Joni Mitchell was right: they paved Paradise and made it a parking lot.

Amazing that within only a week or two of that deal going down that shit was bulldozed, while say... a historic landmark still awaits to be "reinvented". Perhaps if we just wait a few more years the old Press Telegram building and lot will just become so dilapidated that it will just turn into a swamp and everyone can declare "all is well".....

Watch KTLA news, at 10 and 1030 tonight on Channel 5. Apparently the LA Times send a TV crew out to interview the residents who are outraged.

You can go to KTLA.com and look at Emmy Award winning reporter Lu Parker describe the disgusting destruction of a protected habitat area occasioned by the Gross Negligence of Mr Hitchcock.

She also held up pre World War 2 bottles tound as they opened up the old City Dump, and she had 3 hours of witnessing the foul smell of Methane and garbage now breathing out of the soil. She was visably moved at the residents describing how den after den owas crushed on top of burrowing mammals and invertebrates. She was horrified, as an owl lover, to find that at least 2 Endangered and highly protected nesting burrowing brown owls , and probably their young, were in all likehood crushed.

Mr Hitchcocks crew, rudely taunted the kind woman, whistled at he like true low lifes, offered her alcohol, and honked and honked their bulldozers as they cat called the former Miss USA, 1994. She pounded them back quite well. We helped.

She also advertised the Vigil, to mourn the senseless death and destruction, which will be held every Friday, in the South end of Channel View Park, North of Loynes, West of Studebaker, along the river, between 5 to 7 pm. We will be there every week, and month, until all of the habitat is fully restored back to the designated and once thriving estuary that it was for over 4 decades.. Please tell friends to drop by and consider joining The Los Cerritos Land Trust.

Call your representative to express your sadness too.

She will be back as this debacle gains momentum. A special thanks to Louis Sahagun of the Los Angeles Times for sending KTLA to the scene of the crime.

Thanks DW, we sent KTLA all of your links and fine work. Thanks again.

It will be interesting to see whether Councilman DeLong chooses to participate in this vigil. After all, it is his district and it was just months ago that Councilman DeLong professed the wetlands land exchange as evidence of his newfound commitment to the environment. Or was it that possibly he saw the wetlands deal as a platform to secure another City Council election?

I wonder if Councilman DeLong believes everyone will forget he was the Councilman who selected the most recent SEADIP committee, many of which were his pro-development friends looking to rezone the wetlands for their benefit. It was the same 3rd District SEADIP committee his fellow City Councilmembers voted to disband and start over again with more input from the community. Consider how bad it must have been for City Council to over-rule another Councilman’s recommendations for his own district.

I also wonder whether Councilman DeLong believes everyone will forget about his sponsorship of Mr. Dean’s Home Depot project and his failure to answer the questions posed by residents, public agencies and the environmental community that were asked of him and the city prior to approving the Environmental Impact Report (EIR). It was these same unanswered questions that caused the Norwalk Superior Court to throw the flawed EIR in the garbage, as well as tons of city time and money supporting and promoting it.

Moreover, I wonder whether Councilman DeLong is concerned about people confirming the rumor he played golf with Sean Hitchcock, whose company bulldozed the wetlands, at Virginia Country Club days before the incident happened. Maybe that explains why neither Councilman DeLong nor any of his staff showed up on Thursday or Friday when the property was being bulldozed. It certainly wasn’t because he didn’t know about it. His office was phoned on Thursday, according to a lady who stood up and declared it in Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Like I said, with Councilman DeLong’s future election platform crumbling around him, it will be interesting to see if he chooses to join Councilman O’Donnell at Friday’s vigil. Maybe Mr. Hitchcock and he already have plans to fly somewhere on Mr. Dean’s jet.

Mike,
I think I have your answer as to whether DeLong will participate tomorrow night. I've just re-edited my post to include it.
Theo

Let me see if I can get this straight. Sean Hitchcock is on vacation and unavailable. Councilman DeLong is traveling out of state. I wonder if Mayor Foster plans on attending the vigil to offer support to Councilman O'Donnell? After all, he is one of the priviledged few to have approved the secret wetlands swap negotiations each step of the way. He if anyone should have know about the bulldozing.

