New Posting Rules.

Until recently we have allowed this to be an unregulated forum. That all changed when one of the more deranged and neurotic NIMBYs out there decided to repeatedly publish the phone number of a private citizen. Now don't say mean old Vernon decided to censor the forum. It was some mentally imbalanced person out there who ruined it for everybody else.

However, The El Toro Airport blogsite strongly encourages the South County NIMBYs to post early and often, so long as they are not cyberstalking. We will approve all comments that can follow that one simple rule.

Besides, the NIMBYs zealous hatred and class envy of Newport Beach makes for some great laughs at the local cocktail parties.

Next, since so few can make a good case for the Great Pork or against the airport, it only reinforces how wrong they are on the issue. They can sure hurl the insults, but rarely can discuss Just the Facts.

Bring it on ladies and gentlemen, we await your comments.

Vernon

Rigonomics Regulates the Agranistas

Jim Righeimer penned an absolutely stunning rebuttal to Emporer Agran's shameless pitch for porkulus to fund his Great Pork. Mr. Righeimer, a great party activist for the GOP just narrowly missed being elected to the Costa Mesa City Council. He would be much more effective on the council dais than Hurricane Katrina Foley who is an out of touch liberal and a member of Mr. Agran's infamous Great Pork board.

Many of our NIMBY posters on here incessantly claim El Toro International Airport is "dead" and that we should stop talking about it. They have become so desperate to silence pro El Toro supporters that they have even resorted to publishing the phone numbers of private citizens on here. Hence, the new moderation rules.

I got news for them. El Toro is NOT dead when the Great Pork tries to come after my wallet through the confiscation of my tax dollars to finance a frivolous project that was absolutely promised to be TAX FREE. (Perhaps there should have been a teabag rally at the site of the Great Pork.)

El Toro is also NOT dead, when South County NIMBYs incessantly write op-eds lamenting the lack of flight capacity within Orange County. When it was they who were the very ones that caused the lack of flight capacity in the first place by their lame attempt at trying to turn El Toro International Airport into some kind of fantasy park. It is the ultimate case of chutzpah for any of them to whine about lack of commercial flights out of Orange County.


________________________________________________________________________


RIGONOMICS:
Don’t be misled on park
By JIM RIGHEIMER
Updated: Friday, April 3, 2009 9:30 PM PDT

There are times when you read or hear something that just doesn’t sound right. Something about some fact or figure just seems out of whack. They just don’t seem to add up, but there it is for all to read in a credible major newspaper.

I had one of those moments last week when I read an article about the major job creation that was happening at the Great Park in Irvine. The story went on to say that 6,317 new jobs would be created in the Great Park this year.

That’s right, 6,317 jobs this year — 2009.

Total benefit to the economy? How about $23.9 billion over the next 12 years? Now, I do not know about you, but I have not seen a lot of construction around the Great Park, at least none that included 6,317 jobs.

It only took a little research to see that a major newspaper was hoodwinked by the Master of Great Park spin. None other than Irvine Councilman Larry Agran, chairman of the Great Park Corporation.

This is the same Larry Agran who just a couple months ago at a public presentation of the completion of the comprehensive park plan said it was worth the three years and $50 million spent to design the Great Park.

In fact, it actually cost more than $100 million to get to this plan, but Larry is never one to let facts get in the way of a good spin.

He is correct that the actual firms that came up with the design were paid $50 million.

It just so happens the Great Park Corporation also burned through another $50 million during that same planning process. But of course this money was not spent on design.

It was spent on public relations, public education, outreach and such. You have to understand that it takes a lot of public relations to design a park and public relations firms cost a lot of money.

So let’s look at the many ways that Agran and Co. misled the public about this massive $1.6-billion park development.

First off, they call everything the Great Park. Not just the 1,347 acres that someday may be a park, but also the 2,350 acres on which Lennar is developing 9,000-plus homes, condos and apartments, and millions of square feet of commercial, office and retail development — all of which are also called the Great Park.

Ken Smith’s company that won the $50-million master design contract for the Great Park is now called none other than Great Park Design Studio.

By calling everything the Great Park you are able to intertwine different aspects of the project without letting the public know which part you are talking about.

So when grand manipulator Agran talks about the billions of dollars in projects and the thousands of jobs the Great Park will provide, he can confuse everyone about what he is talking about.

Now, do not get me wrong, some people would say that Larry Agran is lying, or at a minimum he has a hard time speaking the truth. The fact is he never lies. He doesn’t have to. To get to his thousands of jobs and billions of dollars he uses confusing and misleading terms like “Great Park-related infrastructure” or “Great Park-associated development.”

He wants you to believe the Great Park is the economic stimulus when it is really the 9,000 homes that will be built (not any time soon). This is like the rooster taking credit for the sun coming up.

Let’s look at the community column Agran wrote for the Daily Pilot last week. In this piece he argues that federal stimulus dollars (a.k.a your tax dollars) should be spent on the Great Park. To back up his claim he trots out a study — a study that was paid for by none other than the Great Park Corporation.

Good manipulators always have a good study to confirm what they want to say. When you dig into the 115-page study it becomes very clear that the actual park is a very small park of the economic activity in the area. In fact, the study says that only 313 of the 6,317 jobs Agran takes credit for are from the actual park, and those are the design and public relations jobs I discussed earlier.

I guess I could sum it up with the disclaimer on the last page of the study. “No warranty or representation is made… that any of the projected values or results contained in this study will actually be achieved.” When you hear something that just doesn’t sound right, go with your gut — especially when the numbers just don’t add up.


