Open Thread for Tuesday - Its Home Depot Time Again
A few assorted notes for you as you come back to work.First off - as I have been saying for a while - it looks like the anti-Home Depot unanimity we had been bamboozled with does not exist in Sunland-Tujunga. According to an LA Times article though the NIMBYs scream the loudest, not all the residents of this burg in the foothills hate big boxes and big houses. Too, the pro-capitalism forces in Sunland-Tujunga are starting to speak up on our blog. And this latest photo of a recent anti-Home Depot protest shows hardly a movement.
On the other hand, it looks like the market may very well be doing for the Sunland-Tujunga folks what they want government to do for them (which government should not be doing but that's another story) - Home Depot is going in the toilet. They're about to sell their lucrative maintenance supply business and management shake-ups hope to get the chain back on track.
Folks in Sunland-Tujunga say they want Target, Starbucks, somewhere to buy underwear, etc. Have they asked these stores to come? Where are they? Do they have plans to open stores in Sunland-Tujunga? At the same time, folks in Palmdale want sushi and pasta but it ain't happening yet. Of course, folks in hell want ice water too but that doesn't mean they're going to get it.
Blog away dum dums.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 2/20/2007 12:00:00 AM
30 Comments:
Look at that the protestors are nothing but a bunch of old NRA anti-latino racists.
It's been sad the last few Thursdays, really. They've promised to go out and protest every Thursday, and they haven't been out there in three weeks. What dedication...not.
The following is a letter which I wrote to the LA Times today. FYI Home Depot is one of their major advertisers, and there is no change in the attitudes of anyone in Sunland Tujunga. For your information we have three Starbucks and Target has made two offers to Home Depot to sublease the K-Mart site.
From: Elaine Brown
Sunland, CA 91040
Regarding: Sunland-Tujunga comes to identity crossroads
About three weeks ago, I got a call from Councilmember Wendy Greuel's office asking me to help a LA Times reporter to do an article on the old fashioned lighting that has been approved through a ballot of the property owners on Commerce who will be required upon installation of these lights to pay a larger assessment on their lighting bills. Ms. Greuel leveraged $135,000 of Federal Government funds appropriated for use on Commerce several years ago with $145,000 of city funds to pay for the new lighting. We are all, both the members of the Commerce Owners and Business Restoration Association, Inc and Ms. Greuel, very proud of our accomplishments and expected an article in the Times that said so. I assume I was asked to help Mr. Lin, because I am Vice President of COBRA and a long-time and well-known activist in the area.
I agreed and made an appointment to meet Mr. Ron Lin the next day explaining that I was then unavailable, because I was on my way to a No Home Depot in Sunland Tujunga demonstration. Mr. Lin came to that demonstration and later to another. The second time he came to a No to Home Depot demonstration he brought a Times photographer who took several hundred pictures.
Mr. Lin met me the next day and I gave him a walking tour up-and-down the two blocks of the restoration area on Commerce, and I subsequently took Mr. Lin wherever he wished to go and did the best I could to acquaint him with our beautiful rural area which we are working desperately to keep from being ruined by poorly planned over development. Mr. Lin also brought a LA Times photographer with him to take pictures of Commerce and the other sites I showed them. This photographer also took hundreds of pictures including those of the Foothill/Commerce Town Center sign displaying a picture of the widely anticipated new development about to break ground next to the area under restoration.
I gave Mr. Lin a copy of the restoration plans drawn and generated by the city with COBRA, the group who has organized the restoration, a copy of the Foothill Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan which is a city ordinance governing the improvements along our commercial corridors, a copy of the currently active appeal which was filed against Home Depot and copies of the two supplements to that appeal. We in Sunland Tujunga are presently awaiting a decision from the zoning administrator following a January 19th hearing attended by the No to Home Depot attorney, experts and over 200 No to Home Depot supporters. Only one Home Depot supporter aside from the Home Depot officials and lawyers attended the hearing.
