Misdirection

Misdirection 

Meaning:  The act of distracting; drawing someone's attention away from something

Origin:  From mis- (1) + direction. Meaning "action of a conjurer, thief, etc. to distract someone" is from 1943.

When performing a magic trick, a magician will often draw the attention of the audience in one direction, perhaps toward a comely young assistant  or a loud noise and puff of smoke, in order to divert attention from what’s really going on to accomplish the trick.  This is known as “misdirection”. 

Looking at the “informational” pieces coming out of City Hall regarding some of the local ballot measures, if seems like nothing so much as misdirection. 

Measure BB is a prime example.  

The tax-dollar-financed flyer talks about some of the resources of Fairview Park and includes considerable verbiage about the Fairview Park Master Plan.  The flyer even devotes the better part of a page to a map of the Master Plan.

But Measure BB has nothing to do with the Fairview Park Master Plan. 

 Measure BB does not guarantee that the Fairview Park Master Plan will be implemented.  Measure BB does nothing to limit changes to the Fairview Park Master Plan—a plan that can be and has been altered without a public hearing or even any City Council action.  In fact, Measure BB specifically states that uses in Fairview Park would not be limited to those in the Master Plan (Section 4). 

What would be allowed, then? 

As stated in the flyer Measure BB permits “passive recreational uses”.  Sounds pretty benign, doesn’t it?  But Measure BB defines “passive recreational uses” very differently than stated in the flyer prepared and mailed courtesy of Costa Mesa taxpayers.

In addition to the low-key uses identified in City Hall’s flyer, Measure BB defines “passive recreational uses” to be any use allowed in Institutional and Recreational Zones and “typically occurring in parks” (Section 3 ).  We have a library, gymnasium, swimming pool and community center at Lions’ Park.  Other cities have fire stations, senior centers and even city halls in parks.  These are all important uses, but should they be permitted in Fairview Park? 

Measure BB would allow all that and more. Under Institutional and Recreational Zoning, total square footage of buildings could equal up to twenty five percent of the land area.  For Fairview Park that would mean up to about 2.26 million square feet of buildings.  That's just a tad more than the square footage of South Coast Plaza's main mall, located between Bear Street and Bristol.

And don't forget the parking.  Measure BB allows unlimited paving of the park.

Measure BB does not even guarantee that all of what is now Fairview Park would continue to be part of Fairview Park.  

Unlike Measure AA which specifically identifies Fairview Park to be the 208-acre area covered by the 2008 Fairview Park Master Plan, Measure BB does not define what area would be included in—or excluded from—Fairview Park.  Is it the full 208 acres we know and love?  Measure BB does not identify the park boundaries.  Could part of Fairview Park be carved out and re-designated the Bumper and Bonzo Athletic Park? 

Don’t be taken in by flyers directing your attention to the Fairview Park Master Plan, instead of accurately describing what Measure BB really does.  Measure BB allows unlimited changes to the Fairview Park Master Plan and allows development not included in the Master Plan. 

If you want to truly protect Fairvew Park, only Measure AA will provide that protection. 

Vote No on Measure BB!