Wiener takes all! Anaheim wants to shoo ‘hotdogueros’ away from Angels Stadium
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Aug. 7. I’m Carol Cormaci bringing you this week’s TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events.
Sonora-style hot dogs served up by street vendors have for years enticed hungry members of the public who attend events at Angel Stadium and the Honda Center in Anaheim.
The flavorful inexpensive meals offered up by dozens of local vendors has not left a good taste in the mouths of city officials, nor of people like Angels Baseball President John Carpino, who want them to pack their wares and move elsewhere.
My colleague Gabriel San Román reported in TimesOC over the weekend about the steps the city is going to in order to get the “hotdogueros” to stay away from high-traffic “no vending zones” like Angel Stadium.
Frankly speaking, it did not go over well with the Angels’ Carpino and his fellow execs that about 40 “hotdogueros” set up around the parking lot of Angel Stadium during the April 5 to 7 opening weekend series against the Boston Red Sox.
On April 8, according to San Román’s story, Carpino wrote an email to city and county officials. The story doesn’t mention whether or not the note was prompted by the economies of having people outside the gate compete with the concession stands inside. Carpino, it appears, hewed to the public safety aspect.
“Due to the lack of oversight, the possibility of a guest getting severely sick or even dying due to food poisoning is of great concern to us, and hopefully to you as well,” Carpino wrote. “You are the city and county officials which can create and enforce the necessary legislation to keep our residents safe.”
Carpino also claimed the street vendors hampered people with disabilities from having easy access to their cars, caused complaints from fans over food poisoning and obstructed public safety with loud portable speakers, according to the story.
Following the complaint the city beefed up code enforcement, but the vendors would just wheel their carts around to another part of the stadium.
“We now give them an option to leave or risk seeing their equipment be impounded,” Mike Lyster, an Anaheim spokesman, told TimesOC. “That has actually had a more pronounced impact.”
The city intends to continue its battle. It solicited proposals in hopes of contracting support for its code officers, a third party that could enforce city laws governing street vending. The City Council is expected to approve such an agreement after the Angels’ 2024 season concludes.
Come next spring, Angels fans might no longer be tempted by the aroma of grilled hot dogs as they walk through the parking lot, but they can always find the fare at one of the Angel Stadium concession stands where, according to this Washington Post story, the second most expensive hot dogs in Major League Baseball are sold.
MORE NEWS
• A well-known Newport Beach pediatrician filed a lawsuit last week against the hedge fund he had partnered up with at the beginning of the pandemic when he needed help to keep his Orange County business, Coastal Kids pediatric centers, afloat. In its story published Friday evening, the Daily Pilot reported Dr. Steve Abelowitz acknowledged he’d been warned to be careful when dealing with a hedge fund, in this case the private equity firm Summit Partners, L.P. and their management company, Pediatric Associates Holdings LLC, but he thought he’d put enough safeguards into place before inking the deal. Nonetheless, this year the firm fired him from his own business, he said, which he first established in 2001. Worse, he claims, young patients have been put into jeopardy by the LLC’s management practices. In O.C., Coastal Kids centers are found in Newport Beach, Irvine, Santa Ana, Ladeira Heights and Ladera Ranch.
• The Times reports that Orange County has demanded that the group linked to Supervisor Andrew Do’s daughter, 22-year-old Rhiannon Do, return $2.2 million by Aug. 26 because the organization, Viet America Society, did not prove to auditors how it spent money that had been awarded it by county contracts. The county’s demand that VAS return money was first reported by LAist, which has also reported Supervisor Do directed or voted to direct as much as $13.5 million to the nonprofit without disclosing that his daughter was connected to the group.
