…FOR PUBLICLY SUPPORTING THIS PIPEDREAM IN A NEWSPAPER
It must take away the breath of Wildomarians to know that two members of the council are actively involved in the leadership of this pipedream. (What, they’re the Mayor and Pro Tempore as well?; many of you voted for them and pushed for their appointments; top vote getters and all).
Wildomar Mayor Bob Cashman and Mayor Pro Tempore Bridgette Moore have publicly admitted their involvement in the deluded world of the Wildomar Cultural Five Parks Center Park committee where this effort, according to today’s Californian article, “stands for Wildomar.”
At this point, Wildomar Magazine is in complete agreement that it probably stands for about ten to twenty unhinged and unbalanced people in Wildomar. The rest of us, rational and reasonable, think it to be a pipedream.
A project similar to this one, when attempted in Sedona, Arizona, failed completely, despite the generous donation of the late Georgia Frontiere, owner of the former Los Angeles Rams.
Given the current dire economic circumstances, Cashman and Moore should be seeking guidance on how to save Wildomar from “devolvement,” which is when cities fail economically and return to county governance. They should try to be the stable element in the midst of their small group of activists and genius friends (WCC and RDA PAC).
Instead, they think Wildomar, a generally barren slice of semi-arid desert, happy home to most of the landscapers in the area, is going to be the next Garden of Eden. Or Irvine.
If you ever needed proof that Bob and Bridgette live in an unreal world, this is it. A simple comment by either one of them, offering their best wishes to this wacky ”private” endeavor, doomed to a failed future by a proven failed past, would have been sufficient as a Mayor. Instead, they are part and parcel of the pipedreamers. Needless to say, Wildomar Magazine is not surprised in the least.
In his article, Reporter Aaron Claverie reported: “Following Sedona’s incorporation in 1988, a group of residents put together a proposal that featured an amphitheater, museum, multiuse trails flowing to and from the site and an arts village with galleries and living quarters for artists.
According to an account published in the Sedona Daily, the amphitheater was built first.
The operators of the amphitheater, however, quickly piled up $5 million in debt and abandoned the site. None of the other elements of the cultural center were built. A South Dakota corporation stepped in and tried to revive the amphitheater and the cultural center concept but that group eventually gave up.
The project’s founder is very familiar with the problems that befell the Sedona park and she said Wildomar can avoid those issues by not “overreaching.”
First, the idea that someone is going to donate “25 to 27 acres” of land for the project is “overreaching” by definition. Besides, as we know from the Strategic Visioning Seminar, that land is already going to be devoted to a “four year university” for Wildomar and, as a result, is already spoken for.
Zak can’t wait for the day when the still unknown benefactor steps up to the plate and announces who he is giving his land to. “And the winner is…..”
Second, if a project like this won’t fly in Sedona, then someone needs to check their magic crystals and then explain why it will work in Wildomar.
Third, two attempts to make the amphitheater in Sedona work didn’t. Given that Zak is a former South Dakotan and has great confidence in South Dakotans, if they couldn’t make it work, there is no hope. South Dakotans are very optomistic, generally.
What disturbs Wildomar Magazine, Gil and Zak further is the suggestion from Mayor Pro Tempore Moore that she envisions a “community center/cultural center” for this project. God, I hope the RDA PAC doesn’t hear about this plan as they will sh*t themselves trying to get this on their agenda so they can spend more RDA tax increment on Kami’s favorite “giveaway.” (How ironic that the same issue of the Californian had an article on Lakeland Village’s attempt to remove blight and nothing was said about the RDA PAC and their involvement. Is Wildomar intending to take Lakeland Village’s money to build Wildomar a community center, too?)
Finally, the project sponsor told Claverie that “I’ve always had a lot of ideas flowing from me; I’ve always kind of been that way,” she said. “I need someone running behind me and writing everything down.”
Well, Zak is a good writer but he will not be running behind you, recording your fantasies; you already have Bob and Bridgette for that.
However, Zak will be willing to write down those things, as they occur, that matter most to the citizens of Wildomar, as follows:
- If your idea has already failed in Sedona, what makes anyone with a rational brain think that it will work in Wildomar? You don’t have land or money.
- Don’t think for a single second that Zak, Gil or Wildomar Magazine will permit this city council to donate a single cent to your pipedream without a lot of resistance. This is the stuff, if any donations are made from taxpayer coffers, that gets a recall committee formed. Stop wasting my tax dollars on your dreams.
- Wildomar Magazine does want to thank you for getting this information out about Cashman and Moore to be so closely involved with your pipedream. It only clarifies, for the three remaining city council members, how important the next vote for Mayor in December is going to be for those of us who want to live in a real city.
Comments can be made to zakturango@excite.com. All offers for a community center coming from the RDA PAC should be referred to the WCC. It’s a circular kind of suggestion.