JIM RIGHEIMER is a Costa Mesa planning commissioner, a local developer and a GOP activist.

Agran-dizing Again

Emperor Agran of the People's Republic of Irvine had the gall to publish a letter in the Daily Pilot a pitch for federal porkulus funds for his Great Pork. Remember all the LIES.....er promises that this so called Great Pork would be TAX FREE????

Agran and his merry band of socialist thugs spent over a decade spreading fear, lies, hate, class envy, and filth against the already EXISTING El Toro International Airport.

If airports are so evil, why has the honorable Mr. Agran not uttered a peep about John Wayne which abuts Irvine? Why has the honorable Mr. Agran PERMITTED thousands upon thousands of housing units to be constructed oh so very near John Wayne. Aren't airports supposed to be "evil"?

That is because THE COUNTY not Irvine has control of the airport property. Therefore, the honorable Mr. Agran had to spend all these years and millions of taxpayers dollars demonizing El Toro International Airport so that he and his cronies could seize control of a $10 billion taxpayer asset.

Apparently his Great Pork ain't working out so well and is incredibly dependent upon a massive infusion of PUBLIC MONEY for the most minimal of park jewelry such as an ugly orange balloon on all of 30 acres. That is WHAT $100 million gets you!

Most of that money has been spent so far has been dedicated to talking about, writing about, advertising, exaggerating, and hyping up a virtually NON-EXISTANT park. Spew enough propoganda about it often enough, and gullible people start to believe it will become a park. The fact is 4 years after Irvine seized El Toro, there is very little progress to date. Lennar is not exactly on the road to recovery. This park is a mirage and a sham.

On the other hand, I see runways, hangars, a train station, and great freeway access. El Toro has been and continues to be the perfect site for an international airport for the flying public. (John Wayne should serve private and charter aircraft.)

Rather than grovel for money in a paper that serves the area where the Great Pork was thoroughly rejected. Why doesn't Mr. Agran simply pick up the phone and call LAWA and lease them the land for an airport. LAWA would bank roll his billion dollar park. All he has to do is ask.

In the meantime, the honorable Mr. Agran should refrain from using reprehensible socialist tactics to redistribute the wealth for what has been proven to be an utterly frivolous excuse for a "park". Wealth is created by entrepreneurs and economic engines such as El Toro, not by litigation and confiscation.




COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:
Great Park would be great opportunity for revenue
By Larry Agran
Updated: Wednesday, March 25, 2009 8:49 PM PDT

President Obama’s visit to Southern California was an excellent opportunity for city leaders to personally plead their case for funding of community and recreational facilities, which desperately need a portion of the stimulus dollars.

Unfortunately, city parks are not getting the attention they deserve. Although monies for national park improvements have been earmarked for the National Park Service, there is no money specifically designated for our metropolitan parks.

While tall skyscrapers, massive retail centers and new residential communities may garner more public attention and publicity, the fact is, parks matter.

Obama launched his administration with the boldest economic recovery program seen in America since Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.

But where is the funding for our metropolitan parks? In Orange County, we are beginning development of the Orange County Great Park. The Great Park is the centerpiece of the redevelopment of the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. To fully understand the potential economic impacts the Great Park holds for Orange County and Southern California, Economic Research Associates (ERA) conducted an analysis of the public and private development in and around the park in the next 12 years.

The study reports that over the next 12 months alone, planning, construction and other private and public activity associated with building the Great Park could result in hundreds of jobs this summer, and thousands of jobs in the near-term, increasing to 31,532 jobs in 2020. Much of the preliminary work is “shovel ready.”

These projects include a “solar farm” providing renewable energy to the park and surrounding communities, a natural water treatment system with regional benefits to water quality, and a multimodal transit system using alternative fuel vehicles within the park and connecting to Amtrak and Metrolink service at the nearby Irvine Transportation Center.

The total dollar value of development and related activity projected is $23.9 billion with the average annual contribution to the regional GRP at $2.2 billion. Sales, property and income tax generated within the park and adjacent residential and commercial areas could amount to $123.4 million in 2020.

I am confident that many of the Great Park’s “green projects” will qualify for federal stimulus dollars in the areas of transit, transportation, renewable energy production and water quality improvement. National, state and local government officials nation- wide should take a close look at metropolitan parks as a logical place to invest federal stimulus dollars.
________________________________________


LARRY AGRAN is the mayor pro tem of Irvine and serves as chair of the Orange County Great Park Corporation.

No more talking about El Toro International Airport

I learned that having a blog where people talk about El Toro International Airport sure makes a lot of people upset and causes heartburn, even though it has been around for several decades.

Judging by all the acrimonious posts on this blog shows we have a very divided county. I was sure hoping that we could all have a healthy happy discussion about El Toro International Airport without all these personal attacks going on. I am disappointed with the lack of mature discourse found amongst our posters who either like airports or dislike airports.

Then it dawned on me that reminding some people that the Great Park is failing only makes them very upset. They do not like to be made aware of that fact, or that the dreaded runways are still intact. Some people really do have their heart set on the park and do not want to hear any bad news about it. They only want their news source to be from Irvine itself.

Some people really do believe Irvine is going to deliver on its promise for tax free world class park. So why should I disappoint them anymore. I say, let them believe in the Great Park. I will no longer ruin their happiness. I will let them envision lots of beautiful smiling happy people with lots of pretty balloons and endless entertainment. Talking about an airport only makes them upset and is a distraction from their eager anticipation of the Great Park. Like John Lennon said "Imagine".