• Padlocks went up last Thursday on the arenas at the Equestrian Center on the OC fairgrounds where there has been an ongoing dispute between people who board and train their horses there and OC Fair & Event Center officials, the Daily Pilot reported. The horse owners/trainers who did not agree to a six-month contract at significantly increased fees are barred from using the open areas as well as the arenas. O.C. Supervisor and former Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley in a release Thursday called the move unfair to boarders and their horses. “Fair staff must reverse this decision and open the arena for exercising horses and resume discussions with tenants after the conclusion of the OC Fair,” Foley said. “Right now, we must focus on helping the horses while the humans negotiate their disputes.”
• You may have seen on local TV news stations the reporting on the Laguna Beach woman who yelled at beachgoers on the public sands in front of her home to “get out of here!” Well, guess who is now in the crosshairs of the California Coastal Commission? The resident, who used a rope to keep people off “her beach,” has received a letter from the Coastal Commission instructing her to stop blocking access to a public stretch of the sand, KCAL-TV reported, and she has until Aug. 16 to respond. The commission can impose administrative penalties of up to $11,250 a day for each violation of the California Coastal Act’s public access provisions.
• Environmental groups are taking a hard stance on O.C. Transportation Authority’s plan to armor San Clemente’s coastal rail line against the pounding surf by creating a seawall of boulders covered with sand, according to this TimesOC article. They are calling on OCTA to conduct a full environmental impact report and submit a coastal development permit before adding any more seawalls to the city’s beaches.
• There’s a new podcast centering on Orange County politics anchored by Mike Madrid, “Red County, Blue County, Orange County.” According to this TimesOC feature story, Madrid’s six-episode series explores the county’s transformation from an “Orange Curtain” of conservatism to a county where Democrats now outnumber Republicans in voter registration, 37% to 34%.
• After a U.S. Supreme Court decision gave municipalities more authority to clear out encampments and an order from California’s governor encouraged them to do so, Daily Pilot writer Eric Licas looked into how Orange County is managing homelessness in our own backyard. He learned that local officials are doggedly focused on housing and services for people who need them. You can read more on their efforts in Licas’ story here.
• A trip to the OC Fair was especially memorable for one lucky visitor who bought a $10 lottery scratcher from a vendor there that turned out to be worth $1 million. The owner of the scratcher beat significant odds, as there is only a 1 in 1,220,542 chance of winning the full $1-million jackpot, according to the card’s prize page.
• Public health officials put out the word that a visitor infected with measles flew into LAX in late July and went into several Orange County locations, according to this L.A. Times report. In O.C. the traveler visited five businesses in Anaheim, a Denny’s on the evening of Friday, July 26; a CVS Pharmacy on Harbor Boulevard and the Walmart on Anaheim Boulevard on the afternoon of July 27; the Anaheim Global Medical Center Emergency Department and a CVS on Katella Avenue on the afternoon of July 28. Individuals who aren’t immunized and haven’t had measles are at risk of developing symptoms one to three weeks after they were exposed. If a person does begin experiencing symptoms, health officials advise staying home and calling a healthcare provider for guidance.
PUBLIC SAFETY & COURTS
• Officers responding to a home around 2:15 a.m. Monday in Irvine’s Woodbridge development found a Honda Odyssey crashed into the home’s garage door and a man who had been stabbed to death inside the house, the Irvine Police Department announced in a Facebook post. He was later identified as John Alexander Bash III, a paralyzed resident of the home. About an hour later, officers approached a possible suspect about a quarter of a mile from the crash site. The man, identified as Aaron Matthew Shindle, 47, who was once the victim’s caregiver, was carrying a knife. Authorities said he raised it as he approached the officers. Officers shot Shindle, who was later confirmed to be the owner of the Honda Odyssey. He died later of his injuries.
• Irvine police reported finding last Friday a makeshift dwelling set up by two people at a former Marine Corps hangar. Investigators reported they found it decked out with disco lights, a fog machine and what appeared to be a recording studio, The Times reported. Officers came across it while following up on trespassing activity in the area in the Great Park, Irvine police said in a Facebook post.
