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Los Angeles Times
09-05-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Around Town: Nonprofit Share Ourselves celebrates new Costa Mesa clinic
Members of the nonprofit Share Ourselves joined with local dignitaries and city officials Saturday to celebrate the opening of a new Costa Mesa healthcare clinic with a community health fair and ribbon-cutting ceremony. Attendees enjoyed free tours of the clinic, located at 1650 Adams Ave., and connected with nutrition and wellness resources as well as Orange County community leaders and health advocates. Developed by Turner Impact Capital's Turner Healthcare Facilities Funds, a mission-driven social impact investment fund, the 11,000-square-foot clinic features 12 medical exam rooms, six dental chairs and two optometry chairs as well as a behavioral health services office and on-site pharmacy. Costa Mesa Mayor John Stephens, who attended Saturday's ribbon-cutting alongside several City Council members and Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley, praised the organization for creating better outcomes for those in need. 'Share Ourselves embodies what it means to be a whole person, addressing not just physical health, but mental, social and economic well-being,' Stephens said. 'The clinic represents more than just a building — it's a beacon of hope for many.' Professional beach volleyball returns to Huntington Beach this weekend, as the three-day Huntington Beach Open kicks off the AVP season at the pier. Action began Friday and continues with matches starting at 10 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Players will compete to secure their spots in the AVP League, which is set to debut its second season starting May 23 in Palm Beach. The top seeds for the women this weekend are 2024 Olympians Taryn Brasher and Kristen Nuss, while the men's top seeds, Andy Benesh and Miles Partain, were also Paris Olympians. General admission tickets are required for stadium seating Saturday and Sunday, with tickets available at Admission to the three outer courts is complimentary.
Los Angeles Times
12-04-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Costa Mesa earmarked a slice of cannabis tax revenue for the arts. Where is it going?
When Costa Mesa officials drafted the city's retail cannabis ordinance, they agreed to dedicate one-half cent of the 7-cent-per-dollar tax toward the implementation of an Arts & Culture Master Plan. But until recently, it's been unclear where the money's going. Adopted in 2021, the same year as the cannabis law was crafted following the passage of Measure Q, the arts master plan took years to create as public input was sought on how citywide art and cultural events, programs, policies and staffing might be developed over a five-year period. The document comprised existing events — like a utility box art program and the annual ARTventure — and also called for new commitments, such as establishment of the seven-member Arts Commission and creation of a full-time arts specialist, hired in 2022 at an annual salary of $120,000. Some saw the tax earmark as a shot in the arm for local arts, including Costa Mesa Mayor John Stephens, who helped draft the recommendation as part of a council-appointed cannabis ad hoc committee. 'Everybody, I think, realized it was a good thing to put money behind — here's a fund to hopefully spur and inspire some investment into public art,' Stephens said Thursday. 'My view was we'd see some great public art.' Now, with more than $3.3 million in total revenue having so far been generated from the legal sale of marijuana, the application of the arts funding is not so visible. Parks & Community Services Director Brian Gruner explained during an April 3 Arts Commission meeting the cannabis tax funds were not being accumulated for a special purpose, but were going into the city's general fund, from which arts programs and initiatives have historically been covered. Gruner told commissioners while city leaders initially projected the cannabis tax revenue would be sufficient to fund the total implementation of the master plan's programs — around $8 million annually — actual income has been less robust, possibly due to a cap placed last year on the number of dispensaries allowed to do business. 'Currenlty, the tax revenue coming in is not sufficient to basically fund the arts master plan, so the council has been supplementing additional funds from the general fund to help offset that,' he said. 'The council has been very, very supportive of the arts, and they certainly make that a priority to continue the funding, at least for the next fiscal year.' Total implementation of the five-year plan — which began July 2021 and ends in June 2026 — is estimated to cost $1,941,700, including a projected cost for next fiscal year of $457,300, according to figures provided by Gruner at last week's commission meeting. But given the arts master plan funding constitutes 1/14 of the total cannabis tax taken in, the city would have to earn $27,183,800 in revenue from dispensaries for arts and culture programs to be fully funded. By contrast, figures provided in the 2024-25 adopted budget show only $420,967 in arts-related cannabis taxes will have been collected by June 30. That the earmark is being returned to the city's general fund came as a surprise to resident Jim Fitzpatrick, a former planning commissioner-turned-cannabis-consultant who makes frequent appearances at public meetings to decry what he sees as waste and misspending at City Hall. 'Measure Q came after the Arts & Culture Master Plan. [The arts tax] was never intended to fund it,' Fitzpatrick said during the Arts Commission meeting. 'It was always intended to be incremental, over and above, to do more for the City of the Arts. Now [staff] is saying they're having to supplement it with the general fund. They've got it backwards.' City Finance Director Carol Molina, in the throes of preparing next fiscal year's budget, deferred questions about the cannabis tax to Costa Mesa spokesman Tony Dodero, who clarified that the city's intention was that the revenue would be the sole funding source for programs identified in the document. 'Ultimately, the money from Measure Q is supposed to totally fund the master plan, but at this point it's not. And, because of that, for the last three years the city's been taking money out of the general fund to fund the master plan,' Dodero said Wednesday. Stephens said while that's not exactly what he envisioned when the council approved the tax set-aside, he doesn't think of using the general fund to pay for arts programming as a 'subsidy.' 'My vision was that it would be tangible, that people would be able to see a tangible art piece and trace it back to the cannabis art funds,' the mayor said Thursday. 'But it's still obviously an additional source of funds we didn't have before. If that allows us to get [an arts specialist], that wasn't what I was thinking — but I don't disagree with that.'
