,000+ plus pensioners.
Paul Dudley
Bob Hodgson
Susan Hunt
Jim Armstrong
Gary Chalupsky
They all got away from the Poison Park disaster Scot-free and swimming in the proverbial gravy.
Some idiot wants to put a rec trail alongside the railroad tracks?
Egleth is a rock star!
FFFF/ Bushala and the council majority which didn’t bother producing a convincing reason seem to be the only ones against the trail.
Class 1 trails between parks are bad… because ideology. Let’s make up a whole “trail to nowhere” narrative and push that bullshit every day like someone’s paying real money for the anti campaign.
Johnny Know It All really taking it to Bushala by visiting his blog 20xs a day. What a dumbass!
JRH suffers from angry elf syndrome. He can’t help himself. The voices in his head tell him he must reply and must post or he will become insignificant and die.
No the trail is bad because nobody is going to use it. It doesn’t connect to anything, either. Plus the Poison Park is dead as your cerebellum.
My understanding is the up park supposed to reopen. Wasn’t that just discussed at the same meeting they voted down the trail?
If it does you can thank Jung, Whitaker and Dunlap. Zahra wanted to turn it into a privatized event center.
Truth
We need to rid zahra and Charles
A convincing reason? Like who is going to pay for maintenance? Is it safe? Look at the pictures dummy.
Convincing reason: people will use a class 1 bike trail long planned as part of the bicycle master plan.
Another reason: we don’t have enough bike facilities and at least building out our minimal plan when grants or other funding are available is the bare minimum of competence we should expect.
Who’s going to pay for maintenance? Same as all our parks which you’ve never thought about before, guaranteed.
Is it safe? Lol. There is a process for making anything. If you’re talking about potential contamination hazards on the site they would have to be motivated before completion. But that’s true no matter what you do with site other than the current plan which is nothing.
Look at pictures of what? An empty undeveloped lot? That doesn’t mean anything. Undeveloped lots look like crap. So what.
*mitigated not motivated
Fullerton can’t take proper care of the parks we already have, That was Dunlap’s very excellent point.
No, they won’t use it just because it is there. It dead ends at Harbor and it dead ends where the UP right of ends.
The Trail to Nowhere would have been of zero use to anything except the graffiti artists of Fullerton.
I oppose the trail to be built on toxic land with money stolen from other people.
Stolen money, lol. Anti government woo woo nonsense.
Beaches, national parks, regional parks, neighborhood parks all impossible in your preferred reality that no one actually wants to live in.
It was stolen if fraud was committed on the application.
D’oh!
You’re still an angry elf! I’ve got houses in L.A., Paris and Vail, each one with a 70-inch plasma screen, and I paid for it all with my own money.
licebilly spawn wants a tax dollar subsidized trail to nowhere to play in along with her mentally unstable buddies
I think your addendum may be correct. I bet he bought the narrative without even going to the Trail of Tears. Even the blindest reporter could see the fiasco.
VoOC is not known to be one for doing deep research before making a declaration or drawing a conclusion. Most progressive “news” organizations don’t really care much for verifying facts as long as the story aligns with their preferred narrative.