[Please welcome to the Orange Juice team long-time Costa Mesa activist Greg “Gericault” Ridge!]
1. The Glory that Was — and Is — Fairview
Fairview Park Wetlands Riparian Pool
Costa Mesa’s Fairview Park is like an un-polished gem.
For those of you who have never heard of it, it is 208 natural acres on the west side of the mesa, set up high on an ocean view bluff.
Let that sink in a bit: over two hundred acres of centrally located Orange County land, in its somewhat pristine and naturally undisturbed state, situated on an ocean view bluff. It’s been grazed on and plowed occasionally, but it has never ever been “developed.”
In Fairview Park
Fairview, (named after one of Costa Mesa’s historic boomtowns), got its name the honest way. Sweeping vistas in the park showcase everything from Saddleback to the LA mountains ranges, across the Santa Ana River flood plain to Point Loma in the North West, and far out across to Catalina.
On a clear winter morning after a rainstorm, when the sun turns the snowy mountains pink, and the cliffs of Catalina are crystal clear over the cobalt Pacific, there is not a more stunning view in all of Southern California. It’s pretty special.
Fairview park aerial view before the Wetlands Riparian Project.
During the Mission period of Southern California history, the Spanish Vaqueros used the bluffs to safely graze their cattle herds. They built the Estancia Adobe and supplied the San Juan Capistrano Mission with fresh meat, tallow, and leather. All this industry was happening right here on this little patch of remaining Southern California open dirt.
Historically speaking, this occurred roughly around the same time we were fighting our Revolution, and a little before France was to behead their King.
The Pacific breezes cooled the temps, and the high bluff provided the Spanish Cattle herders with a safe dry elevated plain and easy access to fresh water resources in the marshy river below. Things were quieter on the Bluff — although in 1818, California’s only pirate, Hipólito de Bouchard, did use the Adobe to stage raids against the Mission, a mere six leagues to the south.
Costa Mesa Estancia Adobe, second oldest building in Orange County
The Spaniards weren’t the first to see the benefits of this perfect topography. For thousands of years the local Pacific Coastal Indigenous Tribes had also used this area. Sadly, during the Mission era, these peaceful people were decimated by malaria, measles and other diseases, while also suffering under the iron fist of the Spanish conversion into Mission life and slavery. What was once a vital and very important political and social village trading center, upon the Fairview bluff, was in essence no more.
Before the arrival of the Spanish, the local tribes flourished on the bluff. The natural topography and easy access to the river and ocean was a perfect space for a thriving village.
Its centralized location made it an ideal gathering and trading spot for all the different southern California tribes. A water lined trail made easy traveling for many of the eastern Mohave and Mountain peoples. The centralized halfway point for the southern and northern tribes made it an equitable spot for everyone to gather without unduly bearing hardship on one or the other by having to travel unfair distances.
Fairview was perfect. Even today — a mile from the ocean and a hundred feet above the river — you walk upon the shells of hundreds of clambakes that were held thousands of years ago.
Cogged Stones
Numerous archeological finds of significant and unique importance, found in the park and in nearby surrounding areas, have been federally registered and designated as in need of protection.
The clues, and treasures to so many questions and theories still lie beneath the surface. The Patayan anthropomorphic figurines, the mystical cogged stones, and the enigmatic Universe Effigy found down in nearby Wintersburg, are just a few of the astounding archeological riches found in this area.
Why haven’t you heard about all of this before now, you might ask?
Well … we didn’t really want you to know.
That’s for a good reason: the safest way to preserve these rare and precious clues to our past history has been to leave them where they are, undisturbed. No plans are currently in the works for undertaking an extensive and thorough excavation and preservation.
You know, we don’t want people — and “pot hunters” playing “Indiana Jones” in the park — destroying the knowledge we can uncover using modern archeological scientific techniques. (Techniques, by the way, that keep improving.) For now, we need to keep some things hidden.
