Shawkey Finally Out & Hispanic Population Grows

CHRIS SHAWKEY RESIGNS
Tuesday afternoon I wondered why Joseph Serna, Daily Pilot reporter par excellence, was a little late to the city council study session. When I finally got home from the meeting later that evening I found out why. Serna had been putting the finishing touches on his article titled, "Costa Mesa Police Chief Resigns". Yikes! You can read Serna's article HERE.

CURIOUS CASE IS NOW EVEN MORE SO
So, after all these months of being on paid administrative leave Chief Christopher Shawkey has finally resigned. In a case that has been curious from the very beginning, the timing of his resignation only two days after the retirement of City Manager Allan Roeder is one more example. Shawkey earned more than $200,000 in salary and his benefits package had him at nearly $300,000 in total compensation.

NO REASON GIVEN
It is unlikely that we will ever know the reason for his leave and subsequent resignation, which only leaves the rest of the police department and the residents of this city scratching their heads. This is yet another top department manager who has dropped off the roles under strange circumstances.


SEARCH IS ON - GOGERTY STAYS AT HELM
According to Serna's article, CEO Tom Hatch will immediately begin a search for a replacement for Shawkey. Meanwhile, captain Les Gogerty will remain as interim chief.

CENSUS RESULTS MAKES ME SMILE
Then, in an adjacent article in the Daily Pilot online, I found a piece by Managing Editor, John Canalis titled, "Census: Hispanic Population Grows In Newport-Mesa" and just had to chuckle at the reaction this is going to evoke in a certain Mesa North household at the crack of dawn when a certain community gadfly and our racist laureate stumbles out to the front lawn to grab his Daily Pilot. He's going to flip that page open, take one look and probably go into shock. Sorry, but I just can't stop smiling...

NOW NEARLY 36%
According to Canalis' article, HERE, Costa Mesa's Hispanic population increased from 31.8% in 2000 to 35.8% in 2010. Newport Beach saw a greater than 50% increase in its Hispanic population, from 4.7% to 7.2%.

DECADE OF ANTI-HISPANIC RHETORIC WASTED
So, after a decade of ranting and raving about the brown skinned folks among us, and writing essay after racist essay and blog post after blog post, our old buddy, The Mouth From Mesa North, finds himself surrounded by even greater numbers of Hispanics than when he began his methodical campaign to expunge them from our borders more than a decade ago. This irony is just too, too sweet. It looks like the only way he's going to get any peace of mind is to move to some part of the country where the Hispanics represent a much smaller percentage of the population. Might I suggest Idaho, where he could cozy up to like-minded folks like the Aryan Brotherhood? I'll buy the one-way bus ticket.

COSTA MESA GREW SLIGHTLY - NEWPORT BEACH UP 21.6%!
Canalis also mentioned that Costa Mesa's total population grew only 1,236, from 108,724 to 109,960 (1.1%) and Newport Beach jumped 21.6%, from 70,032 to 85,186 - due mainly to the annexation of Newport Coast and Santa Ana Heights.


THE BALL'S IN OUR COURT
What these census numbers mean is that, rather than trying to force the Hispanic population into some kind of sub-class in our local society, we'd darn well better be working on ways to help them assimilate. We need to do a much better job of educating all those young brown people because they are very soon going to be the majority in this state and they're going to vote.

HOW WILL WE MANAGE THESE CHANGES?
It's going to be very interesting to see how our communities react to these census numbers. How, for example, will the Newport Mesa Unified School District adjust their teaching methods to educate a growing Hispanic population? How will our new police chief handle what will likely be a growing gang presence in Costa Mesa? And, how will the new Economic Development Czar (when he's finally appointed) try to market Costa Mesa with a shrinking white population?

THE FACE OF COSTA MESA

REGISTER REPORTS CENSUS NUMBERS
On Monday the Orange County Register, as part of their series "Changing face of O.C.", published statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau that were based on surveys done from 2005 through 2007 for Costa Mesa. I won't begin to attempt to provide all those interesting numbers. The link to the Register article is HERE, if you're interested in sifting through them yourselves.

I did want to tease you with a few of the numbers, though, to provoke you to seek out the report and dig deeper.

THE "COLOR" OF COSTA MESA IS WHITE
For example, according to the report, Costa Mesa now has 107,820 residents, of which 79,002 (73.30%) are "white". Hispanic or Latinos account for 35,551 (33.00.%). Now, before you go berserk and tell me the numbers don't add up, understand that "white" includes Hispanic and Latinos for the purposes of census reporting. Don't go all apoplectic on me.. more numbers to come. The important thing to know here is that nearly a third of our population is Hispanic or Latino (you can pick the your term of choice, I guess).

