Luis Orlando Gallardo Rivera is the head of an urban development agency in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico. He will be spending the next week in Orange County to attend a Fair Housing Policy Conference hosted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Luis is a member of the left wing Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in Puerto Rico, and he maintains a personal blog at: http://www.barriomulas.com/blog/

My first 48 hours had left me in a state of depression with little urge to leave my hotel. Today was a bit brighter.

I ventured north and had the opportunity to see Fullerton. I have to admit that in comparison to the rest of Orange County, Fullerton sure is lot cozier. Maybe it’s the brick buildings. Definitely adds a touch of history and succeeds in breaking away from the monotonous horizontal development of the rest of the county.

Buildings are more tightly bound and small businesses seem to foment socialization and lounging. Not bad, I must say. Sadly, many stores (such as the only book store that I have found) were closed at the time.

Bystanders were very unhelpful. They would look at you as if you were crazy whenever you would walk up to them and ask for directions. People here are scared of strangers. “Excuse me, sir. Do you know where Plush-”

“—I don’t know!” as he would eek away. Others would shrug, tell you that they have no idea, and turn the other way and act as if they didn’t hear anything else that you said. One guy even pulled out his cell phone to make a fake phone call. One girl, who was reading a book on a bench, told me that she “had no idea” when I asked her where I could find a bookstore.

I noticed three occasions people lost their temper with others including myself. “Hey, any idea where I might find an Internet café?” I ask a young employee at a coffee shop.

“We don’t have wireless here.”

“But do you have scanners? I need to scan a document for my office.”

“No, we don’t.”

“Do you know of any place around here that might have a scanner?”

“We don’t have wireless here, I told you.”

“I know. But can you recommend me another place?”

“No! I don’t know!” she blurted, in a very impatient manner, as she “sushed” my away with her hands. This little episode took away any remaining urge I had for exploring the city, and actually motivated me to turn back and go to my hotel.

Nobody talks to each other on the bus. In Puerto Rico people are eager to start conversations with you. They will make random comments (such as, “Jeez, it’s real hot, isn’t it?) and will go out of their way to make friends. During the few instances where I tried to spark up conversation with people, they would quickly shut their doors and look the other way.

During today’s conference, one particular panelist noted how modern day Americans have less friends than they did years ago. I can see why. They have lost all sense of community and have deemed “strangers” as taboo.

In elevators and closed spaces, rarely do people have an entrance and exit greeting. “Buenos dias” is the norm in Puerto Rico. In an elevator full of strangers, everybody remains silent as they look at their watch and fiddle with their cell phone as they attempt to find excuses not to talk. They are all very uncomfortable and are eager for their elevator to reach their floor.

In coffee shops, Internet terminals, bus stops, gas stations, and café. I would ask folks if they had any suggestions on entertaining things to do in the city. “Umm… well… not really,” most would ask.

I checked out “Steamers” – a classy jazz café – only to be told that it was “the only cool place” by a couple of the clients. It’s as if this city had no locals. Even the “hippest,” “coolest” kids – exaggerations of subculture with their retro T-shirts and spiky haircuts – had no suggestions.

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Craigslist.com is to the Internet as that old bulletin board covered with room-for-rent posters and guitarist-wanted ads in the middle of campus is to a University.

The only difference is that to post onto craigslist.com, as opposed to the real-word alternative, takes very little initiative. Just point, click, type type type, and you’re done. For that reason, craigslist.com posters tend to be a bit of the “slacker” variety.

That is why I was surprised to read the Orange County Register story this morning that details the great lengths that one OC entrepreneur and craigslist.com poster went to:

The Craigslist.com advertisement offered an array of Independence Day fireworks outlawed in Orange County. But at least one response came from somebody intent on enforcing the law.

An undercover Costa Mesa police officer contacted the seller Wednesday and expressed interest in Roman candles, mortars, and bottle rockets.

Following a series of guarded instructions from the seller, the investigator uncovered more than 7,500 grams of illegal explosives imported from China in two homes in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach.