Enjoy the Park, take a nice walk, take in the views … and then leave. This has been the working plan for decades. We have been keeping its secrets safe.
Fairview Park has been locked up by the City of Costa Mesa in the Fairview Park Master Plan, with numerous agreements and understandings through State and Federal Agencies for it to remain a “passive open space.” We can use it, enjoy it, preserve it, even restore it, but not encroach or develop it.
That was true up until now. For anyone who has been following anything about Costa Mesa politics knows … things here are not what they once were.
Mayor of Costa Mesa Jim Righeimer
I could write a very long narrative about the devastating effects we have suffered in this City under the misguided policies of Mayor Jim Righeimer and his lock step cohorts, Steve Mensinger and Gary Monahan.
Today, we are not here to talk about the problems with public safety, the privatization of public assets, the mismanagement of resources, the cronyism, or the violation of municipal codes and the subsequent denials of the public’s right to documents.
No, in Costa Mesa right now, we have a whole other can of worms that they just had to open. Self-inflicted damage once again caused by a City Council whose sole operating procedure consists of … “Fire, Ready, Aim.”
Aided and abetted by a compromised City Staff that has been so decimated and reduced, that the only ones left are either too intimidated, or are so ineptly aligned to the Councils objectives , they get promoted to positions of authority.
Righeimer’s unnecessary attacks, or as we prefer to call it, “Jihad” against the employees have created many obvious and predictable consequences. A main one has been the loss of “Institutional Knowledge.” To be honest, we have no one left who “knows how to steer the ship.”
This leads us to the current situation that we find in ourselves in right now over how we are “stewarding” Fairview Park.
2. Spoiling a Great Thing
This is how it happened.
First, we had this: Mystery trail focuses eco-attention on Fairview Park
Mensinger, Riggy’s right-hand man.
“Someone” just decided that they wanted to put in a trail leading to the Pop Warner Football fields — of which Mayor Pro-tem Steve Mensinger is an ardent supporter. This was a pretty dumb thing to do.
First of all, they had no right to encroach upon the public park. The sad thing was that they used City resources to do it. Emails obtained by the public showed that not only did the City “scrape” the area before the trail was “unknowingly” put in, but they also “sprayed” herbicides to kill the weeds. This was done by the City at “someone’s behest” — and there is a reference to “Steve’s Path” in the emails.
Many questioned if this path was somehow connected to the $650,000 lighting that was recently pushed through by Mayor Pro Tem Steve Mensinger even though Fairview Park has a “dawn to dusk” restriction.
Now, they might have gotten away with this …
… but not when it is being done directly on top of Vernal Pools, which are listed on the Federal Register as Critically Endangered Habitat that harbors Federally Protected Endangered Species. OOOOPS!
That got the attention of the Feds…..
Federal agency takes interest in Fairview trail
This is what happens when you don’t take proper care of your things. The City at this point is not only stewarding the resource improperly, they are actually an accomplice to the crime. Many residents found themselves stepping up to fill in the void.
Park boosters offer $500 reward
These park boosters are looking for information leading to person or persons responsible for vandalizing trails by laying decomposed granite on them. That led us to Walt and Ty Harper, the two people who freely gave their names when asked by a witness who they were, and what they were doing when seen putting in the DG trail.
Personal Note: I believe these are just two good guys donating their time and energy to support youth sports. I think if you had asked these two guys what are “Fairy Shrimp” they would have answered, “Isn’t that a bar in Laguna?” I think, they didn’t realize that they were encroaching upon Federally Critical and endangered habitat, they were just doing “someone” a favor. The sad thing is that “someone” might have known what they were doing was illegal — but he had them do it anyway.
Someone named “Steve Mensinger” is quoted in an article about Walt and Ty and says this:
“If a group doesn’t have enough money, he’ll still do the work because he believes in Costa Mesa,” Mensinger said. “He’ll take the money if you have it, but he’ll work with you.”
