Montebello Hills EIR Scoping Meetings

I'm attaching an announcement (in .pdf format) for a couple of EIR scoping meetings concerning the Montebello Hills project.  For those who don't have Adobe Acrobat, here are the basics:  the contact is Michael A. Huntley, Director of Community Development, at 323-887-1386.  The meetings will be held on Tuesday, July 8, from 6:30pm - 8:30pm, and on Saturday, July 12, from 2-4pm, both at the Senior Center in Montebello, 115 S. Taylor Avenue.

The Montebello Hills are 487 acres, on which 1,200 residential dwelling units covering 166 acres is proposed to be built.  The remaining 315 acres are "open space," but that doesn't mean that they'll all be left undeveloped.

I think the real issue will not just be the number of acres left open, but also whether or not the open space becomes fragmented or otherwise rendered unsuitable for wildlife from the adjacent Whittier Narrows flood plain.

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Scoping Meetings

I attended the entire Tuesday meeting and got to the Saturday meeting as it ended, talking to many of the people at both meetings.  Most Montebello residents were unaware of the meetings as the snap notification was made 10 days prior to the Fourth of July, and the first meeting was 4 days after the Fourth.  The nearly universal 30 day notification was not used in place of the legal minimum of 15 days notice.  The meetings were obviously timed to coincide with the traditional vacation time for families after the end of school.  Both meetings were full houses, however, possibly due to the Save the Montebello Hills email and phone alerts, with all chairs filled at various times as people came and went during both two hour meetings.  Both meetings has the absolute minimum legal notice in English, and no notice in Spanish for a city of 74% Hispanic residents.  The format was as unfriendly as legally possible, with no open oral comments from the floor or discussion with citizen in a public forum.  The city called these meetings, but Cook-Hill Properties, LLC, the developer, and P&D, their hand-picked EIR consultant answered most of the questions individuals asked before the meetings began.  There was very little new information, and some of the exhibits were deliberately incomplete in an unsuccessful effort to avoid causing residents of the politically active La Merced area to be concerned.  In fact, the city of Montebello will not even allow the public to see the Montebello Hills Specific Plan that these meetings are supposed to be soliciting opinions and concerns about.  If you don't believe me, call Michael Huntley and try to get a copy.  On the out of town developer's website, Montebellohillsreserve.com , on the Open Space page, there is a '16 foot wide paved trail' leading to the La Merced area.  It was omitted from the displays at the meetings.  The city's consultant, Gilberto Ruiz, who coincedentally is a P&D employee, claimed not to be aware of this trail and Cook-Hill claimed it didn't exist.   If you google 'Save the Montebello Hills', the Save the Montebello Hills task force of the Sierra Club site comes up first.  Even though our vision of an open space park has been out for more than a year, and we have distributed over 6,000 copies of our vision brochures in and around Montebello, including to all the city council members who would take them, and it is the preferred alternative by more than 80% of the approximately 3,000 residents we have spoken directly to at our dozens of outreach events, it wasn't even listed as an alternative to the 1200 condos.  The other 20% of the people preferred, in order: no development, a soccer field, a closed nature preserve.  Only 21 people out of the approx. 3,000 expressed support for the condos, and 12 of those regularly are in the city council chambers at city council meetings.  At the first meeting, the city council members who attended (4 of 5) and most of the department heads pressed the flesh and talked to all who approached.  However, as they answered more and more hostile questions and accusations, they became increasingly less pleasant and jovial.  As they heard the nearly unanimous condemnation of the development and the city's ham-fisted handling of the process, most eventually fled.  At both meetings, you were encouraged to submit spontaneous hand written scoping comments on a single page sheet supplied at the meetings, or give oral comments to the single court reporter at both events.  Only residents notified by us had prepared comments to submit, as far as we were able to tell.  There were representatives of the National Resources Defence Council, the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy, the Sierra Club, Angeles Chapter, and others.  Chastened by the first meeting, only one department head and the city's P&D consultant, Gilberto ran the second meeting.  This time, the people were openly hostile, shouting questions concerning the lack of Spanish notification, the lack of an open space park as a listed alternative, the lack of the usual 30 day notice, the miniscule size of the Newport Beach developer's proposed park (.9% of the project acreage), increased traffic, congestion, noise, and the drain on the city's budget a hilltop residential project would cause.  One woman, a task force member, even took up a live microphone one employee was careless enough to put down and declared that as the city's master plan hadn't been updated in more than 30 years, that by law, it has to be updated before any 'Specific Plan' can be considered.  Rather than answer her assertion, they just shut off the microphone.   The two luckless employees had no answers for most of the complaints, which made the crowd surlier and more vocal.   The only substantial complaint that they did answer was a call for a referrendum, and the answer was no.   If you look at the carpetbagger website more, you will norice that the three proposed exits for the development lead to San Gabriel Blvd, near the 60 freeway, and Montebello Blvd. on the downslope.  This aims directly at Rosemead.  Do you have lots of excess traffic capacity?   If not, you should make your feelings known to the city council and city department heads.  We even heard a (unconfirmed) rumor that Wal-Mart is supporting the project surreptitiously  as the San Gabriel exit leads straight to them, and they believe that the residents of the 1200 condos will prefer Wal-Mart to stores in Montebello.  The Save the Montebello Hills group meets every first and third Wednesday at the Carrows on Via Campo near Wilcox Ave. in Montebello at 6:30 pm.  We are accepting donations for legal and literature expenses in cash or (preferably) chacks made payable to: Friends of the Angeles Chapter with 'Save the Montebello Hills' in the  memo line and mailed to the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter,  Attn: Jennifer Robinson, Cons. Coordinator, 3435 Wilshire Blvd., LA, CA 90024.  We are 501c3 certified if you contribute in this manner.  For fun, try to get one of the citiy's secret traffic surveys (they are reportedly on their fifth, as they didn't apparently like the first 4), or records of the secret weekly meetings the Orange County developers have reportedly had with city officials for the last 3 years.  If you specify each city councilmember and department head, past and present, it's guaranteed to keep you entertained for days. 

