October 21, 2019 by Melissa Fox

Show Your Support for a Great Park Botanical Gardens at our Board Meeting on Tues., October 22, 2019!

If you’re a supporter of botanical gardens in the Orange County Great Park, please attend the important Great Park Board Meeting on Tues., October 22, 2019, at 1:00 p.m. in the Irvine City Council Chambers.

This meeting is scheduled to include a development status update and accounting of projects currently proposed in the Orange County Great Park.

Of special concern to supporters of Great Park Botanical Gardens is the fact that there is no funding or acreage currently allotted or proposed for a botanical gardens.

You can read the Great Park Board Meeting agenda HERE.

You can read the staff report on Great Park development HERE.

It is crucial that supporters of a Great Park Botanical Gardens show up to the meeting and make your voices heard!

I have long been a strong advocate for botanical gardens and museums in the Great Park’s Cultural Terrace. Every survey we’ve done has shown that gardens are among amenities that people most want in the Great Park. The Orange County Register reported that “Gardens were among the most popular features in the surveys, according to the city staff report. Eighty-two percent of Orange County residents said they are at least somewhat interested in having botanical gardens at the Great Park, when they were asked specifically about the feature.”

I agree with the Great Park Garden Coalition that “We need places where children can experience nature and explore, where all can find refuge from the ever-increasing urban density and traffic, where people of all ages and abilities can experience beautiful outdoor spaces. All great urban parks have great garden spaces: Golden Gate Park, Central Park, Balboa Park.”

I also continue to agree with what Joyce Mann wrote in the Voice of OC in 2017: “Gardens are an inclusive, a-political opportunity to bring community together for generations. They are a public benefit that becomes a lasting legacy. Besides being beautiful to look at, education is fundamental to the mission of botanical gardens. Through them, we have an opportunity to teach students of all ages about developing environmental awareness and to learn about plant science, gardening and the ecology of our local forests, rivers and wetlands. Botanical gardens become a living plant museum that will inform visitors about the importance and often-irreplaceable value of plants to the well-being of humans and to the earth’s fragile ecosystems. Isn’t that the very definition of a legacy?”

My top priorities for the Great Park Cultural Terrace are a world-class Botanical Gardens and a California Natural History Museum. I want them moving forward without any more unnecessary delays or unnecessary layers of bureaucracy. I will continue to fight for them until they are a reality.

I appreciate that gardens and museums are not necessarily revenue-producing amenities. But as reported in OC Weekly, “Great Park Director/City Councilwoman Melissa Fox said that, ‘I will also insist that we follow the recommendations of residents and build world-class botanical gardens, museums and a lake to make Irvine the home of a truly Great Park.’ But most heartening, on May 22, Fox pushed back on the notion that everything in the Cultural Terrace must generate a lot of revenue. ‘The Cultural Terrace is the Cultural Terrace,’ she told Irvine planners and consultants at the Great Park board meeting. ‘Not the Commercial Terrace.'”

Please show up at our meeting at 1:00 p.m. on Tues., October 22, 2019, and give voice to the strong community support for a Great Park Botanical Gardens!

August 21, 2018 by Melissa Fox

Visit the Irvine Fine Arts Center Presents to See “All Media 2018” Showcase for Southern California Artists!

The Irvine Fine Arts Center announces the opening of its latest exhibition, All Media 2018, an annual juried show featuring the work of Southern California artists.

An opening reception is 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 25, with award presentations beginning at 4:45 p.m.

The exhibition runs through Saturday, Oct. 27.

Juried by brilliant OC Weekly arts writer — and my long-time friend — Dave Barton, the exhibition features painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, sculpture, installation, digital media, and more.

Gallery hours are 10:00 a.m.– 9:00 p.m. Monday–Thursday, 10 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Friday, and 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturday.

Admission and parking are free.

All Media 2018 exhibition artists include: Marte Amato, Carlo Andaya, Alyssa Arney, Peter Bobbs, Bridget Bourgon, Kevin Campbell, Rachelle Chuang, Katherine Cooksey, Patrick Crabb, Nicholas Decker, Mika Denny, Martin Etem, Lauren Evans, Silvia Faris, Amanda Fisher, Consuelo G. Flores, Liz Flynn, Fernando Forero, Dwora Fried, Alice Gamez, Daniela Garcia, Paul Gardner, Lisa Griffiths, Keumsook Hahn, Emily Halpern, Sara Hassan Khani, Jacoby Hinton, Phung Huynh, Greta Jursch, George Katzenberger, Beverly A. Kelly, Ellen Kirwan, Broni Likomanov, Gillian Loop, Paul Lucido, Gina M., Kai Mao, Shahin Massoudi, Durandy McConnell, Andrea Moni, Kevin Moran, Kevin Morris, Marie Nagy, Nicholas Nicola, Tommy Orosco, Peter Politanoff, Anne Marie Price, Christian Ramirez, Jenny Rask, Robin Repp, Samuelle Richardson, Kerri Sabine-Wolf, Robyn Sanford, Carl Shubs, Peggy Sivert, Amber Smith, Savva Teteriatnikov, Linda Wald, Elizabeth Wang, Wren Warner, and Sean Yang.

