It is rare when I will congratulate LA’s Mayor Villaraigosa.
However, today I will tip my hat to Mayor V. for his commitment to “operation pothole.” Since taking office in July of 2005, the mayor of LA made a pledge to repair the streets of LA.
On the radio this morning we heard that “Operation Pothole” was being canceled after repairing 800,000 potholes. The Sunday Daily News reports that number at 1. 5 million. While I won’t debate which number is accurate I am reminded of advise given by one of my mentors when campaigning for our city council. Promote two basic policy positions. “No crime and no potholes.”
Apparently Tony V. has kept his promise relating to the vast number of pot holes in his city. It has been stated that the biggest cost of auto repairs, around $700 per year, can be attributed to neglected streets. While the official program is ending the city of L. A. will retain a policy of “pavement preservation,” whatever that entails.
So, for Santa Ana mayor Miguel Pulido, I would give Tony V a grade of A- for road maintenance while your negligence has cost your taxpayers many millions of dollars in that delayed repairs can be much costlier than routine maintenance. Therefore my grade for Mayor Miguel Pulido is a D.
Three years ago, on April 2nd 2007, I wrote a story on the Orange Juice entitled “Round 3. Asphalt patch or slurry seal.”
At that time the Register had just reported that “it will cost $467 million to fix up to 300 miles of Santa Ana roads.” Based on similar repairs in Mission Viejo, performed one year earlier, I documented that our city paid $1.05 per square foot for asphalt patching while in the same year we slurry sealed 2,380,000 square feet at a cost of $351,148. This converts to about 15 cents per square foot. So the Fram Oil Filter ad applies. “Pay me now or pay me (much more) later.”
While the streets of Mission Viejo may not have the same conditions as those found in LA or Santa Ana, we have gambled and extended our original five year maintenance cycle to a seven year program. While our city manager denies our ever having a five year plan I spoke to Fred Sorsabal, Mission Viejo’s first city manager, who confirmed that my statement is valid. That change took place on his watch.
And to think our city manager needles me about my being an “investigative reporter” in responding to my Juice posts that bother him. The good news for residents is that the writers and publishers of this blog are not beholden to our city managers for the news we cover and the opinions of our team of bloggers.
We are not employees of the OC Register or the LA Times dependent on your crumbs of local activities that you want us to promote (or in some cases to bury).
A few weeks ago the Mission Viejo Dispatch, ww.missionviejodispatch.com published two articles on the condition of our local streets that included many photos of roads in need of repair. I had a self imposed gag order not to cover this story on the Juice and waited for the Register to wake up. Finally the local reporter went on a tour with some of our activists. To date there has not been any coverage regarding this negligence.
Another story regarding the disappearing print media.
On March 22nd, and again on March 29th, some Mission Viejo residents were in Superior Court with a lawsuit filed against our City Clerk, one of our council members, and the ROV.
To date the OC Register has not written a single word of that trial. They have published reports relating to a new restaurant and a Ralph’s supermarket renovation that will each occur in May. It’s past being called a slippery slope. I would opine that our local newspaper coverage has gone over a cliff.
ForAverageJoe posted the following in the OCR on..3/10/2010 5:32 PM PST
http://www.ocregister.com/news/pulido-237549-business-jury.html
with respect to your comment about CRIME and POTHOLES see in particular a) & e) below.
“Leadership is lacking by Mayor Pulido in several key areas:
a) Our Infrastructure requires attention. If you live and drive around in Santa Ana you will see that many of our streets are full of POTHOLES, and have been like that for years (WHICH CAUSE DAMAGE TO VEHICLES AND COSTLY CAR REPAIRS TO CITIZENS);
b) many streets are unsafe because they lack appropriate sidewalks…the rains make it worse…our children have to walk in unsafe streets.
c) Many of our Santa Ana high schools have less than 50% graduation rates. There is no Leadership nor heavy collaboration promoted by the city between industry and the schools, so that our youth see the opportunities from education.
d) Jobs are not being attracted to, nor significantly retained in Santa Ana.
e) Not enough leadership is provided in FIGHTING CRIME.
f) I have never seen the Mayor visit our neighborhood, nor many of our neighborhoods, nor am I aware of him actively participating with the community(ies).
g) We have a homeless problem, which includes homeless vets and their families.
h) The Mayor is not actively promoting Santa Ana, nor facilitating small business creation.
i) The Mayor is not actively collaborating with the larger business community at large, nor the business chambers. Giving a little certificate or recognition does not constitute active and substantive participation.
j) And you have the multiple allegations, which increase credibility, of a conflicted Mayor Pulido, which borders on illegal behavior.
k) After all these years, you would hope he had tackled these problems. But it has not happened and the City of Santa Ana continues to deteriorate…Or does he want another 20 years to make some progress.
We need Leadership.
We do not need en entrenched Mayor.
We need to change this ineffective Mayor.
We need a strong Mayor, a different Mayor that provides Leadership for a better Santa Ana, for a better future.