It is kind of sad that Steve Mensinger might not have paid them at all, given that the City of Costa Mesa just publicly gifted $96,000 of taxpayer funds to pay for the upkeep of Pop Warner fields to the Newport Mesa Unified School District.
Surely, “someone” like Steve better have given them something. After all, it’s not every day that you have “someone” like Steve ask these guys to destroy federally protected species and habitat in a public park. But, then again — maybe for “someone”, like Steve, it is, as you will see, it’s about to get even worse.
Newport Mesa Unified School District received a big check – Mensy 4th from left.
While “someone” in the City of Costa Mesa was just wantonly destroying the naturally federally protected areas in the Park, we had others in the City acting in official roles planning even deeper encroachments. In July, the Costa Mesa Parks and Recreation Commission reviewed a project calling for a Fairview Park parking lot and Tot Lot Play Area: 45 spaces in a circular lot with landscaping.
Sounds nice. On almost any other piece of city dirt , I and many others would be perfectly fine with it.
But — this is not just any old a piece of dirt. They were supposed to be treating it with a lot more caution and respect.
In fact, out of deference to the existing Master Plan for Fairview Park, the 45 space lot was reduced down to 10 spaces. The size and location of the parking lot were to remain the same; they were just going to re-stripe it for ten spaces, because that is the maximum allowed in the Master Plan.
(Of course, Master Plans can be re-written.)
So the City of Costa Mesa Parks and Rec Commission, led by Chairman Byron De Arakal, led the vote which passed 4-1. (As a side note, P & R Chairman Byron De Arakal also has a day job as a Public Relations spokesperson for a developer up in Montebello Hills trying to develop that city’s last vestige of open space. (He also was paid to help the polish the Fair Board’s image during the last days of the Great OC Fairgrounds swindle … but I digress.)
Mayor Jim Righeimer even scheduled a special “Meet the Mayor” event, where he twice called the Pacific Ave. entrance ” a third world country” –much to the residents’ ire.
After hearing the opposition of every speaker at public comments, the City Council voted on that misguided, and badly studied Parking Lot .With much discussion and dissent it was approved by a slim 3-2 majority of Righeimer, Mensinger, and Monahan. Wendy Leece and Sandy Genis voted NO.
Proposed lot continues to irk residents
At that same meeting, a soft-spoken French archeologist spoke out at public comments warning the City about the possible archeological sites that would be impacted and encroached upon. In fact, this soft-spoken gentleman at one point rose up from his seat to address misinformation that was being put forth by City Staff. Mayor Righeimer refused to let him speak , and made him sit down to bring the meeting back to order.
That gentleman was Sylvere Valentin, a respected and well-trained local archeologist who works with the California State Cultural Resource Office. He was trying to gently warn the City Council and Staff that they needed to notify some people before they moved forward with this project. He was summarily dismissed and ignored. Tellingly, during the City’s own presentation regarding the proposed lot incursion into Fairview Park they even misspelled the acronym for CEQA. When a City Staffer writes the California Environmental Quality Act as “SEQUA,” you know they aren’t even treading water.
That’s right, “SEQUA.” [LOL]
In one area, of the Park, you have Federal Fish and Wildlife studying the degradation of federally protected endangered habitat. Then just days later and a few hundred yards away, you have other State Agency representatives studying the area planned for a parking lot and finding significant areas of archeological interest and picking up bone fragments.
*
This story just broke in the Daily Pilot while I was writing this blog post:
Archaeological concerns fuel Fairview debate
Experts fear that proper procedures are not being followed, at the expense of very significant historical evidence.
“You are standing on top of a bluff where people have lived for at least 3,000 years,”
As she [archeologist Patricia Martz] and Valentin [that’s the gentleman whom Righiemer told to “sit down,” though it seems he got back up again] headed back, they noted that even some safety railings, recently added along the park bluffs, may have violated CEQA [which the Pilot knows know how to spell] guidelines. The poles had to be dug into the ground, which disturbs the soil. “What if they went through a skull?” Martz asked. “It’s just a culturally sensitive area.”
