The Poison Park Gets Some Federal Dough
At last Tuesday night’s Fullerton City Council meeting the annual CDBG show took place.
CBDG stands for Community Development Block Grant – money that is doled out by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to local governments to fritter away with no accountability after slicing off the lion’s share for themselves to “administer” stuff.
The local do-gooder community surround this federal largesse like hungry koi wanting to be fed. Some get money, some don’t. Most of these applicants are centered in the homeless industrial complex, that cluster of NGOs that are the recipients of untold government paychecks who are never held accountable for anything.
One of the items that caught my eye was money – $350,000 for the abandoned Union Pacific Park – the municipal embarrassment that has created an eyesore on Truslow Avenue for two decades. It was described in two different documents. The first mention is in the staff PowerPoint presentation:
This laconic slide is most unhelpful since there are no details. We know it’s a 1.4 acre park, but we also know there is a plan for a new park; so why this cryptic reference? You can’t boil a government potato for $350,000, so what’s the plan, a partial rehabilitation?
We know if the walkways are “damaged,” it was because the City damaged them last year – when pressure was put on staff by the City Council to reopen the park. Do they mean sandblasting the graffiti?
The term “sports courts” is unhelpful because there is only one – an old basketball slab. Some people wanted pickle ball courts but can you do them without the rest of the park? What gives?
The staff report is accompanied by a slightly more specific “action plan” that gives details about the various grant applications. Here we discover this:
There is no existing trail in UP Park, so what are they talking about? Who knows? Are they referring to the dilapidated Phase I of the dismal Trail to Nowhere? Do they want to fix the barrio’s equestrian trail railing? No, the public may not know, but one thing is certain: nobody in City Hall wants to discuss the failure of the UP Park and Phase I of the Trail to Nowhere; they just want to waste more money on them.
The presentation did elicit a few words from some staff guy who stood up saying the City wants to add new “courts” and ADA improvements at the little parking area, language implying that there is indeed some sort of concept to rebuild this park in pieces, an idea which makes sense in a perverted sort of way – everything about this park has been screwed up by City staff since the proverbial Day One.
Tellingly, not one councilmember bothered to question the idea of phasing construction of anything, and whether this is a good idea. It may be that some of them want to plant grass and then forget about the Big Plan. If that is the plan, no one wants to talk about it publicly, and the UP Park Committee has vanished, never to be heard from at all.
At this point the piecemealing pantomime is good for appearances, and the appearance seems to be to be seen doing something, no matter how futile the flailing.
I guess the otherwise laughable piecemealing means that this next inevitable failure will happen in less a less expensive manner.
Someone has done a pretty specific in-house estimate for this partial work.
The request from the feds was $350,000, but the budget is $355,000 meaning there will have to be a budget adjustment from the General Fund to make up the difference.
Last August the staff was told to take down the fence and open the park – without any details of how. Last winter demolition of existing structures took place.
Yes, this is being piecemealed, alright. I think it’s better to fail small here, instead of failing bigger.
So they’re going to start rebuilding this disaster bit by bit?
Do the neighbors know? Do Zahra’s underserved Latino constituents know this “gift” is being doled out by the teaspoon? Bet not. Maybe Eaglet will tell them.
The City Council seems happily oblivious to this. Why?
Send another shrieky letter to the government, I’m sure that will work.
Another win for Fullerton, another loss for Fiends for Fullerton’s Failure.
Aha. In Fullerton it’s better to something wrong than not do it at all. How is it a win to waste another $355,000 on a dead park? Because it’s Fullerton being Fullerton.
I noticed the “win” hasn’t been advertised by the City like they do when they think they can fool people into believing magic has happened. Even the blockheads in City Hall know the UP Park is a running sore and, now piecemealed.
Oh, never mind. It’s Hoogie.
People like JRH believe that confiscating the product of other people’s labor so you can squander it on a boondoggle pet project is a righteous act. Stop trying to counsel Hoogie. Common sense is unintelligible to the senseless.
