FEAR - AND CONTEMPLATING THE FUTURE OF OUR REPUBLIC

 A TRULY GREAT LIFE - You know, I’ve had a really great life. Before I retired more than 20 years ago I had a very successful business career and I followed that with a successful second career writing political commentary about local events here and elsewhere.  Even though I’ve throttled that back, this blog has received more than 4.3 million page views and still gets thousands every month. I’m proud of the positive impact I’ve had on my community.

PARTNERS - And all of this has been shared with my wonderful wife, Susie.  For  more than 58 years she has been at my side, through thick and thin, through the many high points and those few low points that happen along the way. I’m a very lucky guy.

DEEP ROOTS - We’ve lived in the same home in the best neighborhood in Costa Mesa for more than 52 years. Our neighbors in this community are also our friends and we’ve helped raise three generations of happy, accomplished children.

I’M A PROUD COSTA MESAN - I’m very proud to live in Costa Mesa. Throughout its nearly three quarters of the century history my town has been a clean, safe place to live. Over the decades it has been guided by some very forward-thinking, dedicated, caring, elected officials and some outstanding city staffers. Yes, we’ve had some bozos who were trying to steer us off the rails a decade ago, but that changed when the voters realize what was going on and voted them out.  I helped with that.

THE PARALLELS ARE UNDENIABLE - But lately I have become very depressed. In the year since Donald J.Trump was inaugurated for his second term as President of the United States I have watched as he seems determined to abandon our hard-earned leadership role in the community of nations, destroy our democracy and turn it into a dictatorship. As a student of history I see the clear parallels between what he is doing and what Adolf Hitler did in the late 1930s. It is terrifying!

FROM DAY ONE IT WAS CLEAR - From the very first day of this term, when Trump pardoned more than 1500 convicted criminals, it was clear that our country was in big trouble.  His heavy-handed attempts to deport “3000 dangerous criminal illegal aliens a day" has resulted in the terrorizing of many of our cities as innocent American citizens are being swept up by the poorly trained thugs that have been hired to accomplish that unrealistic goal.

CHAOS IN MINNEAPOLIS - All this came to a chaotic crescendo in Minneapolis this month when first Renee Good was murdered by a federal agent and then, yesterday, when peaceful demonstrator, Alex Pretti, was murdered -  shot 10 times as he lay helpless in the street after having been pepper sprayed while attempting to help another demonstrator who had been knocked off her feet by a federal agent and pepper sprayed.  Gestapo Barbie, Director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, immediately attempted to paint Pretti as a “terrorist”, Intent on inflicting violence on federal agents who were “just doing their jobs”.  Nothing could be further from the truth. Video evidence clearly shows him recording events with his cell phone while calmly attempting to direct traffic through the turmoil those agents had created.  He then attempted to assist a woman, who had been knocked from her feet by one of those agents, regain her footing while both were being pepper-sprayed by agents. It was at that point that Pretti was dragged off his feet by an agent, surrounded by at least a half dozen other agents who began kicking and punching him. At one point, one of them removed the pistol from Pretti’s waistband and tossed it aside. Almost immediately thereafter we heard the first shot, followed by a very slight pause, then four more rapid fire shots, then at least five more bullets being pumped into his lifeless body. At no time had there been any visual evidence that Pretti had attempted to reach for his gun or, in any other way, threaten the agents. 

THEY WERE MURDERED! - I’ve watched videos of these two murders - one of a 37 year-old peaceful mother of 3 and the other a 37 year-old Emergency Room nurse at the local Veterans Administration hospital -  several times, trying to understand what happened and trying to see anything that made these two events make sense. I cannot and they do not. The senseless killing of Renee Good was bad enough,  but the slaughter of Alex Pretti, is incomprehensible. As we watch the videos, see him shot multiple times and hear the sounds of the gunfire echoing in the neighborhood, it leaves us aghast and terrified. Those lifeless bodies could be one of us!