She and Valentin are bringing the matter to the California Cultural Resources Preservation Alliance, a small Irvine-based nonprofit formed in 1998. Martz is the group’s president.
“Everything is kind of nebulous,” she said. “I don’t know if this will stop the project, but they’ve got to do something to protect a National Register site.”
God Bless Patricia, but she just doesn’t know who she’s dealing with. If she thinks they need to “do something,” I need to walk her over a few yards to a Vernal Pool. Let her hang out awhile and have drinks with the US Fish and Wildlife folks.
Costa Mesa City Manager … er … CEO (I never get that right) Tom Hatch received this letter, which gently chides them, but firmly tells them in no uncertain terms that they have thoroughly screwed up.
“Today’s standards, customs and practices regarding environmental review under CEQA, include consultation with Native American tribes. We see no evidence that this occurred in the preparation of the environmental documents in 1997. This omission should be corrected and we recommend government-to-government consultation with the Gabrielino and Juaneño tribes. In addition, we recommend contacting the Native American Heritage Commission to determine if there are sacred sites located in Fairview Park and most likely descendants.”
And….
“We also respectfully request that the City Council reconsider its vote regarding the Fairview Park Entryway Concept Plans.
Now in the City’s defense, they are now hiring their own “expert” — because if there is one thing that the City of Costa Mesa knows how to do better than any other municipality, it’s how to pay for an opinion. When it comes to outside consultants and raising legal fees, no other city even comes close to Costa Mesa.
Soon they are going to realize that they are trying to “steward” one of the few sites in Orange County listed on the National Register. Many more people are about to get much more interested. Sadly, some of them might just be “Indiana Jones” pot hunters.
Currently many of the locals are very energized.
Another Costa Mesa non-partisan group called, Friends of Fairview Nature Park, have been right on top of this issue since the first dumping of the illegal trail on top of the Vernal Pool, now better known as “Steve’s Path.”
So far they have joined up with the Banning Ranch Conservancy trying to help save the nearby last natural swath of untouched Coastal Bluff next door in Newport Beach.
Banning Ranch located just south of Fairview Park
Sign their petition: Petitioning City of Costa Mesa
City of Costa Mesa: Keep Fairview park natural and Pacific Avenue safe.
This issue is far from over. Fairview Park is definitely in jeopardy. The Council majority is moving forward with everything in their power to take over and develop this gem of Orange County History.
The next meeting regarding the Park’s future will be held next Wednesday, October 2, 2013. The Fairview Park Citizens Advisory Committee meets again in the Victoria Room at the Neighborhood Community Center, 1845 Park Avenue from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. This is the group that has been put together to study the future needs and uses of Fairview Park, and open up the Master Plan.
There will be three presentations – one from Gordon Bowley, President of Costa Mesa United; one from Hank Castignetti of the Orange County Model Engineers and a presentation on Youth Sports Data coordinated by member Brett Eckles.
Gordon Bowley from Costa Mesa United was pictured above giving $96,000 of Costa Mesa City money to NMUSD, and Fairview Park Advisory Committee member Brett Eckles is the AYSO regional Supervisor and President of the American Subcontractors Association of California, a developer lobbyist group.
They will be giving a presentation why we supposedly need to add Sports Fields into Fairview Nature Park.
They have never had a presentation on the archaeological significance of the area — the huge hill by the sea, known and cherished for millennia.
I think that we need to call in the Indians.
So … “Fairview” — whether the park, street, or mental hospital — has nothing to do with “a view of the Fair.”
I’ll have to file that away, after 40 years of being wrong! thanks Gericault for a great first effort … and as appropriate as this one was, future Costa Mesa dispatches will not always need to be so encyclopedic!
