Orange County: Projects and Developments

[dragonsky]

All by OC Register

Newport Beach - http://www.christmasboatparade.com/
Huntington Beach - http://www.cruiseoflights.org/
Dana Point - http://www.danapointharbor.com/BoatParadeFlyer.pdf

[JDRCRASH]

America’s Fastest Train Moves Ahead

Jasmin Aline Persch, MSNBC.com

DECEMBER 05, 2008

Thanks to a $45 million infusion from a transportation bill signed by President Bush in early June, there could someday be a magnetic levitating train, or “maglev,” soaring from Disneyland to Las Vegas at a maximum speed of 310 mph — 180 mph on average.

After the research phase is complete in about three years, the private partnership behind the effort, American Magline Group, comes to its biggest crossroads: obtaining $12 billion in funding for construction.

Neil Cummings, who heads AMG, said that he believes a California-Nevada maglev could run as soon as 2015.

“If we had the money tomorrow, we’d build it in five years,” he said.

What’s slowing down America’s fastest train, however, is the hefty cost of crafting the infrastructure — including the guideway — from scratch, because the fastest train can’t run on ordinary steel tracks. The $45 million from the federal government will only cover pre-construction obligations, including environmental testing in the Mojave Desert, where the line would be laid.

But as spiking gas prices and traffic pinch both nerves and wallets, and flight costs and delays hamper air travel, the maglev joins the list of alternatives to the nation’s transportation tribulations.

“With our gasoline prices and everything else going on, people and government are ready to make a commitment,” Cummings said. Until now, “we haven’t committed to high-speed trains in this country — at all.”

America’s fastest train could compete with air travel. Flying from Anaheim, Calif., to Vegas on a passenger jet cruising at about 550 mph can cost upward of $150, while a ticket for the same route on a maglev would cost $55, according to the American Magline Group.

Plus, the maglev doesn’t pollute. It’s energy efficient. And it's low-maintenance because the train levitates — thanks to magnets — avoiding wear-and-tear on the underlying “guideway.” That’s what propels the vehicle through a magnetic field established by the electrical grid. Upping the current accelerates the train. Lowering the current slows the train. And reversing the current stops or pushes the train backwards.

Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley technology forecaster, said the lure of Las Vegas might just be what it takes to turn a profit with the maglev. The world’s first maglev, a 19-mile line in Shanghai, China, doesn’t garner enough traffic to offset the initial investment. But there are plans to extend the route, with hopes of attracting enough riders to reach critical mass.

While the California-Nevada maglev has scored the most federal funding to date, two other lines, from Pittsburgh International Airport to downtown and from Baltimore to D.C., are also competing for federal dollars for construction.

The two East Coast lines make sense to many, and Cummings of the American Magline Group said the Disneyland-to-Vegas line is more than what critics have dismissed it as: a “gamblers’ express.”

While the Western line aims to relieve traffic on the congested Interstate 15 highway which leads to “Sin City,” the first two segments, which would connect Las Vegas to Primm, Nev., and Orange County to Ontario, Calif., could shoot commuters to work and back home, he said.

“It’s an exciting alternative if you want to live in the suburbs, outside the main city,” Cummings said.

Not everyone is convinced a Maglev is a good idea. The Federal Railway Administration argues transportation dollars should aid America’s current public transportation system. The railway administration, which asked for $100 million in funding from the federal government, only received $30 million under the recent transportation bill.

“It’s great to have a train that goes 200 mph from Disneyland to Las Vegas, but that money could improve things in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, New York ... Seattle,” said FRA spokesman Steve Kulm.

In America, Amtrak ridership, although hitting “record” highs in recent years, has remained the same — 25 million a year — since the 1970s, said Kulm of the Federal Railway Administration. The question remains: Would enough Americans ride a levitating train to make it worthwhile?

“Nobody has designed a commercially viable maglev,” said Saffo. “It’s a potential future transportation form. The only question is, ‘How long does it stay in the future?’ ”

[leftopolis]

Dear Mr. Kulm:

Following is a recent quote of your's regarding Amtrack ridership(in
reference to the proposed Mavlev line from Orange County to Las Vegas):
____________
"It's great to have a train that goes 200 mph from Disneyland to Las
Vegas, but that money could improve things in Los Angeles, Chicago,
Miami, New York ... Seattle," said FRA spokesman Steve Kulm.

In America, Amtrak ridership, although hitting "record" highs in recent
years, has remained the same - 25 million a year - since the 1970s, said
Kulm of the Federal Railway Administration.
_____________

I merely would like to point out to you that it is amazing that
ridership has remained the same for 40 years on an antiquated system.
People are riding Amtrack in such great numbers when the system avereges
30 MPH at best? That's right, I took an Amtrack train 2 years ago fron
Corvallis, OR to San Jose, CA--a distance of exactly 600 miles by
car--and the 600 mile trip took 24 hours! I averaged better time on a
train from Mexico City to Mexicali(on the California border), back in
the 1980's!

Point being, it's falacious reasoning to compare potential HSR ridership
numbers with those of the incredibly slow and thus completely
impractical and unattractive Amtrack system we have now. That's exactly
why Californians just voted to build a High Speed Rail System--proving
what great interest there is for HSR--which has been available for
decades in much of the rest of the world.

Perhaps your quote was taken out of context--I've personally been
misquoted on several occasions by the press.

Regards,
Leftopolis

Following is the response I got:

Mr. Leftopolis--

Thank you for your email. In this case, the media got it right--I did
say that and was not taken out of context. However, I did not compare
maglev and Amtrak as you suggest.

In February 2004, the Bush Administration issued a Statement of
Administration (see attached) for a bill then moving through Congress
that had a provision regarding maglev. Here is the what the Statement
said and it is still operative today:

"MAGLEV. The Administration opposes the continued authorization of
funding for Magnetic Levitation Transportation Technology Deployment
(MAGLEV). The Administration's SAFETEA proposal did not seek funding for
MAGLEV and believes funds can be better spent investing in the Nation's
public transportation systems."