IT’S ALL TRUMP’S FAULT - So, my friends, I’m very depressed. All this is happening as a direct result of one person, President Donald J. Trump. That vulgar, ignorant, deranged, vindictive, lunatic is destroying our country. In 12 short months, he’s managed to alienate every ally we have in this world. He invaded a sovereign nation, Venezuela, and kidnapped their president and his wife and dragged them to the United States for trial as drug traffickers. He has threatened to take over Greenland either by purchase or force, if necessary. He has made overt threats that perhaps Cuba and Mexico might also be on his conquest agenda.  He has consistently ignored the Constitution and made our country a much less safe place to live. My friends in the Latino community are terrified. Even brown-skinned American citizens are afraid to take their children to school or go to work or go shopping for food for fear of being swept up by the Gestapo-like federal agents that now infest our cities like some virulent cancer on our society.

CONGRESS MUST ACT - Members of Congress can fix this by invoking the 25th Amendment and removing Trump from office. That, alone, would not be enough, though. It would require sweeping most of his boot-licking sycophants in charge of federal agencies out, as well.  And, I don't know if Vice President J.D. Vance is up to the challenge.  Will he flip again, and return to the guy who articulated what he thought about Trump a couple years ago, repudiate what he's done and provide the necessary leadership to right the ship of state?  Repairing the damage done, both nationally and internationally, seems almost insurmountable.  I just don’t know how that happens peacefully. I feel helpless and, quite honestly, hopeless. Something needs to be done, but I can’t do anything to help.

HOPING FOR DISTRACTION - Today I’m going to watch two football games to try to distract me from what’s going on in this country. I’m not sure it’s going to help. God save us all.

A CONFESSION, AN APOLOGY AND A RESOLUTION

EPIPHANY - To all my "friends" - Facebook friends, old friends, new friends, real friends, pretend friends, wannabe friends and those of you who just wandered into this space - here's a New Year's message for you.

SOME HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE - As some of you already know, two decades ago, following my retirement of my consulting practice,  I began paying attention to events - political and otherwise - and wrote the occasional note to the local newspapers, which published them.  That got the juices flowing, so I began this blog because I thought I had more stuff to say than space to say it.  As a result, between this site and it's earlier predecessor, I've produced more than 3,400 posts, have more than 4.2 million page views (which, inexplicably, continue at the rate of more than 10,000 per month) and have many loyal, patient readers.  Thanks for that.  I've semi-retired the blog - I spend most of my energies posting stuff on my Facebook page these days, which leads us to the point at hand.

A CONFLUENCE OF EVENTS - The distasteful political turmoil of this last year has generated LOTS of stuff on the internet.  There are many clever memes shared plus many short and long screeds infesting many social media sites to the point that it's hard to sort the wheat from the chaff.  This morning I read an excellent Wall Street Journal commentary by author Christopher Mims entitled "Your Key Survival Skill for 2026: Critical Ignoring", addressing the current state of affairs with our unhealthy addiction to internet activities.  I'd link to it, but it's protected by a paywall.  You may be able to access it elsewhere.  AND, recently some folks have taken serious, nasty umbrage to a few things I shared on my page - stuff, quite honestly, I had not independently vetted for accuracy.  Most of those were, in fact, accurate but my critics just didn't like them.  A couple others turned out to be fabrications.  I'll try to do better.   

GIANT SLAPS IN THE FACE - These things, all of a sudden, got my attention like a couple whopping slaps in the face.  I realized that I had disappointed folks who had, for more than 2 decades, relied on what I wrote to be accurate, factual with a strong dose of my personal opinion based on how I perceived events.  It was quite an awakening.  I CONFESS to being lazy lately - to not reading something others contributed, then vetting them for accuracy before sharing them broadly.  My bad!  I APOLOGIZE for that shortcoming.  I can blame it on a lot of things - the sheer volume of negative stuff we see every day combined with negative things we actually KNOW to be factual and the expectation that ALL negative stuff we see and read about the Trump regime is factual.  None of that excuses my slothfulness.