During the course of our brief two or three week acquaintance, I spoke to Mr. Lin frequently about and took him to many sites we are trying to protect in Sunland Tujunga from greedy and unscrupulous developers, to the sites where we have already had excessive or poor development, and to those where we have negotiated for development which is aesthetic and satisfying to the citizenry. He met with the gentleman who is restoring our Wetheworld castle which received notoriety when we succeeded in rescuing it from the hands of the developer at the eleventh hour.
I introduced him to Robert Hall, quoted in Mr. Lin's article, who is at this moment under the scrutiny of LA Building and Safety and the California Contractor's Licensing Board for violating the mansionization Interim Control Ordinance and for building more houses than is allowed without a General Contractor's License. None of that was mentioned in the article.
Mr. Lin spoke for two hours with the curator of our museum at Bolton Hall and took a two-hour tour of the area with Councilmember Greuel. He spoke on numerous occasions to the No to Home Depot campaign core group and to the Neighborhood Council officers. We in Sunland Tujunga gave Mr. Lin carte blanche.
How were we repaid for that courtesy? The article that resulted turned quickly from a story that we thought was going to be about our little community's battle to preserve our rural lifestyle and magnificent views into a propaganda piece in behalf of Home Depot. The article insinuated that we are a divided community as to Home Depot. That is totally untrue. Only a tiny percentage of Sunland Tujunga residents want a Home Depot. Those of us who have collected signatures and letters, sold bumper stickers and tee shirts know best of all who does and who does not want a Home Depot on the old K-Mart site. It is less than five percent. If you count the single supporter who attended the hearing, it is far less than one percent.
The article insinuated that we are a divided community as to mansionization. That is also untrue. Obviously the people who are building these monstrosities and the people who buy them support them. That again is a tiny percentage of the population. The ICO was written by our Sunland Tujunga Neighborhood Council.
The article insinuated we have no summer jobs and no place to buy paint. That is equally untrue. The spokesperson Kathryn Gallagher, for Home Depot stated that business has faltered since our highly successful K-Mart was gobbled up in a bankruptcy sale to Home Depot. That is untrue. All that has faltered is our ability to buy mercantile goods.
The Times selected one picture of the No Home Depot demonstrations out of hundreds and chose one which showed a man wearing an NRA shirt, and twice in the article the Times told readers that one of only two reasons for Sunland Tujunga opposing Home Depot was because of the day laborers. Day laborers have never been an issue of the No to Home Depot campaign. Once again, the Times chose to print what is untrue.
The LA Times is respected throughout the United States for being a major class newspaper. Based on this biased and one-sided article, I beg to differ. We in Sunland Tujunga who are knowledgeable about what is going on in our community know what was done to us in this article. I for one will be canceling my long-term subscription to the LA Times and I will be encouraging others in our planning district to do the same. I wait for the Times to print this letter in their major class newspaper. I will be sending it along to my extensive email network so we can all watch for its publication.
Elaine Brown
The times will always print the story that sells, not THE STORY.
They are in business to make money not to provide a public service.
You guys in Sunland Tujunga are in denial. The reporter wrote what about he learned with his own brain, not what you wanted him to believe. That was nice that you gave him such a tour of the town, but you can't make him write about things that are not really true. He wrote the truth and the article was great.
For a blog that constantly bags on the LA Times for their shoddy reporting, MS sure bought this story hook, line, & sinker!
sucked in by a newspaper? boy, they are green out there.
I cancelled my La Times months ago, and did you people not notice when they put Michael Hunt on the front page as a living wage worker?
yeah, the LA Times, wow, do they know what they're doing.
The LA Times bitched slapped the ST nutjobs left and center. We've been out there. Despite their claims the protests are small and are the usual lawn chair old white people suspects.
Some old lady was under the assumption if she served the LA Times punch and cookies the Times write a puff piece for them. They were wrong.
Most of the people we talked to in ST just don't care. A very loud group with nothing on their hands to do. The regular folks have to go to work and feed their families. and if they need tools or supply to fix their place they like Home Depot.