Further, there is a privately financed high-speed rail proposal, the
DesertXpress, to take passengers by rail from southern California to Las
Vegas. It is steel wheels on steel rail rather than maglev technology.
My quote was aimed at not using billions of federal taxpayer funds for a
single maglev project because, if that money is to be spent anyway, it
could benefit public transportation systems in several parts of the
country.

As for Amtrak, the Bush Administration supports intercity passenger
rail, but believes that Amtrak as a virtual monopoly provider of the
service has done poorly. The Administration believes that States should
have greater say in the development and operation of intercity passenger
rail and to support that, it created the first ever federal-state
matching capital grant program and recently announced $30 million in
grants for 15 projects. The Administration had asked for $100 million
for this grant program, but Congress only provided $30 million.
http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/press-releases/207

Many thanks.

Steve Kulm
Director, Public Affairs
Federal Railroad Administration
steven.kulm@dot.gov

Lots of "the Bush Administration blah blah blah"--perhaps my next letter will have to be to to the Obama Administration over @ change.gov/

[JDRCRASH]

What the f****k?!

I'm truly looking forward to the day when these clueless, corrupt, lame duck jackasses have no more influence in this already screwed Country.....

[leftopolis]

Originally Posted by JDRCRASH

What the f****k?!

I'm truly looking forward to the day when these clueless, corrupt, lame duck jackasses have no more influence in this already screwed Country.....

Yeah, exactly my sentiments!

I don't necessarily regret not telling him this--because it is like talking to a brick wall--but refering to this proposal as a train from Disneyland to Las Vegas--marginalizes the whole idea along with the comparison with slo-mo 19th century train service. Sure, those are the two endpoints--but it overlooks the reality that the two endpoints have a total population of 6 million people, and many million more along the way. So we're really talking a system that would double as a commuter system for at least 10 million potential customers. Heck, if someone in Las Vegas could get to work in Irvine in a little over an hour(or vice-versa)...you just turned the place into one giant metro. Probably a bit much for "visionary" Steve to grasp, eh?

[JDRCRASH]

Not only that, but since the construction of the line itself would create much needed jobs, you would think that the administration would have brought this idea to the President-Elect and his transition team already.

[ocman]

http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...l?iid=tsmodule

Wow. OC made Time Mag.

The world has a water crisis — that much is undeniable. But it's also our own doing. Although just a tiny fraction of the world's 326 quintillion gal. of water is usable by humans, we would have more than enough to go around if we took care of it. We don't. From industrial accidents like the benzene spill in northeastern China three years ago, which contaminated the drinking water of millions of people, to the lack of toilets (or proper sanitation) throughout much of the developing world, we're making good water unusable. As a result, our supplies of viable water for agriculture, industry and drinking are dwindling, even as population demands continue to grow. We don't just have a water crisis, according to Maude Barlow, who last week was named the first U.N. senior adviser on water, "we have a clean-water crisis."

That makes what's happening in Orange County, Calif., all the more important. One of the richest residential areas in the country, the Los Angeles suburb is known for swimming pools, golf courses and lush lawns — all of which need water. But like much of Southern California, Orange County is dry and getting drier, and the aquifer from which the county pumps much of its water is slowly draining. Importing water from wetter Northern California is an option, but an expensive one (at least $530 per acre-foot, or about 326,000 gal., of water). Meanwhile, population growth means that officials have to do something with the increasing amount of wastewater that residents and businesses are producing. (See the world's most polluted places.)

Orange County water officials decided to solve both problems at the same time. The result is the Groundwater Replenishment System (GRS), a glistening, $480 million facility that sits next to an older sewage-treatment plant. The GRS takes in about 70 million gal. of wastewater a day, puts it through a multistep cleaning process, then discharges the treated water into Orange County's aquifers. About half forms a barrier against seawater, which has been infiltrating groundwater sources as the county has dried up, while the other half slowly filters into the aquifers that supply drinking water for the county's 2.3 million residents. The GRS is believed to be the world's largest facility dedicated to what's known as indirect potable reuse (if you're in favor of it) or toilet-to-tap (if you're not). But there's a better term: water recycling, and it might be the world's answer to the clean-water crisis. (See pictures of the world's water crisis.)

Whether or not we know it, most of us drink water that has had contact with sewage at some point. Municipal water authorities discharge treated wastewater — and in times of heavy rains, untreated water — into rivers like the Colorado or the Mississippi, where the sheer volume of water dilutes any remaining contaminants or pathogens. Orange County, however, is trying something different. Because some of its treated wastewater is injected directly into its reservoirs, residents are effectively drinking water that is mixed with highly treated sewage. It's not surprising then that it took years for the GRS to go forward in the face of public unease. "There was the yuck factor," admits Michael Markus, general manger of the Orange County water district.

A visit to the plant shows those fears to be unfounded. Orange County's wastewater undergoes more stringent treatment than almost any water source on the planet. First, the dark beer-colored sewage is pulled through a series of tubes stuffed with thousands of fibers pierced with holes 1/300th the size of a human hair. Anything larger than 0.2 millionth of a meter — which includes suspended solids and bacteria — is left behind. The cleansed water is then forced at high pressure through hundreds of tubes that are filled with tightly wound plastic membranes. Reverse osmosis, as the process is called, stops nonwater molecules — including viruses and pharmaceuticals. (The last part is particularly important; an Associated Press investigation earlier this year found trace amounts of prescription drugs in the drinking water of more than 40 million Americans.) Lastly, the filtered water is treated with the disinfectant hydrogen peroxide, and then dosed with ultraviolet light, which neutralizes anything that might remain. What's left is as pure as distilled water — and I can say from personal experience that it tastes perfectly fine. "This is the future of water treatment," says Markus.

