Downtown Fullerton Archives - Page 19 of 23 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

August 25, 2009Downtown Fullerton

“Heroes” On Union Street

We received an e-mail a while back from a concerned Friend with a story to tell. In the interest of public information and dialogue we reprint it, below. Take it for what you think it’s worth. Comments on this event are more than welcome:

Sunday night, August 1st 2009, a motor crash involving two trucks occurred on West Union Street. The drivers of these vehicles were apparently racing while under the influence of alcohol. This seems to be less surprising in Fullerton these days, which is not a good thing for those who care about the direction of this city. If you are familiar with this street then you know that most residents park on both sides of the street, and there is no room for reckless driving.

The damage: One flipped truck, one totaled parked car, and consequentially, local residents that are now more concerned than the day before. It was reported that one of the drivers is actually an employee of the bar/restaurant Heroes, located in Downtown Fullerton. Although DUIs are not surprising in this city, the fact that this particular case involves an employee of a popular restaurant, turned popular bar by night, does. On a personal level, I despise Heroes for hiring bar tenders that treat customers with less or the same respect as manure, but that’s a whole other story.

Shouldn’t Heroes be teaching their very own employees about the dangers of drunk driving? Shouldn’t they be emphasizing, “drinking responsibly” not only to the public, but to their very own, as well? I’m not letting drunk drivers in Fullerton, or anywhere for that matter, get off easily, and Heroes shouldn’t either. It’s apparent to me that this establishment needs to have a group meeting about role modeling, employee representation, and accountability… and soon.

August 23, 2009February 7, 2012Dick Jones

A One-Year Look Back: Pam’s Approval of the Amerige Court Atrocity

by The Fullerton Shadow14 Comments

It must have been pretty hard for Pam to try to convince her supporters how much she “respected” them – right before she went ahead and stuck it to ’em. Keller’s campaign promise of 2006 was to have planning be “driven” by public input, blah, blah, blah etc., but you get the feeling watching this clip that she had already long since made up her mind to go with the dee-veloper, and was just throwing some verbal crusts for her loyal subjects to gnaw on.

Pam’s comments were well-received by the Chamber lackeys and downtown Redevelopment toadies in the audience, but those who opposed the monster project and had voted for Keller’s promises to represent them rather than development interests, must surely felt just a wee bit, um, betrayed.

The “I’m so torn” plaint, the goofy half-grins, the eye lash battings, (all part of the “I’m just a silly girl” routine), are a pretty annoying shtick. But Pam had better be careful with the coquette act because some lonely swains like Dick Jones seem to get off on it. Check out the hand kiss at the end of the clip and Pam’s apparent revulsion – and then her flippant threat to take back her vote. Enjoy:

August 6, 2009December 30, 2009Big Brother

Is Prohibition Sneaking Back Into Fullerton?

by Travis26 Comments

Police Captain Greg Mayes is calling for the Planning Commission to prohibit the serving of bottled liquor at local speakeasies. Unfortunately for responsible bars like the Continental Room, this new rule against “bottle service” will eliminate high-end customers from local bars, making plenty of room for the get-drunk-for-cheap crowd that Fullerton cops love to hate.

Continental owner Sean Francis made a strong case to the Planning Commission for allowing him to continue serving $200 bottles of alcohol to the look-at-me crowd. Although he probably could have drawn enough favor from the commission to pull off a coveted exemption from the rules, Mr. Francis took the high road and continues to push for a policy that would allow other bars to restore bottle service too.

It’s been a long time since Prohibition was repealed, and it still seems silly to attempt to force it upon careful bar owners and responsible patrons. This new policy is a misguided attempt to curb obnoxious activity that is actually perpetrated by the low budget crowd who would never pay for bottle service, but will now fill our bars even more.

Fighting, public urination and drunk driving are already illegal. Why can’t the police crack down on activity that directly harms others, rather than creating more laws that only inhibit law-abiding customers?

Fullerton’s drunks will always find a way to get wasted with or without bottle service. The Planning Commission should not penalize responsible citizens and business owners for crimes they did not commit.

August 3, 2009August 3, 2009Downtown Fullerton

The West Harbor Alley Improvement Project

by Mr. Peabody21 Comments

The other day I took my elementary-age children to Cafe West for a cool drink, and found this postcard on the counter:

harbor-alley harbor-alley2

The triptych above seems to reflect a strategy all too common in the city:

Phase #1: tear out trees (and put in a subsidized fire line for the “night clubs”)
Phase #2: fill holes with temporary asphalt
Phase #3: ask questions later

To most of us, this would seem a bit like putting the cart before the horse, but one has to wonder if the RDA sees it that way.

donkeywork — Redevelopment Project Overload; Council Loses Traction

What’s the mystery here? For goodness sake, this is just an alleyway, all they’ve done is yank out a few trees! What kind of “design” is required here? Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill!

