Friends For Fullerton's Future

Last week I put up a post based on a realtor’s post about how Fullerton had been declared the safest suburban city in Orange County and Southern California. The guy’s name is Alex Yu, and because he didn’t cite any source except a national survey of some kind, his declarations weren’t taken seriously by me or some of our commenters.

I am now happy to fill in some of the information. How? Because the City of Fullerton put out a self-serving and self-congratulatory press release.

It turns out the “survey” was done by SmartAsset and was based on per capita crime rates, traffic deaths, and reported excessive boozing. The list of cities is so wide and so varied, and missing so many undeniably safe suburbs in OC – Villa Park, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, etc., just to name a few, that we may assume, I think, that getting on the list was not an entirely objective process. Were safe suburbs weeded out solely due to their subjectively chosen proximity to a “major city?”

I notice that SmartAsset is some sort of financial advising operation, not a serious scientific survey company. This is evident by who’s not on the list. The article announcing the survey was written by a certified financial planner, so there’s that.

Here’s the text of the City’s press release:

The City of Fullerton has been recognized in a national study conducted by SmartAsset, which ranked the 360 safest suburbs in America located within 15 to 45 minutes of major cities.

The study evaluated suburbs using five safety-related metrics: violent crime rate, property crime rate (sourced from FBI data), as well as drug poisoning mortality, vehicular mortality, and excessive drinking rates (from County Health Rankings). According to the America’s Safest Suburbs – 2025 report, Fullerton was ranked #49 overall, making it the highest-ranking city in both Orange County and Southern California included in the national list.

“Fullerton is honored to be recognized as one of the safest suburbs in America — a reflection of the unwavering commitment of our public safety teams and the strong partnership we share with our residents and local businesses,” said Mayor Fred Jung. “Public safety is a community effort. This recognition belongs to everyone who contributes to making our neighborhood a welcoming, secure, and thriving place to call home.”

Police Chief Jon Radus added, “Our department is committed to proactive crime prevention and building trust with our residents. This ranking affirms the partnership we have with our community in keeping Fullerton safe.”

The study highlights Fullerton’s exemplary performance in multiple categories related to safety and public health, reinforcing its position as one of the region’s most livable communities.

Everybody wants to live (and sell houses) in a safe city, and nobody can really blame officialdom for taking an opportunity to make themselves look good, but c’mon guys. Let’s lay off the self-lathered soft soap and focus on doing your jobs with efficacy and accountability.

I am posting a communication from a guy named Dr. Steve Chapin regarding the arboretum over next to the CSUF campus. According to Chapin the Arboretum grounds are suffering from lack of attention and parking, which used to be free, will now cost an astonishing twelve bucks on week-ends.

From the Fullerton Arboretum Advocates  Facebook page:

Dear members of the “Fullerton Arboretum Advocates” Facebook page. I have not posted here since my last post on March 6, 2023. (See below).

I had not visited the Fullerton Arboretum since around that time when CSUF took FULL control and renamed it the CSUF Arboretum and started charging $4 per hour for parking at the Arboretum lot on weekdays. Today, Friday August 8th, I visited the Arboretum for the first time in over 2 years. What I saw saddened me and confirmed the concerns I expressed previously on this page.

There was hardly anyone there on a beautiful sunny Friday afternoon with only 8 cars in the almost empty parking lot. (See Pic) Starting August 25th CSUF will begin charging a $12 parking fee (*now informed it starts at $6 and will increase to $12) on the weekends for all the campus lots including the Arboretum lot. Because of the weekday $4 per hour parking fee at the Arboretum lot that began in 2022 using the Park Mobile app, the Arboretum is now mostly visited on the weekends and is often crowded then.

