E-Bike Accidents are on the Rise in Irvine
According to the Irvine Police Department (IPD), e-bike crashes are on the rise throughout our...
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Month: August 2024
Mega-Warehouse Development Coming to Irvine
Just over 27,000 Irvine residents live in the IBC neighborhood, most of whom are young professionals.
The neighbors have received a letter letting them know of a plan to replace nine office buildings within the Von Karman Corporate Center — on the northeast corner of Von Karman and Alton Parkway close to their homes — with a 541,000-square-foot warehouse complex. (That’s about the size of four Costco stores under one roof.)
One of the affected residents who received the letter, Valer Cupsa, told KABC-TV News that the mega-warehouse would drastically change the aesthetics of the neighborhood.
Cupsa said that the office buildings were pretty quiet, “but obviously, a half-million-square-foot warehouse would bring a lot of pollution, a lot of trucks, a lot of noise. … When someone might want to sell their house, if you have trucks coming in and out at all hours of the day, that can’t be good.”
District Elections Result in a Full Field of Council Candidates
It looks like the shift to district elections for the Irvine City Council is proving to be a boost...
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Publisher’s Perspective: Tammy Kim Puts Her Own Financial Interests Ahead of Irvine Residents
Since being elected to the Council in 2020, Tammy Kim has made it her priority to advocate for those who will benefit her financially. Here are just a few examples:
Tammy Kim is the City’s paid representative on the OCPA board. Although she is supposed to be advocating for Irvine ratepayers, she voted to have Irvine electricity customers pay the highest rates in Orange County while giving herself a 40% pay raise for serving on the OCPA board.
Tammy Kim took a $150,000 political contribution from the firefighters she is paid to oversee as the City’s representative and then argued forcefully against Irvine establishing its own Fire Department, even though Irvine taxpayers are sending $140 million to the OC Fire Authority but only receiving $60 million in services.
Tammy Kim took a political contribution from the head of Business Affairs at Amazon and then voted against the Planning Commission’s request to place restrictions on massive warehouses being built near Irvine neighborhoods (one is the size of 5 Costco stores!).
Publisher’s Perspective: Tammy Kim’s Scheme to Evade Irvine’s Campaign Finance Laws
The person with the most money should not be allowed to buy a seat on the City Council. That’s what Irvine voters made clear back in the 1980s when they passed a ballot measure that put a limit on how much an individual could donate to a political candidate running for local office. In the November election, that contribution limit is $620.
As the former Chair of the Illinois State Board of Elections — an independent state agency responsible for administering and enforcing campaign finance and election laws — I have witnessed how corrupt politicians try to get around campaign contribution limits.
In the race for Mayor, Tammy Kim has received most of her campaign donations — about 60% — from out-of-town business interests. She’s also relying on two newly created big-money political committees to get around Irvine’s campaign contribution limit.
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