What They Didn’t Tell Anybody
The City of Fullerton Parks Department wanted a bike trail from The abandoned UP Park to Independence Park – a mere three quarters of a mile a way. They had an ally in D5 councilmember Ahmad Zahra who was desperate to be seen giving something to his “poor,” Latino constituents; whether they wanted it or not was irrelevant. And of course we now know that the Fullerton Observer, an operation that pretends to be a news outlet was (and still is) busy stirring up support for the silly and expensive idea, even after the council majority voted it down.
All of these bad actors had reasons for wasting $2,000,000, and none of them were good.
Thanks to good Friend D. Johnson, we also now know something else: that none of these self-interested people – disingenuous or just plain ignorant – told anybody is that there already is a designated bicycle route from the south side of the Santa Fe railroad tracks at the Depot that follows Walnut Avenue and turns south on Richman to Valencia Avenue, and that this bike route, should anybody want to use it, goes to the front of Independence park, not the hidden back corner.
Hard to believe that the existence of this bike route was never mentioned by anybody, but we’re talking about the Fullerton Parks Department that has a long history of deliberately omitting facts, misleading the council and the public, and has resorted to outright peddling of lies to get what it wants from our feckless councils. It was this department (in conjunction with the Planning Department) that ignored the council’s request for a broader vision for the land adjacent to the UP right-of-way.
It would be more than a bit embarrassing to acknowledge an existing bike route just 200 feet or so from their proposal and running parallel to it! So of course they didn’t.
And the existing route – with a little paint striping – can be easily upgraded and the people of California will be $1,780,000 better off; and the people of Fullerton will be $300,000 better off in capital costs plus who knows how much in maintenance and water costs. And any and all bike riders who wish to make the tour through this industrial neighborhood can do so at their convenience and leisure.
Which brings me to the conclusion of this story by noting that people who work along the Walnut/Richman route inform me me that they don’t recall seeing a lot, if any bicyclists along this route. And this may very well be because nobody wants to go that way – despite its connectivity to the bike route on Valencia. There is a mind-set among top-down liberal circles that if you build something for the underserved, people will, must use it, despite decades of evidence to the contrary. The idea that demand might well encourage supply is a completely alien notion to them.
So unsurprising. Staff misfeasance aided and abetted by Zahra & Co.
I wish our council had taken the time ti figure this out. They could have shut the door on the nonsense from day one.
Maybe we’ll see Egglet or Skasia on the existing route one of these days.
You can never have too many bike trails even if they are right next to each other.
So let’s spend a few hundred bucks on some paint and give the Community what a few of its members (well maybe none for all anybody knows) “something nice” which is all the Zahra puppet really want – a gesture. And then let People Above Things kiddies do a real time count of users.
Just returned from a little bike ride. Started at UP (poison) park, headed west on trail to Highland, turned left in bike lane, turned right in bike lane on Valencia. Continued west til lo and behold, I arrived at Independence Park front entrance!
Note that I also could have taken the referenced Walnut to Richman portion.
All of this travel was on trail and in marked bicycle lanes!
There are 2 existing trail and bike lanes from Poison Park to Independence!!!
During my ride I saw 1 homeless dude on bike (not riding, sitting), and 2 yard sales. Not a single person walking or riding anywhere.
You don’t count, Billy. You aren’t the hypothetical chubby Latino lad Elglit keeps babbling about.
No one on the “trail?” That’s because our trails suck. Theyre a disjointed mess of sharrow nonsense.
Go to Irvine and see nice network of class 1 trails and you will see trails being used 7 days a week nearly 24 hours a day.
I would be willing to put up with bits and pieces of class 1 trails built over time. But to plan it, get the funds and then kill at the last moment because of political corruption is infuriating.
J.R., you REALLY are that stupid.
The Fullerton Loop is NOT a fake trail like the trails in Irvine. Fullerton is NOTHING like Irvine. Never has been never will be.