I RESOLVE - Although I almost never make New Year's Resolutions because I almost always fail with those things, I'm going to do my very best to verify the source and the validity of the claims on important issues before I just blindly "share" them.  Although some of you have recently been very caustic in your accusations on these kinds of issues - to the point where I actually blocked a couple people recently because they were not just accusatory, but really nasty doing it - I will honestly try to do better.

HOWEVER - This is NOT a commitment to be kinder to Trump and his sycophants.  If you expect that please just stop following me, because it's just not going to happen.  As I have said many times, on many posts, I believe Donald J. Trump is the WORST president in the history of our country and, perhaps, in the top five WORST humans ever to inhabit the planet.  Since he took office again almost a year ago he has demonstrated, on an almost daily basis, that he is supremely unqualified for his job and is a clear and present danger to the perpetuation of our republic.  And, yes, as a student of history, I DO believe his actions are a direct parallel to those of Adolph Hitler as he began his rise to power in Germany.  Don't take my word for it - look it up.  Trump's actions since last January are those of a power-mad, ignorant, vicious, vindictive dictator-wannabe.  I cannot possibly list all of his transgressions here because just contemplating them makes my head hurt.  Others have done so - look it up.

WE WILL PERSEVERE - So, please bear with me, my friends. I will TRY to do better. Together, I honestly believe we can get through this.  It's unlikely Trump will complete his term because of his health, both physical and mental, and/or the legal challenges that he now faces that may, in fact, disqualify him from his post.  Please do continue to be aware and speak out when you feel it's appropriate.  I accept all criticism when honestly offered without the unnecessary vitriol.  In the words of our Buffoon-In-Chief - "Thank you for your attention to this matter."

HOUSING OPPORTUNITY WORKSHOP - 7/30/25

 WHAT AND WHERE?

Wednesday evening around 60 of your friends and neighbors attended the first of what is supposed to be 10 opportunities for us to express our preferences on the types of new housing being planned for Costa Mesa.  It began at 6:00 p.m. and was scheduled to run a couple hours. Seating was available for 70 and, when counting city staff and consultants, there may have been 90 souls in the Norma Hertzog Community Center.  I left shortly after 7:00.

GRUB AND KID-FRIENDLY

Refreshments were provided and there was a little table with coloring supplies for children attending.  I did see a couple children last night.

PHOTOS MAY HELP

I’ve included several photos of the evening, which might help give you a sense of the event.

THE THEME

The evening was themed “Neighborhoods where we all belong.”  

CARRIE KICKS IT OFF

Carrie Tai, our new Director of Economic and Development Services, kicked the evening off, then handed the proceedings off to representatives of the Dudek organizations - consultants for this process.  In addition to their team there were many members of the Development Services staff on hand to answer questions.  And, for the most part, there was good outreach to non-English speakers via translators - a very welcome change from years past.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS, PLUS

As anticipated, many of the usual resident activists attended this meeting to learn and opine.  I will list a few I recognized.  I saw council members Arlis Reynolds and Jeff Pettis, Planning Commission Chairman Jeffrey Harlan and current commissioners David Martinez and Angely Andrade Vallarta. Arts Commissioner Charlene Ashendorf and her hubby, Dennis were there.  Former councilman Jay Humphrey and his wife Sally were in the crowd, as was former councilwoman Wendy Leece and former Planning Commissioner Diane Russell.  Major property owner George Sakioka and current FIPAC committee member Ralph Taboada attended. Uber activists Cynthia McDonald and her hubby, Rick Huffman attended, as did my pal and super-blogger Jenn Tanaka of Goat Hill Rodeo fame.  I also saw Daily Pilot ace reporter Sara Cardine chatting with attendees and taking notes.  There were also a couple photographers scampering around, but I didn’t recognize them.