Los Angeles Times
11-04-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Plans for a traffic bridge at Costa Mesa's Gisler Avenue may be nixed after 60+ years
The western terminus of Costa Mesa's Gisler Avenue has for years remained untouched — an asphalt road segueing to a pedestrian bridge that spans the concrete channel of the Santa Ana River — and city leaders want it to stay that way. But, since the first highway master plans for Orange County were inked in the 1950s, the site has been identified as a place where a potential roadway bridge could link Gisler to Garfield Avenue in Huntington Beach. That juncture is one of four Santa Ana River crossings identified in the document — two more at Adams Street and Victoria Avenue have since been constructed, while a third connecting Huntington's Banning Avenue and Costa Mesa's 19th Street is also being contested but is currently on hold. The plan for the bridge system likely made sense when Orange County's population was booming and homes had not yet filled in the parcels along Gisler Avenue. But today, Costa Mesa's 'state streets' neighborhood and California Elementary School to the north and Mesa Verde Country Club to the south make building out the two-lane road a dicey proposition. 'In order to put a bridge up, hypothetically, you'd have to do a lot of eminent domain, including a school site, the Mesa Verde golf course and about 20 to 30 homes,' Mayor John Stephens said Thursday. 'Obviously, nobody in Costa Mesa wants that. It would be brutal for the residents of Mesa Verde.' For that reason, city leaders have fought since 1991 to have the Garfield-Gisler bridge removed from the Master Plan of Arterial Highways (MPAH), now under the jurisdiction of the Orange County Transportation Authority. Joined in their effort by Huntington Beach, and later Fountain Valley, officials and residents alike have pushed the agency to conduct traffic studies and consider alternative infrastructure improvements that would negate the need for the bridges. With the penning of a memorandum of understanding in 2006, the involved parties agreed to implement a series of improvements, including intersection upgrades, street widening and new freeway on-ramps. And, in the meantime, a few seismic changes to the surrounding area have worked out in the cities' favor. Orange County population forecasts have trended downward, from 3.6 million to 3.3 million, in the last two decades, while completion of OCTA's $2.16-billion I-405 Improvement Project in 2023 increased the freeway's capacity, lessening the need for arterial connectors. Those changes led the transportation agency to determine that the Garfield-Gisler bridge was no longer necessary. 'Based on the fact that forecast congestion has not increased in the study area reviewed in this analysis, there is no indication of a need for further in‐depth study of the MPAH status of the Garfield-Gisler [right of way] reserve,' a 2025 technical study concluded. 'It is recommended that the facility be fully removed from the MPAH without significant impacts on traffic or congestion in the area.' Stephens and Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley, two longstanding opponents of the bridge proposal, serve on OCTA's Board of Directors as well as a Regional Transportation and Planning Committee that reviews highway programs and makes recommendations to the agency's board of directors. On Monday, the committee formally recommended the project be stricken from the master plan. The move was highlighted in letters of support signed by the public works directors of the cities of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley. Fountain Valley, which had in previous decades historically supported the Santa Ana River traffic crossings, after Monday's vote decided to withdraw its letter of support so the matter could be reviewed by its city council, according to Stephens. Once a determination is made at that level, it will be up to the OCTA Board of Directors to decide whether to formally adopt the master plan amendment that would leave the Gisler Avenue terminus as it stands today. Foley said Thursday she was hopeful for a positive outcome. 'We can't exactly have a highway running through our nice residential communities — you'd be taking out schools, homes and beautiful open spaces, the golf course, etc.,' she said. 'We've been working on this for many decades here in Costa Mesa, and it's finally time to take this bad idea off the Master Plan of Arterial Highways.'
BBC News
01-03-2025
- BBC News
Plymouth travel project aims to get people active
People in part of Devon are being encouraged to leave their cars at home and use other modes of transport throughout City Council and cycling and walking charity Sustrans launched the Big Plymouth Travel Challenge on Saturday which asks people to log their journeys in the city using an online scheme runs for the whole of the month and urges people to walk, cycle, skateboard or scooter to carry out their council and charity said the project aimed to boost people's health and wellbeing by getting them to be more active while also helping the environment. Councillor John Stephens, the council's cycling and walking champion, said the authority was committed to improving the city's infrastructure to help people travel in different added the challenge was a great chance for people to learn about how others use transport links in the city."I get it that some people might feel nervous riding a bike on a road, which is fair enough," Mr Stephens said."But there's an opportunity for people to understand each other's travelling needs and sometimes there's a little bit of human support that's needed."
BBC News
28-02-2025
- General
- BBC News
Plymouth primary school to adopt traffic restrictions after trial
A Plymouth primary school has said it will make traffic restrictions during busy times permanent after a successful Road Primary Academy will become the first in the city to permanently adopt the Safer School Streets measures following an 18-month rules are designed to encourage families to walk, scooter or cycle to school by closing roads in the morning and Britta Nicholls said the move highlighted the school's commitment to "healthy lifestyles" by encouraging daily exercise. She said families benefited from "reduced air pollution" and it made the school journey more social, as people could walk in number of children being driven to the school has dropped by 45%, according to charity Sustrans which organised the scheme in partnership with Plymouth City John Stephens, the council's walking and cycling champion, said the scheme was "a great way to reduce congestion and improve air quality around the school gates".
