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Health & Fitness

Summing Up - Part 1 (Looking Back)

Here's a quick and easy to use way to find all my blogs (to date) on life in Lake Forest

When I first started to blog for The Patch I never expected to create so many blogs. I thought I had a few things I wanted to say, but apparently I had a lot on my mind, and the result has been dozens of blogs about life in Lake Forest. People have asked me for an easy way to see all the blogs, so I’ve created this summary which is a listing, brief comment, and then a link to all the blogs.

 

Put Lake Forest First

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The main thrust of these articles is that our city spends more than $35,000,000 per year, but less than 5% of it is spent on people and businesses in our city. In these economic times we need to spend more of our money in our own city.

Part 1 sets out the basic thesis

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Part 2 shows the names, home cities, and amounts of money that goes outside our city. It’s depressing to see this money go elsewhere.

Part 3 was a response to a question about how much of the money at my HOA was spent in the city (the answer was 32%)

Part 4 was an e-mail from a reader who spoke about his experiences trying to get some work from the city. It’s pretty depressing and confirms our general thesis.

Part 5 was a repeat look at the figures. A reader said that my original look at July 2012 might not be representative, so we looked at August and found the same basic results – less than 5% of our money is spent in our city.

Part 6 looked at how much money developers gave to city council members’ election committees, and how this greased the way for developers to get permission to add 4,000+ homes to a city already burdened by traffic problems.

Part 7 is a summary of the series.

Part 8 is a look at City spending for September, which is basically the same result as we saw for July and August. But along with this data I’ve outlined some of the steps I’d like us to take in the future to keep more money at home.

 

The Traffic Tsunami

This series of blogs deal with the #1 perceived problem in the city – too much traffic.

Part 1 talks about the traffic problem in general and looks at the impact of adding 4,000+ new homes and more than 10,000 cars, trucks, and vans to our streets.

Part 2 looked at the results of a “traffic workshop” which seemed out of touch with the needs of the people.

Part 3 examined some of the impacts that had not been considered by the City when they agreed to add 4,000+ new homes to our city.

Part 4 looked at some solutions to the existing problem and urged a temporary halt to new developments.

 

Follow the Money

Follow the money tells the sad tale of city council members election committees accepting tens of thousands of dollars from businesses that have or want contracts with the city, and returning to these very same contributors millions of dollars in contracts.

Part 1 sets out the nature of the study that was conducted to get the details.

Part 2 provides names and gives the numbers. Who gave how much to whom, and when.

Part 3 focuses in on the payments of shopping center developers to city council members’ election committees, and the preferential treatment they appear to get in return.

Part 4 is a change of pace. It looks at a 4 to 1 vote by the Council and shows how the lone dissenting voter is tied to money received by his election committee to the man appealing the decision.

Part 5 shows that city council decisions tend to follow the money, even when there are opposing forces in action. If you had any doubts about what motivates city council members to vote, this one should clear them up.

How Safe is Lake Forest?

How Safe is Lake Forest is a series that shows that city officials have not been telling us the truth for all these years when they said that we are “one of the safest cities in the U.S.”

Part 1 sets the scene and defines some terms.

Part 2 gives us the facts. The facts are they we are not even one of the “safest” cities in South Orange County, much less in the U.S.

Part 3 discusses the implications of the reality.

Part 4 was spontaneously generated by people sending in accounts of the problems they are having in their neighborhoods.

 

Lake Forest Pet Tales

Pet Tales is about life for our pets and for us.

Part 1 shows that the people in Lake Forest are among the pet friendliest in the U.S., yet we have some of the least pet friendly city services.

Part 2 shows that while we don’t have a dog park, many smaller and less affluent cities have one.

Part 3 discusses the fact that we pay more for animal services than our neighbors do, yet our pets are killed at a rate 5 times as high and we are required to travel 5 times as far in the event we lose a pet.

Part 4 extends the discussion into spay and neuter vouchers and trap neuter release programs as well as other city services.

Part 5 is a change of pace and discussed a “Pet Food Bank” program in which I was personally involved.

 

Musick Madness

Musick Madness tells the alarming story of what’s happening in our backyard.

Part 1 tells some of the background and how a small minimum security farm is being transformed into a large maximum security prison compound with thousands of new serious convicts.

Part 2 talks about how the City of Irvine is trying to fight this transformation of Musick, but our own City has rolled over and left us in the lurch.

Part 3 looks at each of the candidates for City Council and what their position is on Musick.
 

Summary

I hope this listing is helpful to you in absorbing everything we’ve discussed. Hundreds of people have blogged on this site and I have an even greater number of people who e-mailed me about these issues or who discussed them with me at length. These are not inconsequential issues. They go to the heart of what makes a city great, not simply good.

Sometimes people criticize me for being “negative”, but the plain fact is that before we can make progress in these areas we have to take a hard look at the situation. There are plenty of people telling us how good everything is, but in your hearts you know that we could be doing a lot better.

• We’re not one of the safest cities in the U.S. In fact we’ve got more crime than almost any of our neighbors. Let’s recognize that and improve police services.

• We’re one of the pet friendliest people in the U.S., yet almost all of our neighbors have more and better services. We pay more and get less. Let’s do something about that.

• Our city’s destiny is being shaped by special interests who give tens of thousands of dollars to city council members for their re-elections. It’s shameful. Let’s put a stop to it.

• Our traffic is already bad enough. How can we add 4,000+ new homes and tens of thousands of new cars, trucks, and vans to our streets? Let’s stop this from happening and straighten up our existing problems.

In my follow up to this index, I want to put together all the recommendations that have appeared in these various discussions. Some of them originated with me, but many have come in response to comments from readers. Stay tuned. If there was one single blog you should read, this one will be it.

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