The Irvine Fine Arts Center is located inside Heritage Community Park at 14321 Yale Ave.

For more information, visit irvinefinearts.org or call 949-724-6880.

See you there!

December 31, 2017 by Melissa Fox

Welcome 2018!

Irvine 2017 by the Numbers:

No. 1 Major American City in Fiscal Strength.
No. 1 FBI’s Safest American City. Lowest rate of violent crime among cities with a population of 250,000 or more (12th consecutive year that City of Irvine has earned the Safest City accolade).
No. 2 Safest Big City, based on categories that go beyond violent crime rates, including motor vehicle safety.
No. 3 Most Prosperous City.
No. 3 Happiest Residents.
No. 6 Least Stressed American City
No. 8 Best Public Parks.
No. 8 Best City to Raise a Family, based on crime rate, vehicle safety, air quality, and educational attainment.
No. 9 Healthiest Lifestyles.
No. 15 Best Places to Buy a Forever Home.
Listed as one of 20 Western Dream Towns.

Great Park Progress:

Opened new 12,000-seat live music FivePoint Amphitheatre in in the Great Park. The inaugural concert in October 2017 was headlined by Irvine’s own “Young the Giant.”
Groundbreaking for new ice skating facility in the Great Park (largest public ice skating facility in the West).
Opened new 5,000-seat Championship Soccer Stadium and numerous other sports fields and facilities in the first phase of 194-acre Great Park Sports Park, the largest of its kind in Orange County – larger than Disneyland and Disney California Adventure combined.
Great Park Sports Complex presented with the Orange County Business Council’s Turning Red Tape into Red Carpet Award for Public-Private Partnership.
Great Park Championship Stadium becomes home of Orange County Soccer Club, Orange County’s only professional soccer team and official affiliate partner of the Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) of Major League Soccer (MLS). Orange County SC is a part of the United Soccer League (USL), the fastest growing Division II professional soccer league in the world comprised of 34 teams across the United States.
Reached agreement with Wild Rivers for a new 30-acre water park in the Great Park.

Traffic Progress:

City Council did not approve a single new entitlement for housing or offices in 2017.
Reinstated Irvine Transportation/Traffic Commission (with my appointee, Ken Montgomery, as Chair).
Created and filled new City of Irvine staff position of Director of Transportation.
Curtailed traffic in and out of Concordia University.
Approved $19 million plan to reduce traffic congestion throughout Irvine.
Approved plan to widen University between MacArthur and Campus, adding a lane in each direction and upgrading traffic signals.
Working with CalTrans to upgrade and improve timing on 40 traffic signals near freeway ramps.
Working on pedestrian/bicycle bridge over Jamboree at Michelson.
Defeated proposed 1,960-unit “Travel Land” apartment complex at the 5 and Sand Canyon, based on negative impact on traffic congestion.

Environmental Progress:

Reinstated the Irvine Green Ribbon Environmental Commission (with me as Chair and my appointee, Krishna Hammond, as Vice-Chair).
Organic Landscape Leadership Award from Pepperdine Center for Sustainability for Irvine’s exclusive use of organic non-toxic materials in its gardens, parks, and grounds-keeping.
2017 Sustainable Government of the Year for recycling and waste reduction from Sustain OC.
2017 Eco-Award from U.S. Green Building Council.
Continued working with Non-Toxic Irvine to ensure that all City of Irvine pest pressure is maintained organically, and that our public gardens and fields are not only beautiful, they are safe.
Worked with Irvine-based Wyland Foundation to provide education in water and ocean conservation.