The Fullerton Loop was created by means of it’s location to nearby residences. The Trail to nowhere has no connectivity and no nearby residences. The line of bullshit that it will connect south Fullerton to north Fullerton is a pie in the sky. The B.N.S.F. owns the right of way from Independence Park to the Basta crossing. THEY CAN NOT ABANDON A MAIL LINE, PERIOD. This Trail to Nowhere is a failure from the gate. The City should have NEVER applied for the Grant. That was a mistake in the first place, and two mistakes don’t make it right.
Please don’t talk sense to this nincompoop. He is addicted to the patronizing gesture, the supposed intent, not the outcome. Neither Hoogerbooger, Zahra, Charles Skansia Kennedy or any off the other fools promoting this would have take responsibility for its failure had it been built.
Talking sense would be a massive change for you assholes. I bet a couple of you are capable on an intellectual level. It’s more a deficit of honesty and will.
Getting a little testy Johnnie?
Just admit you lost, you’re shitty idea lost, and all the misinformed kiddies and octogenarian boohoos won’t change the sad reality.
Ouch.
Honesty, will and integrity are things Zahra and JRH lack entirely.
The Fullerton loop is a dirt trail. It’s great for mountain bikes, trail runners, hikers and horses but it’s not accessible to road bikes and it’s not for getting from point A to point B.
The bicycle master plan is supposed to provide the big picture that ultimately connects all points.
But if you blow up the plan at every turn you never make progress.
Of course the city should have applied for the grant for the long planned trail.
I notice that the Kennedy woman’s rag is still pushing the lie that this connects different parts of the city and that there is, in fact, a Phase 3
There’s nothing that looks like the UP ROW in Irvine. No bums, no druggies, no murders.
You might be happier living in Irvine. Your neighbors might be happier, too.
“Our trails suck”, really? That’s not true. Please go to the North County Court House tomorrow, its at Berkley and Harbor. Take a walk on it. Go north to the Juanita Cook Trail. Then head west on that trail all the way to Euclid. See for yourself. Nothing man made, all natural and full of people walking, jogging, and riding bikes. If you think that trail sucks, you suck!
By the way, Mr. Hogerhuis, the trail (yes, it’s a trail) from Highland Ave. to Independence Park is currently open to the public. It has been for over 20 years. While you are on your field trip you should also go and see how many people are using that trail. I’ll admit, that trail sucks and so does the trail from Harbor Blvd. to Highland Ave.
Sorry if it wasn’t clear, I mean our PAVED bike facilities suck. The dirt trails are good but that’s a whole different animal.
Johnny Know It All can move to Irvine. Their brand of limo liberalism fits him. Let’s see how many more times we can get him to comment.
Then move to Irvine. Fullerton doesn’t need wasteful spending citizens like you.
Not moving and fuck you for suggesting it, neighbor.
No, fuck YOU Hoogerbooger. No one likes you, no one cares what happens to you so just disappear scumbag.
Not moving, not thinking, not contributing. Got it. Another brainwashed Observer.
Zahra and “La Communidad” would have nothing to say if it weren’t for lies.
Are you really pretending not to know there are different classes of bike paths? I skimmed this weak attempt at a gotcha article but I didn’t even see a nod to that fundamental distinction. You can get from UP park to IP park today, yes. Via roads. Who didn’t know that?
But a proposed class 1 bike path was in the bicycle plan.
It was approved by the parks commission.
They got a grant to pay for the bulk of it.
Then Bushala got council majority to kill it.
And this all makes sense to FFFF because there are roads with a bike symbol painted on it.
The travesty is putting all this long term, reasoned planning in and then scuttling it for no understandable or convincingly stated reason with no actual alternative.
That’s the failure of government and you all are celebrating it over and over.
“The travesty is putting all this long term, reasoned planning in and then scuttling it for no understandable or convincingly stated reason with no actual alternative.”
Wrong again, as usual. The City Council directed staff that these piecemeal plans (like Zahra’s theft of the UP Park for a private event center) needed a broader context in an area plan. That was 2 years ago and since then nada. This was just deliberate insubordination and I don’t know why the 3 councilman stood for it.
