Fox Theatre Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

May 7, 2009January 5, 2010Don Bankhead

McDonald’s On the Move; Free Speech Locked Up

One of our sharp-eyed Friends took a photo of this banner last Tuesday morning. By Tuesday night, it was gone.

During its brief life, it asked the telling questions:

Why is the City Council spending millions of tax dollars to move the McDonald’s?

How did the Fox project morph into subsidizing teen obesity?

The sign hits McDonald’s hard, though—to be fair—McDonald’s doesn’t want to move at all. Just like the residents who lived in the demolished homes didn’t want to move. Redevelopment hard at work!

Who tore the sign down? City crews or the McDonald’s owner are the likely suspects.
Who’s afraid of a little free speech?

After all, that fence is paid for by the taxpayers, just as everything else in this $6 million supersized boondoggle!

And it was covering the eyesore of the vacant lots where vintage homes once stood.

Take pity on your campus, you FHS alums Quirk and Keller! Listen to the District Board members. Superintendent Escalante told City Manager Armstrong back in 2001 that the school does not want a McDonald’s across the street or its drive thru lane accessing already congested Pomona Ave. That information has been covered up for years!

May 3, 2009December 28, 2009Fox Theatre

Barbara Giasone Delivers Gut-Punch to Obesity, But Misses The Bigger Picture

by The Fullerton Harpoon23 Comments

3077215921_3c8bc7787c1 — Talk as fast as you want. I'll get the news from FFFF later.

Orange County Register reporter Barbara Giasone finally sunk her teeth into a red meat issue with her surprising interviews of high school kids that appeared in the April 30 issue of the Fullerton News tribune. Surprising you ask? How so? Because it might actually smack of criticism of Fullerton City Council and its staff who are promoting a six million dollar pay out to the largest fast-food corporation in the history of mankind in order to move a McDonalds 200 feet closer to a bottomless supply of junk food junkies – high school students at Fullerton High School.

We find it interesting that Barbara followed up on her usual fluff piece of April 23 with her theme of the 30th: she got the idea from us! Although we got no credit from Babs, a professional courtesy we can forgo since neither of us are professionals, we are encouraged that she is reading our blog and is willing to follow our lead. Heretofore she has been regurgitating City hall press releases; if she is willing to use FFFF as a source of her journalistic inspiration we can only envisage good things for Fullerton.

Our only suggestion to Barbara at this point is to get the rest of the story: the subsidy to a vast corporation; the crappy McSpanish architecture; the use of the “save the Fox” movement by city staff to leverage a titanic McBoondoggle.

Barbara: how did the Fox preservation project morph into the endomorphic mess it has become?

April 24, 2009December 30, 2009Don Bankhead

The Six Million Dollar Burger

by admin24 Comments

Fullerton’s Redevelopment Chairman Don Bankhead, and members Pam Keller and Sharon Quirk led the charge to spend $6 million in tax payer’s money to relocate McDonalds 2oo feet closer to Fullerton High School. As part of the total figure, the Agency previously spent $3 million to buy and demolish four historic California bungalows on the site.

Redevelopment Agency Director Rob Zur Schmiede said “funds for the project had been set aside years ago”. Governments flawed incremental approval process at work again.

The move will pave the way for The Fox Block project– a proposed parking structure type development fronting on Chapman Avenue between Harbor Boulevard and the new McDonald’s which will resemble a McMiniature McSpanish McCastle.

Not everyone favored the deal, longtime Fox critic, Councilman Jones opposed the deal, indicating that he was disappointed a big corporation like McDonald’s was not putting a nickle into the multimillion dollar burger deal.

The Heritage group loves fake old McSpanish — The City of Fullerton loves fake old McSpanish

“This is a huge cost of the citizens’ money,” Jones said.

Councilman Nelson asked if it were possible to postpone the final decision until the Fox Block developer, Arteco Partners, could come up with a plan and a feasibility study.

With nothing at stake and everything to gain, the out of town Developer’s spokesman Jerry Tessier said the new proposed parking structure and project would not work if McDonald’s stayed in its current location. Yet, he could not provide any guarantees for much.

Councilwoman Quirk agreed it was time to move forward. “We have the funds, and we need to get sales tax in.”

1cb2d563c6c212d4 As a school teacher, Quirk must know what causes obesity in children; eating too much of the wrong kinds of food and not getting enough exercise. Now the kids wont have to walk as far to get their subsidized happy meal deals.

McDonald’s franchisee Mr. Frisbie reminded the Redevelopment Agency members that the City staff approached him to relocate his business, which was started by his father, James, in 1969 as a family business. A recent study shows the presence of an fastfood outlet within easy walking distance of a high school — about 530 feet or less — resulted in a 5.2% increase in the incidence of student obesity compared with the average for California youths, a correlation deemed “sizable” according to the findings. Great job Quirk, Bankhead and Keller!

Courtesy of LA Times article (see link above)

“Our business is better suited where we are now,” Frisbie said. Dear Friends but another example that government is part of the problem and not the solution.

fatkids — Fullerton City Council Supersizes Kids!