Tuesday, June 23, 2015

James Ding: 80% of the Nearby Irvine Residents are against the cemetery in the OC Great Park

See video at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNe46Oa8NEI&feature=youtu.be

Public Speech at the Irvine city council meeting on 6/23/15.

Speech transcript:

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to express my concern about the proposed cemetery
in the Orange County great park.

On July 22, 2014, resolution 14-92 was passed by Irvine City Hall and
a veteran’s cemetery was proposed to be constructed in Orange County
Great Park, around which thousands of new homes have been built in the
past 10 years.

In order to know whether or not a cemetery within walking distance is
acceptable for the residents nearby, we have visited hundreds of homes
in communities near the Great Park, from Cypress Village, Woodbury,
Stonegate to Portola Springs, Pavilion Park and Lambert Ranch.
Residents in these communities are of various cultural background.
Based on our investigation, most of the Residents even have never
heard of this case. And the most important thing is that more than 80%
of residents said “NO!” to the proposed cemetery in the Great Park!
We respect our veterans since they contributed their loyalty to our
great country and protected our freedom and peace. We actually hope
our government can find a beautiful and peaceful place to construct
the veterans’ cemetery. We even would like to make donation if a
suitable location is selected for the cemetery.

However, the proposed location of cemetery in OC Great Park is not
endorsed and recognized by more than 80% of the residents in the
communities near the Great Park.

Thus I have come up with a concern. Why could a proposal which is
against the will of most of the residents be passed in our City
Council? Is Irvine City Council planning to take some measures in the
future to prevent something similar from happening again?

It is strongly expected that the city council can release a
satisfactory answer and resolution to the public about this wrong
proposal.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Who's picking up the tab?

Did you know that there is a veterans cemetery in Riverside to the east of Irvine? Did you know there is another veterans cemetery in San Diego to the south of Irvine? Did you know there is yet another one in Los Angeles to the North? Why is it important? The federal government will not consider establishing a veterans cemetery at a location if it's within 75 miles of another one. In the case of the proposed cemetery in Great Park there are 3 cemeteries within that distance. In fact, the Riverside cemetery is less than 45 miles away.

What does this mean to the residence of Irvine? This means a Great Park cemetery must be state owned and operated. The federal government will not be paying the tab to fully build out, much less pay for the ongoing maintenance of the cemetery. With California budget deep in the red, who will be stuck with the bill? You and I. To date, there's been no study on the expected cost of operation and up keep. Why is that? What's there to hide? The price tag is an inconvenient truth that supporter of the cemetery don't want you to know.

Don't let others twists the truth. This is about the future for all Irvine residents. Join us and say 'No' to cemetery in Great Park. Call or email Irvine city councilman. Tell them you love the veterans, but Great Park is no place for veterans cemetery.

Written by Rakefire

To contact us, e-mail: icity1688@gmail.com 
For latest update, see: icity168.blogspot.com

 

People power

A big thumbs up to our teams of volunteers who helped us get the word out about the Town Hall. You are the backbone of this movement. You're the reason we've gotten incredible support with the residents.

Thank you for all the hours you put in. Thank you for passing out the thousands of Town Hall flyers to let the resident of Irvine have a voice on the future of their community. It's exciting to see everyone going above and beyond for a cause you believe in. Despite mayor Steven Choi and councilman Lynn Schott's unexplained last minute pull out and meeting cancellation, we still had many passionate residents come out.

Lastly, thank you for exceeding all expectation in our signature collection drive. The more people know the truth about the cemetery, the bigger our movement becomes. Together, we will hold the those responsible accountable for the will of the residents. The momentum is on our side. We are all here to fight for our quality of life and future of our community.

Written by Rakefire

To contact us, e-mail: icity1688@gmail.com 
For latest update, see: icity168.blogspot.com

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Life in the slow lane with Veterans cemetery

Did you know that there is a veteran's cemetery only 40 minutes away from Irvine in Riverside today? Did you know it is the most active veteran cemetery in the entire country? According to LA Times, last year there were about 8000 burials there. That works out to be about 667 burials every month. That's equivalent of 154 burials every single week. Or, incredibly, 22 burials every single day!