The best part of this article, however, was not the words. It was the photo that accompanied the piece:



Those crackers in the bottom right hand corner are huge! To post your own ads to get rid of illegal fireworks old furniture visit Orange County’s Craiglist: http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/

[Orange County Register]

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If you see the new issue of Dot Magazine pick it up; it contains an article by Emmy Gonzalez featuring TheLiberalOC.com.

The Liberal Orange County blog is one of the most dramatic of its kind in the area to focus on the viewpoint of liberals. In the few months since its inception, The Liberal O.C. has made it big in the realm of blogs, and has been featured on other prominent blog sites, which include the blog of the Orange County Register (ocregister.com). Its popularity does not stop there. The blog has made waves on a national level and has even landed on the blog site of Al Gore (climatecrisis.net).

Toot. Toot.

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Luis Orlando Gallardo Rivera is the head of an urban development agency in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico. He will be spending the next week in Orange County to attend a Fair Housing Policy Conference hosted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Luis is a member of the left wing Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in Puerto Rico, and he maintains a personal blog at: http://www.barriomulas.com/blog/

My first two days in Orange County were characterized by lengthy voyages via public transportation, with routes chosen by random. I made the initiative to purposely get lost, in an attempt to get as far away from the tourist zone as possible and see the “real Orange County.” (Or what I thought would be the “real” Orange County.) Disneyland is not my thing, so finding pockets of cultural value was most definitely a priority. I followed a similar pattern in previous visits to Mexico, Washington D.C., Seattle, and New York City, all of which blessed me with very enjoyable and enlightening experiences.

Almost instantly I felt hostility from the city planning. “This place isn’t very friendly to pedestrians,” I mentioned to locals; “Nope, you’re right.” Pedestrians seem to be brushed off as a hassle as hip box-shaped cars and convertibles plow through the six-lane avenue.

At times it seems as if public transportation usage is limited to immigrant and marginal populations; almost everybody I ran into that wasn’t from such groups had no idea what time buses stopped service. One woman was shocked when I told her that the Orange County Transportation Authority was voted #1 by the American Public Transportation Association.

In many areas, all the employees of any business was Latino and all the clients White. “Where do the White people work?” I continued to ask myself. I wonder how Mexicans feel preparing fake Mexican food for non-Mexicans.

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An article in this morning’s OC Register explains the formation of a new group of people that are calling for ethical government:

A nonpartisan group of Orange County voters who say they are fed up with how the offices of sheriff and district attorney operate are forming an organization calling for ethical government.

I can’t take this group seriously until I learn more about their “nonpartisan” members. So far, the only member that has been named is uberrepublican Tim Whitacre—who is so Republican that he believes Jesus was a capitalist that was opposed to welfare.

I’m not saying that Whitacre and other ultraconservatives can’t serve in nonpartisan groups fairly…but I think that there needs to be some ying to Whitacre’s yang. We’ve all got our biases.

[OC Register]

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Art Pedroza at the Orange Juice Blog just revealed that they will be adding Tim Whitacre to their team of political Bloggers.

Ready or not…here comes Tim Whitacre! I have invited Whitacre, the energetic OC GOP leader and Santa Ana civic activist to join our blog team - and he has accepted. Whether you admire him or despise him, I know that you will find his comments to be interesting and relevant to the OC political scene.

You may remember Whitacre from his involvement in the recall of SASUD Board Member Nativo Lopez, or more recently on the episode of Hunt vs. Carona that landed Whitacre in court with the OC GOP.

It’s probably pretty easy for you to guess that I’m not a big fan of Whitacre’s politics, but I do admire people that aren’t afraid to tell the truth as they see it. And I respect folks, regardless of their political affiliations, that are open and honest about any personal political memberships or biases.

What I don’t admire are Bloggers, like Matt Cunningham (a.k.a. Jubal at the OCBlog) who have strong personal biases, but never reveal them to their audiences. Step up Matt; let your readers know that you are a Republican political consultant.

You’re a Republican consultant in a county that elects and re-elects Republicans. What is there to lose? I can help you reserve the domain “TheConservativeOC.com.”

