Sep
30
14-year old girl fondled while walking her dog
Filed Under 2010 Issues, Community News, Crime & Police, Decency | 3 Comments
(Los Alamitos, 9/30/2010, by Captain Bruce McAlpine, Los Al P.D.) During the afternoon hours of Sunday, September 26, a 14-year old Los Alamitos girl was approached by an unidentified male who fondled her buttocks.
The victim was walking her dog in the Greenbrook neighborhood near the intersection of Humboldt Street and Myra Avenue when the adult male suspect, wearing jogging attire, approached the victim from behind and Read more
Sep
30
Curious Minds on Los Alamitos Corridor plans
Filed Under 2010 Issues, Planning & Zoning, Traffic | Leave a Comment
(9/30/2010, Los Alamitos, by “Highlands Guy”) During the next administration’s tenure our city fathers…and mothers…will be making decisions related to the famous “Los Alamitos Corridor” downtown business district.
Although the driving force behind this initiative is the Orange County Transportation Authority, over which we have no clout, we must make sure the outcome is in our favor, and not theirs.
Please take note that we do not need, or want, more traffic, whether that takes the form of public or private transportation. What we do need are businesses that will attract patrons, local as well as from afar that come to Los Al on purpose to shop and eat.
As much as they try to force public transportation on us, it has never worked effectively in Southern California for a variety of reasons, and will not bring in the folks that will stop and spend their money.
Please also note the number of empty street level store fronts along Read more
Sep
30
Cat Driscoll on Dean Grose, Edgar, Zarkos, & her critics
Filed Under 2010 Issues, 2010 election, Dean Grose, Dean Zarkos, Decency, Troy Edgar | 5 Comments
(9/30/10, Los Alamitos) Dave here. Once again an individual comment seems worthy of it’s own post. This time it’s from our former City Council Member (& one of my all-time favorites), Catherine Driscoll, and was originally posted as a comment under “Edgar & Zarkos: Leading with Tresspassing & Plaigerism?”:
There is no trust, truth or transparency with either Zarkos, Edgar of Dean Grose. I was just reading the latest article in the OC Register about Dean.
After numerous records requests I saw several racist emails that he sent to not only City employees but to Read more
Sep
30
Coming Events: Fire Station Open House, Med Center Public Hearing, & more
Filed Under City Council Meetings, Community News, News you can use, Planning & Zoning | Leave a Comment
(9/30/2010, Los Alamitos) There’s a lot coming up through the weekend and beyond, so here’s a handy “cheat sheet” to help you keep up with everything taking place in our special little town:
(I’ll be updating this post regularly, so if there’s a special event you’d like noted, mention it in a comment or through the “contact us” button above & I’ll add it.)
Today, Thursday, 9/30/2010:
Grand Opening of our 50th Anniversary Courtyard, 5 p.m., Little Cottonwood Park. Join City Council Members, City Staff, and local citizens for the opening & celebration. Just south of the larger playground. Little Cottonwood Park is on Farquhar (S. of Katella) at Bloomfield.
“Highlands Guy’s” weekly “Curious Minds” Post on the Los Al Blvd. Corridor project coming here later today.
Saturday: County-wide OCFA Fire Station Open House 10/2, 9 – 2 p.m. Take the kids or grandkids or just go yourself to the Los Al Station at Reagan and Green. the Cypress one off Cerritos west of Walker, or the newly rebuilt one on Beverly Manor Drive by Liesure World, which ever’s closer or more convenient. Free family fun that’s educational too! Plus an opportunity to say “thanks” to the men & women willing to risk their lives to save yours!
Free shredding & e-waste disposal: 10 – 2, Angel Stadium, 2000 Gene Autry Way, Anaheim. Shred up to 5 “banker boxes” or paper grocery bags full of your deepest, darkest secrets and/or credit card numbers. Free e-waste disposal/recycling also available at our local Goodwill Store (Ball/Los Al behind Huffs) during regular business hours.
Sunday, 10/3: Nothing yet, except it’s my birthday. I can cry if I want to!
Monday, 10/4, 7 p.m., Los Alamitos City Council Meeting. We’ll get the agenda up once it’s posted online.
Tuesday, 10/5, Permanent vote-by-mail ballots for 11/2 General Election begin arriving.
Saturday, 10/9: First Annual Suburbia Estates Neighborhood-wide Block/Garage Sale. Off Farquhar just west of Cottonwood Park, follow signs.
Monday, 10/11, 7 p.m. Public Hearing on Los Al Medical Center 25 Year Plan at Planning Commission Meeting. This is your big opportunity to comment on the Plan and the Enviornmental Impact Report, which is now available to review at City Hall and the Rossmoor Public Library. Look for a post with details and links coming once the city Read more
Sep
29
Troy Edgar & Dean Zarkos: Leading with Tresspassing & Plagiarism?