As for failed government, want to explain the failure of the UP Park? It was brought to us by the same yabbos that tried to sell The Trail to Nowhere.
The broader context is the bicycle master plan.
Now that’s stoopid even for you.
Calling me stupid isn’t the same as making a point or an argument. I guess you don’t have one.
The bicycle master plan is a real document already approved by council and it includes the proposed class 1 trails now abandoned. Though the plan is still in effect.
New Hooger, Stoopider than Ever!®
So true about the UP Park. It was sold in exactly the same way 20+ years ago by Susan Hunt – fresh air for los ninos, trees, oxygen, good health, blah, blah blah. Then came the polluted soil (no one ever mentioned that about the trail to nowhere, but it runs over the same shit) the bums, the hypes, the borrachos and the gangsters. Another City of Fullerton triumph, and only $3,000,000! What a bargain.
The trail to nowhere is contaminated with Trichloroethylene, TCE, west of Highland between Walnut and Truslow. Think Fullerton Manufacturing. The DTSC doesn’t lie, but Loya does.
Alice Loya doesn’t care about checking into that (it’s called a Phase 11) before she recommends putting money into it. Just like Susan Hunt didn’t care about checking the soil of the UP Park prior to spending millions on constructing the park over contaminated soil which was originally caused by a leaking generator at 144 W. Walnut. The former site of the So. Cal. Gas Company.
The poisoned park was then rip up after it was constructed then fenced off. It’s been fenced off ever since. That was 20 plus years ago. The Park and Rec. Dept. heads don’t seem to remember or care about abutting properties to their pet projects, or the fact that ground water flows south.
Too bad none of the three councilmembers were told the history of the area. But that’s par for the course. Now hoger can pop up to tell us how much we irrationally hate Fulerton’s goobermint.
Dear “Observer” – If you read the actual Observer you would know that everything you are saying is incorrect. The only thing you got right is the address of the old gas plant. If you are interested in the facts you can find old Observers from that time at the public library, and DTSC records there also or go to the CA DTSC online and put Fullerton into the search.
John – I don’t know you but it is nice and also amazing to hear someone making sense on this blog!
https://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/getfile?filename=/public%2Fdeliverable_documents%2F1703600823%2FFullerton%20Mfg.%20EPA%20Remedial%20Site%20Assessment%20Decision.pdf
Oh look over there. No not there, over there. http://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/?surl=6tgpg
Oops!
Oops!!
Sharon Kennedy – ignorant as a sack of doorknobs buried under a pile of granite boulders.
It’s not difficult to know what she knows nothing about. It’s almost everything.
Good to see you read an alternative source of information. Too bad it won’t stick. Your daughter (?) has been printing lies about this rump, go-nowhere trail for awhile. I’m sure you approve of her making the news she scribbles about. Real journalism there, as well as mistaking uninformed opinion for fact, but you folks do you.
Nobody except some uninformed kids and a few dozen octogenarians take you people seriously.
Go away shrew and take Hoogiebooger with you. Oh, and don’t forget to pack up Zahra while you’re at it. People are going to learn some more unsavory truths about him in 2024.
Sharon, you claim everything in the comment above is a lie, curious, are you saying the city new the soil was contaminated at the UP Park and decided to go ahead with the construction of the park anyways? Or they didn’t know cause they did not do a phase 11? Pick your poison.
Johnny Know It All isn’t just on this blog. He’s on your family blog run by your daughter too. Guy doesn’t have a hobby, so he increases the traffic numbers on this blog by commenting on everything 5-10 times a day. Old Observers being at the public library is justifiable reason to defund the library system in this city. Observers are not news. They’re trash.
Lots of hobbies. Politics is just one of them.
Retrocomputing, running, woodworking, bicycling, motorcycling.
I am a programmer and type fast so it making a few comments on this blog takes me a few minutes here and there, to your chagrin.
Deal with it.
Wood working? Is that code for whacking off? Ahaha. We found something you practice a lot.
I believe you run. From a lot of stuff.
“They got a grant to pay for the bulk of it.”
Because wasting Other People’s Money on worthless causes is noble. That is the sick mind and logic of Progressive Cultists everywhere!
