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It was a big couple of days, these last couple of days, for FURTIVE EVENTS, events that sought to AVOID publicity. I’m thinking, first, of what happened last night – Monday night – that was meant to fly under the radar, but the Orange Juice Blog knows all!
In short, the local association of Short Term Rental (STR) owners, the Anaheim Rental Alliance, held a fundraiser for District 4 Council candidate (and dismally failed Mayoral candidate) Lucille Kring, (often referred to as a “pintsized packmule unburdened by conscience or scruple“), to show their great gratitude for all the ways she’s helped them in the past, and their hope for more help in the future. Yup, here’s their invitation e-mail, which fell into our hands:
From: Anaheim Rental Alliance <info@anaheimrentalalliance.org>
Date: August 29, 2016 at 11:59:51 AM PDT
To: Anaheim Rental Alliance <info@anaheimrentalalliance.org>
Subject: EVENT REMNIDER: Summer Fundraiser for Mayor Pro Tem Lucile Kring
Dear Fellow STR Owner:
This is a reminder to attend and support Mayor Pro Tem Lucile Kring’s Summer Fundraiser today in her bid for re-election in 2016.
Monday, August 29, 2016
5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Complementary Parking
Grand Legacy At The Park
(formerly Ramada Maingate)
1650 S. Harbor Ave. Anaheim
(714) 772-0899
If you are unable to attend tonight’s event, please consider supporting her with your most generous financial contribution to help re-elect her. As you are already aware, she has been an outspoken supporter of short term rentals and we must do our utmost to show her our support.
Please make checks payable to “Kring For Council 2016” and mail to etc…
We hope to see you there tonight.
Sincerely
ARA
(714) 783-4422
info@anaheimrentalalliance.org
Well, that’s just great, why hide this, Lucille? Let your STR flag fly! 4th District voters should know that they have a choice – those who like having these hybrid home-slash-hotels on their little streets, proliferating noise, litter, vomit, and crowds of rude strangers (there must be some of you out there who like that!) go ahead and support the re-election of old Lucille “saved us the cost of a trial” Kring – the Mayor Pro-Tem who loves her some STR’s so deeply and madly that she sucks up their campaign cash even in the midst of their suing our city.
While conversely, any 4th-district denizens who prefer a little peace, prefer getting a good night’s sleep and knowing who your neighbors are, who value the sense of community that many consider the essence of Anaheim, well YOU can vote for the DPOC-endorsed, Tait-approved, chairman of the South Anaheim Neighborhood Council, Father Arturo Ferreras. Simple! May the best man win.
While we’re on the subject of STR’s and the Council, why don’t we play a little game of Jeopardy? Click for the theme song while you read, it’ll be fun!
“Alex, I’ll take ‘Corrupt Former Anaheim Councilwomen of Limited Intelligence’ for a thousand.“
“Okay! She was at the first, December 2013 STR workshop with the rest of the Council; she listened to the staff report but City Attorney Michael Houston made her leave during public comments because she lived nextdoor to an STR. Five months later in May 2014 she was somehow allowed to join in the unanimous vote in favor of the original, disastrous, STR ordinance. Six months after THAT, in November, she was voted off City Council.
“But wait… there’s more! Three months after THAT, in February of 2015, she started operating her OWN STR by renting out her back house, not bothering to get a permit until June. (Renter comments on Airbnb date back to February.) The permit she got in June expired a month later in July along with all STR permits. She never did renew her permit after that, but when city staff (Sandra Sagert) was questioned about this, lo and behold an updated permit miraculously appeared on the city’s website. (Jeopardy has obtained a screenshot of the expired permit.)
“Fast forward to NOW, and this lady is SUING THE CITY as a NAMED PLAINTIFF for changing an ordinance that she probably should never have voted on in the first place!“
“Who .. is… Who is.. GAIL EASTMAN?“
“You are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, it’s GAIL ‘Thank God for the riots’ EASTMAN, for 1000!”
So, like I observed at the outset, it was a big couple of days, these last couple of days, for FURTIVE EVENTS, events that sought to AVOID publicity. I’m thinking also of something that happened Sunday afternoon, something that’d been whispered about but the exact “where and when” been kept under wraps till the last minute, probably to avoid protests: A rally for OC Latinos who support anti-immigrant Republican Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump.
Register pic. It’s unclear if LA’s Dr. Estella Sneider, second from right, is one of the Trump Latinas.
They called it, in a good-humored in-your-face touch, “Operation Taco Bowl,” a reference to one of Trump’s countless lame-ass remarks that many consider racist or at least in bad taste, and they held it on the steps of Anaheim City Hall. I sure woulda liked to-a been there, I was right across the street just before and just after.
