Great Park
Just over one year ago, Dick Sim expressed in an article in the Business Journal his concern regarding the “Great Park.”
In light of the recent Orange County Grand Jury report suggesting that disaster lurks right ahead if the plan design is left in the hands of the Irvine City Council, Sim’s comments sound eerily prophetic.
It’s hard to fathom why the citizens of Orange County are not up in arms about the Larry Agran gang’s kidnapping of the park.
Where is Orange County oversight? When will the Agran gang be reined in? What public monies, besides the $30 million already expended, are being spent without any supervision from the people?
Where is the Great Park going, or in the words of the grand jury, where is the Irvine Great Park going?
Orange County needs to move fast before any hope of controlling this monster is gone.
Recently there has been a proposal to use a hot air balloon to offer citizens an aerial view of the park. With all the hot air blowing out of Irvine, at least floating the balloon will be easy.
Orange County needs to wake up and assert control of this unique public asset.
Jon Wampler
Newport Beach
Housing
The California housing crisis is built on Two Great Myths. Both are stopping hundreds of thousands of Californians from ever owning their own homes in the least affordable housing market in America.
The first Great Myth is that new housing does not pay for itself. New homes increase the demand for police, fire, parks, animal shelters, boat docks, public art, historical societies, schools, roads and everything else, the mantra goes.
Thus it is only “fair” that new residents should pay for these extra services with extra taxes. That is why government-related fees and expenses often exceed $100,000 per new home in California.
But these armchair economists forget new homeowners already pay higher taxes than existing residents.
Because of Proposition 13, their property taxes, for one, are often several times higher than their neighbors. New residents also pay more in sales, gas and other taxes because they buy more items for their new homes. Not because they use more services.
All over California, the latest numbers tell the story. Cities and counties are experiencing record growth in tax revenues from what public officials call their “sizzling” real estate markets. State government tax revenues are also $5 billion higher than projections, again largely due to growth in property taxes.
But lots of public officials don’t really care about that because of the second Great Myth of Housing: New homes cause growth. Not the other way around. New homes are for people who move here from out of state.
And don’t forget its Great Corollary: Stop the new homes,and we can stop the growth.
But the facts ruin that story.
For the last decade, most of California’s population increases have come from the maternity ward. More than 65% of new residents in California are from the increase in births over deaths. The remaining 35% are from foreign immigration, legal and otherwise.
In Southern California, 150,000 more residents moved out of state than moved here from other parts of the country,largely replaced with foreign immigration, legal and otherwise.
California residents are leaving in record numbers. Mostly because they can’t afford the housing.
Yet the myth that new housing causes growth persists. Media repeat the myth. No-growth activists worship it like a holy relic to stop new housing wherever they can. That is why a housing shortage is pushing prices to such record levels.
For promoting these myths, councilmen get promoted, planners get prizes, reporters get plaudits. And first time homebuyers get a one way ticket to Oklahoma, wondering why they can’t buy a home where they were born and raised, but are no longer welcome.
All because of Two Great Myths that should be called by their real names: The Two Great Lies.
Mick Pattinson
(Pattinson is president of Carlsbad-based homebuilder Barratt American and former president of the California Building Industry Association.)
