Tyler Holcomb

Stand with the Quakers: Vote down Props 1A-1F

By Tyler Holcomb | 04/21/09

 The  Friends Committee on Legislation is one of the oldest registered lobbying groups in California. It's also one of the most liberal:  it's the lobbying arm for California's Quakers. So this just delights my fiscal conservative soul:     The Friends Committee on Legislation's Board of Directors has reached unity on its recommendations for the California Statewide Special Election, which will be held Tuesday,... read more »

Irvine Cell Phone Nimby-ism

By Tyler Holcomb | 04/06/09

Irvine may have the most educated electorate in Orange County, but we still have plenty of woolly-headed thinking.  This weekend my neighbor distributed a flyer (attached below) protesting T-Mobile having the audacity to improve our cell phone service by erecting a new cell phone tower.   The flyer is full of scare words ("Thalidomide, DDT, cigarettes, saccharin, mercury"  oh my!) but devoid of actual facts. Like the... read more »

Update on Irvine School budget

By Tyler Holcomb | 04/02/09

IUSD has released on update on their budget situation: The Irvine Unified School District [is] facing a $7 million loss in categorical funding for 2009-10 and a projected $9 million shortfall in unrestricted funds for the 2010-11 school year. This seven million dollar shortfall is an improvement from the originally projected ten million dollar deficit (on a budget of roughly $220 million). The primary source of improvement is switching to... read more »

Great News from Irvine

By Tyler Holcomb | 03/27/09

If you don't have kids then skip this. However my  kids were so excited I just have to share the news:  Wild Rivers Park and the Irvine Corporation have agreed to a multi-year lease that covers the 2009 and 2010  seasons at the current location on Irvine Center Drive in Irvine.Wild Rivers had been slated to close to make way for condos, causing great lamentations at Chez Tylerh.  Finally, a silver lining from our bum economy. read more »

Steven Choi's CAIR caution supported by trial verdict, FBI

By Tyler Holcomb | 03/22/09

Irvine proved again last fall that "All politics is local" when the tension between being vigilant against Islamic extremism and being an open society led to a nasty turn of our  municipal politics.At a September candidate forum Irvine City Council member Steven Choi cautioned "the Council on American-Islamic Relations - commonly known as CAIR - [is] as a 'dangerous and Islamic organization.' "  With that remark Irvine had it's very own... read more »

Why Irvine has Lousy Cell Phone Coverage

By Tyler Holcomb | 03/20/09

Adam Probolsky has a good column in today's OC Register / Irvine World News lamenting poor cell phone coverage in Irvine and expressing frustration that the city council has a moratorium on new cell phone towers. Adam is right: Irvine's future requires that we have good infrastructure.  The cell phone tower ban is counter-productive NIMBY pandering. read more »

Good News for Irvine Schools

By Tyler Holcomb | 03/10/09

Irvine schools will face less severe cuts than previously anticipated. IUSD Superintended Gwen Gross writes: . Based on our move into a local funding model that relies on local property taxes instead of the state's revenue limit formula, it now appears our district will not have to cut to the extent that was initially anticipated. Local funding, also known in education circles as "Basic Aid," occurs when the local property tax revenue in... read more »

Irivine "publisher' making news in Monterey

By Tyler Holcomb | 02/23/09

Frank Lunding played a large role in last year's Irvine city council election as the publisher of the "Irvine Community News and Views," a weekly campaign mailer for Larry Agran that pretended to be a newspaper. Not content with making up news in Irvine,  Frank has been making news in his hometown of Carmel Valley as well.Recently, Frank has filed a lawsuit to prevent Carmel Valley from incorporating as a city after the Local Agency... read more »

Even Chermerinsky thinks Jerry Brown is a bit loopy

By Tyler Holcomb | 02/18/09

UCI Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky held a lunch talk last week about the legal challenges to Proposition 8. Mrs. Tylerh went and was surprised to the see UCI student ballroom filled to capacity for a talk about the details state constitutional law.  An additional surprise was that the legal challenge to rop 8 isn't just political posturing but involves an interesting, little known aspect of California Constitutional Law (more below the... read more »

The Great Park skates past budget woes

By Tyler Holcomb | 02/12/09

While the budget news from Sacramento gets ever grimmer and the Irvine schools are trying to bridge a ten million dollar budget gap, the City of Irvine's OC Great Park has found a stimulating use for public money:  Ice Skating! This Saturday from 11 am to 10 pm the Great Park will feature ice skating with  "free admission & skate rentals" I am proud that my city is being proactive during these difficult economic times, ... read more »