Earlier this year I spoke with Dr. Shana Charles the Fullerton Councilmember for District 3 about the Arboretum, she happily noted: “Parking is still FREE at the Arboretum on the weekends!” This will no longer be the case starting August 25th. Expect attendance at the Arboretum to continue to fall and its many benefits to the Fullerton community as a commons for people to visit and enjoy free of any fees on the weekend to expire. How sad for the people of Fullerton that this once great civic source of relaxation, recreation, education and family enjoyment will now be monetized and underutilized by its citizens.

The Arboretum was not looking as nice or as well kept as I remember it. Besides a lack of visitors, the extensive lawn next to Dr. Clark’s house was brown and mostly dead. Many of the surrounding citrus trees looked under water stress with curled up leaves. I have 10 citrus trees in my yard, so I know what healthy watered trees look like.

I was told that the Arboretum’s long time director had retired in January and that the position had been posted but then removed by CSUF and had not been filled. This could explain the sad shape of the grounds. I asked if Dr. Clark’s House (Heritage House) had been reopened for visitors or the many schoolchildren field trips I use to see there and was told no. The only good news I have to report is that Arboretum land was not taken for the massive expansion and building of student housing that is being added to the campus. It does tower above the Arboretum grounds though. (See pic).

I just wanted to alert the people here who are still Fullerton Arboretum Advocates to what I saw and learned today after visiting the Fullerton Arboretum after a 2 year absence.

Sincerely,

Dr. Steve Chapin

The plan here seems pretty obvious: let the Arboretum go to the dogs, declare it an unsafe nuisance and build more massive dormitories for the eager young CSUF students. $12 to park on a week-end? That’s tantamount to robbery. The City has no control over the university that can do any damn thing it wants, although I seem to recall an Arboretum Joint Powers Authority with a commission, or some such thing. I don’t know if it even exists anymore.

I do love the reference to Shana Charles, happy warrior for public health when it’s not even at stake. This is different. A real open space with trees, plants, water, n’ stuff could very well be at risk from her employer. Let’s see what the good doctor does.

So says Fullerton’s tender young, Elijah Manassero.

That’s pretty good. Even from way up here in Doggy Heaven I can see signs of a disturbed young human. Sort of reminds me of my earthly days when my mistresses nasty offspring used to lock me in a hot car just for fun.

I don’t think they turned out well, either. Man, I was glad to get out of that house even if it meant croaking.

Why do the Kennedy Sisters feel compelled to create their own news and froth themselves and their handful of followers into self-righteous fury over some made up crisis? The answer isn’t good. It’s political grandstanding and journalistic incompetence.

The latest is their Fullerton Observer article demanding that the Fullerton City Council hold a public hearing on the matter of whether or not Fullerton should join a lawsuit against the the Immigration and Customs Enforcement for their “illegal” activities. The alternative, they suggest is an effort to decide this matter in the Council’s “Closed Session” since it pertains to legal activity and is thus exempted under the Brown Act.

The only trouble is that nobody has proposed discussing this matter behind closed doors. The agenda for the next meeting hasn’t even been created and won’t be published until a week from today. Whether or not the matter will even be on the agenda at all for the August 19th meeting is guesswork. Gee, I wonder who sold them this story.

But that’s not a deterrent to the enterprising sisters who once again are trying to whip up the usual suspects into attacking the council majority. They even created a dopey “open letter” making their speculation about a Closed Session decision look like a real effort that they have somehow uncovered. No sources are described, of course, following the Fullerton Observer’s usual trajectory of absent journalistic integrity.

Naturally, this whole thing is another attempt to go after Mayor Fred Jung in particular who is singled out:

“Event organizers invited Mayor Jung – but he failed to attend.”

Bad Jung. Bad, bad Jung! Looks like no effort was made to talk to Jung, or if it did, it was omitted from the screed.

The result of this will be another conga line of the usual speakers that we already know. And maybe some new faces drawn from the ranks of Fullerton’s liberal churches. This is probably why the ever-pious and election fraudster, Diane Vena, sent an email about this subject to the Servite friar, Dennis Kriz.

FFFF received this social media snippet today and I thought it was worth sharing.