[Orange Juice Blog]

[OC Weekly on Jubal’s Identity]

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Luis Orlando Gallardo Rivera is the head of an urban development agency in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico. He will be spending the next week in Orange County to attend a Fair Housing Policy Conference hosted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Luis is a member of the left wing Popular Democratic Party (PPD) in Puerto Rico, and he maintains a personal blog at: http://www.barriomulas.com/blog/


When Mike asked if I was willing to guest blog on the Liberal OC, I was quite honored to do so, not having collaborated on a collective blog for quite a few years. Being from Puerto Rico, my exposure to Orange County and the West Coast is quite limited; something that doesn’t prevent me from making observations and forming opinions. While some might feel uncomfortable of the fact that an outsider is commenting on their county with unfavorable or crude observations, I agree that perspectives from the outside help break the often limited view that people have on their own communities.

The West is quick to send anthropologists to far away lands, but rarely has it been the subject of ethnographic observation itself.

Despite my activeness in local politics, my approach on many issues is often cultural. I am a firm believer that one of the state’s primary goals is to foment the cultural development of its people via education, a healthy life-style, family, historic identity, solidarity, and especially community. Despite such, I do touch subjects of strictly political interest. Sadly, I have made an effort to learn about the politics of Orange County only to find a largely politically apathetic populace. I’m accustomed to the large political murals, posters, and signs on every lamp post.

I am surprised to see how a county with such a large Latinos population is a bastion of conservative politics. “Orange County has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1936 landslide re-election,” notes Wikipedia. There is obviously an under-representation of Latinos at the polls. Ironically, despite the fact that the Latino population in comparison with other groups has grown more than 7% since the 1990s, support for the Republican Party has gone up by almost 16%. I’m not really sure if that’s due to the courting of Latino votes or growing apathy among the immigration community. I’m still looking for the statistics.

Upon arriving to Orange County, one of my first observations was the large presence of Central American immigrants. Interestingly enough, these groups tend to lack the level of activism, political awareness (even if it does not translate into participation in elections,) and cultural development as Latino communities elsewhere. Lengthy Internet searches for Latino cultural centers in the area provided pathetic results, while Chicago and New York communities are characterized by their distant presence in local affairs. The suggestions of many locals were quite monotonous: “check out Los Angeles, if you want to check out cultural events.” After visiting areas deemed as immigrant enclaves, I concluded that Orange County Latinos lack what I would deem “healthy community.” They appear to have taken on not only a subservient economic role, but a cultural one as well. I kept saying to myself, “I just don’t understand. This is a white city with Latinos living inside of it.” I hope that it is understood that these conclusions of mine are based on a few limited experiences. I truly hope that I am wrong and will continue to search for settings with cultural significance beyond Food Chains and Department Stores.

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Here’s a list of what is going on at other Orange County Blogs:

Mike Randall at the MetrobloggingOC page posts about the scandal-ridden OC GOP. [Link]

Claudio Gallegos writes about how united Central Orange County Demcocrats are behind Solorio, Sanchez, and Correa. [Link]

July 1st-4th is the geekiest event held at the Anaheim Convention Center: The Anime Expo. Matt Coker posts about the upcoming event and his experience with an expo in the past. [Link]

Another Mike Randall post. This one is on his personal blog, and it’s a pretty good observation about a stupid “correction” made in the Orange County Register. [Link]

The Disney Blog links to photos and videos inside the recently updated Pirates Of The Caribbean ride. [Link]

The OC Blog claims that Councilman Harry Krebs is threatening to take “one of the coolest things about Garden Grove” away with his talk to ban fireworks in the city. [Link]

I’m excited to see more and more single-issue-blogs getting created by Orange County residents. The most recent find is “Greetings From Downtown Huntington Beach” which is a blog created to chronicle the attempt by the HB City Council to close Main Street to vehicle traffic.

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I really should have posted this earlier, but better late than never. Tonight saw the first half of a two-night series of town hall meetings discussing election violations in CA-50’s recent special election. Sure, this isn’t the Liberal San Diego, but we’re all Californians with something to lose when it comes to this stuff.

If you voted that night and are a veteran eSlate jockey like myself and thousands of other Orange County voters, you probably noticed a new feature on those fancy boxes. The poll worker might also have gone out of their way to point it out and explain it to you. You may have had a sense of accomplishment- a feeling that perhaps this was only the first step toward ultimate democratic justice and fairness. I can’t say I blame you for this, as a paper record of our votes is definitely a step in the right direction.