Filed Under 2010 Issues, 2010 election, Dean Zarkos, Decency, Troy Edgar | 19 Comments
Troy Edgar and Dean Zarkos' illegal signs on fenced lot before their removal
(Los Alamitos, 9/29/2010) Just drove by the vacant lot on the corner, ironically enough, of Briggeman and Los Alamitos. (I’m not making this up. . . . I’m not that good!)
The lot’s as empty as the City’s cupboard once the current majority gets done with us.
In other words, Troy Edgar & Dean Zarkos’ three massive signs were removed today, as the bank that owns the lot told us they would be.
Troy’s signs, as we reported earlier in Troy Edgar ‘muddies the water?’, plagiarized his opponents’ slogan, “Truth, Trust, and Transparency.” Only he added, “Leading with.” How ironic is that, “leading” by copying?
About as ironic as claiming to be truthful, trustworthy, and transparent while stealing someone else’s motto, then putting it on someone else’s fenced private property.
Look like that flyer that landed on my porch last weekend quoting Troy saying that the use of eminent domain was among his top three priorities was right on the money.
Looks like my fellow Realtor, Dean Zarkos, never Read more
Sep
29
Your reporting and responses to this week’s News Enterprise and Sun (9/29/2010)
Filed Under 2010 Issues, Community News | 1 Comment
(9/29/ 2010)Once again it’s time for our weekly post that allows you to report and comment on letters & articles in our local weekly papers.
The goal of this weekly post is to encourage discussion of important issues, making it easier (and faster) for the people to speak about what concerns them. Rather than waiting a week to respond, conversations can take place at the speed of light.
This weekly post also allows you to report on Read more
Sep
28
Whose anniversary is it anyway?
Filed Under 2010 Issues, Community News, Local events | 9 Comments
10/1 update: Saw the completed plaza today while I was running at Cottonwood, & it really came out very nice! The signs on the three benches were relatively unobtrusive, and, other than the sponsor’s name being bigger than the city’s, it came out very nice.
It also turns out Southland’s donation was significantly more than I was told initially. Pete Carvajal and the 50th Anniversary Committee is to be congratulated on a job well done! (9/28/2010, Los Alamitos,Updated 7 a.m., Wednesday, 9/29/2010) City staff are busy preparing Los Alamitos’ 50th Anniversary Courtyard at Little Cottonwood Park for it’s Grand Opening this Thursday, September 30, 2010 at 5 p.m.
The ground was prepared a couple weeks ago, the concrete poured lasts week, and those $50 and $100 personalized bricks were being installed earlier today by industrious Los Alamitos staff.
I happened to bump into my friend & long time Los Al TV journalist John Underwood while I was shooting some photos for you after my morning 2 mile jog around the park (5 1/3 laps, quarter mile markers almost completely faded).
John was eager to show me something that upset him. Turned out I’d already spotted it, but the more we talked, the more it Read more
Sep
28
Troy Edgar “muddies the water?”
Filed Under 2010 Issues, 2010 election, Troy Edgar | 27 Comments
(Los Alamitos, 9/28/2010) Sometimes a comment posted here is so insightful it seems to deserve a post of it’s own. The following is from a comment posted earlier today by J. M. Ivler:
Let’s start with the disclaimer. My company, BIASolutions, has designed and developed the LosAl2010.com web site (content belongs to the candidates).
So, Monday I was traveling down Los Al Blvd and saw Troy’s big ‘ol sign posted on the empty lot. What stood out to me wasn’t the size, or the fact that he posted it on private property (most likely without the owners permission), but that Troy is engaging in tactics that are associated with most “dirty campaigns”. In this case he is “muddying the message”.
A tag line is born:
As I was involved in designing the web site for the three candidates [Brad Sheridan, Warren Kusumoto, & Gerri Graham-Mejia] I had to change the title tag (the title of the page) a number of times. From “The Open Government Team” to “The Transparency Team” to “Los Al Open Read more
Sep
27
One hot town: 103 in Los Al!
Filed Under Community News, News you can use | 3 Comments
(9/27/2010, 3 p.m., Los Alamitos) Help me out here, but I don’t remember triple digit temps in lovely Los Alamitos for quite a while.
But I just checked weather.com, & that’s what they said.
So I looked out the window at my outside thermometer that’s sitting in the shade, & it said 103.1
The good news is, it’s not humid, so that 103 actually feels like 100 according to weather.com.
While we’re talking hot, the “Los Alamitos Truth, Trust, & Transparency Team” of Brad Sheridan, Warren Kusumoto, and Gerri Graham-Mejia have a pretty hot new website you might want to check out at LosAl2010.com.
Back to the heat, Read more
Sep
26
Since then, that policy has been criticized, especially by those who disagree with prevailing opinions expressed in our comments. That criticism has come from top city officials and from CPLA loyalists.
I always encourage those making comments to use their real name or at least first name or a uniform “handle” if they’re comfortable doing so. I understand why people may be reluctant to have their full name on line, but I must say I’ve never experienced any problem from four years of blogging and posting with my full name, both here and elsewhere.