That's just the beginning. According to Stephen Jorgensen, who oversees cemeteries for California Department of Veterans Affair, a cemetery in Irvine would overtake Riverside as nation's busiest. Are you prepared to spend an extra 20 minutes to get to work or school every day? If the city has its way the veteran's cemetery will be located in the path of one of most heavily trafficked street in Irvine, currently marked for speed up to 60 MPH. It's coming soon courtesy of the proposed location of the cemetery.

Don't let others twists the truth. This is about the quality of life for Irvine residents. Join us and say  'No' to cemetery in Great Park. Call or email Irvine city councilman. Tell them you love the veterans, but Great Park is no place for veterans cemetery.

Written by Rakefire

To contact us, e-mail: icity1688@gmail.com 
For latest update, see: icity168.blogspot.com

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Cemetery culture clash in Irvine: Asian neighbors say graves would create bad feng shui, hurt property values

See link:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/cemetery-664876-park-veterans.html

IRVINE – In less than a decade, runways where fighter jets once lofted Marines into the air could become acres of green grass dotted with white headstones marking the Southern California Veterans Cemetery.

That image, for many veterans and their families, provides comfort.

But for a group of Asian residents that live near Irvine’s Great Park, the image is appalling – any cemetery would violate a strong cultural taboo of living near the dead.

Now, even as the state Department of Veterans Affairs prepares to request federal funds to build the cemetery, residents in the neighborhood – including people who aren’t worried about the bad feng shui – are pushing city officials and others to make sure it’s built somewhere else. Property values, many say, will be damaged.

And a wild card emerged this week. Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who supports the veterans cemetery at the Great Park, said a 288-acre parcel near Anaheim Hills might serve as a cemetery where veterans could be buried.

But for Bill Cook, chairman of the Orange County Veterans Memorial Park Foundation and the man who has led the fight to put a cemetery on the former El Toro air base, the issue is just as sacred.

“That site represents. .. where thousands of American teenagers last stood alive on American soil,” said Cook, 68, a Mission Viejo resident and Vietnam War veteran who served at El Toro.

Cook and others who back the cemetery at the Great Park point to a future need. About 130,000 veterans live in Orange County, and nearly 1.9 million live in California. Most served in wars of the 20th century, including World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

But another issue might be distance.

California has nine national cemeteries, five of which are accepting new interments. Two of those are in Riverside and Miramar.

Less than one-third of the 922-acre Riverside National Cemetery is developed. About 240,000 people are either buried or interred in Riverside, and the site is taking about 8,000 new arrivals annually. Miramar, which opened in 2010, has 313 acres and room for 235,000 veterans.

The cemetery proposed for the Great Park would be developed by the state, not as a national cemetery; the rules for national cemeteries say they have to be at least 75 miles apart.

Cook and others have worked to get a cemetery at the Great Park since the El Toro base closed in 1999.

Opponents of the park organized only last year, following news reports about the park getting state backing. Since then, word of mouth has spread and residents have turned up regularly at Irvine City Council meetings.

In the past seven months, more than 500 people signed a petition at change.org asking for the cemetery’s relocation. Most list their address as Irvine, but a few list locations in China, including the province of Shandong and the city of Beijing.

Dongping Huang, speaking at a recent meeting, said she lives in Irvine’s Woodbury village neighborhood, about two minutes from the Great Park. She said she was shocked when she found out last year that there was a cemetery proposed “in my backyard, next to my son’s future school.”

“We respect the veterans. ... They fight for our freedom,” she said. They should rest in a “quiet, beautiful area,” not amid soccer fields, Huang said.

If the cemetery is built, she said later, she probably would move.

Their concerns seem to be gaining some political traction.

Tony Pan, a leader of the community group opposing the cemetery, said he met earlier this year with Spitzer, who represents much of Irvine, and learned of the site near Anaheim Hills.

This week, Spitzer confirmed that.

“I have identified 288 acres in my district that may serve as a cemetery for both civilians and veterans,” he said via email.

The land is open space near the intersection of the 91 express lanes and the 241 toll road, part of 2,500 acres donated to the county last year by the Irvine Co.

However, Spitzer still supports the Great Park proposal, according to the supervisor’s director of communications. And no formal proposal for a cemetery on the county’s open space has been made.

“Any county cemetery proposal that I consider for the public or veterans will be an independent project and not in competition in any way with the effort at Great Park,” Spitzer said.

