Anaheim Tourism Improvement District To Put $4 Million Into ARTIC Over 2 Years

3 Comments

1. Ryan Cantor on June 22, 2015 at 10:48 am

   ” . . . approved a $4 million investment in the operations of ARTIC for the next two fiscal years to ensure that there is no cost impact to city services while revenue streams planned for this important center come to fruition.”

   Will the ridership justifying the importance of the center also come to fruition?

   Reply
2. Randy Roddy on June 23, 2015 at 4:50 am

   I always love it when politicians use the word “investment” to pay for their idiotic disasters.

   “ARTIC, the city’s world-class regional transportation center, is vital to the mobility of our city, county and region.”

   Ahem. Really? It’s empty!!!

   Reply
3. Cynthia Ward on June 23, 2015 at 11:52 pm

   Hey, several of us asked them to do that, (never imagined they would but we asked) because the ATID doesn’t come out of our pockets or affect public services, it comes from the Resort projects to be funded by Resort funds, let them fund their own failures, and the hoteliers will demand that the Public Works Director be held accountable, God knows Council is not going to do it on our say so. I am thrilled they are using ATID, because they were talking about tapping the General Fund, and we should not be cutting the story time lady at the library to cover Natalie Meeks award for “best fictionalized account of government funded infrastructure projects.”

   Investment;
   Translation; watch your wallet they are about to invest our money on our behalf without our input.

   Just like we “invested” in the Convention Center expansion because the last expansion we “invested” in is obsolete despite not being done paying it off. But it’s OK to not have previous “investments” paid off because we are “investing” in refinancing those debts too, kicking them down the road just a little bit more…with previous layers of funding buried in there like grandma’s sourdough starter. The funny thing is, when I “invest” in something (Beanie Babies, POGs, Hot Wheels, Cabbage Patch kids. I should never have played with the Star Wars toys) I expect something called a “return” on the “investment.” This, of course, does not always manifest as expected, despite those ENRON stocks looking like such a sure bet. But I at least have some minimal HOPE for getting something out of my investment beyond a Christmas Card from my broker (depicting him and his family vacationing somewhere I will never go, but that looks like a 4 star hotel in the background so at least they are building the local economy for some European hamlet, go team America. Hey, buy the full churro while you are there. )

   Now in the case of pretty much anything built by this Council administration and reaching well into the previous administration that set up the fund sources to pay for the stuff we are “investing” in today, while I have no doubt that these “investments” offer HUGE payoffs for someone enjoying the benefit of those who could see into the future and saved for that eventuality, it is not me, or you, or the average taxpayer who will enjoy the return on our “investment.” However, should someone suddenly and with no advance planning whatsoever that may or may not be considered collusion or fraud, should that unknown someone come to the realization that Anaheim could use a THIRD AMUSEMENT PARK, excuse me, themed entertainment center, well we have all kinds of “investments” lined up for the taking! We have a bridge to nowhere called the Gene Autry overpass, resulting from the “investment” of federal transportation dollars. Boy all you have to do is erase the obstacles between the Convention Center and Disney’s strawberry field property and that empty overpass built to carry, well about 20 million people a year I think…the obstacle being that strip of apartments along Haster and Orangewood…you know the ones owned by investment partnerships which are owned by dummy corps which are owned by REITs owned by another investment partnership, like little financial Russian nesting dolls, all painted suspiciously like the Its a Small World children….but that overpass taxpayers “invested” in has nothing to do with returning the investment to those who didn’t invest it, right?

   How about our recent commitment to “invest” up to 70% of bed taxes back into 4 star hotels in Anaheim, when the ONLY 4 star hotels operating in Anaheim and thus indicating a niche market that might be successfully repeated for “investors” BELONG TO DISNEY. Well it sure is a good thing that we didn’t let SunCal “invest” in the Frank property, or it wouldn’t be available today to be owned by another set of those Russian nesting dolls in case a 4 star hotel might be built there for our “investing” pleasure. Gee, you don’t think..oh it couldn’t be, the Council majority would not order staff to create a program to benefit Disney’s anticipated construction of their next 4 star hotel in connection with the anticipated 3rd gate…why what kind of diabolical corporate giant would plan so far in advance as to have City policy created to benefit them before they even announce to the world that they need it? Why, if this sort of thing keeps up, Disney might not be asked to pony up for ANY of their own public infrastructure needs to accommodate their expansion, since their Imagineers appear able to miraculously just string together a series of public “investments” already put into place without any idea that Disney could use those very same public benefits for themselves. Wow. How awesome is that?

   Gee, its not like we needed sidewalks or anything so what can we “invest” in next? How about a streetcar at $100 million per mile, but only AFTER we have “invested” in massive public improvements to Katella Avenue that can be torn up for the streetcar. Oh, all right, now I am just being silly. Even Anaheim wouldn’t do THAT….

   Excuse me, who’s on first?

   Reply