Water-strapped Singapore already uses a similar process to augment its reservoirs, and water managers from around the globe have been visiting Orange County to study GRS. Especially in the drier parts of the world — such as the American Southwest, northern China amd the Middle East — water recycling could be a way to allow development without turning to even more expensive methods of water reclamation, like desalinization. But what we really need to do is treat water as the limited resource it is, first by limiting pollution, then by reusing it as much as possible. The U.N.'s Barlow — whose mandate is to increase access to clean water for the 1.7 billion people worldwide who now lack it — is doubtful about the cost of recycling programs like Orange County's, especially for poorer countries. She'd like to see more focus on keeping water sources clean in the first place. But she knows recycling is a necessity. "Water is far, far too precious to waste," she says. "It's a universal human right." We just have to treat it as one.

[dragonsky]

O.C. transit officials prep their wish list for Obama
3:36 PM, December 19, 2008

Ever since President-elect Barack Obama said recently that he wants to spend tons of federal dough on infrastructure to create millions of jobs, transportation officials across the country have been drawing up their wish lists. The city of Los Angeles alone came up with a list of more than 200 projects.

Today, the folks from the Orange County Transportation Authority debuted their list. Although not everything they want is exactly of thrills-ville variety (farebox improvements! new bus radios! boo-yah!), there are some notable requests.

Among them: widening three stretches of the 57 Freeway, a carpool connector ramp between State Route 22 and the 405, and an additional lane for the eastbound 91 between the 241 and 71 freeways. Also on the list are a new Metrolink station for Placentia and a parking garage for the Tustin depot.

In total, O.C. officials say they've got more than $2 billion in projects that could break ground in the next year and create 56,000 jobs. Here's a link to a website that OCTA created to highlight the projects. As for whether anyone out there in fed-land is listening, the O.C. will have to wait and see what kind of infrastructure funding program Obama and Congress cook up.

--Steve Hymon

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lano...nsit-offi.html

[dragonsky]

O.C. traffic planners left wondering where to turn
Now that the federal government has rejected a proposed toll road extension through south Orange County, it's back to square one.
By Susannah Rosenblatt
December 22, 2008

Once the dust settled from the U.S. Commerce Department's refusal last week to back a proposed toll road extension through south Orange County, one thing became clear: Traffic planners have a problem.

Environmentalists who had railed against the proposed Foothill South route because of its potential effect on wetlands and San Onofre State Beach are clamoring for Interstate 5 to be widened instead. But no funding exists for that, and it would require bulldozing homes and businesses.

The Transportation Corridor Agencies, the group that wants to build the 16-mile turnpike to connect the existing 241 toll road to Interstate 5 in north San Diego County, said a group of federal and state agencies studied dozens of alternate routes, but the best one was shot down.

"It would really be nice if someone would actually come up with something that worked for everyone," said Tom E. Margro, chief executive of the Transportation Corridor Agencies, adding that he's willing to meet with anti-road advocates.

The group is keeping its options wide open, Margro said, including not discarding its preferred route despite federal officials having upheld its veto by the Coastal Commission.

The agency could sue the Commerce Department, reconvene federal and state agencies to choose a new route or do nothing. Deciding whether to pursue litigation, however, is the top priority, Margro said.

"Nothing's off the table at this point," he said.

Opponents of the turnpike, eager to see what the toll road board decides at its meeting next month, are urging the agency to abandon its preferred route and join them in finding a new solution.

"At some point, the elected officials need to read the writing on the wall and shift gears into doing something constructive," said Dan Silver, executive director of the Endangered Habitats League, part of the Save San Onofre Coalition that fought the road.

The route in question was selected by a group of federal and state agencies, including the Federal Highway Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and Caltrans. The elimination process stretched over three decades, began with roughly 30 possible routes and cost about $180 million for engineering and research. Some choices were rejected because they dipped too far into the Camp Pendleton Marine base; others were tossed because they would have destroyed hundreds of homes or wildlife habitat.

"Once built, [the toll road] would probably be the most-studied piece of infrastructure in the United States," said Tustin Councilman Jerry Amante, chairman of the board of the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency.

In a report earlier this year, however, the Coastal Commission cited half a dozen rejected routes -- some of which would have used San Clemente surface streets -- as viable possibilities, an opinion echoed by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez.

The rejected routes might not be preferred by the Transportation Corridor Agencies, but they "avoid the adverse impact on coastal resources," said Peter Douglas, state Coastal Commission executive director. The commission, he said, does not endorse a particular route.

"They've been working on this for, gosh, over 10 years and we've been telling them for over 10 years that this isn't going to work," he said. "They finally, I hope, got it."

For its part, the Save San Onofre Coalition advocates widening Interstate 5. Silver said the inclusion of special high occupancy toll lanes -- which single drivers could use for a fee -- could help generate money to pay for extra lanes, in addition to some funds from Measure M, which uses sales tax money for Orange County transportation improvements. Silver also points out that widening parts of I-5 is part of a recent Orange County Transportation Authority planning study for the region.

The widening proposition is not without its own detractors: Toll road planners, with the support of Caltrans, blasted the idea, saying a larger freeway would mow down 1,200 homes and businesses in its path, and that there was no state funding for the project.

Toll road opponents then commissioned a report that said the freeway could be improved with less harm to San Clemente, a conclusion disputed by federal highway officials. If the freeway improvements don't happen, Silver said, the coalition isn't against other, environmentally sensitive paths. Fixing I-5, however, is the focus.

Some south Orange County and north San Diego County residents are disappointed that the toll road plan apparently has been shelved.

Beverly Schula travels from her Encinitas home to visit her elderly aunt and uncle in Costa Mesa several times a month and often uses the 73 toll road to get there.

"I love to drive it," said Schula, 72. "It makes driving very pleasurable, instead of sitting in traffic."

She was hoping that the Foothill South would help her avoid I-5 gridlock as well as speed up her children's commutes.

"It seems like there's enough room for everything," she said.

"Since we have so many people and more coming in all the time, we need to look to the future."

