CITYSCAPE ROUNDUP

City officials urged residents of the Huntington-by-the-Sea mobile

home park, whose homes may have been damaged by months of shaking from

tractors hauling dirt behind their homes, to file damage claims.

Park residents have been upset for more than three months over an

earthmoving operation connected to the city’s plans for a new beach

maintenance facility near the AES Corp. power plant on Newland Street.

Earthmovers have piled dirt up to 30 feet high behind mobile homes,

before spreading it out to dry on land behind the park enclave and then

hauling it back to the construction site, residents said.

Repeated use of large earthmover vehicles have damaged nearby homes,

and some residents have complained of the dirt entering their homes and

of the noise cased by the work, they added.

City Engineer David Webb said the city has only received three damage

claims that it can take action on, but C.W. Poss Inc., the subcontractor

in charge of the earthmoving project, needs all damage claim forms before

dealing with the matter.

Any photos, estimates or other records associated with the claim

should be included with the form, he added.

Sandra Cole, a park resident who organized public meetings between

mobile home owners, the city and the contractor in charge of the

earthmoving, said she has collected more than 50 claim forms meant to be

filed en masse.

Resident Guy Fortin was the first mobile home owner to file a

complaint against the earthmovers, and said he has suffered a

stress-related heart attack as a result of the problem.

Officials for C.W. Poss, Inc., the subcontractor in charge of the

earthmoving operation, did not return phone calls Tuesday.

Claim forms can be obtained from the City Clerk’s office on the second

floor of City Hall at 2000 Main St. Information: (714) 536-5227.

Council to hold meeting with representatives

The City Council will hold a special meeting today to discuss a number

of issues with Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and

Assemblyman Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) in a live videoconference at

the Huntington Beach Central Library.

City officials said they plan to review federal funding sources with

Rohrabacher, as well as a proposed bill that could, if passed, provide a

chance to residents living in a flood plain to comment on or appeal

changes to flood plain maps that could affect their insurance costs.

Stateside, Harman and council members are slated to discuss the state

budget, efforts to change property tax assessments in order to protect

city revenue and the restructuring of the Orange County Transportation

Authority board of directors, they added.

The city may also receive an update on Harman’s proposed bill to ban

the import, sale, possession or disposal of the salt water seaweed

Caulerpa taxifola, or “killer seaweed” because of its invasive effect on

natural seabeds and vegetation, as well as fish nurseries.

Rohrabacher will be communicating from Washington D.C., while Harman

will speak from Sacramento.

A grant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District allowed

the city to purchase the video and phone equipment necessary to host

videoconferences in most of the library’s meeting rooms on a rental fee

basis.

The first such conference was held on Jan. 22, and the equipment has

generated about $4,940 in revenue.

The video conference is set for today at 10 a.m. in Room D of the

Huntington Beach Central Library at 7111 Talbert Ave. Information: (714)

536-5227.

Sister City delegates visit for holiday

A delegation of residents and officials from Anjo, Japan, a sister

city of Huntington Beach, will arrive Monday in time for thethey are

precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

f7 Did Jesus stop loving colored people when they grew up?

“All men are created equal,” I repeated in my head, “endowed by their

creator with certain unalienable rights. . . .”

All people except colored people?

I felt myself blush, embarrassed for myself and for my hometown.

Many years later and 2000 miles west, in my California high school’s

library, I came across a book called, “The Life and Writings of Frederick

Douglass.”

In it is a speech Douglass gave July 5, 1852, at an event

commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It reads,

in part,

“Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this

republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men.

They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and

the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their

memory. . . .

“Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to

speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your

national independence?

“What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer; a day

that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross

injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your

celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your

national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty

and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence;

your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and

hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and

solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and

hypocrisy.”

One hundred forty-nine Independence Days later, things have changed.

Slavery was abolished 30 years before Douglass died. The South is

integrated. But sometimes, in some places, the more things change, the

more they really do remain the same.

When I took my husband to see my birthplace and to meet my extended

family a few years ago, he was sometimes bewildered, sometimes surprised

and dismayed. I was simply dismayed.

The “n” word still rolled off the tongues of my kinfolks and others.

“Colored” people were characterized as dumb -- “they’ve got

monkey-brains” -- lazy and dirty.

On a car trip -- a walk in the park was too dangerous -- throught also

has an excellent kitchen. Five big shining vats fill one side of the room

while wraparound windows and two outside patios fill the rest of the room

with sunlight and a view of the Pacific Ocean.

Outstanding on the menu are starters like pub-style fish and chips

($8.29), fresh strips of cod dipped in the house beer and served with

steak fries or another quirky selection -- armadillo eggs ($5.99)

jalapeno stuffed with cheddar cheese and deep-fried.

Worthy of any fish restaurant is the salmon ($12.59), a grilled

six-ounce piece, crusty on the edges, moist and tender inside and topped

with a light cream dill sauce. It is served with some great grilled

vegetables -- big cuts of carrots, celery, broccoli flowers, fresh

succulent mushrooms and three small peel-on red potatoes. Combine this

dish with a view from the back patio and you have the best in Huntington

Beach.

There are 10 pasta dishes from Thai fettuccine ($9.99) and Thai Cajun

shrimp penne ($11.89) to Surf City penne ($9.59), but it is rosemary

chicken ravioli that steals my heart. Six tender round pastas filled with

bits of ricotta and cream cheese in a silky orange tomato sauce is

sprinkled with fresh rosemary, a herb with a strong flavor reminiscent of

lemon. Served on a good hot platter, it has triangles of wood-fired,

pizza-style garlic bread.

Whether you watch the parade with Grand Marshal Lou Rawls march up

Main Street from the front balcony of the beer company or go to

Huntington Beach High School for the entertainment and fireworks after

dinner, pizza is a choice popular with any age. The HBBC Supreme ($9.89)

is a six slice, wood-fired, brick oven baked and topped with a spicy

sauce, pepperoni, sausage, peppers and mozzarella cheese. It’s a thin

crust with a chewy rolled edge. You can even take it out to share while

you wait for the sun to set and paint the ocean a golden red.

* MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have comments

or suggestions for her, call (562) 493-5062.

*

o7 FYI

f7 Huntington Beach Beer Co.

WHERE: 201 Main St.

PHONE: (714) 960-5343

HOURS: 11:30 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 2

a.m. Friday and Saturday

MISC.: Free live entertainment from 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday.