The Trust Act made its way once more through the California Assembly yesterday by a final vote of 44-22. The legislation was vetoed late last year when it reached the desk of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown. Supporters say the bill authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano will limit deportations fueled by the fingerprint-sharing federal Secure Communities program while restoring confidence between law enforcement and largely immigrant, Latino communities. It heads to the Senate next. Locally, our ostensibly Democrat assemblymembers joined the state’s troglodytic GOP in not supporting the bill. Assemblyman Tom Daly, whose 69th District is the most heavily Latino in Orange County, unsurprisingly voted against it. Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, who edged out Republican Chris Norby last year thanks in no small part to the demographics and boundaries of the newly drawn 65th District, abstained.

Read more as to why on my latest OC Weekly Navel Gazing Blog post:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2013/05/california_trust_act.php

The push for an inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls in Orange County continues! This Saturday in SanTana, young women ages 18 and up will be taking on an extensive weekend of songwriting workshops, drum circles, self-defense classes, and instrument instruction. Hosted by El Centro Cultural de Mexico, the first ever Ladies Rock Camp will conclude in a Sunday night showcase at Original Mike’s.”The women are going to learn how to write a song in two days,” says Mayra Cortez, Board Member for OC Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls. “It’s a safe place and safe environment for them to express themselves.”

Read more about the camp and showcase on my latest OC Weekly Heard Mentality Blog post:

 http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2013/05/ladies_rock_camp_oc.php

Early on during the six-hour long Anaheim city council meeting last night, retiring police chief John Welter received a formal recognition from the dais. His nine-year career as head of the force effectively ends tomorrow; deputy chief Raul Quezada–surprise, surprise: a Mexi!–will take his place on a interim basis. Meanwhile, somewhere behind the OC Register’s paywall last week dropped an article about plans by councilwoman Lucille Kring to have the Orange County Family Justice Center–formerly known by its Anaheim identifier–christened in Welter’s honor. But all the adulation doesn’t stop there. Jose Moreno–Los Amigos President, Anaheim City School District (ACSD) board member, and a member of the Weekly‘s 2012 Scariest People issue–wants in on the action, too!

Read more on my latest OC Weekly Navel Gazing Blog post:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2013/05/jose_moreno_los_amigos_anaheim.php

An entirely predictable scenario played out during last night’s meeting of the Anaheim city council. With the proper chess pieces in place, the supermajority ended the six-hour fiasco gaining a political victory. Mayor Tait was a lone vote against granting a $158 million dollar subsidy for two luxury hotels to be constructed near the GardenWalk. His four colleagues on the dais approved the deal with great enthusiasm. Opposition to the divisive issue was deflated.

The ruling class is going to flex and do what they do. But the working class didn’t help itself out. There was no united front between the union leadership of Anaheim public employees, construction hard hats and the interests concerned with certain-to-be future low-wage earning hotel service workers. The Orange County Employees Association (OCEA) checked out of the debate. Their ‘Heart of Anaheim’ group stopped beating about a year ago.

There’s been no mobilization and OCEA has long been silent on the GardenWalk Hotel Project subsidy since gaining a compromise contract for Anaheim public employees–which doesn’t help combat the right-wing from dividing and playing public and private sector workers off each other!

{Hotel Bauen: An example wiped clean from Anaheim’s imagination}

Trade unionists representing construction were in favor of this obscenity since the first time it was approved before being voided on the grounds of a Brown Act violation. They did not tie their own destinies in any way to what it is they will be constructing–edifices of extreme inequality. Future hotel service employees will be low-wage earners and there’s no community benefits agreement attached to the GardenWalk four-star hotels that would, at a minimum, mitigate the worst of the working conditions to come. An insistence on that by trade union leaders would have been a welcome display of solidarity, but self-interest, it seems, is not solely relegated to hoteliers and their political accomplices.

That’s not to say there aren’t construction workers and public employees who see what happened last night as bad for the future of Anaheim. It’s just their leadership made decisions long ago that prevented a broad based opposition from forming.

If the massive giveaway is legally defensible, the city moves forward in the wake of it. With or without developer welfare, prioritization of projects such as the GardenWalk hotels propel the racialized inequalities that produce the ‘Tale of Two Cities’ narrative and concentrate poverty, except few will engage in such a forbidden analysis. Perhaps a deeper understanding of power structures and how they operate will come out of all of this.

If it doesn’t, ‘The working class divided will always be defeated’ will remain a truism.