“ForAverageJose or Josefina”
If a city is negligent about repairing roads, the outcome gets very expensive for taxpayers and car owners. Thank you, Larry, for mentioning car repairs. My car is in the shop today (suspension), and you should see the bad condition of my street!
I have already paid for street maintenance as part of my taxes, and what did they do with the money?
The news out of LA City government over the last few weeks has demonstrated that the biggest pothole that needs filling is the Mayor’s mouth. Announcing the partial shut down of city government due to lack of funding, then finding he does not have the authority as Mayor to do that, then finding there is enough money in the City Treasury after all and thus the funding crisis the Mayor was reportedly seeking to deal with did not yet exist. This guy engages his mouth much too much, and often without the facts. Fill that one more pothole at least!
If you live in Floral or Morrison Park you don’t have an issue with potholes.
Pay Your Water Bill,
“If you live in Floral or Morrison Park you don’t have an issue with potholes.”
Too true, I live in Floral Park and watched them repave Santa Clara which was in perfectly good shape, meanwhile practically every little residential street SOUTH of SEVENTEENTH is virtual RUBBLE. It shouldn’t be that hard to defeat Pulido, I suggest hand-made signs on every crappy street, blaming his lame-ass performance.
Where are Santa Ana’s stimulus funds/projects? Did we get any and if not, why not?
foraveragejoe,
I would add to your list;
No sidewalks over the Santa Ana River at both Fairview and Edinger, kids walking/riding bikes right next to speeding cars, a perfect stimulus money project.
From an elder statesman in Laguna Woods:
“Larry
How can the OCRegister publish any stories? As I look their staff is melting away and there are some replacements, but what do they know? The Gadgetress is gone. The Science Dude is gone. The guy who used to write war stories is gone. Mickadeit sees the handwriting on the wall and is studying to be a lawyer. None can go to the LATimes since the Times is involved in a bankruptcy fiasco as well. The new people probably don’t come as far south as Mission Viejo. They may not even be literate. That would certainly cut costs.
Gas taxes could be used to care for our roads, but it is probably used for trips and to buy votes.
Enuff” XXXX
Mr. Gilbert, hate to sound so cynical, but with the departure of the newspaper staff you mention, maybe the paper can return to reporting the news instead of these tabloid type columns. Then again, even I miss the Old Troubleshooter some.
Mr. Cynic.
Tabloid? Failing to cover a lawsuit regarding my city’s June 8th election Ballot Measure is OK with you but our coverage is labeled tabloid journalism? Thanks for your comment.
Isn’t it nice that we can each enjoy our First Amendment rights on this blog.
Larry,
Perhaps the OC Register neglected to write a story about the condition of Mission Viejo streets because once noticing that even with the need for localized repairs the streets are by and large in better condition than anywhere else in the world. Perhaps after listening to you so-called watchdogs snivel and whine like the axe grinding crybabies you are, he or she realized that you’re nothing more than blowhards and malcontents and the Register wouldn’t bother wasting the ink on your non-story. Larry, why don’t you, Holtzman and that other alzheimers patient Pilger do us all favor and swallow your tongues already.
Fonzi.
For every zinger from you, hiding behind the curtain without having the courage to use your real name, we receive many emails from residents commending us for standing up to the waste, fraud and abuse in our city. We even have some whistle blowers in city hall telling us we have hardly scratched the surface.
And yes, there are surely examples of each allegation. In time they will all be exposed.
Larry, don’t think too hard, you might hurt yourself. If there was so much corruption at City Hall, why haven’t any indictments been handed down? Why were you able to recall Maclane with only a 19 vote razor thin majority and ultimately manage to completely divide this community? Because you’re a clown. You and the rest of the Mission Viejo Mafia. I think the bogeyman at city hall is largely in your head. You obviously have too much free time on your hands, maybe you should find a job or hump someone else’s leg for a change.
Fonzi is MacLean. Be careful or he’ll strangle you! If you see him on the street, RUN!
Fonzi is MacLean.
Don’t pick on Lance. He’s history. So is his lifetime health care that many of his suporters refuse to acknowledge.
And let me violate our comment posting rules with the following.
While MV activists are accused of spending taxpayer money for costs associated with our recent special elections they both required at least 10 percent of our 50,000 registered voters approval on petitions.
How many Mission Viejo taxpayers approved the city council, led by Frank Ury, Trish Kelley and Lance MacLean suing not one but BOTH of our local public school districts? At a time when the SVUSD and CUSD struggle to provide education for our children the last thing those boards needed was to devote limited resources defending themselves against law suits for which the residents did not have an input. To me, that’s abuse of power.
School Districts do NOT report to the MV city council.
Excellent points, Larry.
Lance, take your violent temper and your hateful remarks to a psychiatrist. Instead of attending anger management meetings, GET REAL HELP. YOU ARE SICK!
OK. Enough said. Let’s go back to potholes, not rejected council members.