My own kids provided some helpful suggestions as to what to do with the freshly vacated space in the alley. One of them thought a modern sculpture would be appropriate, while the other mused that perhaps another luxury apartment complex could be squeezed into that tiny space. Hey, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

The view's not all that great, but the rent is reasonable! — Or how about affordable housing? Alley-style!

However, given Fullerton’s recent trend of rolling out the red carpet to the bar scene, perhaps a European-styled “pissoir” could not only provide a visually attractive option, but one that’s functional as well.

True, a few fumes may greet the occasional pedestrian walking through the alley, but this would be one project the RDA could actually claim where form follows function.

This triptych seemed to reflect a strategy all too common in the city:

July 29, 2009January 4, 2010Big Brother

Fullerton’s Red Light Legal Costs Revealed: $14,522.70

by Travis14 Comments

It's not going to work — Is it dead yet?

After being given the ceremonial run-around by the Fullerton PD, our Friend at HighwayRobbery.net was finally able to dig up a copy of Jones and Mayer’s legal bills from the city’s infamous red light case. For those of you who are just catching up, the city lost an appeal last year after an alleged red light violator fought her camera ticket — based on the illegality of Fullerton’s contract with the now-bankrupt Nestor Traffic Systems.

Here’s some free advice to our favorite City Attorney: Give up! You lost the case because you allowed the city to break the law. We don’t need red light cameras:

They don’t improve traffic safety
The cameras are expensive and error-prone
Most of the “proceeds” go right back to the vendor
Fullerton can’t seem to negotiate a contract without breaking the law
You wasted our money by selecting an incompetent vendor that is now bankrupt
Santa Ana already lost a nearly identical appeal earlier this year.

It’s time to stop handing over our money to Jones and Mayer for this lost cause.

July 20, 2009July 20, 2009About Us

Amplified Outdoor Music At The Santa Fe Depot

by adminLeave a comment

A few days ago a guy named “Alan” left a nasty-gram on our blog accusing me of being a hypocrite because I fought the amplified music being performed illegally at Roscoe’s Famous Deli while outdoor amplified music was being performed at the Santa Fe Depot.

Well, I really don’t mind being called a hypocrite since I’ve been a called a lot worse things, especially since I started this blog; but I do want Fullerton Friends to know what’s going on.

My brother George and I have a long-term lease on the historic Santa Fe Depot which we restored in 1993. We sublet the old baggage room to our sister Salma who runs the cafe there with her daughter. Salma rents the outdoor patio area (where the music is being played) from the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency. She also has a permit from the Fullerton Police Department for entertainment, although this is not relevant to our lease with her. Any pertinent violations of city code at this site should be cause for revocation of that permit – no argument from me or the Friends. If anyone is aware of such violations please report them to the landlord – the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency.

And Alan – thanks for stopping by. We appreciate all points of view. Keep ’em coming!

July 13, 2009December 28, 2009Downtown Fullerton

Redevelopment Sidewalks: Adding Futility To The Simple Pleasure of Walking

by The Fullerton Harpoon14 Comments

Several Friends have recently asked that we share with you our Loyal Readers some images of the ridiculous Redevelopment sidewalks in downtown Fullerton. The question that comes to mind is: what sort of ninny would design something so impractical and expensive, other than a Redevelopment bureaucrat, of course; and why?

meandering sidewalk — East side of Malden, between Wilshire & Whiting. Slide, step, slide.

meandering sidewalk2 — Sidewalk at Wilshire Promenade - a special mindset revealed

meandering sidewalk3 — Police station, Highland & Amerige. Okay, single file now

Discovering the answers to the questions posited above is actually intriguing if you are the sort of person who is interested in the study of the abandonment of critical thought in homo sapiens. People who like this sort of sidewalk have made the foolish and perhaps even unwitting mistake of jettisoning simplicity in the confused belief that anything that is more complicated – in this case a broken versus a straight line – must be an aesthetic improvement. Others have seen in these pointless meanderings an aesthetic “softening” that comes when you replace the rectilinear with the curvilinear (although please note that ours aren’t even curvilinear) a weird idea that can trace its legacy way back to the anti-grid urban movements of the late Nineteenth Century.