Late last week, Anaheim’s 11-member citizens advisory committee (CAC) on district elections wrapped up its final meeting, and its draft report of recommendations set to be delivered to the city council by the end of this month will suggest that the issue be put before the vote. When the previous Anaheim city council majority passed a resolution in August to create the CAC to study elections, the move was handily criticized. Opponents called it a delay tactic in the wake of an ACLU lawsuit alleging that Toontown was in violation of the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA). It was also seen as an isolating maneuver against Mayor Tom Tait, who wished to put the issue of creating six districts before the November 2012 ballot. Hell, I even labeled it a “sham” as the way it was to be structured would ultimately give the council majority a numerical and ideological advantage. It was intended to be all those things (and more!) but now that it’s all said and done, CAC turned out not to be that whack!

Read why that is on my latest OC Weekly Navel Gazing Blog post:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2013/05/cac_anaheim.php

Next Tuesday, after much speculation, the divisive $158 million GardenWalk hotel subsidy will return before the Anaheim city council for a vote. The agenda for the meeting spells out as much as there will be “discussion and action” on a resolution for the economic assistance agreements (aka developer welfare!) so that the City Manager can potentially “execute and administer” them. Last year, the council voted 3-2 to approve the massive subsidy on January 24, 2012 only to have an Orange County Superior Court judge rule it void in response to a lawsuit filed alleging, among other things, that the Brown Act had been violated. This time around, the language is clear and the public is on notice. What that means is that there is sure to be one hell of a contentious council meeting next week! Count on hours of lengthy public comments!

Read more on my latest OC Weekly Navel Gazing Blog post:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2013/05/anaheim_city_council_to_vote_o.php

Dozens of parents marched down Sunkist Street early this morning in front of Anaheim’s Benito Juarez Elementary School. They were angered that current principal Roberto Baeza is being transferred out at the end of the year in a move made by Linda Wagner, the brand-spanking new Superintendent of the Anaheim City School District (ACSD). The parents carried protest signs and leaflets with a photo of Wagner crossed out saying “Shame on You” as they were mostly greeted by honking horns from cars passing by. “I have seen the difference in the principals,” says Jesus Ramirez, a father of three, including a 6th grader at Juarez. “Dr. Baeza has been the best principal that this school has had. We need him to stay here.” Other parents echoed similar sentiments before a meeting with Wagner began at the school library. “I have two children in the dual immersion program,” Julieta Olivares tells the Weekly in Spanish. “I believe it isn’t just that Wagner made a decision so soon.”

Read more about the protest and the meeting on my latest OC Weekly Navel Gazing Blog post:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2013/05/linda_wagner_anaheim_city.php

The arrival of La Santa Cecilia’s “Treinta Dias” has been years in the making. The Los Angeles-based band created a long-standing buzz conquering audiences in its hometown and venues beyond with an infectious blend of Latin American music genres. From the early DIY days of hand painted album covers for their first EP to the present moment signing with Universal Music Latin Entertainment, there’s no more deserving band for this moment than La Santa Cecilia. And now that it has arrived, they show themselves ready by delivering a collection of eight searing songs!

Read the review on my latest LatinoLA article / http://latinola.com/story.php?story=11860

From Presente.org:

“Today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on “border triggers” as part of immigration reform show how completely out-of-touch politicians in Washington are with voters and with immigration reality,” said Arturo Carmona, Executive Director of Presente.org. “These “border triggers” will kill immigration reform. Tying citizenship for 11 million people to vague, untried and unnecessary policies like “border triggers” is not what the overwhelming majority of Latino voters asked for. We asked for real citizenship and real reform, not more multi-billion dollar fences, more surveillance, new national ID cards for all citizens and other unnecessary things for a border that the FBI tells us year in and year out is safe. We need a clear path to citizenship, not a clear path to enrich military-industrial and prison companies who give campaign money to politicians like Sen. Chuck Schumer.”

The Anaheim City School District (ACSD) finally selected a new superintendent after an interim merry-go-round, but the honeymoon is already over for some parents. Linda Wagner, who only started her new position last month, has already made a move to transfer Benito Juarez Elementary School principal Roberto Baeza, angering parents to the point of even organizing a protest march set for Friday morning! Wagner was appointed by the ACSD in early March by a unanimous vote, coming from a stint as superintendent at Monrovia Unified School District. Wagner brings to Anaheim with her a background loaded with experience in bilingual education. Sounds good for a school district with a heavily Mexi student body and a lot of English learners, ¿que no? So what’s the protest all about?

Read more on my latest OC Weekly Navel Gazing Blog post:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2013/05/benito_juarez_anaheim.php