[dragonsky]

Governors agree to back fast train
Trip between Vegas, Anaheim, Calif., could take only 86 minutes
Plans for maglev train like the one being tested in Japan in 2003 to give travelers between Las Vegas and Southern California another alternative to Interstate 15 may get a boost from a the economic stimulus plan.
By David McGrath Schwartz
The Las Vegas Sun
Mon, Dec 22, 2008 (2 a.m.)

For over 20 years, boosters have dreamed of and lobbied for a train that could travel from Southern California to Las Vegas at 300 mph.

The proposed magnetic levitation train line linking Las Vegas and Anaheim, Calif. — attacked by critics as a multi-billion dollar pipe dream — has gained new life.

Near the bottom of a news release detailing Gov. Jim Gibbons’ meeting last month with President-elect Barack Obama was the announcement that Gibbons and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had agreed to move ahead with the high-speed train project.

“Arnold and I agreed to jointly work together on the project,” said Gibbons, who is planning to travel to Sacramento to talk with Schwarzenegger about it.

The train, Gibbons argues, should be a candidate for federal economic stimulus money.

The rail line, which would generally follow the route of Interstate 15 and cost between $12 billion and $13 billion, would create construction jobs on both sides of the state line and, once complete, speed the arrival of tourists to Las Vegas. (A trip between Las Vegas and Anaheim could take as little as 86 minutes.)

In June, Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader, helped pass a bill that freed up $45 million for an environmental study of the route.

Obama and his advisers have been working with Congress on an economic stimulus package that would improve infrastructure and put people to work. The Washington Post on Friday put the size of the stimulus at $850 billion.

Yet to the critics, the bill is in danger of becoming one big pile of pork.

“We’re not exactly big fans of congressional earmarks, we’re also not a fan of just sending a big box of cash to states and cities for their own version of parochial pork barrel project,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a national nonpartisan budget watchdog group.

A push for the maglev project — a proposal which, he notes, “certainly has its detractors” — would add to the impression that special interests, states, cities and transportation advocates are behaving like greedy children with dreams of getting a pony for Christmas. (Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said last week that a new city hall, mob museum and performing arts center should be included in the stimulus package.)

But Ellis said any economic stimulus should yield an immediate benefit. The maglev project could take a decade or more to build. The federally required environmental impact study of the project would take from 18 months to two years.

“Something should get done,” Ellis said. “It should not be something that slowly bleeds, and the impact isn’t felt until after the recession is over.”

The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada will hold a news conference today with Reid to announce 60 projects that are “ready to go” within 180 days.

Jacob Snow, the RTC’s general manager, said these projects total about $1 billion, and include highway projects, interchanges, street paving and mass transit projects.

Snow wouldn’t comment specifically on the maglev project, but said: “We certainly think some sort of facility like maglev, a high-speed rail system between Southern California and Southern Nevada, is needed. No doubt about that.”

The first leg is planned for Las Vegas to Primm.

Reid spokesman Jon Summers said it’s too early to know what projects would be included in a federal economic stimulus bill. But a high-speed train between Las Vegas and Southern California “not only makes good economic sense for the state, it makes sense from an environmental and energy perspective as well,” he said.

Reid “supports any project that moves people quickly and safely between Nevada and California,” Summers said, citing frequent traffic jams on I-15.

Amtrak ended service between Las Vegas and Los Angeles in 1995.

Reid requested the Government Accountability Office prepare a feasibility study on a rail project between Las Vegas and Southern California, which Summers said should be out in the next three months.

The maglev, or magnetic-levitation, train would require a new set of “rails” — the train, suspended above the track by magnets, rides on a cushion of air. There are few commercial maglev trains operating worldwide, including in Japan and Shanghai, China.

A competing proposal for a faster train between Southern Nevada and Southern California would use conventional rails. That privately funded line would, however, run between Victorville, Calif., and Las Vegas.

Reid has criticized that project because he doesn’t think people will drive from Los Angeles to Victorville and then board a train to Las Vegas.

Bruce Aguilera, chairman of the Nevada-California Super Speed Train Commission, which oversees the maglev project, welcomed news of the governor’s support for the maglev project being included in an economic stimulus package.

Aguilera, who is also vice president and general counsel at MGM Mirage’s Bellagio, acknowledged that the maglev group has kept a low profile in recent years.

“We didn’t have things to say,” Aguilera said.

The project’s backers will break their silence next month, announcing how they plan to raise $11.25 million in matching funds needed to access the $45 million in federal funding.

With that money, Aguilera said, they plan to open an office in Las Vegas, start paying a staff member who has been working on a volunteer basis and re-launch their Web site.

[dragonsky]

Friday, January 16, 2009
OC road planners wants piece of Obama stimulus pie
The county hopes to get about $2 billion to fund 410 projects.
By SERENA MARIA DANIELS
The Orange County Register

As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to step into his role as America's 44th president Tuesday, officials across Orange County are preparing a list of transportation projects they hope will be funded by the economic relief Obama has promised Americans.

Obama's $825 billion economic stimulus plan includes $90 billion to modernize the nation's transportation infrastructure.

Orange County is looking to secure about $2 billion of that to fund 410 projects ranging from expanding public transportation and repaving city streets to widening freeways and local intersections.

Find out what projects city and county planners are proposing by searching this database.

"We obviously want to take advantage of the economic recovery program to build projects in Orange County," OCTA CEO Art Leahy said. Projects proposed by cities and the county would cost an estimated $1.2 billion. OCTA projects would total another $1.2 billion, according to a list compiled by the transportation agency.

The majority of the projects would be "shovel-ready" by the time federal funding arrives, and OCTA is working with Caltrans and the California Transportation Commission to tighten the project review cycle and allocate money earlier in the cycle to move up project schedules.

Among the proposals:

‧Widening the 57 from Katella to Lincoln avenues and from Orangethorpe Avenue to Lambert Road;

‧Carpool connectors from the 22 to the I-405 and I-605;

‧New parking structures at county transit depots;

‧Railroad track improvements for commuter and freight lines;

‧And 386 city and county projects to repave or widen roads and intersections, fix sewer lines, landscape medians and upgrade traffic signals.