• The Orange County chapter of TIP (Trauma Intervention Program) was formed in 1995, and its volunteers since then have provided emotional first aid with empathy to countless shocked survivors when first responders have called them to the scene of a serious incident. My colleague Andrew Turner spoke to MaryEllen Lowrey, the executive director of the local chapter, for this feature story on how the volunteers are trained to assist when a call comes in from a police or fire department.
• Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa is one of six California schools that failed to accurately report campus crimes, according to a Times report on a recent audit.
• The Times reported Friday on a new policy at the Brea Police Department: “Brea police officers are now allowed to show off their tattoos while on duty as part of a pilot program aimed at improving retention and recruitment, as well as providing some relief from the heat,” the paper reported. “The skin art shift started when a younger generation of officers came to administration asking for the change, according to Lt. Chris Haddad.” Prior to the change officers were required to cover up all body art while on shift.
• A judge on July 31 sentenced an O.C. church volunteer to 120 years in prison for molesting girls as young as 6. Newport Beach resident Todd Christian Hartman, 41, was convicted earlier last month.
• A convicted robber was charged with a hit-and-run that took place in Huntington Beach last week that injured a woman. Nakia Terrell Rouise, 49, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, evading a police officer, reckless driving, failing to stop at a hit-and-run with injury and car theft, all felonies, and a misdemeanor count of driving on a suspended license.
SPORTS
• Jeff Deffenbaugh, Jamie O’Brien and Ilima Kalama were inducted into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach on Friday morning. Two-time U.S. Open of Surfing champion and Surf City local Brett Simpson served as emcee.
LIFE & LEISURE
• The District at Tustin Legacy will soon boast a new restaurant, Prime Hot Pot, the all-you-can-eat hot pot chain’s first location in the U.S., taking over the 11,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by JT Schmid’s Restaurant & Brewery. According to this write-up by my colleague Sarah Mosqueda, the dining room will have a futuristic feel to it, “and Prime leans into the sensory experience with a ‘5D’ immersive dinner experience hosted in the private dining room for $218 per person, said to ‘activate all five senses.’”
• Last Saturday dozens of women knocked on the door of SeaLegs at the Beach in Huntington Beach, wearing their best wigs and caftans, as the venue hosted a Mrs. Roper Romp, with attendees encouraged to go dressed as landlady Helen Roper, portrayed by the late Audra Lindley on the show that originally ran from 1977 to 1984. Last month, as documented in the Daily Pilot photo above, a group of Mrs. Ropers turned out for the city’s annual Fourth of July Parade.
CALENDAR THIS
• The Southern California Hibiscus Society and the South Coast Plumeria Society will put on a colorful show at Sherman Library & Gardens., 2647 E. Coast Hwy., Corona del Mar, the weekend of Aug. 24 and 25, from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. Experts from both plant societies will be available to give advice, including talks and demonstrations. Vendors will be selling plants and related supplies. Admission is free for garden members; $5 for nonmembers.
• The 69th annual Fiesta Music Festival takes place in San Clemente this Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. along the 100 and 200 blocks of Avenida del Mar. Admission is free. Also, a free shuttle can transport attendees from San Clemente High School to the festival, or the can opt to take the free trolley from the Outlets at San Clemente. Visit this site for the lineup of music offerings.
A Reader Writes
TimesOC newsletter reader John Kingsley, an ex-pat now living in Costa Rica, sent a note after reading last week’s issue that he’s given me permission to share today:
The story about Disneyland brought back memories of when in my late teens going to Orange Coast College I would take dates to the newly opened Disneyland for a couple of bucks and have a blast dancing to live bands and enjoying the rides.
Today with admission over $100 — and Lord knows the price of a hamburger and Coke — I wouldn’t call that a cheap date. However, [I’m] glad the help got a raise so they can save to buy their million-dollar starter home.
Hard to believe a Secret Service agent got robbed, but I guess after the screw up with the Trump rally I hope they will tighten their hiring practices.
Thanks for writing, John!
Until next Wednesday,
Carol
KEEP IN TOUCH
I appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com.
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