Be nice. Hoogerbooger can’t help himself. Dunning-Kruger in full force.
The funds were already “confiscated” and not by Fullerton.
That’s the wrong word, of course. You might want to research the topic “consent of the governed.” We have a representative democratic republic. When I’m taxed, the money isn’t stolen from me. Those the majority elected to represent us voted for the taxation. Taxation… with representation.
What I think is the money is available to grant applicants and it can be brought back to Fullerton… or not.
So I’m all for bringing my tax dollars back to our community.
That’s the “common sense” behind the city to applying for grants.
Blah. Blah blah blah.
Capitulation accepted
Poor snowflake. Melt little snowflake.
Little JRH yells, stomps and shakes his fist at the air and thinks he wins but nobody listens and nobody cares what he says.
It’s going to be OK.
Well, you answered the shrieky letter. Fool.
That $350,000 could have gone to fix some potholes in the adjacent neighborhoods, but no, we’ll blow it on a “park” that has already failed dismally. Some idiot might even call it a win.
It’s a community development block grant. If it could be used on streets that would make more sense to me too but there are usually strings attached and you can’t just use the grant money for whatever you want.
Please just be quiet. If you can use it for “concrete repair” in a closed park you can use it for curb and gutter.
Haha. There are rules. How quaint. The only de facto rule is to take the printed money and say thank you, sir.
“If you can use it for “concrete repair” in a closed park you can use it for curb and gutter.”
No, that does not follow. It is a grant, you have to apply and you have to meet the conditions of the grant whatever they are.
“The only de facto rule is to take the printed money and say thank you, sir.”
No.
“Whatever they are.”
So you don’t know shit.
How can you be so opinionated and so fucking ignorant. What in hell do you know about CBDG grant applications?
I don’t know anything about the application. And neither do you.
“Fucking ignorant”
Well, actually I know a lot about the grants – right here in Orange County. Dope.
Admitting you don’t know what you’re talking about is a good first step. Congrats Hooger, there may be hope for you yet.
“Well, actually I know a lot about the grants – right here in Orange County. Dope.”
Do you? Who the fuck am I even talking to. Anyway, Prove it, Anonymous Coward.
Poor fellow. So much time and yet so little intelligence. It must be like walking in the fog. With great courage, of course.
“Poor fellow. So much time and yet so little intelligence. It must be like walking in the fog. With great courage, of course.”
Resorting to ad hominem attacks. I take that as confirming you don’t know anything about this grant (other than the 3rd hand info in this article which is all that I know)
Poor little snowflake. Melt little snowflake.
JRH is the Angriest Elf!
Manatee.
Fiends. Bet you’re still patting yourself on the back for being clever. I feel sorry for you JRH. You are wanted nowhere and loved by nobody. Sad.
As usual the staff report gives virtually no clue as to what is actually being proposed at the Poison Park. If there is any sort of policy going on here, it’s a mystery.
It really is sort of perversely fun to watch the City continue its 20 years of fuckuppery at this location. They’re probably excited that only five grand of city money is going into it.
This a completely political move, designed to look like the council majority are doing something, anything. The decision to reopen the park last year led to a design that looked just like the old park – without a bathroom for the junkies to shoot up in. But nothing has changed. A new park will end up the same way as the old one.
Of course this money couldn’t pay for 1/10th of the “new” park. Maybe it is best to fail quickly since failure seems to be the inevitable end to this chapter of the Poison Park Saga.
Shameful, all around.
Fred, I don’t recall. Have you opined on the Trail to Nowhere? You’re the parks expert.
There are no discernable users. Another purely political stunt that has never happened because there are no discernable users and no bureaucracy spends its own money if it doesn’t have to.
I commend you for posting under your name, Fred. Most people here don’t seem to want to be associated with their own opinions.
Nobody wants to be associated with you.