Trail To Nowhere Resurfaces; Commonsense Prevails
At the Fullerton City Council meeting last week the topic of the idiotic Union Pacific “trail” came up. I put quotation marks around the word trail because it has never been one, and if the council continues to exercise commonsense, never will be one.
On a 4-1 vote our Lords and Masters decided to entertain an RFP process to see if the City might be able to look at wider area on either side of the abandoned right-of-way in a unified, rather than piecemeal fashion.
Parks staff have been trying for a couple years now to waste millions on a “greening” trail that would pick-up where “Phase 1” left off and continue through the junkyards, debris fields, used tire business and junk car to Independence Park. These people who stand to gain from billing hours against this project have no idea how much maintenance will cost, how safety might be ensured, or most significantly, who would even want to use it.
They continue to describe the Phase 1 thing as a trail when it is evidently not; not to anybody who takes the time to see that it does not pass Harbor to the east and ends up at the low point of Walnut Avenue on the west. There is decomposed granite and a horse rail to serve all the equestrians in the barrio to add to the comic nature of the previous development. There are also trash, homeless, evidence of arson, graffiti, and of course recent memories of a murder.
After writing a staff report that positively glowed with the eventuality of “connectivity” to a County-wide rec trail system, even Alice Loya (the Parks employee who has been nurturing this nonsense) was forced to admit that there was no present plan to acquire more railroad right-of-way to get past Independence Park, and no immediately feasible way to cross the train tracks at the Commonwealth underpass.
In the world of lefty identity politics it’s the thought that counts, and the more money wasted on the thought, the better. Jesus Quirk-Silva referred to this as a “pipe dream,” his fantasy, apparently. He’s all about “equity” whatever that means, as if wasting $2,000,000 in public money is justified by the kind gesture to an “underserved” population.
But it’s hard to know if these chuckleheads even take themselves seriously. Let’s not forget that Quirk-Silva and his pal Zahra voted just six short moths ago to permanently convert the ill-fated Union Pacific Park to a private events center.
Zahra trotted out a bunch of middle aged Latina women to blather (in Spanish, just to extend the pain, apparently) nonsense about a veritable linear oasis that of course neither they, nor their children would ever use.
In the end, Quirk-Silva went along with Dunlap, Jung and Whitaker, who reasoned that a broader look at the whole area was needed, and that private sector ideas were just as likely to prove fruitful as the dead hand of the Parks Department under Alice Loya. Where this process will lead is still uncertain. Quirk-Silva said he must have his pipe dream included in any proposal; Whitaker amended that to a multi-modal facility that could serve as some sort of viaduct for the area using the UP right-of-way flexibility that makes a lot of sense.
Good summation. The proposed trail is so idiotic only government could cook it up. No one making this decision would ever be held accountable for it – just like nobody has even been held accountable for the serial disaster known as the Poison Park. Another brainstorm of our underpaid bureaucrats.
“In the world of lefty identity politics it’s the thought that counts”
A little less of the stupid right wing fuckery on your part would be nice
Too bad you can’t refute the argument. The evidence is in. Feel good doesn’t work. Fuckery is you. Thanks for stopping by to share your drivel. And remember to ask Quirk-Silva and Zahra why they wanteed to turn a park into a private event center with a fence around it to keep out the barrio riffraff!
Why should I engage on the merits when you load the article with insults?
You set the table with your fuckery.
Poor, lonely Hoogerbooger, trapped with ourselves forever. Dr. Schwartzman warned me. But we wouldn’t listen.
Got under your thin skin, didn’t they? Jesus Quirk-Silva is a babbling idiot – in two languages. Zahra is a lying sack of shit. An you’ve identified yourself with both.
Quirk-Silva. The dumbest man in OC.
He’s not dumb, he’s crafty. He proposes every other Tuesday at about midnight all kinds of bizarre, expensive, projects that will help his donors. “Don’t worry,” he says, “it’s just a one-time donation.” And before you know it, we own another shelter that benefits no one except the secret shelter investors, and the dudes who make six figures as “directors” of these orgs.
Notice we get zero numbers on occupancy at any of these places.
Doug Chaffee chuckles in the background.
Hoogerbooger still has not attempted to walk this “trail,” although he was seen rolling up his windows and locking his doors while driving his Prius through the neighborhood on the way to yoga class.
Hooger is the type of stooge who actually LIKES being lied to so long as his cherished thought-free agenda is supported. Just like the Trumpies.
On his way to get that colon cleansing tht never seems to work.
Trail to nowhere is just plain stupid. Not knowing ( fault is mine) where and how the 2M was appropriated and targeted why can’t it be used for cleaning up the trash, barf, piss and just plain fifth of the 52 downtown bars or to go after and put into action the laws against the obnoxiously loud vehicles that plague our streets and neighborhoods. Always read attacks against (valid as they are) but rarely read of probable options/solutions.
