East County Californian story on La Mesa "Ideal Org"

[Mister Mike]

I don't know if anybody caught that story; it was in the April 5th edition (volume 120, number 14) of The East County Californian, a long-time newspaper in San Diego's East County Area (the towns of Lemon Grove, La Mesa, Spring Valley, Casa de Oro, El Cajon, Santee, Lakeside, Alpine.) The piece was entitled "No business, no revenue from empty building" written by Jake Christie.

Pretty much it lays out how the buildings have been empty since 2005, that no Scientology is going on in the buildings, and that the City of La Mesa would like to sell the property to developers, who would turn the site into more condos or apartments. Mr. Christie also points out that that the city is not happy with the "church" for letting the property rot.

Can we retype news stories? This one doesn't have an internet version.

[rich]

Yeah, please retype it so I can read it. thanks.

[Smurf]

http://www.xenu-directory.net/docume...address_id=258

[Mister Mike]

Here is the piece on 7380 Parkway Drive:

No business, no revenue from empty business

Former home of Coleman College was purchased by Scientology Church in 2008

By Jake Christie


LA MESA - Since 2008, the former campus of Coleman College (now Coleman University) on Parkway Drive in La Mesa, has been sitting empty and unused after being purchased by the San Diego branch of the Church of Scientology, who wishes to convert the building into its local headquarters and church.

The property consists of two buildings (a total of 67,400 square feet), a 400-slot parking lot, a cell phone repeater tower, and a small park.

The church purchased the property for $9.3 million in May, 2008.

According to John O'Donald of the La Mesa city goverment, no plans or proposals have come to the city from the Church, though they did come in "years ago" to see what they could possibly do with the site.

According to Bill Chopyk, community development director for La Mesa, before San Diego Scientology purchased the property a developer wanted to build a 170 unit condo complex.

He said there had been complaints a few years ago about the former college campus; that a caretaker was living on site in a trailer and that abandoned or unused buildings are a drain on the resources of the city.

He also mentioned what had happpened to another building in that area, the former Red Oak Steakhouse in the Crossroads Mall; after six years of squatters, small fires, and stealing bits for building materials, the owners demolished the structure in 2011.

David A. Meyer is the President of the San Diego Church of Scientology. In two telephone interviews he discussed what the church's plans are for the site.

According to him, all options are on the table; the present buildings could be demolished, renovated or sold (which explains why the property is up for sale on Loopnet.com), though Meyer claimed that the national church want to renovate the buildings into a new San Diego Scientology, though he would not say when that would begin.

He also said that any contracting would be done with local contractors, but that furnishing and signage are made in-house by the church itself.

The property itself has an interesting history; it was built in 1962 as a bowling alley by alleged Chicago mobster Giovanni "Papa John" Prizola, who set up a "La Mesa Bowl Corporation" to construct and manage the place.

In 1980, it was purchased by Coleman College, which converted the bowling alley into a for-profit college with a computer museum in thr front of the building.

They also constructed a two-story nursing school at the left rear of the lot. Sometime in 2005 or 2006 Coleman College left the property, and since then both buildings have been targets for graffitit, which a never-seen handyman paints over in grey blobs.

Plywood covers over a number of windows on the former bowling alley (some of the lights facing the street are permanently on); while a short black permanent fence surrounds the two-story building.

Even the glass has etchings on it.

"We were hopeful something would happen," said Chopyk on the Coleman College site. "The property has real potential."

END.

All gaps are paragraph breaks.

[Mister Mike]

http://www.xenu-directory.net/docume...address_id=258

Notice that since 2008, nobody has said a thing in the San Diego press on the buildings until this year.

[Zhent]

He also said that any contracting would be done with local contractors, but that furnishing and signage are made in-house by the church itself.

This is quite interesting. I have heard a few things about some of the Ideal Org furnishings, but never that they are explicitly made BY Scientology. Would this imply they are made using Sea Org slave labour? Why is it so damn expensive then? (Sydney Org is to spend millions on it) What division/where in Scientology is doing this?
Many questions...

[Pooks]

This is quite interesting. I have heard a few things about some of the Ideal Org furnishings, but never that they are explicitly made BY Scientology. Would this imply they are made using Sea Org slave labour? Why is it so damn expensive then? (Sydney Org is to spend millions on it) What division/where in Scientology is doing this?
Many questions...

Yes, scn uses it's own Sea org slave labor for much of the internal building and fixtures. That's been going on a long time. I believe most of it is done by the rpf. Chuck Beatty would know more about this.

[i'mglib]

It's not an attractive building at all. I wonder why on earth they bought it in the first place. Usually they go for the historic buildings with some sort of character.

I can only imagine what it would cost to develop. I believe I read that Orange County got donations from San Diego members, so they gotta be tapped out.

[GoNuclear]

It's not an attractive building at all. I wonder why on earth they bought it in the first place. Usually they go for the historic buildings with some sort of character.

I can only imagine what it would cost to develop. I believe I read that Orange County got donations from San Diego members, so they gotta be tapped out.

Perhaps if the city came down on the Cof$ for this building monstrosity, the clams in the greater San Diego area could be rallied around what is obviously "religious persecution." Then can then be squeezed some more. They haven't been squeezed since 2008? Definitely time for a major donation push! There is no reason for the Cof$ to be happy until all the greater San Diego clams are out on the street. As DM might do his rendition of that famous song by Nancy Sinatra:

You clams are made for shucking,
And that's just what I'll do!
One of these days some redge,
Will shuck the last buck out of you!

Pete

[Mister Mike]

It's not an attractive building at all. I wonder why on earth they bought it in the first place. Usually they go for the historic buildings with some sort of character.

I can only imagine what it would cost to develop. I believe I read that Orange County got donations from San Diego members, so they gotta be tapped out.

Parkway Drive is a frontage road that runs parallel* to the 8 freeway; my guess is that they want to build a monstro-gigantico sign with SCIENTOLOGY in huge letters facing the freeway, possibly on top of the building they will probably never build. The part of Parkway the abandoned ruins are at is slightly secluded, so they could have an RPF shack in the back (the park has it's own fence) and nobody would know any better, especially if it's only one or two people.

They've always been sort of rough-and-ready in SD; I "chatted" with Ted on this board and he wrote that the Co$-SD was working out of an old supermarket at one point in the late 1970s. They would do better if they went back to rented houses.

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* And slightly above the freeway, because Parkway runs up a hill, then flattens out again after it goes east of Baltimore Street.