Most of the people I saw protesting were racists.
Who's we? and what does a racist look like?
Mayor Spends A Million Bucks Per LAUSD Muppet
Racist?
Time to get a new word. Every time you can not think of a factual argument, you revert to the old tired Chicano Studies rhetoric.
Wake up, the only one seeing color and race is you. Even when you see Americans of Mexican descent, you still cry racist. So give Latinos some credit, we don’t have to agree with you in order to not be a sell out or Tio Tomas.
You have more creditability when you state facts instead bigoted name calling.
Want to break up LAUSD?
Last evening, Tom Saenz, Counsel to Mayor Villaraigosa addressed the members of Valley Vote. His topic was AB1381 and the Mayors efforts to bring quality education to all students.
The history and purpose of AB1381 was laid out in very virtuous terms. It was also said that LAUSD was the one pushing the unconstitutional argument. (Constitution?)
Mr. Saenz went on the explain the merits of having a Council of Mayors and spoke of the stability which the council will bring in assisting a Superintendent in the execution of his duties. He will not be hindered by changing board members who tend to take a wait and see position. ( What about their change in office?)
All very interesting and even more interesting was the call to support the mayors reform candidates.
The light at the end of the tunnel came through via an opening I am sure Mr. Saenz did not expect. He stated, that if AB1381 is defeated in court and if the reform candidates are not elected, then the Mayor will move to break up LAUSD!
So, my friends, if you really want reform and want smaller school districts, then vote against the Mayors candidates and support the legal challenge to AB1381.
Latinos wake up, the old tired gabachos in Sunland-Tujunga are using you. Antonio supports Home Depot for the jobs it will bring to our people. What are horses and coffee going to get you? nothing. These pinche gabachos want to cut your construction job so wake up and listen!
Si se puede!
Get the real scoop on the LA Times story on Home Depot by going to today's
Martini Republic!
MS -- your tunnel vision and abuse of the "racist" word have taken over what little common sense you had left. Then again, you're dead! Remember that, MS, you're dead! The LA Times article was so out of whack that I was not sure that the reporter had been anywhere except to the archives with the wonderful historical stuff he put in at the end of the article. I have been active in this No2HomeDepot battle for over 2 years now and have seen support for the "N2HD side" grow with knowledge. Target has made offers to HD. The community wants a general merchandise store. Look at the specs on the community -- why does Home Depot was our slip of a community? The answer is strictly because of the lot size of the property which they do not own but lease!!!!! Go elsewhere, HD, and leave our small community to be the wonderful breath of fresh air that is left to Los Angeles. Leave the Verdugos and the washes and the Angeles National Forest area to those of us who treasure them and appreciate ly them daily. HD, go make hell somewhere else. Yes, MS, I am a proud S-T Nimby. And you, MD, are dead!
GOOD BLOGGIN MORNING !!!
OUTTAKES FROM THE RED SPOT INSTITUTE
1."FREE ENTERPRISE HELD HOSTAGE IN SUNLAND-TUJUNGA, DAY WHATEVER":
Nice photo of "JEFFRO" protesting the coming invasion of "CAPITALISM" into the rural recesses of the "NIMBY'S PEOPLE REPUBLIC OF SCUMJUNGA". Just kidding fellow necks, I feel for "JEFFRO", after all who would want their local "STILL SUPPLIER" taken over by "BIG HARDWARE" ??. Added to that, the local gun store may get bought out by "BIG FIREARMS". If that happens, then those necks will riot. All kidding aside, this drama has runs it course. If they built the "DAY WORKER DEPOT", then you have the right not to shop their. That is the "FREE MARKET".
2."MAYOR ADVOCATES FOR MORE TRANSIT FUNDS":
To the lady in the black Mustang driving in Westwood yesterday, the man in the suit was not trying to sell you a "PALETA". He was "HIS POLLONESS" attempting to get you to call "SUCRAMENTO" for more Transit dollors. Our mayor with the ever present cameras nearby, was handing out fliers on funding request for expanding the 405 parking lot.....
