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.
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