Alhambra 710 Day, 2014 was public relations failure as was expected. The excessive heat worked against the event to our favor. The numbers of attendees was approximately down by half, although Alhambra City Council will claim a cast of thousands. The pictures & video will disprove any claim to the contrary. [You think you’ve seen traffic on Valley? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!]
It was notable that the speeches were angry in tone, hysterical & paranoid.
Steve Placido Alhambra Councilman, in his paranoid rant made it sound like the rest of the world was out to get Alhambra & no knows their suffering. Teresa Real Sebastian in an angry & hysterical rant whined she would accept about ‘no more excuses’ for not building a tunnel. Excuses are their code word for following the laws that govern the environmental process. Excuses to Teresa Real Sebastian, are environmental laws that protect minorities from massive public works project that disproportionately & adversely affect their health & quality of life. These things are a nuisance to Alhambra & Monterey Park city officials. Steve Placido & Teresa Real Sebastian proclaimed, ‘we are ready to build the 710 tunnel. Go right ahead I say, just come up with $15 billion dollars. They will have to face the same rigorous ‘environmental impact process Metro must follow.
It is no surprise this group of people find following the law a nuisance. Alhambra has a history of questionable conflict of interest. Barbara Messina & her husband got caught up in election campaign violations a few years back. There was also a recent violation of the ‘Brown Act’ recorded against councilwoman Messina. They can complain about traffic all they want, but the reality is Alhambra is guilty of rampant overdevelopment bringing in high density condo projects with more parking spaces & more cars since the 1980’s. In 1989 Alhambra was attempting to build a massive Business park/convention center at Fremont & Mission where Kohl’s is currently located. A development firm known as Santa Fe International proposed a plan with multi-level office building. Approximately 6 multi-level parking structures would accommodate 6,500 vehicles. In order to do they would have to declare the Emery Tract substandard housing, in essence a ‘slum’. The project never came into existence because Santa Fe International was found guilty of illegal practices including ‘insider trading & fraud. Follow the money & it will more than likely lead to Alhambra & Monterey Park business interests that have a financial interest in pushing a tunnel. They sound desperate because Metro appears to have hung them out to dry. Metro did not participate this year & Caltrans had a booth at this year’s event. We are looking into the legality or ethical aspects of the appearance at this event. – Joe C.
Responsible Alhambrans Against the 710 