Orange Mayor and OCTA board member Carolyn Cavecche wants to be sure any federal assistance actually does go toward projects that would create new jobs.

"What my concern has been is that when and if the federal stimulus package comes to the state, will projects be allocated funding?" Cavecche said. "If this is just the federal government giving the state money to balance the budget, it's not really a stimulus."

Federal transportation officials estimate about 27 jobs created for every $1 million spent. At $2.4 billion in projects here, that's more than 66,000 new jobs if all the projects were to be funded.

The OCTA will meet Jan. 26 to further discuss the potential jobs, and board members have asked staff to provide more detail on which projects most likely would be ready to move forward.

[dragonsky]

Thursday, January 22, 2009
City works on skateboarders' dream: nation's best skate park
Lake Forest moves forward on expansion plans for Etnies park.
By ERIKA I. RITCHIE
The Orange County Register

LAKE FOREST – Plans to make Etnies Skatepark the best in the nation are under way.

The park, already dubbed the county's best by OC Parent magazine, would expand by 13,000 square feet of riding terrain under city plans.

City officials say the added design features will make the park – drawing more than 60,000 worldwide riders a year – even more of a nationwide destination. The park is already the largest, free park in California.

The City Council on Tuesday night gave the go-ahead to Solana Beach-based Site Design, Inc. to get a $49,000 design phase started. Final design plans will be based on community-wide participation and include two upcoming public workshops to be held tentatively planned for February.

An interactive Web site through the design firm will be available to the community and to current skate park users to submit ideas. Skaters can also drop off design ideas at the park and send online at etniesskatepark.com. The expansion is projected for completion by the end of the year.

The council's approval is the first step in a two-year planning process to expand the park. The $600,000 project is part of the city's five year strategic plan for parks — part of an $8 million approval package.

A possible new feature could include a cradle – making upside down skating possible. The city also plans to add new architecture and use colored concrete. Fencing already in place will be recycled.

"We want to bring a design to our park that will make it distinctive – something people will recognize instantly," said Nick Gates, skate park coordinator. "I want it to be a community effort. I want the kids to feel we did it together and that 20 years from now I want people to be super stoked to skate it."

City officials encouraged expansion plans because of the park's popularity. There are bike camps, summer concerts and movies, classes and overnight camp-outs.

It is also the only park in the state that offers BMX riding, classes and competitions. Last year people using the park generated half the cost of operating it. All 10 weeks of skate camps last summer were sold out. It is also home to Etnies GvR contest – the skate industry's first team-based skate contest pitting left- versus right-footed riders.

The park's terrain takes inexperienced riders and helps them learn skills to get to the pro level. A recent example is Mission Viejo pro-am skater Tyler Hendley who spent years riding the park. Last year he won MVP at the GvR contest and since has been around the world taking top spots in X-Games.

"In other parks you can't do that," said Gates. "If skating was an Olympic sport, we'd be like an Olympic training center for that."

[futurearchie317]

Why would a high speed rail line (be it maglev or whatever) not go through Union Station? Who the hell wants to drive down to Disneyland in order to get to Vegas?

Moreover, does anyone else find the two end destinations a little odd given the vastly different age appeal...like as if some family from Colorado would go to Disneyland for a few days, pack up their stuff, and then take their 7 and 9 year-olds for a little exposure to gambling, drinking, and strip shows?

[dragonsky]

Wednesday, February 4, 2009
26-acre Brea Sports Park debuts Feb. 14
Long time city dream will be recreational haven for thousands of youngsters.
By LOU PONSI, Staff writer
OC Register

The long talked about 26-acre Brea Sports Park, with its fields, courts, playgrounds and picnic areas, is now a tangible reality.

A grand opening ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. Feb.14 and after that, expect the sprawling facility – a longtime city dream – to be packed with youngsters right away and throughout the year.

"It's great," said Bill Allgeier, director of fields for the Brea Soccer Association and part of the park's planning process. "It's well deserved for the community."

About 2,600 youngsters from groups such as Little League, Pop Warner and BSA will make the sports park their home. Brea Girls Softball and National Junior Basketball will also be regulars.

The park's athletic facilities will be available only to Brea-based, nonprofit leagues for the first year, Brea Community Services Manager Chris Emeterio said. After that, the city will look at several factors before possibly opening the fields up to private leagues.

The park will be staffed with three full-time employees from the maintenance services and community services departments and will cost about $300,000 a year to maintain, Emeterio said. The park employees are not new hires, but relocated from other areas.

Emeterio said the park's maintenance staff received training from the ground crews at the Dodger and Angel stadiums.

"The (quality) level will exceed what has been traditionally recognized by the community," Emeterio said.

The park had been a topic of discussion amongst city officials and the City Council for at least 10 years.

Brea moved forward with plans for the park in 2002, when it bought 39 acres of land from the Unocal Corp – 26 acres were slated for the park and 13 acres for a new elementary school.

During the planning, 65 participants from within the community were divided into four groups and challenged to layout a sports park. Groups were asked to accommodate site constraints, project budget and community priorities when envisioning their concept.

Another level of collaboration was introduced via the formation of the Sports Park Advisory Committee, made up of representatives from local sports groups and residents. LPA, the project architect, developed detailed diagrams using the features from the community's plans.

"The collaboration with other groups was very helpful," Allgeier said.

Of all the groups slated to use the park, BSA will be the largest with 1,200 youngsters.

The Brea Community Center also plans on holding fitness boot camps in the park.

[202_Cyclist]

Anaheim's ARTIC seeking $150 million
City is seeking Measure M funds and looking for architect for first phase.

By ERIC CARPENTER
The Orange County Register
Thursday, February 12, 2009

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/t...-million-site#

ANAHEIM The long-discussed vision for a world-class transportation hub for trains, buses, trolleys and taxis in Anaheim took its first step toward receiving funding this week.

The Anaheim City Council, working with Orange County Transportation Authority officials, approved a plan to apply for $150 million in transportation funds and began a quest to find an architect to design the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center – commonly referred to as ARTIC.