Yes — this was a really good job! Interesting issue — I look forward to hearing more about it as well as to the Riggy Gang’s comeuppance.
We still have too many unanswered questions that nobody, apparently, is answering or investigating. Especially these questions:
Fact — a public park was defaced with a gravel trail. We KNOW who did this. Why has no one been arrested?
The gravel-laying, scraping, and weed killing was APPROVED by Ernesto Munoz, Costa Mesa’s Director of Public Services. Why does this dim bulb still have a job? And why hasn’t he been arrested as well?
I’m told that that much gravel and whatever else required had to have been trucked in. No one saw a huge truck dumping gravel? And no one saw anybody spreading it? How hard could it be for the cops to find out?
This whole sorry affair doesn’t stink; it fucking reeks. And has the smell of Costa Mesa’s asshole councilmen all over it.
*Sometimes you wonder if The CM Triad……is following the Scott Walker school of Governance. Sadly, it is having lapover effect in Newport Beach from time to time. We always look for legacy…..from our electeds. Remember Orville Amburgey? What a cool dude he was….even if he had to play the developer game from time to time. Our beloved Mayor Sandy is something we can’t say enough good about.
We do have one very strong objection to this article however: Comparing the CM Triad to General Custer and the 7th Cavalry. We don’t see that as the CM Triad Legacy. In any event, do not pick on the Cavalry….they come to your rescue when you really need them. Ron was with the 2nd Cavalry and is now a Life Member of the 2nd Cavalry Assn. So, you can stop with picking on the horse soldiers! They are still doing yoeman duty in Afghanistan and deserve ONLY YOUR RESPECT for their service to this country.
Scotty Walker came out fundraising back in late 2011, and was hosted at the Newport offices of Righeimer and Baugh … till they switched venues at the last minute when they saw the crowds of Occupiers and Union members protesting outside. Yes, we chased Scott Walker away, anyone remember that?
http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2011/12/all-hail-scott-walker-coming-to-scott-baughs-office-thursday-afternoon-let-us-go-pay-him-homage/
Once more for old times sake, to the tune of “Brave Sir Robin” from Monty Python’s Holy Grail:
Scott Walker ran away! Walker ran away, away!
When MoveOn reared its ugly head
He boldly turned his tail and fled.
When Occupy began to shout
The crosseyed Governor chickened out.
Scott Walker ran away…
Thank you for your service Ron.
We Were Soldiers, 7th Cav – one of my favorite movies.
You left us hanging on the topic of more trouble for the little prince steve. Could we finally see him get busted for less than stellar ethics? One thing noted is his MO of getting people to do work for him and then turning that into a donation. Nice example of just doing it for the kids? Please keep the heat on and dig deeper. I’ll know you’ll find even more ‘fun stuff’. Thanks for the best written piece I’ve seen on this topic to date!
I’ve heard there are pix of a certain CMCC member pushing a wheel barrow? Caution everyone. steve is already emotionally stressed out from the severe psychological damage caused by the tragic possible DUI of his mentor. He has attorneys on hand and not afraid to use them 😉
3,000 years of human habitat……How human were they if they didn’t play soccer at night? Fascinating story Gericault! And what are Fairy Shrimp?
You mean, BESIDES a bar in Laguna?
That bar was named the ‘Little Shrimp.’
That’s a great article and ties together a lot of council member Mensinger’s reckless, incompetent and unethical behavior. The $650,000 for lighting up a park that’s closed at night didn’t make sense at all until it was revealed that Mensinger had requested an illegal trail to be built that leads directly to that same parking lot. He kept on evading the truth about the illegal trail (known as Steve’s path) until e-mails implicated him. Now no one trusts him since he never came forward with the truth when he should have. He’s a horrible role model for Costa Mesa youth. His win at all costs and be the next corrupt CEO to outsource jobs to China mentality is everything that’s wrong with neo-con ideology.