No, it’s about making a plan, getting it approved, lining up funding and doing the work. Ideology doesn’t enter into it.
The fucked their own project for hidden reasons.
Johnny Know It All spill the tea on the hidden reasons – unless you’re full of shit and hot air.
I don’t know them, that’s what makes them hidden. It’s an argument. The trail runs along Bushala property. He’s opposed to the trail. He has donated money to at least Jung
Meanwhile you have a class 1 trail that is planned well in advance over at least a decade, part of the standing approved bicycle master plan, funded with outside grant money that gets murdered at the last minute for nonsensical reasons.
The business interests along the trail are the only obvious reason. Do I know why they oppose it? Not really. Maybe they have a proprietary feeling about that empty lot and have been salivating over it for years. Who knows. Maybe they just don’t like a plan that’s not their idea.
They should tell us since it’s pretty clear they’re driving it. Nothing else satisfactorily explains turning down outside money to fund long standing city plans.
Bushala also “donated” money to Zahra. So there’s that.
What errant nonsense. In other words you don’t know what the ever-loving fuck you’re babbling about.
B-b-b-b-but I read it in the Observer!
“Errant nonsense” is what you all are selling… that a last minute knife in the back of this long planned and fully funded class 1 trail is some “good government” decision. That they just needed a more comprehensive plan or some other b/s.
No one actually believes that. Not you, not me, not the Observer, no one.
It can’t be, because there is a wider plan: the bicycle master plan in which the trail was originally proposed.
There is SOME reason the long planned trail was killed. Since it was fully funded it wasn’t about money. It’s not our money… don’t build the trail, can’t use it for something else. It’s a grant. Our councilmembers couldn’t give a crap about saving money for any city but our own. It’s irrational, why would they?
On the other hand, politicians love ribbon cuttings for public infrastructure. The opportunity to do that in low tax Fullerton doesn’t come along often.
Yet council publicly strangled that puppy instead.
What could explain that? FFFF’s first inclination given their “everything is corrupt” mentality should be that there is a real story here to be uncovered.
Maybe this is just a Bushala astroturf site. Explains everyone hiding behind aliases.
The path may be contaminated, idiot and nobody said a word to the council or to the State in the grant application. I wonder if that’s a crime.
Johnny Know It All, Observer reports Bushala donated to Dunlap, Whitaker, Silva, Jung, and Zahra. Guess that blows holes in your point about influence. How does a trail or no trail behind industrial businesses help business interests? Because both you and Observer fail to point that out. Why make sense when you can just throw bombs?
First thing they teach you in political science is that those seeking influence donate to both sides. So no, it does not blow a hole.
How does a trail or no trail affect Bushala? I don’t know. He should tell us. I do recall he had some other ideas for the UP right of way. But really he’s the one to answer.
But we clearly haven’t heard the reason for knifing the trail rather than implement another part of the standing bike master plan with an outside grant.
So much planning and effort for nothing. That’s the worst kind of government waste and again you all are celebrating it
Nonsensical, ineffectual, inefficient.
D’oh. Hooger has spoken!
There was no plan. The last time they got caught in a lie about connectivity so even the Parks liars had to ditch it.
The bicycle master plan is the plan.
Haha. The only plan that was never a plan.
What’s that supposed to mean?
Is it a plan if nobody pays attention to it? I wonder.
And they had no idea what it was going to cost to maintain and water it. Some great plan, eh?
And they didn’t tell the council (or the State, I’ll bet) about the contaminated soil through there.
Good point. I wonder if the good folks in Sacto would have doled out this money if they knew there was a toxic plume under it. It’s probably just as bad west of Richaman with all those plating and auto businesses.
Learn a lesson, Mr. John, it’s never too late to be smart.
There is hope for the Parks Department when the dreadful Alice Loya leaves in a few days.
The City does NOT even have this class one bike route on their Master Plan for Bicycles, here: https://www.cityoffullerton.com/home/showpublisheddocument/1071/637436165499630000
What gives?
Sorry. Go to page 32.