Now we can only judge by the following video, and a brief report in the Register, which claims there were about a hundred present. It was unclear how many of that hundred were actually Latinos – I’ve heard maybe half – and these 50 were called in from all over the state – not too impressive for the first leg of a tour purporting to show off the buffoon’s Latino support. Sure that exists – but it’s reported to be in the low 20%, 19%, although I’ll grant you that’s a lot higher than the guy’s 0% among blacks.
Well, if you’ve got nothing better to do, click the video below and enjoy the minstrel show. My, aren’t they fascinated with how counter-intuitive they think they are! One thing’s for certain, these people really do Hate them some Hillary! (Warning: the first speaker, northern California’s foul-mouthed Marco Gutierrez*, feels free to cuss like a Tijuana pimp when he breaks into Spanish, so this is only family-safe if your kids don’t speak Spanish.)
*update – Marco Gutierrez is the head of Trump’s Latino outreach who became well-known a few days later for warning darkly of “A Taco Truck on every Corner!”
I have to be honest, this doesn’t make a lot of sense. Disneyland is as opposed to STRs as anyone (less competition for those glorious four diamond hotels) and didn’t Disney spend 3/4 of a million dollars in the last election cycle? The STR industry would have to be way larger than I would have thought possible to make their fundraiser network large enough to compensate for Disney’s.
I think you’ll find that Disney doesn’t care much one way or the other. STRS are often occupied by extended families or groups of families/friends who wouldn’t be staying at a four star anyhow. These STRs are mostly nondescript tract houses with lots of bedrooms/bathrooms and most importantly – a kitchen.
Say you take three families @ $400 a night, then divide it three ways: $133 bucks and you cook your own meals.
Like Mad Magazine: cheap.
*Wow, the even a broken DZ man is right twice a day. A couple of comments here: First off, small families of four usually stay at the low cost motels and hotels scattered around Anaheim. These are the facilities who will suffer most from the AirBnb phenomena. The Drug Dealers, Prostitution Rings and others will also create an endless ring of fun for the Anaheim Police, the Fire Dept. and Anaheim City Regulators. Living next to a revolving door of these types will obviously drive out the local gentry in record time. The Real Estate folks will again profit from all the transactions. Anaheim will soon join the ranks of Newport Beach and other vacation locations as troubled communities that allow the greedy STR groups. These people usually live in safe places like Tustin and Lake Forest and Mission Viejo. After all, who wants to stay in an AirBnb in Yorba Linda? Secondly, we are hopeful that our darling Lucille will take the STR Money and then write them a nice letter thanking them and reminding them that she will still be voting her conscience when elected. Those Disclaimers are becoming more and more popular…because, no one wants the stain on their records of these obvious socially impacting groups. Remember those Red Light Cameras and all the money Lockheed-Martin was willing to pay for re-election campaigns? Same thing.
Lucille already voted her conscience on the STR issue. She voted to allow the existing ones to stay in Anaheim. She voted against the residents of her own district and for the STR owners. She voted to allow the residents to continue to suffer with the hotels next door and all of the accompanying issues. This is why the STR owners are so happy to have a fundraiser for her- she picked her side and it wasn’t to support her district 4 residents. Fortunately she was outvoted and Mayor Tom Tait and Council Members James Vanderbilt and Jordan Brandman saw fit to begin the restoration of the neighborhoods.
So the residents of District 4 will speak with their votes in November and elect a candidate who is not supported by Disney, STR owners,SOAR, etc and elect someone who is concerned with the people and THEIR interests.
*Sorry to hear that. But then, if she knew she didn’t have the votes to begin with…..well, politricks….as you well know. The STR issue is not only regional but soon national. In Newport Beach, they have made a few changes to the current licensing scenario: The STR;s have to be for a least 4 days and the Licensing has to be renewed annually. 2ndly, the TOT tax has to be paid within 30 days…..which requires the landlords to either pay up or face penalties. These certainly are not as strong as we would like to see, because we believe they should be regulated and limited to certain numbers in certain regions of the city.
Balboa Island and West Newport Peninsula has a tradition of Summer Rentals…..other areas not so much – like Corona del Mar, Newport Heights and the Newport Coast. The problems involve Drug Cartel money and drug transfers…..and the tepid laws about making the STR’s for a least 4 days…would not matter to an intelligent Columbian Drug Lord….or a Pimp with a string of ladies from Guatemala or El Salvador.
These people are too much man.
Damn, Lucille sure got chewed out over this by a bunch of anti-STR folks Tuesday night, right after this story came out. (Except I think they’d heard about this through their own networks.) They were ferocious! I think this is gonna sink her.
Interesting philosophical question: how much can a stone really sink once it’s reached the bottom of the lake bed? She’s the only Republican running in the Fourth District and even under those circumstances none of the conservative activists I know are willing to do anything for her campaign beyond helping her pack up her bags in December.