He should be recused from voting on anything related to Fairview Park since it directly benefits his football program. My tax dollars shouldn’t have to finance his hobby. Plus, his behavior is tarnishing the city’s reputation. What agency will give the city money if they know he will destroy a mitigation project?
Not too long ago he told everyone at a public event about how in the 20 years he has lived in Costa Mesa, he had no idea where Fairview Park was located until after he was appointed to the council. Rigeheimer isn’t much better. Both of them will destroy the last wild undeveloped land in our city through incompetence or inability to recognize something so priceless.
By the way, Mensinger and Righeimer voted against extending the model train lease! They want to ruin the train ride and build a sports complex in known burrowing owl habitat instead! Why can’t they take their communist HOA asses over to Irvine where they belong?
These guys have got to go! They are the most corrupt and dishonest politicians Costa Mesa has had in recent memory.
Vern took out my links…too encyclopedic. Fairy shrimp are found in the vernal pools and are a federally protected endangered species. Like sea monkeys. They are one of the main identifying species for the vernal pools. Vernal pools are a rare natural occurring ecosystem that only happen under just the right types of conditions. Over 90% of the vernal pools in CA have been destroyed.
I didn’t take any links out….not on purpose anyway. This whole thing got translated from some other blog software, edited by Diamond and then by me. Let me go back and look at your original, none of us meant to take out any links!
No worries…I did get too encyclopedic…you were right. There was a lot of info I was trying to get across.
Not at all, you misunderstand. This one was as encyclopedic as it needed to be, and there’s no such thing as too many relevant links.
I just want you to know that we’ll be counting on you from now on for timely dispatches from Goat Hill, which may need to be quick and dirty.
Oh, and I LIKE it when you talk to me about Vernal Pools … do it some more!
didn’t these guys take any biology classes? they don’t understand the rules of nature.
this issue kind of flies in the face of “sustainability” they always bring up when trying to force one of their development projects. i wonder if they know they are Not at the top of the food chain?
Gericault appears to have no problem slamming the LGBT community in Laguna Beach.
Times have changed and I don’t think your using your bias against the LGBT by naming a bar with a slur is kind at all, and while not a hate crime, is sad and diminishes your impact.
Why would the American Indian appreciate your use of the 7th Cavalry as a means to promote your message? Are you suggesting that a human slaughter, with a loss of life is an actual probability, and you alone are going to save someone?
Of course the park should be left alone, but why not change your political outlook, and help in another way?
Any developed property West of American Avenue is more than likely sitting atop the same things you are claiming to care about in Fairview Park. Why not worry about what is under all of those bluff top properties already built on Pacific Avenue?
Your overall message is a political assault, at the expense of others.
Good job representing for the P.C. police (absurdly PC police), diminishing ongoing travesties by widening the geographic scope in an utterly useless way, and crying “Leave Mensinger ALOOOOOOONE!” in the manner of Chris Crocker:
I slammed the LBGT community?…..I’ll have to check with my LGBT friends about that one. I thought I was just referencing an old bar in Laguna that doesn’t even exist anymore.
My reference to the 7th Calvary was in regards to Custer’s lack of foresight and refusal to listen to his scouts. This is an appropriate metaphor for exactly how Righeimer/ Mensinger are approaching the development of Fairview Park.
I can’t speak for the local Indigenous tribes that have their archeological history and ancestors buried in the Park. I do know that they needed to be contacted. When the City Council tries to bring in Bulldozers to “massacre” all the protected archeological treasures buried a foot or two beneath the surface, I hope the local tribes will stop them.
As for the other developed properties throughout Costa Mesa , that’s actually kind of sad how much we have lost through the lack of concerned preservation efforts. Which makes the reasons why this area in Fairview Park so important and rare even more evident. This property is listed in the National Registry. That is a big deal. It was listed there in the 50’s before the City purchased the land. It’s not just another piece nearby that is privately owned. This is PUBLIC, it’s PROTECTED, and it’s abut to be PLOWED UP. Some of the Politicians behind this, need to be verbally “assaulted”. It’s their ignorance and hubris that is causing the damage.
