“We want more transparency, pig! And single-member council districts, too! And a gate tax! And a Living Wage! And…”
There was an explosion in an Anaheim apartment fire on Saturday, cause by drug dealers using fire to extract hashish from marijuana, according to the OC Register.
The night before, a gang member was shot in the face by a member of a rival gang, near Sycamore and Pauline streets. The OC Register reports:
Prior to the shooting, witnesses reported hearing someone shout out a gang name, Dunn said, followed by someone shouting out a rival gang’s name.
Investigators say the man injured in the shooting is a documented member of the gang that claims the neighborhood where the confrontation took place.
Obviously, these incidents make it clear Anaheim’s top public safety priorities should be establishment a citizen police oversight commission, single-member council districts and a diversion of TOT revenue to neighborhood programs. Greater “transparency” might have avoided these crimes.
Call it a hunch, but I would say the great, silent majority of Anaheim residents are far more concerned about violent crime in their city, than they are about adding a fifth-layer of police oversight (and that doesn’t count the ultimate oversight function of the city council). The caterwauling of certain blog critics notwithstanding, I don’t believe there is any appreciable number of Anaheimers waiting to stand “shoulder to shoulder” to “clean out” the Anaheim Police Department. If there were, we would see calls to place the proposed civilian police oversight commission on the ballot — after all, its proponents want to put everything else on the ballot. As it is, no oversight commission supporters seem anxious for the people to weigh in on that one.
DIdn’t anyone tell those gang members that Mayor Tait has proclaimed 2013 the Year of Kindness! The APD should send Cynthia Ward into that neighborhood. She would talk the gangs to death.
I used to live in one of those horrid apartments mired in hopeless squalor, but being an impoverished young mother who didn’t sell drugs I was not recruited for the local gang. Pity, I had a great tat designed…funny that Mayor Tait went down to Anna Drive to talk to those folks and you ripped on him for “pandering” to the crowd, there is just no pleasing some people.
So what is your answer, to leave things as they are? Send the cops in every now and then to shoot people and teach them a lesson about joining a gang? News flash, if that was working we wouldn’t still have gang thugs shooting each other and blowing up buildings in pursuit of their drug trade. So what does work about the system as it is that you fight so hard to maintain it? I’m listening…
I agree with you that getting a handle on violence in Anaheim is likely the biggest priority of most of Anaheim residents. So what part of curbing violence is addressed by regurgitating former Mayor Pringle’s Home Improvement Holiday? Other than stroking the great man’s ego of course. Some homeowner putting in a pool is not going to impact gang activity, indeed the only thing this program does is reduce the fees collected for services provided, which is essentially subsidizing the installation of that pool, which in turn reduces the already scarce resources the City may use to fight violence. How many cops could we have put on the street instead of subsidizing room additions during that program? We lost cops during Pringle’s reign, by the time he was done paying for 8 years of grand visionary projects Anaheim was running a deficit and spending our reserves down to empty.
Meanwhile Mayor Tait balances the budget, restores reserves, and hires back a handful of cops, hoping to do more in the future, and you guys label him the enemy of law enforcement. Not sure where you learned your fuzzy math (or fuzzy logic?) but you might reconsider who is really trying to do something to fix what is broken.
Come to think of it, how many cops could we hire with $158 million in TOT if we didn’t give it to Bill O’Connell to subsidize his bad investment?
BTW before Kris Murray takes aim at the Mayor’s assistant to forego her pension, she might ask those hundreds of cops to join ALL the rest of the City’s employees and cover even a fraction of the employee portion of their pensions. We want more cops on the streets? That would go a long way toward paying for them.
Cynthia: are you addressing me, or Anaheim Truth?
We need a citizen gangbanger, graffiti vandal and culpable parent oversight committee!
