The Buzz column, April 13

Some residents criticized the city’s long delay in releasing information about the high number of vehicle thefts at the mall. With the city staff focused on the happy-face word of the month, perhaps no one had time to write a press release about crime.

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Other city news – also kept under wraps – the Public Law Center prevailed in its lawsuit against the city regarding affordable housing. As a result of losing the lawsuit, the city will have a limited period of time to rezone another parcel. If city council members had not caved in to developers for the sake of grabbing campaign cash, the PLC would have had no grounds for a discrimination lawsuit. If no new housing projects were approved in Mission Viejo – a built-out city – there would be no basis for saying new housing was discriminatory because it lacked three-bedroom affordable units.

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Following San Juan Capistrano’s appointment of two councilmen (Lon Uso and Mark Nielsen) to work with Mission Viejo on an east-west alternative to Ortega Highway, Mission Viejo’s council appointed Councilmen John Paul Ledesma and Frank Ury to work on the project. SJC has thus far avoided widening Ortega, and Mission Viejo is likely to get the brunt of traffic from development of the ranch. Some Mission Viejo activists would prefer that the talks end between the two cities, as Mission Viejo lacks negotiating strength. Focus should instead turn to the county and Caltrans to widen Ortega Highway.

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Who was telling the truth about the power-line issue in 2004? Then-candidate Frank Ury appeared before an organization with his anti-Southern California Edison campaign message. Ury stated SCE had an axe to grind against Mission Viejo residents for making an issue of burying three new power lines. Ury stated, “Edison is going to shut off the power to Mission Viejo at the first opportunity,” implying that SCE would either create a phony power outage or turn out the lights while providing power to cities with SCE-friendly attitudes. Nearly three years later – with a lot of scorching-hot weather – Mission Viejo has experienced no such outage.

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Last week’s Buzz reported a less-than-favorable reaction of readers to the city’s “Spring” banners along Marguerite Parkway. Another reader remarked: “After the council gave $100,000 to Roger Faubel to ‘educate’ drivers on Crown Valley that traffic wasn’t moving, City Hall is educating drivers that it is now spring in Mission Viejo.”

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Question from a reader: “Is Mission Viejo going to address the impact of the real estate market on city finances? Laguna Beach’s city government is already talking about falling prices and how decreased sales will affect the city budget.” In Mission Viejo, where the disaster-preparedness plan consists of handing out rose-colored glasses, a downturn in the market won’t likely be addressed.