I think we should still allow anonymous posting here, but I’m not so sure about people who use multiple “handles.” As an editor here, I have access to the e-mails of those who post, so I know when “To Dave” is also Read more
Sep
26
Sunday Sermon: The curse of trusting man
Filed Under Inspiration, Sunday Sermons, Songs & Stories | 2 Comments
(9/26/2010, Los Alamitos) by Dave Emerson: On Sundays, we try to take a look away from the temporal challenges and blessings of living in Los Alamitos & focus on the eternal. I’m no preacher, these are more personal musings than anything, and they’re generally directed at myself as much as anyone.
As I was passing out political flyers early this morning, a quote kept running through my head:
He who trusts in man will be disappointed.
Regardless of how good a person we’re trusting in, they’re only human.
No politician is going to “fix Los Al,” let alone the problems in my little world that concern me most.
People who trusted in George Bush were disappointed.
People who trusted in Barak Obama were disappointed.
People who trusted in Dean Grose were disappointed.
Even the politicians I support will ultimately disappoint me.
Why? Because they’re human, just like you & I.
But we keep doing it. Keep looking for a “Messiah” who’ll come and solve all our problems.
Because we know we can’t solve them all ourselves.
When I got home, I googled what I thought was a Bible verse, & couldn’t find it. Maybe one of our readers can. The closest I could find were the words of the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah (chapter 17, verse 5):
This is what the LORD says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
Jeremiah knew what we often forget: God alone is completely trustworthy. When we trust in human strength, whether ours or someone else’s, we’re settling for infinitely less than what God offers, and we will be disappointed.
Jeremiah continues to contrast the ultimate Read more
Sep
24
The Register’s “Best of Orange County:” Agree or disagree?
Filed Under Commission Meetings, Community News, News you can use | 2 Comments
(9/24/2010, Los Alamitos) by Dave Emerson The Register’s 17th Annual “People’s Choice” Awards was included in today’s paper–172 pages of ads & locals’ opinions on the best of everything from restaurants to beaches to pet hospitals to bike trails.
If you didn’t receive or pick up a copy, no worries. A link to all 100+ categories is below.
The “Best of OC” may have it’s share of ads, but the first one I saw was good for a free Read more
Sep
23
Curious Minds on our red light cameras
Filed Under Miscellaneous reader thoughts & questions, Traffic | 5 Comments
(Los Alamitos, 9/23/2010) Once again our “Highlands Guy” asks probing quesstions in his regular Thursday “Curious Minds” feature. This time he’s wondering about one of our town’s most expensive “photo studio:”
Red light cameras. Because of the cost, I presume they are there for a purpose. Is the purpose to reduce accidents, to take up the slack for an undermanned police department, or to generate revenue for the city?
Another question that would seem logical at this point is, what follow-up studies have been done to show that the stated goals have been achieved?
On a more basic level these things are ugly and utilize technology and design that was old when they were erected. For years now all forward looking cities have incorporated the cameras into existing traffic signal stanchions. That’s why you do not see them anywhere else in Orange County.
And to add insult to injury, they were installed on a brand new, very expensive (read tax money), center divider. It would be nice to know what Council members made the decision that the rest of us have to live with long after they left office.
In addition, these monstrosities are smack dab in the middle of the City’s major intersection. A location, that I’ve read recently about in the local newspaper, where we profess to want to attract folks passing through our fine little city…think about it.
That’s just the way I see it.
Sep
22
Your reporting and responses to this week’s News Enterprise and Sun (9/22/2010)
Filed Under 2010 Issues, Community News | 35 Comments
(9/22/ 2010)Once again it’s time for our weekly post that allows you to report and comment on letters & articles in our local weekly papers.
The Sun is only distributed to Los Alamitos’ homes south ofs St. Hedwig so those of you who live in Rossmoor Highlands can tell the rest of us what we missed in what used to be our other local paper, once you receive it on Thursday.
The goal of this weekly post is to encourage discussion of important issues, making it easier (and faster) for the people to speak about what concerns them. Rather than waiting a week to respond, conversations can take place at the speed of light.
This weekly post also allows you to report on Read more
Sep
21
Columnist Frank Mickadeit blasts Dean Grose & his OC Republican endorsement
Filed Under 2010 Issues, 2010 election, Dean Grose | 4 Comments
Grose chatting with Council Member Troy Edgar recently outside City Hall
(9/21/2010, Los Alamitos) In a column titled “O.C. GOP endorses man behind racist e-mail,” which I believe will run in Wednesday’s OC Register, the Local Section’s page 1 columnist reports on the Orange County Republican Party’s Central Committee’s endorsement of Dean Grose for Los Alamitos City Council.
Mickadeit made his opinion clear in the article’s first paragraph: “First, Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose e-mailed the infamous White House watermelon patch cartoon to a black woman. Then he sent her an apology that might have been more offensive the cartoon itself. Then, after resigning under intense public pressure, he decided, only a year after Read more