Civic, Educational, and Cultural Progress:

Expanded Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial.
Submitted bid for Amazon HQ2.
Opening of the new Charlie and Ling Zhang Musical Arts and Education Center, including Orange County Music and Dance, a non-profit school in Irvine, and headquarters for Arts OC and the Pacific Symphony.
All of Irvine’s high schools rated in the top 10% of the nation’s high schools.
Cadence Park School (K-8) opens in Great Park Neighborhoods.
Dedicated 125 acres of land from the former El Toro Marine Base for Orange County’s first veterans’ cemetery and held dedication ceremony attended by hundreds of veterans.
Opening of the Quail Hill Community Center.
UC Irvine breaks record with 116,192 undergraduate applications.
16th Annual Global Village Festival.
8th Annual Korean Festival.
4th Annual Diwali Festival.
4th Annual Persian New Year Nowruz Festival.
3rd Annual Winter Wonderland Festival.
12th Annual Orange County Fire Open House.
3rd Annual Irvine Police Open House.
1st Annual “Days of Remembrance” Proclamation, remembering the Holocaust and calling on all of us to be “vigilant against hatred, persecution, and tyranny.”
Deployed firefighters to Houston, saving thousands from flooding.
Deployed firefighters throughout California to fight worst fire season in California history.
Instituted first-ever Irvine Police Mounted Unit.
12th Annual Super Pet Adoption at Irvine Animal Care Center.
12th Annual Home for the Holidays Pet Adoption at Irvine Animal Center.
4th Annual Spooktacular Fun Days at Great Park.

And some personal accomplishments:

“Best Politician” by the Orange County Weekly.
“Taxpayer Watchdog Award” by Orange County Auditor-Controller.
“100 Most Influential” by Orange County Register.
“Hero of Children Award” by Child Abuse Prevention Network.
“Active Transportation Change Maker Award” by Alliance for a Healthy OC

Serving the residents of Irvine this year as a member of the Irvine City Council has been a great joy and privilege.

Together we can do even more in 2018!

Michael, Max, our entire team, and I wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

The best is yet to come!

Melissa

November 9, 2017 by Melissa Fox

OC Weekly: Fox Trot

The OC Weekly just published another story about my continuing fight for a veterans cemetery in Irvine.

Here is the story:

FOX TROT

“Nine days after being named Best Politician in OC Weekly’s massive Best of 2017 issue, Irvine City Councilwoman Melissa Fox was hit by a dude. Coincidence? Yes and no. Raul Ricardo Rodriguez-Peltz of Westminster, Colorado, probably has never heard of your favorite infernal rag. However, the 28-year-old’s Oct. 29 booking into Irvine City Jail on misdemeanor assault does stem from the same stand Fox took that earned mad respect from OC Weekly’s Best of 2017 Board of Governors.

Here’s how we began what was published Oct. 20 about the county’s reigning best politico:

‘Having run a warped, money-hungry Irvine political machine that trampled the concept of public transparency and wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, Larry Agran wanted to maintain control over the city’s Democrats even after his forced retirement in the 2014 election. But this year, a fellow party member, first-term City Councilwoman Melissa Fox, let the 72-year-old former mayor know she isn’t one of his stooges, bucking him on his preferred location for a future veterans’ cemetery at the Orange County Great Park site.’

Fox was part of a City Council majority that approved placing the state-run memorial park in what are now strawberry fields but used to be part of the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. In exchange, the current land owner gets property within the nearby Great Park that is currently contaminated [note: the property that the develop gets from the City, like the property that the City gets from the developer, is not within the borders of the Great Park; both properties are adjacent to the Great Park, and — most importantly — both properties were part of the former El Toro Marine Base, which was closed in 1999].

Many in the audience cheered the council’s 3-2 vote for the land swap, prompting Vietnam War veteran and Orange County Veterans Memorial Park Foundation leader Bill Cook to remark, “This is an historic day.”

But Agran is not one to lose a fight without going down in another fight. He and the infernal rag in his back pocket—not us, silly; the Irvine Community News and Views—continued to lobby for “The Great Pork” to host the vet cemetery, and a local “Save the Veterans Cemetery” campaign was soon launched. Backers had until our day of publication (Nov. 9) to submit around 12,000 valid signatures from registered voters in the city to get a referendum on the November 2018 ballot affirming or denying the council’s decision.

And so it was, nine days after we named Fox the best politician in the county, she was at Alton Square shopping center advising constituents against signing the petitions being spread by paid signature gatherers from out-of-town, including—you guessed it—Westminster, Colorado. (Rodriguez-Peltz told police he is a political consultant and paid petitioner.)

Fox says residents complained to her about signature gathers being aggressive, so she snapped photos of them (that you can see on melissafoxblog.com). She told police that led to a confrontation in which Rodriguez-Peltz grabbed a sign she had stating, “Do not sign the misleading veterans cemetery petition. Get the facts”; swung it at her; hit her leg with it; then tore it up and threw it in the trash.

When Fox called the cops, he scrammed but later surrendered. Shaken by the scary encounter, Fox vows to keep warning residents about Save the Veterans Cemetery. We expect no less from OC’s best politician.”