It’s hard to read, but the gist of it is that Fullerton has made a list of 47 safest suburbs in California. Mr. Alex Yu, a realtor, doesn’t name the source of his wonderful news, but refers to a “national safety report.”

Mr. Yu declares that Fullerton is named the the safest city in Orange County, and in fact, all of Southern California!

This is an OPPORTUNITY for someone, presumably Mr. Yu.

In July, former La Habra councilman Tim Shaw announced he was running for the OC 4th District Supervisor job. Again.

Way back in 2018, Shaw ran for this seat and lost in a close election to the miserable, corrupt, and now ostensibly senile octogenarian, Doug “Bud” Chaffee. Chafee is termed out in 2026.

But 2026 is not 2018. North Orange County is more demonstrably Democrat, and other than getting into, and losing a General Election to a Democrat, I can’t see much hope for Shaw. In the past he has run for things as an allegedly moderate Republican, but even that seems like a lost cause. This is particularly true since he resigned his La Habra gig so he could stay on the OC Board of Education that has recently become the playground of Trumpy lunatics. That association and his voting record there might help fundraising from a far-right corner – such as $2000 he already got from Howard Ahmanson, but it’s going to make his candidacy a tough sell to the general public.

Right now Fullerton’s Fred Jung and Connor Traut have a lot of cash on hand, where as Shaw has comparatively – under $20,000, but it’s still very early with the primary almost a year away.

I think Shaw’s candidacy is bad news for Fred Jung who, as a pragmatic centrist, needs conservative support. Traut is running as the inevitable leftist Democrat with all the usual institutional support. But that means very little, to which Vivian Jaramillo can attest.

Tomorrow’s Fullerton City Council meeting has been cancelled. How come? I don’t know why.

I do know that the first meeting in July was cancelled, and the first meeting in September, the day after Labor Day holiday, is often cancelled in that circumstance.

Even if the agenda were light it seems like a better strategy to have meetings so as to reduce the length of other meetings, which can be excruciatingly long.

At least some of Fullerton Boohoo isn’t happy about the cancellation. One of them emailed to alert Fr. Dennis Kriz, who seems to have forwarded her message to the City Council. This was intercepted by the Boys in the White van and is faithfully reported below.

Aha. Our old friend Diane Vena. The woman who nominated phony MAGA candidate Scott Markowitz in last year’s 4th District election. She did this while still endorsing Vivian Jaramillo on the latter’s website. Why Vena contacted his holiness is unknown but she seems to be upset. Somebody rattled her cage about the ICE lawsuit issue. That must have been “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra and/or Shana Charles.

Somebody told Vena that “the council” didn’t cancel the meeting, but that “someone” cancelled it to attend something called the National Night Out, whatever that is. Council meetings are often cancelled without the whole council deciding. In fact a special meeting would have to be called to do that, so that’s just dumb.

What’s really interesting is how Vena got her information, and who gave it to her.

Damn City Hall is leaking like a sieve.

There is something entertaining when a professional know-it-all runs into somebody who isn’t going to accept her bullshit.

And so we have the hilarious spectacle of Shana Charles – cloistered, third-rate academic – confronting and over-talking George Bushala, Jr. because she doesn’t like his answers about how come he hasn’t built a restaurant on the Bushala Brothers, Inc., portion of the Santa Fe Depot loading dock. Enjoy the video:

Somehow Shana, who has never ventured a nickle into anything, thinks BBI should have built a fancy restaurant (like Trevor’s at the Tracks!) despite the stonewalling of staff, and the animosity of Jennifer Fitzgerald, Jan Flory, and Ahmad Zahra. Then there’s the little problem of economic recessions in the early 2000s and 2008-2012, the real estate crash in 2007, and the COVID disaster in 2020-2002.

It has also escaped poor Shana’s feeble intellectual grasp that the City’s portion of the loading dock – east of the centerline of Pomona Avenue, is structurally connected to the Bushala leasehold, an awkward situation that is obviously an impediment to development. It’s going to take a million bucks to build out – something no one would do under the present situation.

