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It's been a while since I've turned my attention in this column solely to the city in which I live, that being the City of Temple. Sure, I have included little kudos and barbs here and there, but I have not spent much time focusing on the little things that have been going on.
Where to begin? If this is going to be a state of the city type of thing, what should I comment on? I know I will never be able to cover all of the things that are bothering everybody, the best I can do is to touch on a few of the things that I have observed, and hopefully you have too.
Where to start? Oh I know. How about the corner of Rosemead Boulevard and Las Tunas Drive? It seems to me I have heard recently about some kind of development going on there. I was driving by there the other day, and sure enough, there was a fence with large green tarps and that usually signifies some type of construction is about to begin.
Apparently there are a group of concerned citizens that have been at odds with our current city council about the pending construction. They have, for the last few months, been sporting nifty little lawn signs as a means of voicing their displeasure, but their misguided battle appears to be over. Despite what they may think, or hope for, once those construction fences go up, the skirmish is over.
So you guys can take down, or should I say pull up, your signs and take them over to the Temple City Historical Museum where the other relics of our past are housed. Even though you were fighting a battle that couldn't be won, you gave it a shot. I don't think the Governor will be calling before midnight for a stay of execution; nope those bad boys are going down.
For years I have been writing about that corner as well as the over development in general in this city, so I have no sympathy for the people surrounding that corner. Empathy maybe, but had they been heeding what I had been writing about over the years, when the grim reaper came knocking at their door, it wouldn't have been such a surprise.
Just out of curiosity I went back to my archive. In one article as long ago as November 2000 I
wrote about that corner. In that article, way before any plans were set in stone, I implored my readers to write or talk to the city council members if they had any concerns.
Did they? No, of course not. Even on the web site that this group came up with, 90% of the people who write in don't put their names on their letters, choosing the cowardly "Anonymous" instead. If you are not willing to put your name on it, don't bother writing it.
With nobody willing to step forward, even when the wolf was at their door, there was no hope for their cries of foul. Besides, the one thing that all of the detractors of this project keep losing sight of is that the money involved is coming from private investors and is not costing the city a dime.
Recently I had written about the ridiculous development that is going in next to my house, where four single story, single family homes have been replaced with eight two story houses and what I can only imagine will be multiple family homes. Did I get a response to that in the form of letters to the editor? Of course not.
These houses weren't being built next to them so why should they care? Well the shoe is on the other foot now and I hope you enjoy the view of those 52 condos as I am enjoying the view of these eight mini mansions.
You also better hope that there is some kind of policing of the people who are moving in at Las Tunas and Rosemead and residing there. The condos are going to be one-bedroom dwellings, enough room for one to two people. And yet, I will take anybody's bet that there will be multiple family members living there in no time. You will really have something to complain about if it turns into an over priced tenement.
Well enough about that, what else is going on? Oh I know, I have been reading and hearing about something that one of our council members, Cathe Wilson, brought up back in January at a council meeting. Council Member Wilson thinks that our city signs, the ones that mark the entrances to our city, which are a little over a year old, should be replaced.
The signs, which are square with a rounded top, apparently remind her of tombstones and she thinks they should say "Welcome To Temple City" on them, instead of just "Temple City". If they did say that you would have to have something to welcome them to, like say a movie theatre or a viable downtown shopping area. But as we all know, we have neither.
Considering all of the problems facing this city, spending energy or any time even thinking about replacing our brand new city signs is absolutely fucking ludicrous. I hope that what I was hearing was a mistake, because to think that I voted for someone who is so out of touch with the needs of our city makes me feel ill.
While we are on the topic of foolish behavior in the council chambers, the little skirmish in March over Council Member Judy Wong not being named Mayor Pro Tem over Council Member Wilson, is another exercise as to how the priorities of some of our council members are completely out of fucking whack.
In a display of childishness, rarely seen outside of grammar school, sulking Council Member Wong called her buddy and low-level political thug Betty Chu, Mayor of Monterey Park, to come over and rough up our city council. She marched into our council chambers like the new sheriff in town ready to set things straight.
While you may think the term "thug" is a bit heavy handed it is nothing compared to the heavy-handed rhetoric Chu was throwing around the room. Not wanting to bore you with all of the threats she was making in her sudo politico speak, she, in essence, called our city council and our entire city racists.
Ms. Wong, who has basically done nothing in her tenure as a Council Member, did accomplish one thing in her time here, raising racial tensions in our community to a new level. This, when she should be spending every second of her time easing those tensions, instead of crying over a ceremonial title. I hope everyone, no matter what race you are, remembers this when election time comes around.
It looks like I'm out of time and only got part of what I wanted to say in the space provided. I'll just have to save the rest for another day and another article. I guess I waited a little too long to get back to hometown problems and had to spend too much time catching up, but it felt good to get these things off my chest.
Who says you can never go home again?
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