My Response to the Montebello Hills Project

To "42 yr Mtb Resident:

I replied to your post on Montebello Topix Forum and Polls, and cut and pasted my response to you again here on SOC:

42 yr Mtb Resident wrote:

"The city council and p&d are being very disrespectful to Latinos in our city. All of the information is in English in a city which is about 2/3 Hispanic. No notices were in any of the Spanish Newspapers, radio stations, or TV. They don't want any comments from anyone but the rich anglos and the Texas owners of the hills. They didn't even list an open space park as an alternative, just build 1200 condos or nothing. Why doesn't the city council know what the citizens want: A PARK!!!!!??"
=====================================================================

42 year Mtb Resident: You are WRONG! Long time Montebello residents that I know, not only speak English without an accent, but barely know Spanish. Are you talking about the "paisas" living 10-20 deep in a 1 bedroom apt by the tracks? Well, sorry, they don't count, cuz they're here illegally and can't vote.

If you read the Whittier Daily News, Cook and the city want 1200 mixed homes and condo, and will develop 300-400 acres of open spaced parks!

The homes will be valued in the 1 million dollar range, taxed at 1%, giving the city an estimated revenue of 7-8 million.

Remember, 1000 homes taxed at 1% of $1,000,000 equals 10 million. The city gets the biggest chunk, 20% to MUSD, the county gets some, and the rest to the state.

As far as housing, its supply and demand. I think lots of people would want to buy in North Montebello adjacent to SSG and south Rosemead. And, they will have spectacular views. They have already built new homes in SSG and Rosemead that face the San Gabriel mountains going for $800K to to 1 mil, and they all sold before they were built!

You want a park, well someone has to pay for it, like Cook. You can't expect something for nothing.

Those 185 homes some are sitting and not selling in Mtb, well maybe people don't like the area or older homes that need a lot of remodeling.

Give it a chance. As a local, I don't go down Montebello Bl on the weekends if I don't have to because of the congestion the mall brings, but that's OK too. The revenue outsiders bring to the city is a good thing, and I can go to the mall during the weekdays.

Guys, have a little faith.

