What Inspires Activism in Mission Viejo?

When U.S. News & World Report listed Mission Viejo in its “Top 10” communities for political activism, community activist Joe Holtzman offered insight on the reasons. While the magazine suggested income and education levels, amount of leisure time and diversity of opinion are contributing factors, Holtzman concluded Mission Viejo’s elected officials raise residents’ political involvement.

Holtzman distributed an email saying, “My guess is that having a very dysfunctional city council helps to stimulate community involvement. We have one councilman who consistently lies; one councilman with anger management problems; one phony goody two-shoes (trolling for contributions) councilwoman; one councilman who gets tangled in his comments; and one councilwoman who infuriates the city staff. Guess which is which – it’s not hard to figure out.”

Read about the magazine article and other comments on Brad Morton’s blog, http://missionviejodispatch.com/?p=11479#comments To read the magazine article, go to http://www.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/real-estate/articles/2009/09/17/10-cities-for-political-junkies.html