The transportation center would be built on a 16-acre site just south of the Honda Center – a site formerly used as a maintenance yard. Anaheim's commitment to the project is to donate the so-called "boneyard," valued at $5.2 million.

ARTIC is intended to pull traffic off of the streets around the Platinum Triangle, which eventually will include some 18,000 residential units, and would be linked to John Wayne Airport and Ontario Airport. It also could accommodate a proposed high-speed rail system to and from Las Vegas within 90 minutes.

"This is an exciting day for Anaheim and the entire region," said Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle, also an OCTA board member.

Last year during a stop in Orange County, Mary Peters, then the nation's top transportation official, lauded Anaheim's efforts to build ARTIC as a prime example of planning for future transportation needs.

The original concept dates back to the early 1990s.

The city is applying for funding under the renewed Measure M, the county's half-cent sales tax for transportation projects. The $150 million would cover the design and construction work to convert the former maintenance yard.

The first phase also includes building a train depot and moving the Metrolink and Amtrak station near Angel Stadium to the new site.

The project would be built in three phases that could take several years, city officials said. Architectural and engineering firms must submit their qualification statements by 4 p.m. Feb. 27.

[202_Cyclist]

It would be interesting to see how the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center would be connected to John Wayne (SNA). Landrum & Brown released a good study (http://www.city.newport-beach.ca.us/...LocalStudy.pdf) on behalf of OCTA examining potential transit links to SNA.

[dragonsky]

UCI Medical Center to open new hospital
Officials hope the $556-million facility will help heal its bruised image and better reflect its research mission.
By Tony Barboza
The Los Angeles Times
5:20 PM PST, March 7, 2009

On the boulevards surrounding UC Irvine's new hospital, roadside banners herald "A New Era."

Administrators have dubbed the seven-story, copper-hued building in Orange the "Tower of Healing."

Hoping to turn a page on its problem-plagued past, UC Irvine Medical Center this week opens the doors to its new state-of-the-art facility, a milestone for Orange County's flagship public hospital. The moment is being observed with restrained optimism given the institution's 15 years of persistent problems, from fertility doctors who stole patients' eggs and embryos to failures in the liver transplant program that led to more than 30 patient deaths.

After more than a decade of planning and four years of construction, patients this weekend are being wheeled out of a drab, cramped facility that opened in 1962 as a county hospital. The building, transferred to the university in 1976, had long frustrated doctors and nurses because it was designed as a bare-bones county hospital, not a research center. It is set to be demolished by 2011.

"We're really proud to have something that gives us a face that's different from the way we've been viewed," said Dr. David Hoyt, chairman of surgery. "I really think it's going to allow people to see us as a place of clinical excellence and as a place where new things come from."

The airy new facility along the Santa Ana Freeway, which will cost $556 million when all phases are complete, was designed to bring patient care to the forefront. It boasts mostly private patient rooms, sleeping rooms (the old ones had three beds each) with fold-out beds for visiting family and spacious operating rooms with minimally invasive robotic equipment.

The hospital will open with 191 beds and will eventually have room for 236 as it expands over the next several years.

Its hallways are decorated with warm, airy colors and artworks with plants, flowers and trees. Floors are decorated by theme: "Prairie Grass" near the first-floor pharmacy. "Wheat" on the third-floor, which houses pathology. The hospital's burn intensive care unit is on the fifth floor, called "Savannah."

Wall-mounted hand sanitizer dispensers line the hallways and there are sinks in every room to control infection. Nurses and doctors will don new color-coded uniforms.

All to convey a sense of healing and signal hopes of a fresh start after years of negative publicity.

"We wanted to give a sense that there's newness, that things grow and get better," said Maureen Zehntner, the hospital's departing chief executive.

And with good reason.

The medical center has weathered year after year of high-profile scandal going back to 1995, when it was revealed that fertility doctors had stolen patients' eggs and embryos and implanted them into other women.

After further problems, including the 1999 revelation that the Willed Body Program was selling parts of cadavers, performing unauthorized autopsies and misappropriating money, the medical center's troubles resurfaced in 2005 with failures in the university hospital's liver transplant program that led to more than 30 deaths of patients awaiting organs, even as the university rejected viable ones. More shortcomings came to light in the hospital's bone marrow and kidney transplant programs.

But even as the hospital makes its debut with hopes of a clean slate, not everything is rosy.

UCI was placed under state supervision last year over safety concerns about shoddy record-keeping in its anesthesiology department, a problem that administrators say has been fixed with a new electronic monitoring system. Federal regulators reported more deficiencies in December, and will be making an unannounced visit to make sure corrections were made.

There has also been a lack of steady leadership, with two top administrators leaving. Zehntner retired as CEO on Friday, and Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs David Bailey, one of two administrators hired to increase oversight in response to the liver scandal, is retiring in July.

The hospital is opening at a time of a fiscal crisis in which half of the nation's hospitals are running losses. As people lose their jobs in the weak economy, the uninsured are overwhelming facilities like UC Irvine, where much of Orange County's poor go to seek medical help.

While the UCI hospital has been in the black in recent months, its financial position is precarious. It lost money in December, for instance, and officials said that in coming years they will have to closely monitor staffing levels and make tough decisions about whether to go ahead with technology improvements and building projects as they look to reduce operating costs.

"We're all looking at a very difficult time coming ahead," UCI Chancellor Michael Drake said.

At the same time, Drake, who was hired by the university in 2005 just months before the liver scandal broke and remembers breaking ground on the hospital at one of his first public events, said the medical center has made progress over the past several years in management and safety.

"I'm extremely pleased with the dramatically increased level of transparency that we've made at many levels of our operation," Drake said.

At the helm of the new hospital on an interim basis is Terry Belmont, former chief executive of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital.