Montebello Hills Project

Dear Centaur:

According to Cook-Hill, the value of the condos will be $725 million.  Divide this by 1200 gives about $600,000 AVERAGE price per condo.  The developer has only promised in its private, invitation only meetings to build 8 - 12 single family homes at about $3.5 million each,and in its only two public meetings, they only will say that the mix of houses vs condos will be determined by 'market demand at the time of construction'.  Even Mayor Molinari, who last year and up to January also claimed that the Orange County developers had assured him that the majority of 'residential units' would be single family houses, no longer ssys this.  The rest are 'residential units', i.e. condos.  If you check with the LA County Assessor's office, as we have, large condo projects ALWAYS drive down the home values of adjacent single family houses, Always.  When large condo projects are built in other parts of the County, there is ALWAYS a flood of reassessment requests by adjacent people who own single family homes which result in most values reduced with a resulting reduction in property taxes.  There are many naturalized citizens in south Montebello who are not comfortable conducting business in English.  While illegal aliens can't vote, they and their children can commit crimes without diversionary activities.  Most long time residents that I know also speak English, but their relatives that they bring from Mexico to become citizens often don't develop this ability due to the ease of speaking Spanish only in the LA area.  The park acreage per resident in Montebello is much lower than most other ciities in LA County.  You are also WRONG about the monetary distribution.  If you read Cook-Hills own literature, they pay NOTHING to the MUSD.  They are a limited libility partnership, i.e. middleman.  They propose, plan, and get all the permits for the development, then they call on contractors to build.  Their responsibility ends as soon as the lots are sold.  When the problems of landslides, natural gas seepage, polluted land, and others occur to the houses, the owners will have only the builders to sue,  as Cook-Hill will have long walked away with their 15%.  The builders and homeowners will pay $2.88 per square foot ONE TIME to the MUSD.  There is NO percentage rate.  After that, as the hills are a Special Redevelopment area, ALL the property taxes will go to Montebello Redevelopment, again, as stated in the very small print of the Newport Beach developers publications and website.  NO money goes into the general fund, NOTHING for potholes, tree-trimming, apartment tax abatement, trash  collection fee abatement, sewer and water improvement, etc.  In the past, the Redevelopment fund has been used for such worthy causes as: the Whittier Blvd. facelift and a $2 million gift to Telacu.  This is why the city council is so supportive of the developer, they get a giant slush fund to give out to their political supporters.  Finally, Cook-Hill has declared (to our group only) that they are a 'willing seller', a legal term which means that non-profit groups can solicit the purchase of the hills from Cook-Hill with public and private funds legally.  No one wants the city to buy the hills.  There are professional groups to do this.  Like the actual, legal development plan, the geological reports, the Fish and Wildlife reports, the archeological reports of the actual location of the first San Gabriel Mission and its adjacent Tongva Indian villages, the negotiations are also secret.  Finally, as Cook-Hill, by THEIR maps, is proposing building and grading about 300 acres of the 487 acre project, very little of the LAST natural part of the Montebello Hills chain will remain for current and future residents to enjoy.

Montebello Hills Project and more articles

From the Whittier Daily News dated 7/13/08:

"The city does not own the property, so ultimately its role in deciding what direction to take is limited...."But the proposed 1,200 homes represent approximately $725 million in new residential property value for the city, according to Cook Hill"...."The new homes are expected to generate $6 million to $7million in property tax revenues, de Arakal said"

http://tinyurl.com/5lx6wa

AND from the LA Times dated 7/9/08: "Property tax funds rise as housing market falls"....Proposition 13 is credited with stabilizing California counties' tax bases even though valuations are lowered on thousands of homes (by Cara Mia DiMassa, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer July 9, 2008)

"Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., said the revenue numbers show the value of Proposition 13. "Many honest county assessors have told us that Prop. 13 has more than once in times of economic uncertainties been a godsend to local governments," he said.

"Property taxes provide most of the money a county can spend as it sees fit; federal funds are designated for specific programs."

"In Los Angeles County, the assessment rolls include 2.3 million parcels and about 300,000 pieces of business equipment, boats and airplanes. The county receives about a third of property tax revenue, cities get a quarter, school districts take 20% and community redevelopment areas and special districts combined receive 20%"

http://tinyurl.com/6ew4qo

Montebello Hills EIR Scoping

Thanks for the update.  Please continue monitoring developments, and provide additional information as the situation warrants.

