Thursday, October 24, 2013

5th Post: Scandal, Another Burglary, Health Concerns & Updates




As the OC Register compared,
PROJECT  PROMONTORY  
is similar to a WAR  ZONE
&
SCANDAL  
BREAKS  AT  THE "ISLAND HOTEL"






Hello Fellow Residents...

 Thank you for your support and would like to 
share some of the following reports posted by 
your neighbors and looking forward to 
receiving more!!  


IT'S AIRBORNE...

DUST,  DUST  &  MORE  DUST!!


A significant amount of dust has permeated through the windows and door jambs of the units under construction.  In fact, construction crews are wearing protective air masks, in compliance with OSHA regulations but, the residents are not protected.  

Residents come home to a layer of thick dust on a daily basis and they are without a means to protect their lungs from the inhalation of dislodged micro-particles, making them vulnerable. Unaware of updated air quality testing, the long lasting repercussions are unknown.

The media recently toured Promontory Point, trekking through the chalky haze and scaffolding.  Upgrades turn Promontory into a “war zone” (as the Register called it), and definitely newsworthy of a very unhealthy airspace. 

This observation was not meant to minimize the devastating realities of an actual war zone however, their visit was compounded by the extreme decibel level made by the jackhammering and intense pounding which had an overwhelming eerie impact, to say the least.

 At the end of the day, the media staff felt sincere compassion and even stated they wouldn’t want to live here during this project.


WANTED:
  
CAR WASH SERVICE


Access to quick drive-through wash would be a welcome addition to this project.  Although a petty issue to bring up, it has been increasingly irritating to deal with dirty cars on a daily basis.  

It's not just the time consuming task or a  scheduling factor to wash our cars but, let's face it, it adds up!  If you are in a construction zone, you will not be able to maintain a clean car and pettiness aside, it will become very costly to wash cars several times a week.  

The Irvine Company has many connections and wouldn't this be a welcome service to offer residents or, are dirty cars just another minor inconvenience? 



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RENT  ALLOWANCE  UPDATE: 

BREAKING NEWS:  Rent allowance has been changed to equal 25% off each individual rent versus the original $500QUESTION:  Is this compensation significant enough compared to the impact to quality of life?


 $$$$$     $$$$$     $$$$$     $$$$$     $$$$$     $$$$$     $$$$$     $$$$$     $$$$$    



             An afternoon stroll around the Point with Baby

 We've got air...
 
(Posted by Resident)
Just a reminder if you got an A/C unit:  you may want to bypass that window’s sensor or move the sensor and re-set your alarm.  Also, put a dowel or one of those metal shower curtain spring-loaded curtain rods in the window track to prevent the window from being opened. (Note: if someone wants to get in, they could, but why make it easy for them?)


(Posted by Resident)

Of course, now I have to concern myself with safety. One must keep in mind that with these A/C exhaust panels come a degradation of security.  The exhaust panel is in my front window, above a geranium flower planter. [My unit is one flight up from the street, over my garage.]  Not likely someone would come in that way, but still. And now I have to decide whether I need to bypass that window when I set the alarm, or not. It’s this simple stuff that’ll drive you batty.





TRADE  OFF  FOR  HEALTH?

My husband and I have asthma and suffering from asthma related breathing problems the last month. We've been puffing on our inhalers with no avail. I work from home occasionally and the noise level is ridiculous, I can barely concentrate and they haven't even started on our house or 
section yet, but the noise is coming from across the pool area so three months is not an adequate timeframe that they are giving us.

After a few weeks we have had to request for an air purifier but that hasn't helped our breathing, I can't even imagine the damage its doing to my child's lungs. The piles of dust are pretty thick in our house even though my windows are closed all day, and as said before, they haven't even started construction yet on our home.

We just had the scaffolding put up in our section this morning so we are feeling the ill effects of the construction even before it starts on our area. I voiced my complaint to the office and asked for more concessions but was told sorry, nothing else we can do, if you can't deal with it you are not held liable to your lease. We just received a lease renewal for the end of December, with a $200 rent increase, so even while the construction is going on, they are still raising rents. Its a wonder why I see moving trucks on a daily basis now.
(email from Resident Website)
This certainly sums it up.  Yesterday evening when I returned from work there was a 1/4 pile of fine dust under my front door, not to mention it everywhere in my apartment.  Not only is it filthy, but god only know what is in that dusk.  TIC admitted at their chicken dinner there a asbestos that is being re mediated from the work being done.  This just isn't right!


(Resident Comment)
The Management needs to be more pro-active and do everything they can to remedy the frustrations most are feeling. IC has many resources and the very least they could do would be to secure appropriate pet care accommodations.

Most of us pay $50 a month per/ animal and they can't be in the units due to the decible level caused by the drilling and cannot be closed up. Animals need and should be vacated during the drilling and pounding process and if you have read other comments, the animals are not handling this very well at all.

IC has no consideration regarding our welfare nor our family pets. Maybe its best to move but who can afford that? This is a horrific mess and hope the resident committee can make progress soon!

Thank you for the photos on new blog & for all of the information. It is sad to read what others are going through. We will be at the meeting.