MANY NEW FACES

I was encouraged by the number of new, young faces in the small crowd last night.  After all, this will be their city and they need to express their wishes in this kind of setting.

SHORT VIDEO

Following the presentation of a short video which explained why we were there - too many people, not enough housing, and expensive housing when it is available.  We learned that Costa Mesa has 100,000 jobs, and that 7,000 were added in the last 10 years.  We were told the average home price exceeds $1,000,000 and that the average monthly rent is over $2,400.

BREAKOUT!

Following the video we were permitted to scatter around the room, view the various display boards and either affix “dots” where we could indicate choices or scribble post-it notes with suggestions/preferences.

WHAT DID THEY WANT?

Many attendees carefully crafted Post-it notes asking for things like "Affordability", 

"Safety", "Schools", "Affordable Senior Housing", "Pathway to Home Ownership", "More Light At Night For Residential", "Trees For Shade", "Mixed Use", and more.

WHAT THEN?

I was told that the information provided will be homogenized and blended with information for the remaining 9 similar opportunities for community members to gather and opine scheduled for the rest of this year.  Those meetings will take place throughout the city at different venues.  The data will then be compiled and presented to the Planning Commission and City Council sometime next year.

OBSERVATIONS

I noted with great interest that there was no mention of the Fairview Developmental Center property as an “Opportunity Site”, even though that more than 100 acre site could resolve many of our housing needs.  I also noted that only slight mention was made of the State-mandated RHNA numbers - 11,760 housing units demanded by the state for our city.  That, of course, is the prime motivator for this entire exercise.

BEEN THERE - DONE THAT

I came away with the feeling of deja vu - like we’ve been here before.  Yes, the folks from Dudek are bright and professional and have a proven system for gathering public opinion on these kind of issues.  Yes, the City Staff was helpful answering questions.  I’m concerned that this has been a long time coming and that it could get mired in the “process”, as has been the case many times in the past.  Several of us have gone through these kinds of exercises before, only to find the “progress” seemed to be slogging through quicksand.  We shall see.

AWAITING THE GOAT WRANGLER’S TAKE

I expect my pal, the Goat Wrangler, will provide us with a much better, more thorough account of this meeting.  When she does I will share the link to it on my Facebook page. 

MY OPINION?

Well, because we’re a 99% built-out city, Measure K authorizes us to re-zone certain commercial and industrial areas to accommodate housing and the ONLY way to make that work is to go UP!  (The image shown here shows those areas, although they should have used darker colors.)  Yeah, I know -  “Up” is a nasty word, but it’s a fact of life. We’re just going to have to figure out how to carefully plan for nearly 12,000 new dwelling units and the nearly 30,000 new residents they will accommodate.  Our neighbors in the City of Irvine have figured it out, which you can see in the Jamboree corridor north of the 405 freeway.  And, they’ve managed to soften the impact of big complexes by using lots of large trees! Traffic and parking will be HUGE considerations, too, as will the need for more schools, shopping areas, fire stations and police officers to keep us all safe.

FINGERS CROSSED FOR PROGRESS

In the meantime, I will keep my fingers tightly crossed that this process will move forward with quickness and, by this time next year, we will have some sense of what our city leaders plan to do on our behalf.  Of course, that will be in the middle of the runup to the 2026 municipal elections, when the balance of power on our city council could change dramatically.  As I said… we shall see.  

WATCH FOR FUTURE MEETINGS

Be alert for future similar meetings, where details can be fleshed out with consultants and staff.  It’s a chance for you to voice your opinion on what our city will look like downstream.

REMEMBERING MY "OTHER MOTHER"

MY OTHER MOTHER

I’ve written about my mother in the past, but have not specifically written about my Susie’s mother, Joan Sabina (Adams) Cunningham.  So, today, to mark her birthday, I’ll give you a little information about this very special woman in our lives.