So are you mainly AGAINST the RENTALS?

? Anytime one uses redevelopment moneies, one HAS TO set aside an 80/20 or 90/10 division between market value and the 10-20% "affordable" housing dance. Is your group against the "potential" for section 8 voucher recipients, because there are quite a bit in Montebello already along Pomona Bl and Garfield between Beverly Bl and Wilcox? Mixed use is nothing new here.

And please be honest to citizens, do you guys reall really care about the "gnatchcatcher"???

Gnatcatchers

Let me chime in to say I don't care about the gnatcatchers, per se.  The idea behind the Endangered Species Act (inmo) is not just to keep score of the number of species, but to use the species (all of them, not just the 'charismatic megafauna') as an indicator of a healthy environment.  If your environment can't support gnatcatchers any more, that's a sign of an underlying problem.

 

Montebello Hills

I'm glad that Centaur has found the article with the actual home values and the estimated amount which will go to the redevelopment fund each year as these facts support my arguement.  I'm not sure what the prop 13 quotes are for, as they refer to Statewide averages, and I am only interested in the LA County trends and statistics that I have cited, as Montebello is in LA County. 

I am somewhat puzzled by his references to 'section 8 housing' which seems to fascinate him.  No one in Montebello mentions it in any arguements either for or against the hills as it is not germaine to the proposed development.  His idea that there must be a split of some kind only applies to residential development using redevelopment funds.  This applied to the Senior residential units (condos and apartments) built by Telacu.  The proposed carpetbagger development is in a redevelopment area using private funds.  I can assure you that the multimillion dollar redevelopment funds used in the Whittier Blvd. facelift involved no section 8 housing in any of the stores. 

I am getting tired of reading Centaur in other local blogs and correcting all his incorrect facts, See my 4500 character response on the San Gabriel Valley Tribune website for more details, but I want to correct his false assertion of '300-400 acres of open spaced parks.'  The MAXIMUM size of the only public park in the development is 6.2 acres, but this week Cook-Hill is admitting that the actual park is 4.5 acres with 1.7 acres of parking.  If you drive on Montebello Blvd. near the hills you will see signs proclaiming "Habitat Restoration Project."  In California, threatened habitats CANNOT BE OPEN TO PUBLIC USE.  All of the habitat outside of the proposed development will be off limits to the public.  The breathtaking view of Catalina Island visible on clear days will be for the homeowners ONLY.  The only public park, this week, is supposed to be inside the proposed development facing the Town Center.

You will notice that Centaur has no rational responses to the real objections to the project: reduced property values of homes adjacent to the condo project, gridlocked traffic, increased air pollution, increased response times for police and fire protection, landslide prone hills, building on pollution from 100 years of unfettered oil production, natural gas seepage, the drain on the Montebello budget, and the 80-83% of Montebello citizens who have told us directly that they want our vision of an open space park for the use of all the 1 million residents of the San Gabriel Valley.  Just think of all the gas which will be saved by locals using this park as a staycation destination instead of driving long distances.  Think of all the gas that will be saved by less traffic jams in Montebello and surrounding cities.  You'll note that I haven't mentioned the California Gnatcatcher.  It isn't necessary with all the other reasons that Centaur has no factual responses to.

    

I know it's a free country, but....

I don't know if I'd be happy having someone like "42 year Montebello resident" as my neighbor, sorry. 

When I have time, I will respond to his/her "speculative" and "unfactual as yet" statements against the Hills Project.

But, out of the area relatives came down last night so we could enjoy the "free" Beach Boys Concert at Alhambra's Jubilee.  We had a great time, and I can't believe this is 2nd or 3rd year they are doing this.  To pull this off, of course, your city has to have a healthy tax base, in addition to smart, creative,  and savvy elective officials, city employees, chamber of commerce and residents who "all work well together". 

I could never see this happening in any other surrounding city, no less Montebello, especilaly with residents like "42 year Mtb resident, who bitch and moan about anything and everything, but NEVER are willing to run for office, volunteer or do anything for their community besides bitch. 