His hope is that the new building will help UCI escape past stigmas and focus on its hallmarks, like its Cancer Center, the county's only regional burn center and its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

"This is one more step that reaffirms to the community that we are a hospital for the entire county," he said. The facility took more than a decade of planning and just over three years to build, and is being paid for mostly through $235 million in state public works bonds and $202 million in debt issued by the university as hospital revenue bonds, which the hospital will pay off over 40 years. Other funding includes $33 million contributed by donors. The fundraising goal is $50 million.

"Every time we have a new hospital opening beds, we're screaming 'Hooray,' " said James Strebig, president of the Orange County Medical Assn., who also teaches medical students at UCI and UCLA. "I think it's going to be successful and serve the population of Orange County very well."

And while Strebig acknowledges UCI's past problems could be a liability, he hopes they don't prove to be lasting.

"Most institutions have their bad apples, and UCI has had its fair share," he said. "I hope the last ones have been rooted out of the barrel."

[sopas ej]

Not really an OC "development" story, but I found it interesting nonetheless. And, it doesn't surprise me; having lived near Anaheim growing up (worked at Disneyland briefly, would go to Disneyland often as a youth), I've seen the demographic changes myself. Having driven through there recently (to the Little Arabia area on Brookhurst for some good cheap lahmajoon, yum!), you would think western Anaheim was ALL Latino.

From the Los Angeles Times:

In Disneyland's shadow, a rising new demographic


Crowds gather to watch a popular Lucha Libre wrestling match at Anaheim Marketplace. Anaheim's Latino population has more than tripled since 1980 and now stands at 186,000.

Latinos are now the majority in Anaheim, long known as the quintessential Orange County suburb.
By Tony Barboza
May 9, 2009
A brick wall separated Julio Perez's childhood home from Disneyland, where his father worked in the laundry room.

On that side was the Anaheim that America knew, the quintessential Orange County suburb where expanses of orange groves gave way to rows of 1950s tract homes and a signature theme park.
By Tony Barboza
May 9, 2009
A brick wall separated Julio Perez's childhood home from Disneyland, where his father worked in the laundry room.

On that side was the Anaheim that America knew, the quintessential Orange County suburb where expanses of orange groves gave way to rows of 1950s tract homes and a signature theme park.

On his side was the neighborhood where Perez, 30, spent his 1980s childhood: a dense, vibrant, heavily Latino island where parks filled with soccer players and families grilled carne asada. Today, his side of the wall has become the new face of Anaheim.

Anaheim's Latino population has more than tripled since 1980 and now stands at 186,000, making Orange County's second-largest city the latest to become majority Latino -- at 54.5% -- according to new census estimates.

But unlike Southern California's impoverished gateways for Latino immigration -- such as Los Angeles' Pico-Union neighborhood or Santa Ana, one of the nation's most heavily Latino large cities, whose proportion of foreign-born residents has been ranked second only to Miami's -- Anaheim is pointed toward a future as a middle-class Latino community like Whittier and Downey, demographers say.

Some, like Perez, point to the emergence of a new social order, one in which a full spectrum of Latinos can find a place, from the recent immigrant to the newly minted middle-class family.

"So maybe there's been an exodus of middle-class people from other backgrounds," said Perez, a political director for a union. "But now there's larger diversity for Latinos . . . there's more access socially."

The population shift puts Anaheim, a city of 342,000, ahead of Los Angeles and Riverside in percentage of Latino residents.

Anaheim today is a sprawling community that stretches from the upscale neighborhoods of Anaheim Hills on the east side to the cramped apartments and aging 1950s-era houses on the west. It's a place where the manicured resort district and bustling sports arenas are for tourists and the bustling flea markets and Sunday afternoon lucha libre wrestling matches are increasingly for the locals.

Jesus Cortez, 28, a Cal State Fullerton student and landscaper who has lived in west Anaheim since he was 9, recalled the neighborhood's transition as white families moved out and Latinos settled in, buying up even the nicest houses.

"It tended to be half and half, then it became the majority," he said. "Now you see more carnicerias, more taquerias."

Councilwoman Lorri Galloway attributes her reelection last fall to campaigning among Latinos in central and western Anaheim, a community she said typically has been ignored while mostly white politicians courted loyal voters in the upper-class neighborhoods in the city's east side. That won't be the case much longer, she suggests.

Anaheim's transition from a mostly white suburb to a majority Latino city parallels the dramatic changes Southern California cities have experienced as immigration surged and communities diversified.

Now, as immigration slows, demographers envision places like Anaheim emerging as stable settling grounds for Latinos rather than depots for immigrants.

In Anaheim, fewer than half of Latinos are now foreign-born. Though housing figures are not broken down by ethnicity, about half the residents own their own homes and the median annual income is a healthy $58,000.

"It's the dream of having a single-family house and a white picket fence and a dog," said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute at USC.

An increase in home ownership probably was one factor propelling the rise of Latinos in Anaheim. During the housing boom earlier this decade, upwardly mobile Latinos bought homes in record numbers, freeing up space for more recent immigrants in apartments.

"Now it's a heterogenous mix," said Louis DeSipio, a professor of political science and Chicano/Latino studies at UC Irvine.

"It's two things: Latinos moving in and non-Latinos moving out."

Leading the way for change was the lure of jobs in manufacturing, service and technology, which gave the city the second-highest job growth in Orange County over the last 15 years, just behind Irvine, according to a report by the Orange County Business Council.

Unlike Santa Ana, Maywood or Huntington Park, which have all-Latino city councils, the new majority in Anaheim has made few political gains.

"We don't have the juice up there in the City Council," said Amin David, leader of Los Amigos, an Orange County Latino advocacy group that meets in Anaheim once a week for breakfast. "We don't even have an entree. For anything to happen, of course, it takes three votes, and we don't get much progress."

David said it may be time for Latino representation to be boosted by carving the city into council districts. Currently, all five council seats are elected at large.

Latinos have not always felt entirely at home in Anaheim, which was founded as a colony of German farmers in 1857 and has a history of racial tension. In the 1920s, four Ku Klux Klan members were elected to the City Council and briefly took control of the government, earning the city an uncomfortable nickname: "Klanaheim." Decades later, in 1978, strife between the Latino community and police erupted in a riot at Little People's Park, where charges of police brutality led to reforms in the Anaheim Police Department.

