At the last city council meeting, several of our members did a great job of raising questions about Rosemead's handling of "A Mighty Wind," which is discussed below.

One interesting comment from last week's city council meeting was from Mayor Gary Taylor.  He said that "it was obvious" that the fence lacked proper anchoring.  Which, of course, begs the question:  If he, in his professional judgement as a building contractor, saw that the fence was unsafe, then why didn't he, in his role as a Rosemead city council member, take action to make sure those fences wouldn't blow down?

As a sort of update to John's post below, here are some photos of aftermath of Operation "Apocalypse, Now."  I'm compressing the photos to minimize bandwith, so we'll lose a lot of detail.  But you'll be happy to know that the car partially covered by the fence belongs to Mike Lewis.  That might even be him on the phone, calling his auto insurance agent.  Just desserts.

What the HELL was going on with the helicopters moving the AC units onto the roof?  That was out of control.  The fences were being knocked down because of the winds the helicoptor raised.  I won't mention what I was thinking at that moment, because it's against the law.

Why don't they just use a crane to lift the things?  Too slow?  Won't open the store fast enough?  Jeez.

A few weeks ago, our neighbors to the north attempted to turn in petitions seeking to referendum to put the ordinances that permitted the Piazza Las Tunas development to a vote.  The Temple City Neighborhood Alliance opposes this development because they believe it will bring excessive traffic to an already-impacted corner, and change the character of their city.  Ironically, in the EIR regarding the project, the developer could use the "F" rating for traffic at this intersection to his advantage.  An "F" is as low as you can go, so adding additional car trips to an intersection that is already "F" is "not a significant impact."

Pasadena Star-News, Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Curfew ignored

What does it take to get Wal-Mart to abide by its contractual agreement for the building of a supercenter?

Wal-Mart's violations of the conditions imposed by the city of Rosemead and agreed to by Wal-Mart are numerous and egregious and have been amply documented by neighborhood residents.

As an example, Wal-Mart's construction activities are supposed to stop at 8p.m. Yet from 9 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. the other night, Wal-Mart's employees refused to stop the deafening roar caused by the workers breaking up cement.

I know we should have been rid of these guys four months ago.  Instead, we'll have to wait another three months.  Still, I woke up with a tune in my head that just won't go away:

Nah, nah, nah, nah

Nah, nah, nah, nah

Hey, hey, hey

Goodbye!

Can't wait until September 19, when I'll be able to sing it out loud with about a hundred or so of my closest friends!

No, that's not a misprint.  Our city has finally entered the 1990s:  They have a website:  www.cityofrosemead.org

Rosemead was the last city in the San Gabriel Valley (and possibly the last in Los Angeles County) to go "on-line."

I only spent a few minutes poking around the site today.  It does look okay.  There's a clickable calendar that you use to keep apprised of various city events.  There are also supposed to be agendas for various city council and commission meetings [The agenda for next Tuesday's meeting has not yet been posted (as of 7:30pm Thursday).  I presume it'll be up by Monday].  And the FAQ appears to have been given some thought.  Basically, a lot of the information that's on the free calendar they send out every year is replicated on the site.  It could come in handy.

Congratulations to local power couple Judy Chu and Mike Eng!

Mike Eng cruised to a landslide victory in the race for the Democratic nomination for the 49th Assembly District.  With 100% of the precincts reporting, Eng captured 9,696 votes, or 52.1% of the total votes cast in a three-way race for his party's nomination.  His nearest competitor finished nearly 3,000 votes behind him.