F. Paul Dudley, former Director of Development Services (and prominent member of the $100,000 retirement club) once defended his knee-jerk support for these practical monstrosities by taking a different tack, but one guaranteed to win the hearts and minds of ponder-free tree boohoos. He claimed that these zigzag paths actually increase the area available for landscaping next to buildings downtown. Wrong! As any 10th grader taking geometry knows, a straightline is the shortest distance between two points. If you increase the length of a sidewalk through pointless meandering, you necessarily increase the amount of concrete needed to build it. Increase the concrete and you necessarily decrease the amount of adjacent area available for landscaping! That’s pretty simple. Well, this is Fullerton, after all, but still, you have to wonder how Dudley managed to hang on to his job for so long.

Finally we have to wonder what it’s like for somebody in a wheelchair to have to negotiate these sidewalks.

FFFF’s tip of the day: If you walking somewhere in downtown Fullerton, remember to budget some extra time because it will take you twice as long to get where you are going.

(images thoughtfully provided by Travis Kiger)

July 11, 2009December 30, 2009Downtown Fullerton

Redevelopment: A Brief, Disjointed Essay

by The Fullerton Harpoon1 Comment

Just jotted this comment on another post but it seems to serve as a short, stand alone essay on Redevelopment. So we share it below:

The entire premise behind Redevelopment is that private enterprise doesn’t work – as evidenced in blight. They love to latch on to the concept of property being “under utilized” meaning that it’s not pulling its weight to generate sales tax revenue to pay for staff salaries and benefits! Rather than using code enforcement to clean up real problems they prefer to divert property tax revenue and play developer.

I’m not sure that the dead hand is a good metaphor. Judging by the unaccountable boondogglery in Fullerton over the years that has done real damage to the cityscape I’m inclined to think along the more active lines of “living dead” planning/design and “zombie” land use concepts.

A meeting of Redevelopment Staff — The Charge to Clean Up Fullerton; or, A Meeting of Redevelopment Staff

I always love it when Redevelopment proponents point to the existence of pawn shops, etc. as evidence of a malfunctioning economic system. What they ignore are the cheap rents that serve as an incubator to small businesses, especially those created by young entrepreneurs. Look at the history of the SoCo abomination; Santa Fe was a “run down” street by Redevelopment standards and yet Sean Francis used an old, beat-up building shell across from an industrial use to create a vibrant business. It was later that the City tagged along and started with the lame signs and laughable paving – immediately robbing the place of any authenticity.

For some reason the Redevelopment hacklings just can’t understand the concept of business cycles and one very simple fact of business: one man’s difficulty is another man’s opportunity.

July 8, 2009September 11, 2009Downtown Fullerton

Quirk Kills Bad Burger Deal; Fox Block Kicks the Bucket

by Travis5 Comments

Residents witnessed another rousing victory for FFFF last night as Councilwoman Sharon Quirk wisely reversed direction on Fullerton’s famous $6 million dollar burger deal that would give away a brand new McDonald’s restaurant at taxpayers’ expense. Pam Keller sensed the inevitable failure of this project and also changed course, sending this turkey down in a 4-1 vote. Nelson and Jones had it right from the beginning, but Bankhead rode this one all the way to the grave.

burger-squashed — No thanks, we're not hungry anymore

Now that the taxpayer-funded McDonald’s move is dead, there isn’t much hope for the massive Fox Block redevelopment scheme – and that’s fine by us. The Fox Block had little to do with the popular restoration of the historic Fox Theatre and there was plenty of doubt the that the block would be financially viable even with millions in taxpayer subsidies. Throw in a little public deception about the height of the buildings, and it’s clear that this project needed to be flushed.

Even if you don’t approve of our approach here at FFFF, it’s hard to deny positive results. It’s good to see our representatives fix bad decisions and move forward. We know it’s tough to admit when you are wrong, but that’s part of responsible governance. Thank you, Quirk and Keller, for doing the right thing.

July 6, 2009December 30, 2009Downtown Fullerton

Fox Block: The Missing Slide

by Travis16 Comments

At a recent Fox Block community workshop, the Redevelopment Agency made every attempt to direct public discussion away from the height and scale of the proposed commercial structure. The agency even went so far as to not show any elevational drawings, although they did pepper the room with 1st and 2nd floor plans. Even the blunt question of “how many floors will it be?” was answered with reassuring answer “We don’t know, we’ll figure that out later”.

Well Friends, we have discovered the elusive drawing in Arteco’s proposal that was submitted last year. This is what the audience should have been shown:

fox-missing-slide — Click to enlarge - 68 feet of glorious redevelopment

Why didn’t the public get to see this important drawing at the meeting? There were plenty of concerned neighbors at the meeting who would have loved to see what their neighborhood will look like should this project be completed.

After the nasty battle over the height of the Amerige Court boondoggle, don’t you think they would bring this issue into the light at the very beginning? Why can’t Arteco Partners and the Redevelopment Agency be honest with the citizens of Fullerton?