What is amazing is Alhambra "re-invented" itself from a mostly white middle class suburb to a predominently immigrant Asian community who can pull off free concerts every summer and have kids who graduate from Keppel or Alhambra High and can go directly to Stanford.  Amazing!

I so done with anything south of Arroyo, Lincoln and La Merced I can't tell you.

When you can't attack the facts, attack the messenger

I have been a volunteer literacy tutor for 16 years, 3-5 hours a week.  I have worked as a volunteer on many political campaigns, from Goldwater to Nixon to Ford to Reagan to Russelot to Herschensohn to Antonovich to Molina to Shwartzennager to local city elections as gofer, fact checker, speech editor, coffee maker, door to door knocker, and other capacities.  I thought that I was done with National politics after the fall of the Berlin wall on Kristallnacht, 1989.   

I was rudely brought back into politics when the city gave notice about 13 years ago to the people on my street that the city was considering running my street through the hills directly to where the Costco entrance is.  I was not amused.  Centaur may not know this, but political action can be taken without running for political office, with coordinated grass-roots actions to make local officials aware of reasonable and economically, politically, and spriitually beneficial alternatives to naked greed.

None of my statements are 'speculative' or 'unfactual as yet', but are mostly from the out of town developer's own pronouncements, and that is why he attacks the messenger instead of the message.  This was Hitler's best tactic to reply to well reasoned and verifiable ideas with which he did not agree.  He declared that 'nothing that the French and British have (ever) written need be seriously considered as it was written by recially inferior people,' thus dismissing the need to answer criticisms of the Anschluss (invasion of Austria) and the invasion of Czechoslovakia prior to the outbreak of war.  Centaurs use of slogans in place of political or factual discussion such as 'healthy tax base, savvy elective offiicials, city employees, chamber of commerce and residents who "all work together' ' exemplify this.  All he left out was Freedom, the Flag, Mom and apple pie.  Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, we do not have such a city, or such a destructive project for the city would never be considered.  I will not say how many, but if you have kept track of all the department heads and city council members in Montebello who have been unceremoniously booted out in the last three years, you will have an idea of the effect that exposure of corrupt and illegally circumvented procedures by a vocal and unified citizenry can have.

As a neighbor, I often (10-20 times a year) let my streetmates know when they forget to hit the button inside the front door to lower their garage doors at night, I used to mow my older neighbor's lawns gratis when they couldn't do it or afford to pay their gardners.  I get along well with all MY neighbors. I only reply to Centaur's personal characterizations from my background in debate, where an unanswered assertion is tacitly accepted.

Centaur's exhaustive poll of Montebelloo residents at Alhambra concerts reminds me of the 1 million postcard survey that a major magazine distributor held just prior to Truman's election.  On the basis of that survey, they convinced several newspapers to publish early Special Editions with the headline 'Dewey Wins'. one of which Truman triumphantly held up in the famous picture.  I have personally talked to, or overheard other members talk to 2,000 - 3,000 Montebello residents, and to date, only 21 of them have voiced support for the condo project.  Like the magazine, if you base use an unscientific poll, you will get inaccurate results.  All the events we have had booths at are public events in parks or churches attended by a wide cross-section of upper, middle, and low income residents.  I will put my poll up against Centaur's any day, and twice on Sunday.

Nothing about this proposed development is economically advantageous for the current residents of Montebello, except for the MUSD assessment and the cith council's redevelopment slush fund.  We have a positive, beneficial and realistic alternative plan, and have never been accused of using 'bitch and moan' tactics by any of our opponents in Montebello or Orange County. 

While personal invective may make for tawdry reading, it is ecssentially a disctactive tactic and not condusive to informed discussion.  As a political science major in my youth, I can't help but see current events through the prism of History, hence my historical comparisons, but I prefer to argue the merits of arguements as a more effecient use of my time.

Concerts

Two points:  First, a lot of those Mark Keppel graduates are coming from Rosemead or South San Gabriel.  Second, Rosemead has its own concert series.  Not run on the same scale, but we've started, and we're improving it every year.