(Resident Comment)

I am having severe allergy symptoms from this... My sinuses are going crazy, and my throat is closing. There is a very thick white powder with large chunks in it allover from just one day. PLEASE take a baggy and put yours in, so we can have this tested. This is getting into my pet water and food... this cannot be healthy. I am going to bag up a bunch, and have taken pics from just one day. And, we live next to the construction... they have not started our unit. Honestly, I feel like I have the flu, and it is very hard to breathe...
"ANOTHER" BURGLARY 
IN PROMONTORY POINT

A reference on the NBPD incident website 
reported another burglary around the 400E section of Promontory which makes the rise in reported break-in's to 4 residence and 1 attempted.

Residents have legitimate concerns for safety and due to the long-term scaffolding being accessible at ground level posses a serious problem.  According to the last meeting, the IC Project Manager stated that the scaffolding schedule will not be changed but offered no answers regarding our safety.









WE  HEAR  YOU... 

(email received to Resident Website)
Dear Residents of Promontory;
I wanted to comment on the Island Hotel dinner/town meeting sponsored by the Irvine Company. Feel free to use whatever you want from my comments below.

1) Considering the extent (duration, project size) of the construction and the overwhelming response by the residents, I was shocked to hear and see that not one person on the panel was a decision maker!! This was disgraceful and demonstrated a complete lack of respect for the residents of Promontory.

2) While many of the people who spoke at the meeting got off track a bit (discussing the fitness center, etc), I believe there were a couple of key points that were missed in the meeting:

a) Air quality - again, the report that was given to the AQMD was from 2011. Why have there not been more samples being taken? After telling us at the meeting that "asbestos in no near sliding doors or patios" I found out Friday that the 'mud' tape around the sliders contains asbestos and that the IC has had to now hire an abatement team to remove that tape. However, according to the construction office, it is safe for us to remain in our apartments. What??!!?? What about those people with already compromised immune systems? And why is this not common knowledge??

b) Emergency access was not addressed entirely. Neither was parking.

c) We were told that we would be put up in a hotel while the catwalks were worked on. This was not even mentioned.

d) The question was asked and answered about the process of the reconstruction itself. Why are they working 'football' style and not containing the construction to one area and finish in a shorter period of time? The answer was that the project would be drawn out to over 5+ years (ridiculous!) and that the stucco application would not be uniform. Huh? Well it won't be anyway because there is no way that the will re-do ALL the stucco in one day. Crazy!

e) They confirmed that the scaffolding is up for the DURATION of the project. That means for at least four months I am surrounded by scaffolding; safety concerns, privacy issues, loss of patio. A relative reduction to the square footage of lost seemed reasonable. Yet we were told there will be no further consideration given to rent reductions, regardless of the size of your unit, your current rent, the fact that some people will be inconvenienced by the construction (a la West side) for much longer than four months. 

f) If they really cared about what we had to say about the project why then were there:

* no notes taken
* no recording made
* no one in authority present

A complete waste of time. 


From: 
Resident "LEAVING" Promontory!






WATCH  FOR  NAILS WHEN  WALKING  YOUR  DOGS...


"After Hours"... THE  DAILY  MESS

       







Other IC News:

 SCANDAL  at the  "Island  Hotel"...
Newport Beach police took hotel freebies for favors, lawsuit claims

By Adolfo Flores
October 3, 2013, 12:46 p.m.

A former parking control officer said he was fired from the Newport Beach Police Department for reporting that senior officers were receiving free suites, spa days and alcohol from a high-end hotel in exchange for favors, according to a federal lawsuit.
In his suit, Zachary McEligot alleged that the Island Hotel in Newport Center would give officers freebies worth thousands of dollars in exchange for easing the license process for massage therapists and turning a blind eye to parking violations.
Officers would also ask hotel security to destroy surveillance tapes, according to the lawsuit filed Sept. 23 in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. The suit, which names the city of Newport Beach, was first reported by the OC Weekly.
The police department declined to comment on the allegations, but Newport Beach City Atty. Aaron Harp said the lawsuit is without merit.
“There’s no evidence there was any wrongdoing by any members of the Newport Beach Police Department,” Harp said.
“People who are disciplined by a government or city, rather than take personal accountability for their actions, look for some other reason for why they were disciplined.”
McEligot said the tip for the alleged wrongdoing came from a spa director at the hotel, and that he believed the information was true when a department captain told him and another parking officer not to enforce violations at the hotel, the suit alleges.
The suit said the police department launched an investigation after he made his allegations, in which he reported the former police chief, a captain and other officers to his superiors.
McEligot, a 14-year employee, said he was soon the victim of retaliation and was wrongly suspended, the victim of negative performance evaluations and ultimately fired in October 2012.
“It is clear that defendants sought to terminate [McEligot] in retaliation for his disclosures of illegal activities by high ranking members of the NBPD,” his attorney Joseph Avrahamy said.
A now-retired Newport Beach police captain, James Kaminsky, was fined $1,000 in 2010 by the state Fair Political Practices Commission, which concluded Kaminsky failed to report more than $1,200 in gifts from the Island Hotel and others between 2007 and 2008. The commission said the captain received free lodging, spa passes, meals and tickets to a Chicago Cubs game.
The city has not filed a response to McEliot’s lawsuit. The Island Hotel did not have an immediate response.
adolfo.flores@latimes.com

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Thank you for your emails and photos... your "RESIDENT ACTION" COMMITTEE is working on your behalf to promote communication and provide information.  We value your input and hope to hear from you!!!
Residents of Promontory




PLEASE  EMAIL YOUR THOUGHTS:
projectpromontory@gmail.com

& 

keep posting comments!!!





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