The CotoBuzz Journal, Community Journalism

The CotoBuzz Journal

Community Journalism, Newsletters and Blogs Covering South Orange County, CA

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April 2007 Issue

We do not make jokes, we simply watch the LA Times, the Orange County Register and the Coto de Caza Board of directors and report the facts!

The City of Coto de Caza – Ten Years From Today

March 10, 2007

Dave Walter, in his book Today Then, describes how in the early 1890s, a news agency commissioned 74 prominent Americans to write brief essays on what life would be like in 1993, as part of the fanfare for the future-oriented World's Columbian Exposition, which opened in Chicago in May 1893.

Interestingly enough, there were many correct predictions, such as the institution of an income tax; the women’s right to vote and that cities would become groups of suburbs.

Some of the erroneous forecasts include the notion that hypnotism would replace anesthetics in surgery and that unemployment would disappear.

Some argue that attempting to forecast the future is extremely important, not necessarily to extrapolate a trend, but to examine the social consequences if the claim becomes true.

So what if Coto de Caza becomes a city? Although everything seems to be quiet on this front, you may be surprised to know that as a CZ Master Association director may say “we are working on many things, but these are not visible to the community”. These things include scheming on how best to turn Coto into a city!

No big deal, some might say – it is bound to happen, defeatist might add. Others have said that if we do not learn from history, we are bound to repeat the same mistakes over and over – Exhibit A for this last assertion is the management of the CZ Master Association over the last five years! – CotoBuzz is bound and determined not to let this happen again, so we have been studying many similar instances, and will publish conclusions as we have them.

For now let us examine the case of Laguna Woods Village – they are now dealing with their own version of Coto de Camel Drive: The community “has been under assault for almost 10 years. Too few residents are aware of our riparian wetlands, vegetation. Wildlife, open space and even archeological sites that have been callously dismissed”, writes the Laguna version of the CotoBuzz. LagunaBuzz, then goes on to ask a rhetorical question: “elements in our community have totally ignored the quality of life, do you want to replace this view with a parking lot? The latest proposal does not pass the smell test”!

LagunaBuzz, offers a Dilbert cartoon strip to illustrate his view of that administration – the text reads like this: “And that is how I made a billion dollars in shady real estate deals…..the moral of the story is that crime does not pay…….directly, it goes through escrow!

We believe that turning Coto de Caza is not the right thing to do, and that residents, if they so choose, can remain independent. But then again, if independence means the status quo and maintaining the corrupt electoral process, heck we take City hood any day. As the experts suggest, whether Coto turns into a city or not, it is a good idea to examine the social consequences if the claim becomes true. Then the question is: What will you do?

I hear that Varo and Mezger have political aspirations. I think they would like to see Coto annexed by one of the surrounding cities perhaps so one of them can run for public office. The better option would be for both of them to move to one of the surrounding cities preferably not RSM since I own an office building there and would not want them doing to RSM what they have done to Coto because the fiscal mismanagement would probably impact my property over time. Instead both Varo and Mezger should move to Laguna Woods. They can take their “enlightened” management style there. I am sure all the senior citizens there would love their taxes raised to subsidize outsiders and surrounding communities. Not! Ha Ha. Joe Morabito

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