AN ABANDONED CHILD

Joan Adams was born in Worthing, England on July 25, 1919. When her mother abandoned the family her father, traveling vaudevillian, Billy Adams, placed Joan and her brother, Ivor, in the care of the Actors Orphanage, then located in Langley.  At the time the president of that organization was legendary British actor Noel Coward.  She completed her studies until she turned 16, after which she departed and stayed with her paternal grandfather in Bath and began a career as a hairdresser.

BATH, AND DAVE

She met David Cunningham, an adventurous soul, in Bath and they became soulmates.  Sponsored by his uncle Lawrie Cunningham, a haberdasher in Oakland, CA., Dave matriculated to the United States in 1937, leaving his sweetheart at home in England.  After being an “illegal immigrant” for a couple years, he received permission to remain in the country and work.  He wrote to Joan regularly, regaling her with his adventures and begging her to join him.

IMMIGRATION

Finally, as many young people were being evacuated due to the commencement of World War II, she left England for the United States.  She traveled, as an attractive 21 year-old, via ship to the United States, all the while enjoying the attention of RAF flyers aboard traveling to learn to fly US warplanes.  She arrived in New York in November, 1940 and traveled by train to Southern California where she and Dave were married on December 7, 1940 - exactly one year before the United States joined the war.  Dave attempted to return to his native Britain to serve in the armed forces, but was rebuffed.  He joined the United States Army and briefly served in Southern California.

WHITTIER AND BEYOND

Dave and Joan first lived in Whittier, California before moving to Newport Beach in 1953, where they raised 4 children - James, Susan, Lawrence and Robert.  He was a very successful businessman, holding leadership positions in several horticultural organizations and managing a wholesale nursery.  Eventually he created his own business, D.L. Cunningham, Inc. - purveyors of top quality trees and shrubs for developers throughout the state for more than a half-century.  Although no family members remain involved, the business continues to carry on the tradition of being the gold standard for product and service today.

JOAN WAS THE ANCHOR

While Dave was building the business Joan was busy managing their household and raising 4 great kids.  She was also active in local community organizations like the Daugthers of the British Empire, Brownies, Girl Scouts, Ticktockers and National Charity League.  Both were avid tennis players and played active roles in the Adoption Guild.

CLASS PERSONIFIED

Joan was the epitome of a genteel, cultured British woman.  She was a loving, supportive wife and mother, an enthusiastic friend and volunteer and an energetic, gracious hostess.  Each of her children have her easy smile and quick humor, and learned proper decorum by her example.

TRAVEL, TRAVEL AND MORE TRAVEL

Dave and Joan were frequent travelers, usually venturing far and wide with nursery business associates.  Dave retired after bringing children Susan, Lawrie and Rob into the business.  With more leisure time their travels became more frequent and extensive.  After every trip to some exotic place they would return and exclaim that they had still not found any place better than their home.

AFTER DAVE’S PASSING

Dave passed away in 1991 and Joan continued to be the strong, loving matriarch of the Clan Cunningham until her passing on July 12, 2003.

“THE BOOK” A LEGACY

Following her passing Susie found a box which contained the small diary her father kept during his emigration to the United States plus nearly 200 letters he had written to Joan during that time, telling her of his adventures and begging her to join him.  Susie decided to transcribe them for the family.  That project evolved into a 112 page hardbound book, with every word of her father’s thoughts transcribed verbatim and included family images plus period-appropriate photos.  Each child and grandchild has a copy of that book.

HAPPY MARRIAGES AND MANY KIDS

Each of their sons found wonderful mates and each pair had three terrific kids and many of those have also had kids.  The Clan Cunningham now numbers four children (including their eldest son, Jim, who passed away in 2021), nine grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren - and counting.

REMEMBERING JOAN

Every day I see pieces of Joan in Susie’s expressions and actions.  We both see her mother when we’re around her brothers and their children.  She has left a legacy of  intelligence, civility and humor that permeates the family.  She is dearly missed.