Here’s a solution: Let property owners invest and build to accommodate uses that people actually want.
Ay, the failed, drawn out government planning process has held back all private investment in this area for way too long. Nobody is going to invest in the area while the city trying to figure out what kind of homeless junkie park to build.
Meanwhile, the neighborhoods suffer and properties deteriorate. Crime increases, people get hurt. Thanks Fullerton!
No I cannot and will not do that. We have spoken.
Forgive me but are you talking property owners in all or business owners with profit in mind? And as for people, are you looking at the general populace or again at what the business owners want? Another bar? Another condo with no amenities? How about another used car dealership? What has happened to quality of life here? Seems it’s always a question of how much can “I” make not how can we make life richer for all with whatever surplus we have. What about future infrastructure repair, or cleaning up the police and fire situations? We need to stop bandaiding our problems and start solving them. Continue to call out the asshats, demand uniformity and make them do better. I think this forum is trying to do it. Only then can we go forward to make this city what we all want it to be-a decent, fair, evolving home. Naive, I’ll give you, but still I feel a decent , if not survival, way to live when we have such a soul sucking local “government “ They should all look in the mirror and ask the soul searching question of their worthiness.
So far as I can tell this is all about improving the City. Giving property owners an incentive to develop something. build something, get rid of the junkyards and dump sites. The City bureaucrats in Fullerton have ALWAYS rejected ideas that didn’t come out of their own noggins. And they are always diving into the Big Idea that hot 15 years before.
Yeah, and Zahra and SIlva encourage thoughtless clichés like “trails for the poor folks” who don’t give trails a second thought and will never use it. As the article correctly states – “it’s the though that counts.”
Sharon Kennedy summed it up: why can’t South Fullerton have nice things?” What’s “nice” about blowing 2 mil on a trail from nowhere to nowhere? That’s right. Nothing
There it is… the ideology. The false libertarian idea that government cannot do anything right and the free market is always right.
Sounds like a world of bars, strip clubs, pot shops, transmission repair shops to me.
Not a place you want to live.
The private sector is great for what it does, but it is not going to give us bike trails or parks.
Let go of the knee jerk ideology and you can see other neighboring cities that have good roads, nice parks and trails, and their downtown isn’t Sodom and Gomorrah.
“The false libertarian idea that government cannot do anything right”
New to Fullerton aren’t you? If not why not share some of Fullerton government’s success stories. You can start with the UP Park history, if you want.
Or how about the stellar record of our police department?
“government cannot do anything right”
If you look around this city, you’ll see that it’s not really just an ideology anymore.
“Fullerton, where sub-par is good enough”
John Huigerhose, November 2021
“Fullerton, where doing nothing right is a way of life.”
Did that jackass Silva really use the term “pipe dream”? Does he really not understand the negative connotation of that term? This buffoon continues to astound me.
Meth Pipe Dream. He always seems so desperate to talk.
Fullerton Fox Theater executives aim to open by 2025
https://dailytitan.com/news/local/fullerton-fox-theater-executives-aim-to-open-by-2025/article_40c18ac0-45ca-11ec-ac61-030adddb0851.html
I thought I killed this project in 2003. What a waste of money on a trail to nowhere. The RDA showed me the plans, and I thought how did this project get this far with no oversight. The RDA even proposed buying toxic land from UP with no recourse for clean up, to build the trail. More clean up responsibility for toxic former UP land (Pollution Park). I could not believe that the RDA had bought this land (before I was CM), and was proceeding to buy more. I still recall the day when the Gas company, and the State walked into my office , and told me that they were fencing of fthe parkland because it was a hazardous waste site…..
This project should never ever see the light of day.
Alice Loya, has always been a good staffer. But she should learn that you never let state money drive a bad project. Others in this category would Hunt branch, and the Coyote Hills Nature Park, which will both become millstones around the City’s neck, for the costs of improvement, maintenance, and security.
Free money is not free, it is simply the road to perdition.
Jim Armstrong was part of this acquisition – along with Chalupsky and Susan Hunt. It was empire building for the sake of empire building. The maintenance cost of both park and trail are unknown. What is known to ANYBODY with an ounce of common sense is that NOBODY has any incentive to use this except a few folks in SOCO Walk who want to take their dogs to poop. And yet Jessie Jones has the gall to get up and rant in public and take her employee who proceeds to speak (in Spanish!) about the glories of a trail.
Whazza matta you? Don’t like blue sky and green grass and healthy young Latino lads learning to plant tomatoes courtesy of their generous gringo overlords?
Alice Loya has been around forever, She isn’t going to learn anything new at this point. She may be a “good staffer” in that she is loya(l). But so is a cocker spaniel. Her record is awful – carrying on in the proud anti-public tradition of Susan Hunt – the mastermind behind “Paseo Park.”