Personally, I wouldn't want to spend the money to bring a Beach Boys or Foreigner-type band.  I'd bet the cost to Rosemead for all four of our concerts, plus the Fourth of July celebration and Octoberfest is less than what Alhambra spent on just one of those headliners.

Oh, now I'm being compared to Hitler!!!

 

From 42 year Montebello resident:  ""This was Hitler's best tactic to reply to well reasoned and verifiable ideas with which he did not agree". 

Sorry 42 resident (uh Margot Eisner et al), you're going up against a blogger with a multiracial background.

In an area like our's, which is a predominant mix of Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans,  are you aware that we not only served during WWII, but VOLUNTERRED do so after their people were rounded up and interred in camps like Manzanar.  And, nobody knew about the death camps until "after" allied forces freed Europe. 

Secondly, while you were in college during the Vietnam war, the gov came into ELA, Montebello and other West SG Valley areas and just "vacuumed" up young Latino men for service, AND, Mexican Americans have a large number of Medal of Honor recipients of any minority group, so there.

You are ill.

 

Please. . .

Centaur, really:  "You are ill"?  People can disagree without being disagreeable.

She compared my tactics to HILTER!

?

Oh, now I'm being compared to Hitler!!!

Um, regarding Margot - I'm pretty sure she's not 42 year mtb resident, who claims to be, pretty much, a Republican. Margot is with the Sierra Club and also is a peace activist.

Keppel and Alhambra High

Todd blogs " First, a lot of those Mark Keppel graduates are coming from Rosemead or South San Gabriel"

"A lot"?  Do you mean 25, 50, 100 or 500 in a student population of 2-3000?  Because, I have rental property in Alhambra, and my nephew attends AHS.  I know both current Principals, and I can tell you my nephew could NOT transfer to MK from AHS, because MK is impacted.  Both schools have very strong academic reputatons, so they have to have a restrictive INTRA-district policy.  The majority of their students come from Alhambra and Monterey Park.  Of course, if you were referring to MK or AHS students prior to Gabrielino being built, that is another thing.  I was referring to Asian immigrant students of the last 5-7 years. 

Keppel and Alhambra High

Well, you're right about that.  Knowing the Keppel draws from Garvey School District, I assumed they got more Rosemead/SSG folks.

Blogger in virtual free fall

First Todd, what is the red asterisk for after the 'Comment' line above this box?  I'm a new blogger.

Perhaps Centaur can get someone who can read to explain that what I have written does NOT compare HIM to Hitler, but both of their METHODS.  As usual, when I raise valid comparisons of style and tactics, I am attacked rather than my arguements.  I have not impugned Centaur's character or racial status (Hitler was multiracial, too, like most of Humanity) or mental health or any other personal characteristic EXCEPT his inability to have a rational, civil discourse using widely available and verifiable information. 

I am going to try to make it easier to see what I am talking about. I will have my arguements in one column and Centaur's responses in the other.  I am not going to list them using a 1 to 1 correlation as there isn't any.  As near as I can tell, Centaur's discussion style is to not respond to an arguement with anything as mundane or simple as relevant facts or theories.  Rather he responds with unrelated invective, sloganeering, or an entirely factual answer which has no relation to the question.  Here goes, and I am paraphrasing for brevity.

My arguements and responses:         -        Centaur's arguements and responses

Gridlock in Montebello and nearby cities     -    I don't go on  Mtb. Blvd.

Condo projects lower property values           -          You are ill               

Air pollution from more traffic          -         What about the Gnatcatcher?

Taxes diverted to redevelopment         -          What about section 8 housing?

Land polluted by 100 years of oil pumping         -        Have a little faith

No Spanish notices or info for Mtb     -   Older Mtb people barely speak Spanish

Cook-Hill says 4.5 - 6.2 acre public park     -     Open space habitat means parks

C-H only promises 8 - 12 houses       -     Prop. 13 is a godsend to CA counties

C-H and city value condos at $725 mil.    -   80/20 or so split in redevelop $

The hills are landslide prone        -        I wouldn't want 42 yr mtb as my neighbor

Indian archeological sites in hills           -        Alhambra is a great Asian city

Gridlock=worse emergency response times     -   Great Beach Boy concert

Gas seepage is a problem              -      Kids from Keppel and ALH go to Stanford

