Councilmember Melissa Fox has stated that she agrees with Senator Newman that “Any successful site for a future veterans cemetery should be consistent with the enabling legislation authored by Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva and passed in 2013; acceptable to the Orange County Veteran’s Memorial Park coalition; and in the best interests of Irvine, both fiscally and as part of the broader planning for the responsible development of the land around the El Toro site” and that “the alternative site solution may fulfill all three of those parameters, and as such would seem to merit a full exploration by the City Council.”
On April 4, the Irvine City Council adopted Councilmember Fox’s motion to both consider putting up $38 million of the City’s own money toward building the cemetery on the current proposed site in the Great Park and also to open discussions with developer FivePoint Communities on a land swap that would build the cemetery on a site next to the 5 Freeway that was also once part of MCAS El Toro.
Governor Brown has said that he intends to visit both the original site and the alternate site. “We’ll take both sites very seriously,” Assemblymember Quick-Silva said. “The governor’s interested in seeing both sites.”
Councilmember Fox has been on the forefront of Irvine residents calling for an Orange County veterans cemetery located in Irvine. Even before she was elected to the Irvine City Council, Fox worked closely with the members of the Orange County Memorial Park coalition to create a veterans cemetery on land that was once the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.
As early as March 2014, Fox stated that “Orange County has a long and proud military tradition. Currently, more than two million veterans live in California – more than in any other state. This military tradition continues into the present, as nearly 7,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars live in Orange County. Yet Orange County veterans do not have their own official military cemetery and those in Orange County who want to visit a veteran’s grave in a national cemetery must travel to Riverside, San Diego or Los Angeles counties. As an Irvine resident and as the daughter of an Orange County Korean War combat veteran, I believe that it is time that Orange County offered its veterans, who have sacrificed so much for us, a final resting place close to their families and loved ones.”
“We are very close to fulfilling our promise to create a veterans cemetery in Irvine on the grounds of the old El Toro Marine base,” Fox said. “We cannot allow the veterans cemetery to be derailed by political vendettas and the personal grudges of politicians who care more about where it is located than whether it is actually built.”
Irvine – CA At the Irvine City Council meeting on April 14, 2017, the Council unanimously voted in favor of Councilmember Melissa Fox’s motion for an official proclamation recognizing April 23-30, 2017, as “Days of Remembrance” in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and in honor of the survivors, rescuers and liberators, and urging all to “remain vigilant against hatred, persecution, and tyranny.”
“Our City has a long and proud tradition of celebrating our great diversity and welcoming everyone to our community,” Councilmember Fox stated.
The Memorial is the result of both community activism and local government commitment. In 2003, shortly after the invasion of Iraq, an Irvine resident named Dr. Asher Milgrom created the first display in the park. The original make-shift memorial consisted of thirty wooden posts bearing the names and photos of the fallen. Starting in 2006, a non-partisan group of Irvine residents advocated for the establishment of a permanent memorial. In late 2009, the Irvine City Council unanimously approved a plan to create a permanent memorial, which was dedicated on November 14, 2010.
Their message to Irvine’s Sierra Club members stated that “City Council candidate and Community Services Commissioner Melissa Fox is a former Orange County Reserve Park Ranger and a passionate advocate for creating sustainable communities that incorporate public transit, active transportation and access to work, parks, shopping and recreation. Melissa is committed to environmentally responsible, community-oriented planning, including green building practices [and is] dedicated to stopping the rushed development of more housing and office buildings without proper planning or adequate infrastructure, and without consideration of its impact on our schools, our traffic, the character of our communities, and our quality of life. Please vote for the environment in the November election by casting your ballot for Melissa Fox.”
And every candidate for Irvine City Council now promises to control over-development and keep our traffic moving.
Every year the Irvine 2/11 Marine Adoption Committee supports the Marines and their families by participating in their Trunk or Treat Event at Camp Pendleton. We want to make it even bigger and better this year but we need your help!
There is a serious child care crisis in Irvine.
The new Irvine Adventure Playground is the result of many years of dedicated activism by Irvine residents, numerous community hearings, hard work by city staff, and the collaboration and cooperation of all members of the Irvine Community Services Commission. We succeeded in creating an innovative and truly wonderful place for children to play while working within strict budget and liability constraints. As writer Michele Whiteaker has said, the new Irvine Adventure Playground is a great example of community activism, progressive planning and design, and governmental support all working together for the good of Irvine’s children and families.
Unquestionably, Southern California, and specifically Irvine, needs more housing, especially affordable housing. As Irvine’s economy grows, our housing must also grow. Younger families and Millennials too often priced out and feel left out of Irvine’s economic and housing boom.
July 18, 
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On September 15, 2007, the 2nd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division (2/11) from Camp Pendleton, was officially “adopted” by the City of Irvine. The City of Irvine and the 2/11 Marines made a pledge to encourage mutually beneficial interactions between the community and the battalion.
The Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial, dedicated in 2010, is the nation’s first and only memorial dedicated exclusively to listing the names of all the fallen American service members in Afghanistan and Iraq. The names of every service member who has died in Afghanistan and Iraq are engraved in granite in a permanent memorial, to assure that future generations of Americans will remember and honor them with gratitude as we do today. The ceremony will honor our fallen heroes from all generations, with special tribute to those fallen heroes of the recent and ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We will also hear from and honor Gold Star families. Please bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating.
Irvine is among the safest cities in America. Yet even here in Irvine, where crime statistics are extremely low, others are forced to labor against their will. We need to be alert for those who live and work among us and are enslaved. To recognize and stop it, we will need to look beneath the surface.
In the area of sex-based slavery, businesses appear and disappear overnight. Customers seeking their services find them on internet chat rooms. Women held captive in these businesses are moved frequently between locations and cities. Traffickers do not want the women to learn too much about their location or to have relationships with customers or others who could help them escape. Too often, victims of sex trafficking do not even know that we would consider them to be victims of a crime.
Irvine is a wonderful city for biking, whether for commuting, exercising, or just enjoying the outdoors. We have more than 300 miles of on-street bike lanes and more than 50 miles of off-street bikeways. Our bicycle trails are some of the most beautiful, and peaceful, places in Irvine.
Please join us as we continue our Irvine Food Tour, showcasing and sharing our wonderful cultural diversity in Irvine as expressed in scores of amazing local restaurants and markets featuring cuisines as diverse as Irvine’s population!
On January 13, 1903, a group of 102 Koreans arrived in Honolulu from Japan aboard the steamship RMS Gaelic to work in the Hawaiian sugar cane fields. This date is traditionally regarded as marking the first Korean immigration to the United States and celebrated as Korean American Day, although several individual Koreans had immigrated to the United States earlier, including Philip Jaisohn (Seo Jae-pil), a journalist and medical doctor and a noted champion for Korea’s independence and democracy, who in 1890 became the first Korean to become a naturalized U.S. citizen.
Irvine is proud to celebrate our thriving Korean American community. Each year Irvine holds our annual 
Melissa Fox, Esq. 
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