In the face of federal and state inaction, Irvine has begun exploring the idea of creating a local plan to move highly dangerous nuclear waste now stored at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station site — located between San Clemente and Oceanside — to a more secure and safer facility.

All of the speakers agreed that the current situation at the San Onofre plant site was not intended to be permanent, and that the federal government is still decades away from having a national waste repository, originally promised for 1998.

On June 10th, the Irvine City Council passed a balanced two-year operations budget to guide some...

The Irvine City Council approved a “living wage” ordinance, setting wages for the lowest paid City employees and contract workers well above the state minimum wage.

“The basic question is what kind of workplace do we want to have?” said Mayor Larry Agran, who introduced the ordinance.

Setting up a new library system is no walk in the park — or browse in the stacks. Just ask Julie Zeoli. As Irvine’s first City Librarian, Zeoli has been charged with managing the changeover of the City’s libraries from County to City control.

“We’re doing an interior refresh of both,” Zeoli says. “New furniture, new computers, new carpeting and paint, so there will be a physical transformation of those two buildings.”

Betty Martinez Franco was sworn in as the Irvine City Council’s newest member on May 13th, and got a good taste of what she’s gotten herself into during the meeting that followed.

She closed by saying, “I am ready to get to work, to collaborate with our Mayor and my fellow Councilmembers to build an Irvine where diversity is not just tolerated but celebrated, where equity is not just a promise but a practice, and where inclusion is not just a buzzword, it’s how we govern.”

The Irvine City Council has given City staff the green light to continue talks with the Irvine Company and begin detailed studies of a plan to convert the Oak Creek Golf Course and adjacent properties into a 3,100-unit residential village that would include a new elementary school.

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During his “State of the City” address, Mayor Larry Agran laid out an expansive vision and a specific action plan for Irvine in front of a packed City Council Chamber.

But then he ventured beyond the dry status report, saying: “We are once again poised to invest in building an even brighter future for our entire Irvine community.”

When Betty Martinez Franco entered the City Council race in Irvine’s District 5 last December, she was given virtually no chance against two well-known former Councilmembers.

She quickly consolidated Kim’s supporters behind her candidacy, ran an energetic grassroots campaign, and when the results were tallied on April 15th, she came out on top by more than 500 votes.

Mayor Larry Agran called a special Council meeting on April 8th to discuss the City’s draft Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP), a package containing nearly 200 proposed actions and programs, both large and small, to make Irvine carbon-neutral by 2040.

In addition to requiring a full financial analysis, Agran called for the CAAP to be reviewed by the City’s Finance Commission, Sustainability Commission, and Transportation Commission.

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran has always been one to “think globally, act locally.”

The field was part of the Harvest Solutions Farm. The broccoli was destined for the Second Harvest Food Bank and, ultimately, the dinner table of those facing food and nutrition insecurity.