You'd never know that now looking at the Anaheim Marketplace, a spacious indoor swap meet where droves of mostly Spanish-speaking families browse hundreds of stalls, shopping for jewelry, clothing and pets, and show up in force for beauty pageants, quinceañeras, weddings and carnivals.

For many of them, Anaheim is feeling more like home. A place to move up, open a business and buy a first home.

But even for entrepreneurs like Jose Luis Quintana, 41, who moved here from Guerrero, Mexico, 20 years ago and owns a gift shop in a stall named "Joseph's Place," progress is measured.

Anaheim today, he reflected, is a more comfortable place than decades ago, when he worked painting cars and was one of the few Mexicans in his apartment building. But there are growing pains.

"It's a suburb that's developing into a city," he said, sitting behind the counter, listening to a radio. "We're a bigger population now. We're more crowded and there's less space."



tony.barboza@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...,5124639.story

[dragonsky]

Chapman gets $25 million for performing arts center
May 9th, 2009, 3:00 am
posted by Gary Robbins, science writer-editor
Orange County Register

The new Chapman University Center for the Performing Arts may resemble Heard Hall (shown here) at the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts in Columbus, Georgia.

Anonymous donors are giving Chapman University in Orange one of the largest gifts in campus history, $25 million to help build what will become the second biggest performing arts center in Orange County.

The gift is a matching grant that will require Chapman to raise roughly $25 million for a 1,200 to 1,300 seat center in the heart of the campus that will host everything from the renowned Chapman University Choir, which last year toured Italy, to professional theater productions.

The donation, which comes from two unidentified Orange County residents, is second only to a $26 million gift the campus got from an anonymous donor in the 1998.

The new gift is also is the fourth largest individual gift ever made to a local university. Both UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton have received $30 million donations in recent years.

Chapman is already doing preliminary planning with Pfeiffer Partners Architects of Los Angeles to design a 75,000 to 80,000 square-foot building that will likely be built on Glassell Avenue and feature an exterior that's meant to mesh with the buildings of Old Towne, Orange. The university also is negotiating with Yasuhisa Toyota, the famed Japanese acoustician who worked on Walt Disney Concert Hall, to serve as a consultant.

In terms of size, only the Orange County Performing Arts Center (OCPAC) will be bigger than the Chapman University Center for the Performing Arts. OCPAC's two biggest venues are Segerstrom Hall (3,000 seats) and the Rene`e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall (2,000 seats).

「The recession is having an overall negative affect on donations, but some people still have the capacity to give, and this center would serve not only the university but the community, becoming the heart of central Orange County,」 says Chapman President James Doti.

Doti announced the gift this evening at the conclusion of the annual Sholund Scholarship Concert in Memorial Hall, an 88-year-old auditorium that doesn't have the sort of production space or fine acoustics that Chapman needs for all of its opera, chorus, dance, theater and music events.

The center would primarily be used by Chapman's College for the Performing Arts, which has almost 700 majors, up from 495 in 2004. The arts program has produced many notable figures, including Michel Bell, a Tony Award-nominated singer, and John Nuzzo, a tenor with the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

「I've dreamed of building something like this all of my life,」 says William Hall, dean of the College of Arts and musician who has conducted symphonies around the world. 「This would fill a niche, giving the county a mid-sized theater for productions in opera, musical theater, orchestral, chorus, dance and theater.」

Hall played a major role in landing the new $25 million gift, which comes from an unnamed donor who lives in Southern California. The university wouldn't say whether the donor lives in Orange County.

Doti says he doesn't yet have a specific time table for raising the matching funds and constructing the center, noting that 「there's a lot of work to do with Old Towne preservationists and traffic studies and an environmental impact report. (But) I hope we could break ground, optimistically, within 1 to 2 years. Construction would probably take 18 months.」

[202_Cyclist]

Check out the article for renderings of the ARTIC facilitiy.

-----------------------------------------------

Design chosen for Anaheim's long-awaited transportation hub
Firm, with offices in Orange, chosen over other 'heavy hitters' such as Frank Gehry.

By ERIC CARPENTER
The Orange County Register

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/d...-anaheim-site#

ANAHEIM – An architecture and engineering firm has been selected to move forward with plans to build a long-discussed transportation center for trains, buses, taxis and trolleys in the heart of Anaheim's entertainment corridor.

The Anaheim City Council reviewed a handful of bids Tuesday night, including one from the firm of world-renowned architect and Disney Hall designer Frank Gehry, and in the end selected Parsons Brinckerhoff/HOK to design the first phase of the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center – commonly called ARTIC.

The contract was approved for up to $24.3 million to design and lay the groundwork for the transportation hub on a 16-acre site just south of the Honda Center – a site jointly owned by Anaheim and the Orange County Transportation Authority.

PB/HOK's design calls for a large, covered archway that would rise 189 feet high, with a look reminiscent of the aviation hangars on the Tustin Marine Corp Air Station. But while the design recalls the county's rich aviation history, it will be built with a modern membrane similar to the one that covered the iconic swimming "Water Cube" in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Overall, the first phase of ARTIC is expected to cost $179 million, funding that would come from a combination of federal and state transportation funds.

The first phase also includes moving the Metrolink and Amtrak station near Angel Stadium to the new site.

The city expects to have environmental clearances and break ground on the project by late 2010. The transportation center is expected to be up and running by 2013.

ARTIC eventually could be home to high-speed rail to Las Vegas and San Francisco, among other destinations.

The original concept dates back to the early 1990s

Mayor Curt Pringle said he's thrilled to see the project taking shape after nearly 15 years of talk.

Another supporter, Councilman Bob Hernandez, said he was impressed by the "heavy hitters" – especially Gehry's firm – who applied to design the project.

"I thought just given his name, he would be the one to design this building," Hernandez said. "(But) I was surprised this (the selected) design stood out head and shoulders over the others."