Appeal, Stats, Fluoride, Tradition & More
UNAPPEALING APPEAL PENDING
Ah, the joy never stops. Today, both the Orange County Register and the Daily Pilot had articles regarding the appeal filed by the City of Costa Mesa in the case of the dismissed charges on Benito Acosta.
According to the Register report, Costa Mesa City Attorney Kim Barlow doesn't expect a ruling by the three-judge panel until next week. The Daily Pilot article quotes Acosta's attorney as stating the appeal "meritless". I guess we'll find out some time next week. In the meantime, that old meter is spinnin' as legal charges continue to rack up on this case.
INTERESTING IMMIGRATION STATISTICS
In a kind of related issue, the Orange County Register Immigration Blog provided us with a brief story and link to a very interesting bit of information provided by something called the Migration Information Source. For those of you interested in such things, I've linked to it here.
FLUORIDA
TION - OH, NO!Another issue causing angst in our little neck of the woods these days is the fluoridation of our water supply, which some folks apparently think is tantamount to poisoning all of us. The debate on the Daily Pilot blog has been, er, spirited - to say the least. You can read the relevant articles and their comment threads in the Daily Pilot. There are four separate articles for your consideration here, here, here and here.
FAIRVIEW PARK VS. TRADITION
Also, for us Costa Mesans, the fate of Fairview Park continues to raise the collective blood pressure around town. Mike Scheafer, former councilman, former Parks and Recreation Commissioner and active member of the Lion's Club among many others, wrote to the Daily Pilot suggesting the skate park being proposed for Lion's Park be shifted to Fairview Park because it would displace the Lion's Club-sponsored Fish Fry - a six decade tradition in Costa Mesa. As I type this more than 100 comments have been posted on that article. You can read it here.
COUNCIL TO CONSIDER THE SKATE PARK NEXT WEEK
The issue of Fairview Park and the skate park are apparently going to be on the City Council agenda for next Tuesday evening. I suspect folks representing many views will appear to present their case.
PLENTY OF ROOM
After having driven past Fairview Park a couple of times this week, it seems to me that there is plenty of room on the eastside of Placentia, near the model trains that get used one weekend a month, for the city's second skate park and the parking and restrooms necessary for such a facility. Placement at that location certainly would not interfere with the more passive uses on the west side of Placentia - reachable by the big, ugly bridge.
NOT-SO HIDDEN AGENDA
There are those in our town who devote a lot of energy and blog inches trying to convince us that Fairview Park should remain "pristine" - not a word I associate with that park. Those folks apparently think that any active uses in the park will detract from their plan to bulldoze what they refer to as "slums" - apartments that are occupied by Latinos - to make space for more parks. How pathetic and transparent!
POCKET SKATE PARKS?
Nowhere in the discussion did I see mention of the possibility of utilizing small pieces of several neighborhood parks to place small, single skate elements so the younger children could practice their skills close to home. A simple small bowl or pad with a grind rail would only take up 400 -500 square feet in parks that are infrequently used now.
With only a couple of council meetings left this year, it's going to be very interesting to see how these issues shake out.
Labels: Acosta trial, Fairview Park, Skate Park
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 10/31/2007 10:41:00 PM
2 Comments:
New York - In a statement released August 9, 2007, over 600 (now 1,000) dentists, physicians, scientists, academics, health professionals and environmentalists urge Congress to stop water fluoridation until Congressional hearings are conducted. They cite new scientific evidence that fluoridation, long promoted to fight tooth decay, is ineffective and has serious health risks. (http://www.fluorideaction.org/statement.august.2007.html)
Signers include a Nobel Prize winner, three members of the prestigious 2006 National Research Council (NRC) panel that reported on fluoride’s toxicology, two officers in the Union representing professionals at EPA headquarters, the President of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment, and hundreds of medical, dental, academic, scientific and environmental professionals, worldwide.
Signer Dr. Arvid Carlsson, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Medicine, says, “Fluoridation is against all principles of modern pharmacology. It's really obsolete.”
An Online Action Petition to Congress in support of the Professionals' Statement is available on FAN's web site, www.fluorideaction.org.
“The NRC report dramatically changed scientific understanding of fluoride's health risks," says Paul Connett, PhD, Executive Director, Fluoride Action Network. "Government officials who continue to promote fluoridation must testify under oath as to why they are ignoring the powerful evidence of harm in the NRC report,” he added.
An Assistant NY State Attorney General calls the report “the most up-to-date expert authority on the health effects of fluoride exposure.”
The Professionals’ Statement also references:
-- The new American Dental Association policy recommending infant formula NOT be prepared with fluoridated water.
-- The CDC’s concession that the predominant benefit of fluoride is topical not systemic.
-- CDC data showing that dental fluorosis, caused by fluoride over-exposure, now impacts one third of American children.
-- Major research indicating little difference in decay rates between fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities.
-- A Harvard study indicating a possible link between fluoridation and bone cancer.
-- The silicofluoride chemicals used for fluoridation are contaminated industrial waste and have never been FDA- approved for human ingestion.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG), a DC watchdog, revealed that a Harvard professor concealed the fluoridation/bone cancer connection for three years. EWG President Ken Cook states, “It is time for the US to recognize that fluoridation has serious risks that far outweigh any minor benefits, and unlike many other environmental issues, it's as easy to end as turning off a valve at the water plant.”
Partially, as a result of this statement, at least one city, Cobleskill NY, stopped 54 years of water fluoridation. See: http://www.fluoridealert.org/news/2998.html
Many communities rejected or stopped fluoridation over the years. See: http://www.fluoridealert.org/communities.htm
On October 2, Juneau Alaska voters rejected fluoridation despite the American Dental Associations $150,000 political campaign to return fluoride into the water supply after the legislative body voted it out.
Take Action to End Fluoridation. Sign the Online Petition to End Fluoridation and call for a Congressional Hearing
http://www.actionstudio.org/public/page_view_all.cfm?option=begin&pageid=8276
SOURCE: Fluoride Action Network http://www.FluorideAction.Net
Geoff,
I think the area across from Estancia would be a great location for a skate park as well, but Byron de Arakal's and Jim Fisler's points about keeping it as natural as possible are well taken. Is there some sort of restriction on the uses of the Fairview Park land?
The main argument has been to not disturb the carefully crafted Master Plan. However, one poster wishes to revise the Master Plan to remove future museum and playground structures as well as planned parking spaces.
If the Master Plan is opened up, it will be very interesting to see how the City Council decides to revise it. It would certainly seem that utilizing existing city-owned parkland instead of spending tens of millions to acquire new parkland would be the fiscally responsible thing to do. We'll see!
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