Allow me to recount my experience. On June 6, I voted on one of these machines in the early afternoon and spent hours down at the Registrar of Voters (past 2am, oh my!) watching the results being tabulated. Brett Rowley, a communications representative, gave me a tour of the warehouse, compilation cage & count room. (I’d call him “the” communications “director” if I could find him listed or trusted my memory.) An army of workers unloaded trucks, sorted absentee votes to the counters and the electronic precinct controllers to the unwrappers. A smaller crew handled that unwrapping (the initial collection of voting data cards from each machine), and an even smaller group handled the final steps of counting (steps which were “observable” through a window, though without an eagle eye good luck reading what’s happening on the flatscreen monitors six feet away). Eventually, someone would emerge and walk 10 feet with an update for the website.

Notice anything missing from that story? Exactly! No mention of those paper trails!

California Law states in Section 15360 of the Elections Code the following:

15360.  During the official canvass of every election in which a

voting system is used, the official conducting the election shall

conduct a public manual tally of the ballots tabulated by those

devices cast in 1 percent of the precincts chosen at random by the

elections official.  If 1 percent of the precincts should be less

than one whole precinct, the tally shall be conducted in one precinct

chosen at random by the elections official.

In addition to the 1 percent count, the elections official shall,

for each race not included in the initial group of precincts, count

one additional precinct.  The manual tally shall apply only to the

race not previously counted.

Additional precincts for the manual tally may be selected at the

discretion of the elections official.

Interesting. I didn’t see that happen on election night, but maybe I just missed it. It’s not in the official Statement of Votes, nor have I seen mention of it in the local press. This is slightly terrifying for me - what’s the point of a paper record if no one looks at it? Even if the 1% recount was done (which I will be calling to verify), why isn’t it a 100% count? Election after election, we’re pushing the dangerous precedent of fast results further and further.

I can’t be the only one who prefers accuracy over speed, can I? California law doesn’t go far enough - too much is left in the hands of those running elections at various levels. It’s not specific enough as to who is in charge of what exactly. Who does the recounts? The state? The counties? Anyone who happens to know should feel free to enlighten me with that info as well as your source for it.

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When I originally launghed TheLiberalOC.com, I wrote that “we don’t take money from advertisers, bullshit from conservatives, or candy from strangers.” And then recently, after adding a few non-invasive advertisements to the bottom and the right of this page, I amended that statement to say that we don’t take money from “politicians.”

Jubal at the OC Blog gave me a little jab this morning and posted this:

The presence of advertisers on The Liberal OC’s previously untainted expanse of pixels made it clear why the blog’s proud declaration of independence had been amended.

Lord knows, I have nothing against advertising. Running a blog is time consuming and ads help defray both hard costs and opportunity costs. I never understood why the bloggers at The Liberal OC felt the need to decry ad revenue as if it were somehow proof of their liberalness.

But the high-and-mighty denial of advertisements was not a claim of liberalness, and more of a claim to independence… I understand why Jubal may confuse the two.

When I started this project, I wanted to make it clear that I don’t owe anybody anything, and no particular campaign or special interest has control over the content of these pages…like some may assume that Jubal’s coverage of the 5th County Supervisors seat could be influenced by the fact that he takes money to display advertisements for Pat Bates’ campaign.

The Google Adsense program targest the content of the page and region of the viewer; I don’t have any control over which ads are displayed here. In fact, I’ll bet that most of them right now are for some Republican cause.

The ads have been on the site for about two weeks, and I’ve only earned $2. I’m not looking for revenue; my goal is to only earn enough money to cover hosting costs.

[OC Blog]

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Longtime Republican Lupe Moreno quit the Republican Party last week. If anyone in the GOP is looking for reasons to drop out, Moreno cited a few good ones: the county’s endorsement of Sheriff “Immoral Persona” Carona, Bush’s immigration proposals, and Gov. Schwarzenegger’s policies.

She also resigned from the GOP Central Committee. Maybe now Moreno and her Minuteman friends will have time to figure out that it isn’t too heroic to be a man for only one minute.

[Story Via OC Register]

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