Shana actually believes there is a “structure” suitable for a restaurant – instead of an unenclosed, unsound, ramshackle frame on a concrete bulkhead with no utilities.

When you know what you’re talking about, the whole cooked-up lease “controversy” is ridiculous.

Shana has the ignorant audacity to mention people who ran COVID businesses out of their kitchen, a comment so fucking stupid that it doesn’t even need repudiation.

The final sentence from Bushala is classic: “that’s why you don’t do what I do.”

What Dr. Charles does is talk self-important ideological blather to vacant-faced students looking for an easy elective, and whose multiple choice tests are graded by a computer.

A while back the Fullerton Observer ran an article about supporting businesses and addressing the damned unfairness of rents on City-owned property. The restaurant Les Amis was cited as a particular case. The older Kennedy Sister – Sharon – opined in one of her frequent comments on her younger sister’s posts:

“…I love Les Amis – I thought the Montechristo’s (sic) message at the July 15 council meeting was heartbreaking.” 

Maybe Les Amis should be renamed The House of Blues.

But wait a minute. Before we all start singing boohoo hosannas about how unfairly Les Amis is treated, let’s consider their 15 year record of scofflawry, trespass, and ignoring rent payments. The rap sheet is long and demonstrates bad faith at every turn. Naturally, neither Siskya or Sharon Kennedy bothered to find out if Les Amis has ever been an honest tenant of the taxpayers.

But we’ll take trip down memory lane, courtesy of a Public Records Act request about Les Amis:

Feb 2011         Jinan Montecristo d.b.a. Les Amis Restaurant & Lounge (Jinan) applied for an outdoor dining encroachment agreement.

Aug 2011         After several reviews of the site plan, staff provided a draft encroachment agreement to Jinan for consideration

Sept 2011        Jinan issued a letter to staff challenging the lease rates.  Les Amis installed fencing and started operating within the public right-of-way without executed agreement (south patio).

Dec 2011         Staff send revised encroachment agreement for consideration

June 2012       Jinan was issued an Administrative Restaurant Use Permit (ARUP), which included an ancillary outdoor patio.  Among other things, the conditions of the ARUP required a valid encroachment agreement pursuant to the Outdoor Dining Guidelines established by the City Council. 

July 2012         Staff send revised encroachment agreement for consideration

Dec 2015         Jinan submitted building permit to expand into the north portion of the building.

Feb 2016         Staff inform Jinan that she owed $28,659.60 for use of the public right-of-way of private benefit (9/2011 – 2/2016). 

May 2016        Modification of an Amended ARUP was approved, expanding existing restaurant into adjacent tenant space.  Jinan executed an encroachment agreement for outdoor dining (south patio only; $510/month; $6,120 annually).  The agreement also required payment for 12-month prior occupancy ($6,120; negotiated down from $28,659.60).

Aug 2016         Jinan issues a letter to staff indicated they are “unable to fulfill financial obligations” due to “hardship”.

April 2017        Jinan was issued a letter from the City attorney to pay outstanding balance on account.

May 2017        Encroachment Agreement expired.

Aug 2017         Les Amis expanded into the north patio area without a permit/agreement for outdoor dining.

Nov 2018         Jinan was issued a letter from the City attorney, indicating they are in violation of their ARUP, failed to pay the lease outlined in the executed agreement, and are required to remove encroachments (north and south patio) by Dec. 14, 2018. Jinan subsequently expressed interest in continued use of both patios.  Outstanding balance was $24,643.70 at the time.

Dec 2018         Jinan signed resolution of breach of outdoor dining encroachment agreement and FMC. Resolution waived outstanding balance on Patio 2 (north patio; $5,263.70), resulting in $19,380 of remaining account balance.

