The Fireworks Money Won
Imagine that! I want to thank everyone who helped out on the Yes on Measure D effort. Again it was grass roots and had no where near the money the fireworks company dumped into this. There were 19,707 total Measure D votes cast out of 41,000 registered voters. That is a 48% turnout which is quite good. In fact more people voted on the fireworks measure when compared to the other two parking measures. Yes on D also did not do that bad when compared to the loosing side on the parking measures. If you look at the $40,000 spent by the fireworks companies that is about $3.35 per yes vote. Not bad when you consider the hundreds of thousands of dollars they will reap in years to come from selling smoke and sparks.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you extrapolate these election figures out to the entire population of Lakewood that is over 32,000 residents that STILL WANT TO BAN ALL FIREWORKS. That is a large number of taxpayers.
Which brings me to my next point. Mayor Van Nostran (30 years on the council) said on the Lakewood webpage "And there will be no return to the situation in past years, when fireworks turned too many neighborhoods into virtual battlegrounds. The city council will deploy – and expand as necessary – a vigorous Sheriff-led public safety presence in the weeks before July 4, 2007."
Of course that same vigorous sheriff enforcement is what led to the Dunrobin Miller Explosion in the first place! Also missing from the Mayor's statement is just what will be cut from the city budget every year from now on to hire all the additional officers to make sure all the "safe and sane" users have a good time burning up their money while at the same time chasing the illegal users. We all know from the last 10 years before July 2006 how successful that campaign has been!
LAAG will continue to monitor the situation as it develops. And there are still many other issues in the city that need "action" and "accountability".
The parking issues appear to be on the right track for now but surely the ball will get dropped in the enforcement and in the details of the implementation. We also still have on property parking to deal with in a city chocked full of eyesores.
As of Date: 11/08/2006 Time: 04:01 Votes Percent
LAKEWOOD MEASURE
D - PROHIBITION OF FIREWORKS - YES 7,659 38.86
(MAJORITY OF VOTES CAST) - NO 12,049 61.14
F - PROHIBIT TRAILR ST PRKING - YES 13,798 70.80
(MAJORITY OF VOTES CAST) - NO 5,692 29.20
C - PROHIBIT RV STREET PRKING - YES 13,128 67.56
(MAJORITY OF VOTES CAST) - NO 6,304 32.44
TOTAL PRECINCTS 57 PRECINCTS REPORTING 57 100.00
REGISTRATION 41,000