3. "JROTC UNDER FIRE AT ROOSEVELT HIGH FROM FACULTY":
If you already didn't know. "ADOVCATION, NOT EDUCATION", is alive and well in LAUSD. Leftist teachers at Roosevelt High School are pushing to remove the JROTC from not only Roosevelt, but all district schools. I guess it is P.C. to wear a "CHE" shirt, post a "CHE" flag in your class, and tell a student in JROTC uniform that you will become "CANNON FODDER" in Iraq. This what you will get if "HIS POLLONESS" and his "FELLOW TRAVELING, POLLONISTAS" are successful in taking over LAUSD. I once had a teacher in high school who once said that he wanted me to become a "GOOD DEMOCRAT", Flunked that lesson.
"FREEDOM AND FREE ENTERPRISE"
"RED SPOT OF REASON IN CD 14"
ANTONIO CAN'T GET HIS INFRASTRUCTURE PIECE OF THE PIE, Y'ALL...
Daily News article says mayor Antonio is complaining the region isn't getting it's fair share of the 1D infrastructure money Southern Cali voters easily passed.
WHAT??? HOW COULD THAT BE...SCAG told me they are fighting for these state infrustructure dollars for the region? Don't tell me ZD got bamboozeled...It's the number one thing on their agenda...Does ZD have to drive up to Sacramento and twist Mr. Girlie Governor's arm on behalf of of SCAG, Viagraosa & the pueblos stuck in traffic. DON'T MAKE ME HAVE TO TAKE OFF MY SHOE, ARNIE!
Daily News on LA Getting Shafted on State Infrastucture $$$
so the home depot people are opposed to the military? they hate mexicans, the military, capitalism, what else?
here's another sign of the times: Australia and New Zealand set to ban a great American invention.
Yep, they're phasing out the incandescent light bulb completely.
Like they did the 0ne cent piece, many years ago, and adopted the $1 coin.
Anyone interested in pro-active politics, start lobbying for those two masssive money savers.
It costs millions more to print paper money, and zillions to power all those 9% efficiency light bulbs.
talk about computers improving with the times, its incredible we still use 100 yr old technology to light our homes.
Another Sign of the Times Matt is that i want a 600% pay increase.
Matt, you and Zuma are more effective rabble-rousers than i am -- yet people want me to get a 600% pay increase.
I love it.
Read it here: www.lauritzenfiles.blogspot.com
we also know how to set a hyperlink
and I approve the pay rise, Matt Dowd says nobody blinks at the salaries in baseball, so $160k is still peanuts.
Approx. $1 million dollars more a year when 50% of our kids drop-out and they don't have the textbooks necessary to compete in a global economy.
then just get your precious mayor to buy the books, but wait- he's too busy paying for his legal counsel.
plz apply later.
and as Hal Fishman succinctly said "(AB1381)...violates the State Constitution..."
so lesson number one for the kids:
I think you have a better chance of amending the constitution, than you do getting a judge to allow you to violate it.
Do you Home Depot shills get paid for sitting around on your asses and calling people names?
Hey 8:55, Wendy Greuel is some old lady. I bet she loves that one.
12:02, watch it, you might get fired cuz you are way out of touch. The NoHomeDepotCampaign stopped demonstrating three weeks ago.
Careful, your roof is caving in! Literally, if you know what that word means, shill!
6:58, you are a jerk! a nerd! and an idiot!
Wow, look at that someone besides HD shills can call names, too. Not so nasty, a little bit nice, but names nonetheless.
11:05 p.m.,
I can't exactly get fired from carpool duty. Not everyone who posts here works for an agency. Some of us just live, work, or go to school in the area and we use Sunland Blvd. for comic relief.
There's too much traffic on Foothill now and the Home Depot isn't even open yet. It's going to be a nightmare.
There's too much traffic on Foothill now and the Home Depot isn't even open yet. It's going to be a nightmare.
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