Jan 2019         Staff sent two encroachment agreement(s) for consideration.  Jinan expressed interest in removing Patio 1 (south patio) and expanding Patio 2 (north patio)

March 2019     Jinan executed Encroachment Agreement for new north patio only.  New Agreement was for $913.75/month ($510 for north patio; $403.75 for prior occupancy fee ($19,300 amortized over 48 months))

Permit was issued for removal of fencing around south patio and installation for north patio expansion per executed agreement. 

May 2020        City Council paused collecting lease revenue from all outdoor dining encroachments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Outstanding balance for all outdoor dining agreements was also waived.  Les Amis waived balance was approximately $13,647.50.

June 2022       Council approved new lease rates for outdoor dining on public property. 

Aug 2022         Les Amis reinstalled south patio without permits and/or an agreement.

Sept 2022        Jinan submitted application to reinstall south patio.

Aug 2023         Staff reinitiated collecting lease from all existing agreements.

Oct 2024         Jinan defaulted on payments from August 2023 to October 2024, accumulating a dept of $13,468.71. Jinan signed an agreement for a 12-month payment plan to pay the outstanding debt of $13,468.71. 

NOTE: this did not include prior occupancy for the reinstalled south patio.

Nov 2024         Jinan executed two superseding encroachment agreements for outdoor dining with the new lease areas and rates. 

April 2025        Jinan defaulted on payments, accumulating an outstanding balance of $26,650.96.  Staff terminated the agreements, cancelled the payment plan, issued several notices of violations, and required removal of all encroachments. Jinan expressed financial hardship and requested the City revisit the lease rate.  Jinan also paid $1,200 toward the payment plan and expressed interest in purchasing the property.  The city paused removal to explore options. 

July 2025         Jinan was once again requested to remove all unpermitted encroachments.  Jinan paid $3,900 toward the payment plan.  City Manager agree to extend the time for compliance or a change in the Outdoor Dining policy for 60 days.  To date, Jinan has an outstanding balance of $31,185.10 ($5,494.06 payment plan; $25,691.04 encroachment agreements)

Okay, so what’s the deal? At one point Les Amis went five years ignoring their rent obligation to the City. Remember these were mostly the years that Mayor-for-Hire Jennifer Fitzgerald, who ran cover for almost every misbehaving restaurant and bar owner in Downtown Fullerton. Work without permits? Expansion without approval? City employees dismissing massive amounts of money due to the people of Fullerton? Check.

And these people have the damn nerve to get up in public and harangue the City Council about fairness?

And not in a way a future employer might find appealing.

A fellow named Doug Bowen has become an internet star for aggressive, vulgar and abusive behavior toward a couple playing fetch with their dogs, as well as a Fullerton College security guy just trying to do his job.

Mr. Bowen was highly offended because the people were using the green strip adjacent to the south college parking lot, next to Bowen’s house. The activity caused Bowen’s own dogs to bark on his side of a fence. This was on July 29th,

Abraham Cano and his girlfriend captured the incident on video that has gone viral on social media as such confrontations often do.

The kicker? This enflamed hemorrhoid was a member of the Police Chief’s Advisory Council. Not anymore. It seems that even the FPD has limits, even though Bowen believed he was in tight with cops as demonstrated in his attitude. But Bowen was arrested hauled off to the Fullerton clink and booked, charged with threatening bodily harm. Good for the FPD. The case has been sent to the DA.

Now Bowen could have just gone down as another obnoxious asshole Karen – abusive, entitled, and making up shit to defend his privilege, but no. At one point he mutters that he was going to call ICE, adding a layer of racism to his résumé. Well done fella.’

The story took another weird turn today. A Friend decided to contact Mr. Bowen via the telephone. The respondent was an FPD cop named David Alarid. What? Why are Fullerton police answering this miscreant’s phone? Is he in protective custody of some kind?

This afternoon our boys in the White Van saw four cop cars at Bowen’s house. So what gives? Are Fullerton taxpayers footing the bill to provide security for this donkey? I sure hope somebody presents this blowhard with a bill for police protection.