Here is another roundup of some of the most thought-provoking reader comments of the week. Click on each topic’s headline to see the article in question. Comments are selected by our editors and subject to editing for grammar, spelling, clarity and length.
Healing Fullerton
Yo, Rusty, what about recommending that we rid the county of murderous, abusive and complicit lying cops, all of whom contributed to the brutal beating of Kelly Thomas? Mental illness didn’t kill Kelly. The cops who battered him to death did.
The fact of the matter is that the city of Fullerton can’t heal until all those accountable for the “culture of corruption” at Fullerton PD are held accountable and punished. Until that happens there will always be an open sore on Fullerton’s psyche, Rusty. And until we get local government officials like you to openly and honestly admit to such, the healing process will forever be thwarted.
— Beelzebub / June 14
The Coming Pension Battle
Voice of OC, quit kissing [Supervisor John] Moorlach’s behind. You repeat his nonsense but fail to point out how he has a fully taxpayer-employee funded pension along with a 401k paid for by the taxpayers. The whole story was about paying for pension costs, and you didn’t mention Moorlach’s hypocricy. My 6-year-old daughter could do a better investigative piece on county pension payments than you guys. Where did you get your investigative jounalist credentials, out of a Cracker Jack box?
— Truevoice / June 13
The Next Step in Saving the Santora Arts Building
Its probably time to formalize the United Artists organization and coordinate it with other preservation, neighborhood and business groups to acquaint each with the other.
Groups could prepare a mission statement that others would review and possibly support; a sort of mutual aid relationship.
We need to be ready to join together when threatened and to grow. Its a bit of an effort to develop these relationships but once in place we’ll better understand our own goals and the needs of others in our city.
We have the leaders already among us, the desire and the spark.
— Jeff Dickman / June 13
Mapping November’s Campaign Strategy
[Orange County Democratic Party Chairman] Frank Barbaro and others need to be reminded that the Democratic candidate in the 74th Assembly race was not Leslie Daigle. Bob Rush has done a great job campaigning with no help from Frank Barbaro. Once again the Orange County Democratic Party is loathe to cross the I-5 freeway and will permanently stay in the Santa Ana-Anahiem sphere.
Time to branch out, good ol’ boys. The 74th is a new frontier. Come on down. The Democrats are blue dogs, the issues are progressive and the competition is fierce.
But the pockets are deep and the water is fine. C’mon, dive in.
— Gericault / June 12
Anaheim PD’s $2.2-Million Airplane
With all due respect to Chief [John] Welter, why the (blank) can’t he fly commercial? It seems just fine for the rest of us when conducting our business, but he needs to fly directly into a prison? How often does this happen?
Come on, people, this looks like a vanity purchase.
— Cynthia Ward / June 12
The May 29 Anaheim council agenda report for the purchase of the Cessna Grand Caravan states the aircraft is large enough to carry representatives from multiple departments. This could indicate that some members of the City Council would use the aircraft for travel on city business.
According to California Health & Safety Code Section 11489, narcotics asset forfeiture funds cannot be used for such purposes.
— Anaheim HOME / June 12
Great Park’s Future
[Home development at the Great Park:] 4,894 home x 2.3 automobiles per unit =11,256 more cars on our freeways. Add to these 1,500 new units at the old Wild Rivers waterpark and the 6,000 units just finished or in progress near the I-5 freeway and Jeffrey Road. You do the math.
If we had made this an airport (which it was already designed to be), we would at least be making money, not fighting for scraps.
How much more land of our “not so” Great Park will be given to special interest because of lack of funding? Was this the plan all along, to promise the world to get the voters to side with the park, knowing full well it would never happen and tens of thousands of home would be built instead?
— OCLonghair / June 8
Desert Water Debate
Here we have a public resource — mountain rain and snowmelt water collecting underneath the Mojave Desert — in proximity to six congressionally designated wilderness preserves, the most important being the Mojave National Preserve. Cadiz Inc. wants to privatize this public resource and sell it back to us, using a taxpayer-funded delivery system.
No one really knows for sure the rate of replenishment of the resource, despite Cadiz’s and Mr. Probolsky’s assertions. The biggest variability is our climate, which could be wet or very, very dry.
Sounds like a bad bet to me.
— Jack Eidt / June 7
I think that it’s high time that a nonprofit media group like Voice of OC broker a televised Orange County water forum.
This would include water and sanitation district representatives and activists like Ms. [Debbie] Cook and myself. Maybe six persons maximum to keep it focused.
This could be progressed easily and quickly by Voice of OC via either major cable or perhaps PBS.
It’s obvious that the general public deserves, actually yearns for, more education about the head-on collisions, the burning issues and future challenges that are being discussed herein. I think the public knows that it doesn’t know, doesn’t have enough information. Let’s turn outrage into outreach.
No offense, but these blog-comment sections are monologues, not dialogues. We’re all shouting electronically instead of physically interacting for the betterment of our communities, general stakeholders and precious environs.
These sections can’t possibility drive a consensus; they get mired and bogged down and distract from driving solutions. More controversy evolves, not less. Nothing is solved but venting.
Voice of OC is a leader. I challenge this editorial staff to show, to provide critical and timely leadership by doing this now.
— Roger Butow / June 8
Daly and His Dollars
I got a [Assembly candidate Tom] Daly potholder. I hope he sends out more potholders for the next election. That way I will have one for each hand.
This is great. I haven’t received a political potholder since the days of [U.S. Representative] Bob Dornan.
— Junior / June 8