I doubt that anyone knowledgeable about Custer actually failed to understand the “7th Cavalry” reference. Nor do I think that anyone legitimately perceived a slam on the LGBT Community.
Good articles often elicit desperate and absurd attacks. Wear it as a badge of honor.
I try to never let an opportunity to hammer home the point slip by…. waiting for the next ball to come over the net.
Gericault,
While I can appreciate your links to the community down South through your art, maybe you were a drinker in the seventies in Laguna. I was and still find no point in your current piece.
I suppose your circle of LGBT friends in Laguna are from a different time frame, although that has nothing to do with today, and how I perceive what you wrote at all. Whether it was The Little Shrimp or The Fairy Shrimp, your comments are homophobic in my opinion, and out of date.
Very good point of view on Custer, and your analogy, it fits in the general lack of compassion you have for those who do not share your sarcasm..
Whatever the case, I can’t speak for Walt or Ty, but your methods of personal attacks seem pointed in only one direction, your way is the only right way, and you have the ear of a minority crowd of worshipers, who follow your slant..
I can appreciate that posting here is a good relief for you, and as I expected, more arrogant comments will follow.
The link in the Daily Pilot to your blog and West’s link is the only way your stuff would get read anyway.
I was not addressing your OJ blog Vern, and appreciate your allowing my post, regardless of your comments.
Tennis anyone?
Tennis? TENNIS??? How insensitive can you be?
Vern..I don’t know you but you have a great sense of humor.
Whatever, the Monty Python piece was great…I thought Fernwood 2 Night had a piece almost as sarcastic.
I was just hitting the ball back over the net for Gericault since he was waiting at the net.
So Gericault, how does The Little Shrimp in Laguna have anything to do with your calling it The “Fairy Shrimp” in your piece?
A little Freudian slip if I say so, or maybe your just genuinely homophobic?
OOOOPS!
waiting for the next ball to come over the net.
There’s nothing to comment on…..next, try getting the ball over the net.
You will not divide and conquer through flattery! This is faux outrage over an innocent little joke in the middle of a mammoth piece. (Or just a real difference in taste that will not be settled.) Your bringing up other areas of Costa Mesa is also diversion. What are we going to do about Mensinger and gang’s continuing despoilation of Costa Mesa’s natural treasures?
Sure Greg, whatever you say. I would not comment any further either if I was you. Your piece speaks for itself. The damage is already out there, it just needs a little more attention brought to it. So be it.
There is no attempt to divide anything Vern, no flattery intended at all, you do have a good sense of humor. It’s your blog.
You are correct that my bringing up other areas of Costa Mesa is a diversion. The point being that Greg had an opportunity to address the same issue for those homes on the bluff disturbing ancient land while they were being built, as he does with this turn around, and remained silent then.
Why now and not before? That is a very simple question.
Mensinger is going to have to answer somewhere down the road, if he has done anything at the park that is illegal. Speculating that he has, is just not enough proof.
Keep digging though, you may hit the mark. You just don’t know how to prove it.
It’s been asked and answered…this is public land that is protected under protections attached to its designation as a site with National Historical Interest. The private properties adjacent didn’t have any such distinctions and were none of my business.
this park is a gem and should be kept as natural as possible. We have had residents making their own “stairways” down a bluff and many kids building bike ramps all over this place for many years. we have train tracks laid down all over it and the same group planted palm trees there. one past councilmember wanted an old house moved from a city lot into the park. there are constant threats to this jewel. perhaps now it will be protected.
will, if this article upsets you, wait until you see his real spin and attack politics as the election draws near. this was actually a good article for awhile then ….. (five dots)
Interesting article and discussion. On a side note, willie de ville must be pleased that one of his playgrounds, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, is not being questioned.