Among those Hispanic and Latinos, 29,759 (27.60%) are Mexican - no surprise there.

According to the report, 72,269 (67.00%) Costa Mesa residents are classified as "Not Hispanic or Latino", and 59,559 (55.20%) are classified as "White alone".

1,867 (1.70%) are "Black or African American".

Old Grumpy, Your Neighbor over in Mesa North, can begin to grouse about the fact that 2,105 (2.00%) of Costa Mesa residents are reportedly comprised of "Two or more races". Oh, no! There goes the gene pool, Marty!

HOUSING NUMBERS
Back to the report... Costa Mesa apparently has a total of 40,888 housing units, of which 38,665 (94.60%) are occupied. 15,588 (38.10%) of those housing units are detached homes. 9,655 (23.60%) have 20 or more units.

Of those 38,665 occupied housing units, 15,773 (40.80%) are "Owner-occupied", while 22,892 (59.20%) are "Renter-occupied" - including the one occupied by our young jailer/mayor.

More than half of the housing units - 51.60% - were built before 1970. 944 (2.30%) of the housing units are "Mobile Homes".

Of the 11,937 owner-occupied housing units with a mortgage, 7,688 (48.70%) pay $2,000 or more per month.

Of the 22,892 renter-occupied units, 10,723 (46.80%) pay between $1,000 and $1,499 per month and 7,749 (33.90%) pay $1,500 or more.

Most of the 38,665 occupied housing units, 27,263 (70.50%), are heated by utility gas. However, somewhere in town there apparently are 48 housing units heated by wood! 83 units lack complete plumbing facilities!

Of the 38,665 households in Costa Mesa, 23,074 (59.70%) were "family households" and 15,591 (40.30%) were "non-family households".

EDUCATION
Of the 71,064 residents 25 years and older 83.7% are high school graduates or higher and 31.4% have bachelor's degrees or higher.

THE WORK FORCE
Of the 85,821 people described as "Population 16 years and over" - theoretically the "labor force" - 59,890 (69.80%) were actually "In labor force" and 25,931 (30.20%) were "Not in labor force". Of those "In the labor force", only 2,724 (3.20%) were unemployed at the time of this survey.

Of the 56,820 persons described as "Civilian employed population 16 years and over", 20,527 (36.10%) perform "Management, professional, and related occupations". 15,365 (27.00%) work in "Sales and office occupations".

Of the 54,967 commuting workers 16 years or over, 40,978 (74.60%) drove alone. Another 5,902 (10.70%) carpooled and only 2,111 (3.80%) used public transportation.

The median age of Costa Mesa residents is 33.7 years. 9,366 (8.70%) are 65 years or over - geezers, like me.

FERTILITY AND MARITAL STATUS
Of the 2,019 women 15 to 50 years old who had a birth in the past 12 months, 660 (32.70%) were described as "Unmarried women (widowed, divorced, and never married)

Of the 44,886 MALES 15 years and over, 19,908 (44.40%) have never been married; 19,697 (43.90%) are now married, except separated; 693 (1.50%) are separated; 535 (1.20%) are widowed and 4,053 (9.00%) are divorced.

Of the 42,124 FEMALES 15 years and over, 14,131 (33.50%) have never been married; 18,592 (44.10%) are now married, except separated; 1,301(3.10%) are separated; 2,278 (5.40%) are widowed and 5,822 (13.80%) are divorced.

INCOME LEVELS
In Costa Mesa the median household income was $61,075. The median family income was $67,947. The per capita income was $29,893. 12.9% of our population lived with an income below the poverty level.

ROOTS
75,740 (70.20%) Costa Mesa residents claim to be native born. Of the 32,080 residents who are "foreign-born", 21,505 (67.00%) are not a U.S. citizen. Of the foreign-born population, 20,063 (62.50%) come from Latin America and 7,333 (22.90%) from Asia.

ANCESTRY
One interesting number that jumped out at me was the fact that, of the 107,820 residents in our city, only 2,279 (2.10%) described their ancestry as "American". 9,836 (9.10%) claimed English ancestry. A similar number, 9,856 (9.10%) said Irish and 13,258 (12.30%) claimed German ancestry.

HAD ENOUGH YET?
Well, I hope that has piqued your interest enough that you'll go back to that link I provided at the top and check out the rest of the numbers yourself. I think they provide you with a little better view of just who those people are that you rub shoulders with in this wonderful city.