By james art Recently, an aspiring Irvine City Council candidate knocked on my door.
We had a nice conversation. She was nice. When I asked her what she was protecting, she said she wouldn’t take money from developers.
I replied, “I don’t know why you don’t take money from the developers. Actually, I think I should!” She looked at me like I was from another planet.
It’s so predictable, so common, and so wrong.
As an architect who has practiced in Orange County and lived in Irvine since 1987, I would argue that no one has done more to provide a positive and innovative vision for Irvine’s future than the developers working here, along with the architects , landscape architects, planners and designers who have partnered with them since before Irvine was incorporated as a city.
From the beginning of the development of Irvine Ranch, the Irvine Company, in collaboration with other developers, builders and professionals, conceived and implemented a unique vision for the livable environment that we take for granted here, from the structure of the village, lakes, walking and cycling paths, open space, landscaped paseos, to some of the most innovative housing, office and shopping ideas to be found anywhere.
Instead of going door to door sending negative campaign literature outlining what the candidates can do to make the housing crisis worse by driving out developers, maybe they could think rationally about how their wonderful homes and communities came to be. (Hint: It wasn’t the politicians.)
Donald Pender, Irvine