Cytnhia Ward loves to distort fact to justify baseless claims. All city employees are by state law required to start paying 50 percent of their pensions over the next couple of years. I will bet that is in the police contract about to come back to council and likewise, I will bet that Tom Tait is the only member to vote against the contract as he has voted against labor across the board since the day he took office. He wants a 50 percent increase to pad his assistant’s pension but votes against every contract for every other employee because they don’t give enough. That is bold faced hypocrisy. But Cynthia Ward can’t see through the idol worship to agree that her beloved mayor should set the same example with his own political employee. Now you attack the Home Improvement holiday because it doesn’t reduce gang activity?! WTH?! So now every policy by council should solely focus on gangs and Anna Drive or the council is a bunch of racists? Seriously lady – you are way out of line. Your hatred for certain members of the council is approaching a serious psychosis – and your public rants only further denigrate the city you claim to love. As an employee in Anaheim – it is just disgusting to see your ridiculous hate filled posts all over town. Unlike Tom Tait, all four of the council members have been there for the community and for the city staff. It seems his only real constituency is an odd group of vile bloggers.
Seriously – can we stop hearing about Mayor Tait’s vist to Anna Drive – should we give the guy a medal for sitting down with residents to a private meeting he was invited to attend that conveniently had a swarm of tv crews waiting for him to arrive? He is the Mayor – he should meet with residents when this type of incident happens. And I’m sure other members of the council have been there as well – along with the city manager – they just don’t bring the television crews in tow to document their “kindness.”
I never really liked the idea of having a civilian police force, so to speak…this shooting happened about 1/4 mile from my house!! Our street gets tagged daily! We need a surface that sprays back when sprayed upon (Naked Gun).
Why would we need two more hotels? The $158 million should be used to resurface our streets that are terribly rotting away…improve the drainage system at Sycamore and East St. (remembering winter 2011-5 days of rain and the water was over the curbs and trash and the barrels were floating down the street.) I am sure there are other streets in the city that have had the same problem in the last 50 years.
The GardenWalk needs some assistance or it will become a ghost town, literally!
I wonder what our Central Neighborhood Meeting will bring later this month. Hopefully no more outburst that does not belong on the floor. Anaheim Sporn or Ruth Ruiz may remember the Jan 2013 meeting (If I am wrong, I am sorry.)
Thank you
Erika71 – you raise several very good points about the need for more funding for city services and graffiti removal. It is unfortunate that so many keep saying that the GardenWalk hotels will take money from the general fund that could be used for city services. I’m not a political person but felt the need to point out that the hotels do not cost the city one penny. Even the city’s data says they bring new funding to Anaheim even during the program and significantly more funding once they are built. As a city employee, I thought you should know the truth. If the hotels are never built the city gets less funding for services, not more.
Thank you city employee. Does that clear up any confusion (that I and maybe others) have about the $158 million? Where did that go?
Erika71: the $158 million isn’t really an accurate figure. But let’s keep it for the sake of explanation. That figure is supposed to represent the 80% of TOT revenue generated by the GardenWalk Hotel that is turned back to the hotel over 15 years.
So, if no GardenWalk is built, there is no $158 million. Put another way, that $158 million in revenue does not exist apart from a completed, open for business, 4-star GardenWalk Hotel.
I hope that answers your question.
Erika – the $158 million is a cap in the total tax reduction not a guarantee. The City manager put this information on the city’s home page at http://www.anaheim.net – under news section – Anaheim Hotel Economic Assistance. The program would reduce the total bed taxes for 15 years but they could not be reduced more than $158M. The city will still generate millions in new taxes the entire time and significantly more once they open. I encourage you to reach out to the City Manager’s office for confirmation or additional questions. There is a great deal of misinformation out there right now. Have a good night.
“Why can’t we all just get along?” remember that quote from Rodney King. Well we still can’t, because of the twisted facts, political posturing and an unwillingness to see the truth.
The problems Anaheim faces are social based, many caused by lack of accountability. You see this in every aspect of today’s life styles. It is from the top down, someone in government makes a mistake and today most of the time the either blame someone else or don’t admit to the mistake. We are a finger pointing people it is easier to blame than to take the blame.
I have never met the person who has not erred the key is owning up to it. Take responsibility for your actions, be a productive part of your community, and help where you can.
I have lived here for fifty years and most of the changes I have seen are not for the better. When you have school kids demanding certain treatment from their teachers and the districts back them up we are sending the wrong message to our kids. We have rules (laws) when they are broke punish the culprits.
Having been in the middle of the so-called riot protecting my store I noticed that most of the vandals where kids. Teenagers with nothing better to do than hammer there skateboard into a business window, where were the parents? We my sons, friends and even customers helped protect the store.
“An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.”
John F. Kennedy
It is time we start correcting ours.