The wetlands swap and subsequent bulldozing has certainly raised more questions than HONEST answers from and about our city government. The leadership void at city hall becomes more and more apparent as the rats desert the sinking ship.

Mike,

As usual, you don't know the facts. Or if you do, you choose to ignore them. As someone who is somewhat familiar with the SEADIP Advisory Committee, there were ZERO developers on the committee, but, there was one commercial realtor.

Secondly, the committee was not disbanded. It finished it's work and the Council choose to continue the process and obtain more public input (even though over 20 public meetings had already been held).

Third, DeLong did not "sponsor" the Home Depot, although he and other council representatives voted to approve the EIR. He inherited the project from Frank Colonna.

I like the way you spread rumors around. While it is true that DeLong is a member of the Virginia Golf Club, do you even know for a fact that Hitchcock play golf? Perhaps we should start saying that there is a rumor that you were out golfing with Dean and Hitchcock? After all, isn't it true that you asked Tom Dean for a job a couple of years ago, but were turned down?

I don't know who Pat Bryant is but I've seen a lot of people on this board attack Mr. Ruehle for spreading "rumors" and exaggerating the truth. As far as I can tell, the only thing he is doing is using dramatic language to get across his point. And frankly, from the sneaky and possibly illegal maneuvering we've been witnessing from DeLong/Conway/Hitchcock, etc. he is justified.

You say potato, I say potahto.

Hello PatBryant,

I'm not sure if you read what I wrote. I don't believe I said anything about developers on the SEADIP committee. I think I said pro-development friends. There is a difference. But then again, my facts may be all messed up again as you state.

I appologize if the word "disbanded" offended you. I thought that was the proper word when committees no longer met. If the SEADIP committee was not disbanded, does that mean they are still conducting meetings?

Another word for "sponsor" is supporter. Pick one. Good job trying to spin this off onto Frank Colonna. However, I'm familiar enough with the Home Depot project to know that your claim is incorrect.

If Councilman DeLong's recent golf outing with Mr. Hitchcock never happened, it shouldn't be too hard for him to publicly deny.

I find it interesting that you claim I asked Mr. Dean for a job a couple of years ago and was turned down. Let me provide a more accurate description. At one time, I was an executive for one of several engineering companies working on the proposed Home Depot site. Tom Dean and Studebaker LLC was my client. When I retired from the engineering company, Mr. Dean emailed me on November 5, 2007 to have lunch with him and his assistant Dave Mackenbach on November 7, 2007. I still have the email if you would like for me to publish it. During our lunch meeting, Mr. Dean asked me whether I was interested in being his "owners engineer." We discussed terms. Mr. Dean asked me to finalize the details of the job with Mr. Mackenbach. A start date was postponed and I never heard back from Mr. Dean. If you ask Mr. Dean, I believe he will verify my story is correct. I still have all of the emails to substantiate my story. How about you? What evidence do you have to support your "facts?"

Some people have suggested hanging a briefcase, conspicuously labelled ''Gary DeLong's career in politics'' , in effigy due to the magnitude of his Negligence here.

The guy stood silent for 2 horrifying days, two days.... that will live........in infamy....amongst the worst Environmenatl disasters in Long Beach history.

The latest is that he and Sean and Gary are Golf Buddies at the Virginia Country Club. Gary, do us all a favor, move there, please? You have attempted to 'Leverage' enough entitlements for most of us. Go fix some other constituencies town, ours was just fine without you and all of your wacky ideas, and skyscrapers, and Wetlands Home Depot's, and 70 foot ideas all through the Marina ?

We have more than enough of your 'buddies' self serving, community harming schemes aimed mostly to please and profit your go go go crowd. Here we go go go....back to Court and Coastal

We are also hearing about renewed RECALL conversations. Two were studied, and close to happening. Three may just be the charm this Summer.

On Tom Dean's and Sean Hitchcocks testicles.

Any suggestions on the best place to park?