Hesperia skate park meeting tonight

Spinning out of skater kids coming to the Hesperia City Council meeting a few months ago, the Hesperia Recreation & Park District is having another meeting to gauge interest in a local skate park in the city tonight.

The new Hesperia reporter for the Daily Press, Tracie Troha, has the story in today’s paper.

The myth of the liberal media establishment

From that great bastion of liberal thought, South Carolina, comes this editorial in The State newspaper:

We journalists have our share of faults.

As a group, we tend to be arrogant and nomadic, which too often results in our being quite detached from our communities.

We are independent, fiercely competitive and suspicious of secrecy, and we tend to distrust and even disdain authority — characteristics that suit us well for digging out corruption but can make us act like petty children where none exists. (It also poses some interesting morale and management challenges inside newsrooms, but that’s another story, and one I don’t intend to write.)

And yes, as a group we do tend to be more socially and politically liberal than our communities. And yes, this does show up in our news coverage.

As nomadic outsiders, journalists build community among themselves. This leads to the group-think that takes over within any group of people with similar education, similar social status and similar worldviews.

This creates huge blind spots that influence and limit our thinking. The blind spot that causes the greatest disconnect these days, of course, relates to religious and social issues, which have become the new litmus test of ideology in our country. Case in point: The concept of a “born-again Christian� was foreign to the faith traditions in which most journalists grew up (if they grew up in any), and so official journalism is distrustful of anyone who calls himself one.

When news coverage comes across as tone-deaf to much of middle America, it’s largely due to these types of limitations. To get an idea of what I’m talking about, think of President Bush’s initial bumbling response to Hurricane Katrina, which grew out of his unfamiliarity with poverty rather than any animosity toward black people.

You’d never guess this by listening to journalism’s ideologically driven critics on the right, of course. To hear them talk, journalists all have a simple agenda — to skewer Republicans and promote Democrats and liberal causes.

That has been the common wisdom at least since Spiro Agnew denounced us as “nattering nabobs of negativism� and, not too much later, the profession took out his Republican boss. And so it has become the lens through which many Republicans view the media, taking offense when we subject Republicans to scrutiny but not seeming to notice when we treat Democrats the same way.

Anyone who understands the journalistic mindset (see “disdain for authority,� above) realizes that journalists don’t care what the political views are of their targets. But most people don’t understand the journalistic mindset.

For those of you tired of the media discussing Judith Miller, yes, it’s another article/column/editorial about her. Fair warning before you click through and read it in its entirety.

Tribune Media hiring a reporter in Los Angeles

Well, this is intriguing:

Company: Tribune Company
Location: US-CA-Glendale
Base Pay: N/A
Employee Type: Full-Time Employee
Industry: Broadcasting – Radio – TV
Manages Others: No
Job Type: Media – Journalism – Newspaper
Req’d Education: 4 Year Degree
Req’d Experience: Not Specified
Req’d Travel: Not Specified
Relocation Covered: No

DESCRIPTION
Purpose:
Reports on City Hall.

First off, is it a newspaper gig or a broadcast gig? And if it’s a newspaper gig, who covers City Hall from Glendale?

City Council announces new Target store

A press release from the City of Hesperia:

City Announces Major new Retail development

Hesperia, California – Hesperia residents will soon have a variety of new shopping options with the City Council’s October 6, 2005 announcement that a new Target is coming to Hesperia and will anchor the new High Desert Gateway regional shopping center being developed by Lewis Retail Centers at the intersection of Interstate 15 & Main Street in Hesperia.

Target will construct their new 124,000 square foot, state-of-the-art general merchandise store, and accompanying site improvements, on approximately 10 acres of the new 42-acre center.

“We are very excited that Target and Lewis Retail Centers has chosen Hesperia for their newest location,� said Mayor Jim Lindley. “A typical Target store employs 150-250 full and part-time employees and has a projected first year payroll of $3.2 million.�   According to Target Corporation, annual sales volumes vary by location but generally exceed $30 million. 

With an anticipated March 2007 opening, the new store will represent an investment in land, building and equipment of approximately $16 million.

“Facilitating the development of retail and shopping opportunities for Hesperia residents represent a key goal of the City Council and staff,â€? said Lindley. “I believe the new Hesperia Target store will do exceptionally well because of its strategic location and ability to serve Hesperia, Oak Hills, Wrightwood, Phelan and  the unincorporated county area surrounding our city.â€?

The City is working with Lewis and Target to expedite the entitlement process which represents a significant amount of the time that it takes to open a new store.  Lewis anticipates simultaneous construction for other co-tenants in the Gateway Center which will encompass some 400,000 square feet of retail space.
 
“The Economic Development staff has been aggressively seeking retail and restaurant opportunities and devoting significant human and capital resources to this effort,â€? said City Manager Mike Podegracz. “Retailers require favorable demographics with household income and population as key drivers in their location decisions.  For the past several years we have heard the common refrain of ‘rooftops equal retail’ and with our phenomenal housing development retailers can no longer ignore the tremendous potential opportunities that exist in Hesperia.”

Target represents one of the twenty retail matches identified in the Buxton Company’s Community ID prepared for the Hesperia Community Redevelopment Agency (Agency) and City.  “We believe that our success in attracting Target validates the results of the Community ID effort said Steven Lantsberger, Hesperia’s Deputy Economic Development Director.  City staff just returned from the International Council of Shopping Center’s Western Division Deal Making Conference in Palm Springs where they met with scores of retailers and restaurants interested in the Gateway Center and other Hesperia locations. 

“The City Council and I believe that Target’s confidence in the retail potential of Hesperia will induce retail synergy and lead to more exciting announcements in the near future,â€? said Lindley.  “The City will realize significant sales tax revenue from the new Target; funds we can invest in important community-based iniatives, including roads.”

Target Corporation, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota operates 1,351 Target Stores and Superstores, encompassing approximately 171 million square feet of retail space.  Total sales for Target eclipsed $45.6 billion for their fiscal year 2004.

Lewis Retail Centers is one of the largest shopping center developers in California and Nevada. It is also a member of the Lewis Group of Companies with a portfolio represented by dynamic neighborhood, community and power centers totaling over 4 million square feet. Many of their prime locations are home to some of the nation’s most prestigious retailers such as Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, Home Depot, JC Penney, Kohl’s, Lowes, Macy’s, Marshalls, Mervyn’s, RC Willey, Robinsons-May, Ross, Sam’s Club, Target, Wal-Mart, Albertsons, Ralphs, Safeway and Vons. One of Lewis’ most recent projects is Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga, CA.

See also the story in today’s Daily Press. Look for more information in the October 11 edition of the Hesperia Star.

Incident after Hesperia football game

Here’s another example of the “do we compete or not?” competition between the Star and the Daily Press: Altercation between coach and player under investigation. Our story will be in the Star on Tuesday.