ILLUSTRATIVE MAP of draft Westminster Mall specific plan (City of Westminster).

A little of this, a little of that …

Could It Be Mall Over Dept: I read that one of the major owners of the troubled Westminster Mall is putting its property up for sale.

That looks like the long-running effort to refresh (or replace) what was once Orange County’s biggest enclosed shopping center has hit another snag, or – at the very-least – a significant delay.

But doesn’t “significant delay” describe efforts over the last decade for the attempted resurrection of the mall?

There’s a whole lineup of issues that confront anyone trying to “fix” that project, which was once a major cash cow of sales tax to Westminster. They include:
• a divided and chaotic city council that has seemed to major in infighting instead of economics;
• a steep decline in the appetite for retail space, partly because of the Amazon effect;
the uncertain nature of the economic picture and the effects of the policies of the new administration.
• the numerous owners of the property.

A Kind of Funny Dept. Does anybody else think that it’s sort of ironic that the All-MAGA city council in Huntington Beach is now holding its meetings in the Central Library, considering how its actions have created a storm of opposition from people allied to the city library system?

Hard Hearts, Hearken Dept.: Every year in may there’s the police memorial in Garden Grove in honor of the six officers who gave their lives in the service of the community.
Every year I tell myself, hey, this is just routine, and every year I get misty. I guess I’m not a total iconoclast, yet. Godspeed, heroes.