Cemetery opponents were hoping to host a community meeting Monday, at which both Irvine Mayor Steven Choi and Councilwoman Lynn Schott are scheduled to speak. But Choi and Schott pulled out when fliers circulated intimating they were in favor of relocating the cemetery, something both said isn’t true.

Still, it’s likely the fight will continue.

Though the state formally identified the 125-acre Great Park site last year, that was only a first step to establishing the cemetery. State officials need millions of dollars and don’t plan to apply for federal funding until July 2016 at the earliest. If they get funding, it still might be years before a cemetery is developed.

Meanwhile, Irvine is likely to become less inclined to accept the cemetery.

The first official Great Park housing community, Pavilion Park, opened two years ago. But Beacon Park, slated to open this summer, is closer to the site selected for the cemetery. Future developments will be even closer.

Many of the buyers in these neighborhoods are Asian and come from cultures that follow some version of feng shui, a cultural practice that guides design and lifestyle.

In feng shui, having a cemetery near homes or schools provides a constant reminder of mortality and death. Putting a cemetery near homes and a school – Portola High School, the fifth Irvine Unified School District high school, would be within sight of the cemetery – is insensitive and culturally taboo.

Some residents shudder when they consider children walking by headstones on their way home from Portola High or the echoes of referees’ whistles or golf balls from the planned adjacent golf course bouncing off of headstones.

Some are reluctant to talk publicly about their opposition for fear of being portrayed as anti-veteran or anti-military, when the location – not the cemetery – is the true concern.

Overall, nearly 40 percent of the residents of Irvine identify as Asian, though many don’t necessarily follow the same cultural practices.

In March, Cook went to a groundbreaking for the California Central Coast Veterans Cemetery, in the city of Seaside, slated to open in July 2016. “That was the result of a 25-year effort up there,” he said.

“We are deeply emotionally attached to this. It’s as close to Gettysburg as you’re going to get in Orange County,” Cook said.

“Don’t hide us all some place in the hills.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-2221 or sdecrescenzo@ocregister.com


Opponents of the military veterans cemetery proposed for the Great Park in Irvine spoke out at a recent meeting of the Irvine City Council. SARAH DE CRESCENZO, STAFF

By the numbers


3: State veterans cemeteries in California: the Northern California Veterans Cemetery, the Yountville Veterans Cemetery (which inters only residents of the Yountville Veterans Home and eligible dependents) and the California Central Coast Veterans Cemetery, under construction in the city of Seaside

131,229: Veterans living in Orange County

1.89 million: Veterans living in California

Source: CalVet; Census Bureau

What's happened, and what's next


Veterans met with Great Park management in 2013 to ask for land at the former base to be set aside for a state veterans cemetery.

At the start of 2014, then-Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, introduced Assembly Bill 1543, which would give $500,000 for CalVet, the state's Veterans Affairs Department, to do preliminary design work on a cemetery plan.

In July of that year, the Irvine City Council agreed to set aside up to 125 acres at the Great Park.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB1543 in September 2014. The next month, he made a surprise stop in Irvine to tour the site.

In January, representatives from CalVet and the Department of General Services visited the land, starting the evaluation process.

CalVet plans to submit a request for federal Cemetery Grants Program funds to design, develop, construct and equip the cemetery by July 2016.

If funds are granted, the earliest development could practically begin would be 2018. Irvine has agreed not to develop the site with certain uses, including cemeteries, until Dec. 27, 2017.

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Wednesday, June 3, 2015

The Town Hall Meeting has been cancelled.

The Town Hall Meeting has been cancelled:

Councilwoman Lynn Schott had notified OCRA yesterday that she and Mr. Choi will not participate in the Town Hall Meeting scheduled on June 8, 2015 at Cypress Village Community Center.

No written explanation or apology was given by Ms. Schott to OCRA for OCRA's work and time spent on this TH efforts.

Although through a phone call and a third party blog site, we had learned that Ms. Schott cancelled the meeting due to her concern on others' false interpretations on our event flyer, we are greatly disappointed in her no direct communication to us PRIOR to her decision and her unprofessionalism.

Our sincere apology for any troubles this may have caused you. We appreciate your joint-efforts with us in  making the event known to others.

The Town Hall Meeting has been cancelled. We'll give you updates for our future events.

Thank you for your patience,

Sincerely,
OCRA