So far all Orange County got was a big ugly orange balloon

A new article questions the millions and millions that have been spent transforming the contaminated military base into a park for kids and families.

El Toro photo by Tim King Salem-News.cmo

(SALEM) - Southern California received a heavy dose of reality a few days ago, with the release of the Orange County Register article by Jeff Overly titled: Were Great Park master plans a good investment? We're taught as journalists to always capture the reader in the first few words. That title effectively made me a prisoner.

For a group situated as far from Orange County and the old El Toro Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) as we are, Salem-News.com has sure published a lot of information about the history and contamination of the old base, once one of the Marine Corp's finest, or so we believed.

Our interest begins with the fact that I served there as a Marine in the 80's, and Salem-News.com writers Robert O'Dowd, Roger Butow and Chuck Palazzo were there in the 60's, and our writer John Uldrich was there in the 50's, you get the idea.

Orange County is an island of sorts. Close to everything, it is still a little too far from the Los Angeles TV stations that are responsible for covering an endless geographic region. They're primarily concerned with what takes place in LA anyway, which is a massive problematic result of the FCC's decision in the 1940's to only allow TV stations in certain areas.

The bottom line is that things in Orange County have happened in a one newspaper region, and the OC Register is that paper. Today there is a more diversified selection of published media content and there are great online sources for news. However the region was informationally dark for a very long time and still continues to be in many ways.

The new article questions the millions and millions that have been spent transforming the contaminated military base into a park for kids and families.

So far all Orange County got was a big ugly orange balloon.

The OC Register article begins:

“

Great Park officials have for years defended their decision to spend tens of millions of dollars on up-front planning, but as time goes by and the vision for the park evolves, it's looking like some of those designs will be less relevant or not be used at all. Critics say it was unwise to spend so much on design for a project that it will take decades to build and likely see its concept change significantly over time...

”

With the world in upheaval as it is, we haven't been addressing the El Toro story as frequently a we would like, glad to know the OC Register is.

Our own Odd Man Out, Roger Butow, added his comments to the OC Register and they are as follows:

"Oh yeah, that's really environmentally intelligent, a 2 mile long canyon (basically a big sinkhole) in the middle of a flood plain where no such geographical feature existed before. It's called radical hydromodification, about as monolithically ignorant, both ecologically and hydrologically, as ever proposed. This is what you get when free-spending politicians, using money other than their own get control of a cash cow.

This was never intended to be a Great Park, it was intended to be a tax machine, a way to stuff Irvine property income coffers and create a South OC Empire---Notice how the residential element has grown? LENNAR is a known producer of sub-standard homes, yet they go away enriched for hanging with hypocrites, Agran's Army becomes more wealthy & powerful, and we the former supporters (anti-airport but pro people's park) can't do anything but watch this very slow moving fiscal train wreck chug-a-chug along towards financial oblivion.

In a sense, the most powerful South OC Democrats scammed voters, stole this base conversion from the local and federal taxpayers-----Now THAT was the ignorance Agran speaks of, coupled with the naiveté that his Council & Great Park Board majority would honor their vows. Politicians, whatever party, seldom keep their word, it's about THEM, not US.

Like the proposed canyon, this has become a major money pit, a veritable black hole of fiscal irresponsibility. And as an aging Marine from the Vietnam era, where's the graveyard plot that I was promised? LENNAR now owns it and will build more homes where veterans were promised a resting place."

Here is the OC Register article, check it out: Were Great Park master plans a good investment?

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Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim is a former U.S. Marine.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Silver Spoke Award by the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (2011), Excellence in Journalism Award by the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs (2010), Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), First-place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Tim was a member of the National Press Photographer's Association for several years and is a current member of the Orange County Press Club.

Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. As News Editor, Tim among other things, is responsible for publishing the original content of 91 Salem-News.com writers. He reminds viewers that emails are easily missed and urges those trying to reach him, to please send a second email if the first goes unanswered. You can write to Tim at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com