80-83% of 2-3,000 residents park     -     For Vietnam, Latinos were pressganged

No income from condos for services    -      Latinos have Congressional Medals

Officials have been incompetent      -   Creative, smart city officials needed

Open space park good for health     -     Nobody knew about death camps 

Anti-project views at  public meetings     -   Paisas don't count as Mtb residents

 

I could go on and on, but why bother.  I spent so much time on this only to try to use reason and facts to show how this proposed hilltop development was objectively counter to the economic, political, physical, and spiritual health of current Montebello residents.  Obviously, someone who does not have a competent understanding of English and an inability to distinguish facts from fiction (neither of which are character defects, simply signs of ignorance or a deficience of acuity) will not be receptive to reality.  Among my many volunteer activities was a stint of about 21 years with the Exceptional Children's Foundation, where I came into contact with many other developmentally disabled people.  I learned that different people have different levels of abilities, and you must adjust to their level of comprehension, not the other way around.   It's interesting that he mentions Margot.  Centaur and Margot have very simaler styles of arguement when confronted with inconvenient facts.  The main difference is that Margot is very aware of actual facts, and thus finds herself in Centaur's position only rarely.  As Lodrick Cook would say, 'You have to know when to stop drilling a dry hole", so from now on, I will simply not respond to anything from Centaur, as I can see him answering my next posting citing the LA County Assessor's statistical analysts' assessment that ALL home values rise when parks are opened nearby with a diatribe about third trimester abortions.   I will continue to post true, verifiable, and accurate information without responding to polemic, invective, or irrelevant statements.  Centaur, I shun thee, I shun thee, I shun thee.    

And Todd, how about Spell Check for postings?  I can't get the underlining to work, either.      

 

 

 

 

 

  

         

red asterisk

Regarding the question about the red asterisk, I don't know.  John's the webmaster; I'm just a lowly poster (with moderating privileges, although I know it's John's desire to leave this as open as possible, so I have only have deleted only one post in the many years this blog's been around, and that was due to the use of profanity.  Well, I did also delete a bunch of ads that were posted here when the spambots attacked!)

Not sure why the underline thing wouldn't work for you.  It works when I use it.

I don't think this system is set up to spellcheck posts.  Personally, what I often do is compose my posts with WordPerfect (which I prefer to Word).  Then I cut and paste the material to here.  That makes it easy for me to include neater hot links in my posts (by "neater" I mean that, instead of the whole url appearing, you just get a little blue word or two appearing on the post), and I also get the benefit of features like spellcheck when I am composing.

For at least some of your own posts (I can not recall if this works for all of them or only for those under forums or only blogs), if you are logged on and do see errors you'd like to fix, you can click on your post, then on the "edit" tab, and go back and fix what needs to be fixed.

Typically, as a courtesy, if you make more than just typographical error corrections, you'd use the strikethrough feature (the fourth button from the left, below) to show what you've taken out, and italics to show what you put in.  [The guys on the Star-News/Tribune website don't always do this, which occasionally makes people look foolish because they're complaining about something that's no longer in the post they're responding to.] 

I'm not sure what the red

Gee Todd - thanks for the kudos.  I barely have time to maintain things anymore, but hope springs eternal that I'll be hacking and sysadminning again on here.

I'm not sure what the red asterisk either. I think it might mean "this field is required."

I'm totally not sure how to deal with formatting.  I kind of gave up and started using the "html" mode because I know that.

If you want to use formatting, you can click on the "enable rich-text" blue text, and it'll load up a spare, but functional, text editor with underlining and boldface.  It seems to work okay in Firefox 2, which is what I use.  It probably works in IE 7.  I'm not so sure about IE 6 though - that browser has some oddities and a lot of programmers have given  up on it now that its market share is declining.

BTW - welcome to 42year, Margot, and the new, yet silent, folks from Montebello signing up here.

Really?

Margot, oops, I mean "42 year Montebello resident blogs:

"The main difference is that Margot is very aware of actual facts, and thus finds herself in Centaur's position only rarely."

Is that why you are "marginalized" and virtually shunned by almost every city council members and other longterm and involved Montebello residents?