Why didn’t Greg protect the potential archaeological resources along Pacific Avenue?
Maybe that’s because the houses on Pacific Avenue are older than Greg, except for the ones built in the 1990’s that replaced older houses. We now have an awareness of the scarcity and value of natural and archaeological resources that older generations didn’t have.
In 2010, the candidate we supported ,instead of Jim “Sell the Fairgrounds” Righeimer, was Chris McEvoy. Purportedly,when Chris was just nine or ten years old he got the City to stop a project on the bluffs by presenting photographic evidence of endangered burrowing owls nesting there. The City staff kept insisting there were no owls until Chris showed up and proved them wrong. This is pre-dates video recording of council meetings and I would have to really research the files to find the back up evidence,…..but consider it Westside Costa Mesa folk lore.
The Indians are coming….. for real. Best respect them when they show up.
We will….
And, as you note on facebook — they came today!
http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-me-1006-fairview-park-native-american-20131005,0,7421553.story
I’ll bet that they’re going to wish that they had.
He said that? He said “They came today?”
and then the City of “Transparency” tries to hide the fact that the ORA extends directly into the area that they are planning to develop…http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-me-1009-fairview-park-records-request-20131007,0,6668507.story
City denies Fairview public records request
City officials have countered that they know of no archaeological sites in that section of the park, though other portions of Fairview Park are labeled on the master plan as archaeologically significant. Last week, the city hired an archaeology firm, Scientific Resource Surveys Inc., to investigate.
The Mayor of Huntington Beach who has had experience with the firm hired by The Costa Mesa staff had this to say..”It’s just a shame that your staff hired this firm given its track record.”
and more..” The archeologist your city just hired for the project has a record of un-permitted work at Bolsa Chica that has earned the property owners there fines of $ 400,000.00 and $ 600,000.00 from the Coastal Commission. SRS knows the law in the coastal zone, and blatantly violated it anyhow. She also claimed for years that the Bolsa Chica Mesa was so disturbed and degraded there would be nothing of importance left. However after the building permits were in place, surprise, surprise she finds 167 burials and over 100,000 artifacts and goes on to publish articles about how important the site WAS.”
Costa Mesa is trying to HIDE the archeological data so that they can build upon it.
This is an amazing article by the way! Thanks for the investigative work! Costa Mesa is lawless!
I’m really sick and tired of all the misleading information that the City, specifically Ernesto Munoz spews as official City knowledge regarding Fairview Park. The RC and BMX berms near the grass area were not “created” by bike enthusiasts aka BMX riders. That big berm area was “created” in the early 90’s when the City/County carved out the hill to build that asphalt road to gain safer access to Talbert Nature Preserve, not by reckless BMXer’s shovels.
I used to have the most pristine, nearly 180 degree, ocean view of HB from my upstairs (Tanager Drive) bedroom window, until that huge mound of dirt was dumped there! Unfortunately, now the local RC and BMX crowd are being blamed for that.
Ernesto, just how the hell could anyone “shovel” that much dirt? Plus, I vividly remember watching the bulldozers push it up the valley between “Puke Hill” and the current “asphalt path”. WTF?
The other large dirt mounds, by the bluffs, are the same thing. BMXer’s didn’t “create” those mounds either. Those were also just haphazardly dumped there when dozers scraped that bluff area level for a safer “walking path”.
However, ever since that 90’s “development”, parkgoers have gradually tweeked those piles. But to shift the entire blame to the RC/BMX crowd for “creating them”, to cover for Steve’s wanton encroachment of the federally protected vernal pools only reiterates that Ernesto clearly doesn’t have enough “institutional knowledge” of the City. And CM residents cannot and will not trust a word that he spews on behalf of this current Council, and his inept department. I bet there are sacred remains under those piles too, and at least now we know they’re protected from future “pot diggers”.
Don’t forget about this gem. Evidence Mensinger knew the vernal ponds were protected:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-wAGtQ1A_Q