Michael D Pattinson is the CEO of Barratt American, a large development company that specializes in mass market McMansion style projects.
Michael D Pattinson writes a bi-weekly opinion column for the North County Times. His column appears every other Tuesday. You can read them on the NCT.com website click here
Pattinson and Barratt American are very aggressive politically and together they are good at cozying up to local city councils.
Pattinson dedicates most of his columns to attacking anyone who opposes his company's projects. He is especially fond of the word NIMBY, an out of date acrynom that stands for Not In My Back Yard. Originally, NIMBY was a positive term that referred to people who were good citizens and kept tabs on their neighborhoods and watched out for each other. Now the term NIMBY is mostly viewed as a negative, describing nosy busybody old ladies with nothing better to do with their time than to hinder progress.
It should be noted that Michael D Pattinson is not an American, he is from the UK. His backyard is across the Atlantic Ocean.
One of Barratt's more controversial projects is the 2,600 acre Fanita Ranch development. Fanita Ranch is located in the Santee back country. Barratt has carefully been crafting their Fanita Ranch project politically, winning the favor of the Santee city council and becoming a major advertiser on the conservative talk show, The Roger Hedgecock Show which is broadcast on KOGO AM 600.
The meat and potatoes of Roger Hedgecock's program are illegal alien issues. Hedgecock is against illegal aliens which makes him and Pattinson/Barratt odd bedfellows. The building industry is the biggest employer of illegal aliens in southern California; surpassing even agriculture and the service industry (hotels, restaurants).
The big builders of southern California like Barratt have a sneaky way of washing their hands of illegal alien labor, they hire sub-contractors. This way companies like Barratt and people like Michael D Pattinson can benefit from the cash-under-the-table labor that illegal aliens provide. By hiring sub-contractors that use illegal aliens, the savings from not having payroll taxes and workers comp insurance are passed on to Barratt American. If you are an honest sub-contractor who writes paychecks and takes out taxes and pays workers comp insurance then you are not going to be able to compete on price on bids with the other sub-contractor with all the illegal aliens in the back of his work truck.
(For some reason I never hear Hedgecock mention the burden of high payroll taxes and workers comp insurance rates on Calfornia business owners. All he ever mentions is the city services that illegal aliens use. I've never heard our congressman Brian Bilbray, a frequent guest on Hedgecock's show, mention worker's comp insurance or payroll taxes either. Bilbray had made a career of being an anti-illegal immigration guy, you think he'd bring it up every once and awhile.)
Pattinson recently dedicated one his North County Times columns to illegal alien labor. Some of his sub-contractors, a fence company, were busted hiring illegal aliens. Pattinson really liked the irony of a fence company hiring people that jumped a fence to get here. He then blamed the US government for letting the illegal aliens cross to the country in the first place. Apparently, Pattinson believes that if you leave your front door unlocked then you only have yourself to blame if someone walks in and steals your stuff. In Pattinson's eyes the thief is off the hook and you are too blame. He doesn't believe his sub-contractors (and himself from a safe distance) did anything wrong by hiring illegal aliens.
Read Employers stuck in border bind here.
You would think that Republican radio show host Roger Hedgecock would be wary of doing business with Michael D Pattinson and Barratt American, but the opposite is true. Roger reads the Baratt American ads on air personally and passionately. It's a sweet deal for Roger if you think about it. He gets good ratings by ranting against illegal aliens. Good ratings attract advertisers. Roger gets paid no matter if his advertisers employ illegal aliens or not. In fact, if the illegal alien problem was solved it would mean the end of Roger's show. Roger is benefiting from illegal aliens on several levels.
Michael D Pattinson, CEO of Barratt American hates NIMBY's, we've established that. So it's incredibly fascinating and hilarious to watch Pattinson and Barratt spin their tops when it was announced that a major electrical power plant is going up near Barratt's Fanita Ranch project.
Pattinson and Barrat are in a real bind, they can't come right out and protest that a freaking power plant is going right into the backyard of their 1,400 home project that has been in the works for years and sells an image of life among quiet preserves.
So, Barratt and Pattinson's only move is to let the local politicians be their shills and do the NIMBY style whining for them.
From the San Diego Union Tribune:
“Everybody's kind of stunned,” said Santee Mayor Randy Voepel. “You wake up and read that in the paper and it's not going to be a good day for you.”
City officials said they intend to get answers, and if necessary, fight the proposal. Councilman Jack Dale said he's concerned about the possible health effects on residents and the lack of notification.
“We're going to protect our city and our residents,” Dale said. “We're going to find out everything there is know about this . . . We're not just going to sit still and say, 'Hey, whatever you want to do.' ”
Read the whole SDUT story, Plant plan surprises developer and city here.
Yep, you would think that a guy like Michael D Pattinson would be less grouchy and embrace a power plant, afterall his 1,400 Fanita Ranch homes will use electricity. And, Pattinson did say that California should be more like China. In China, NIMBY protesters of power plants are usually jailed and sometimes shot to death.
Pattinson also once wrote a creepy and bizarre column titled Too many choices hinder democracy so I assume he won't mind not having a choice in this matter.
The people who have opposed Barratt American's Fanita Ranch project have been described as NIMBY's and yes, even communist. Maybe they can all go out and get a couple of beers together and laugh and laugh.
Check out the Save Fanita blog savefanita.blogspot.com (it has lots of videos to watch)
It's amusing to watch Pattinson join the NIMBY crowd, even if he is more of a NUMBY (Not Using My Brain, You?)
The powerplant location is appropriate. More houses means greater demand for power, water, roads. The powerplant should go where the new houses are.
ReplyDeleteSo, is Roger confused about whether or not he should join http://www.capsweb.org/?
ReplyDeleteMaybe Roger should check Mick's immigration status.
Great piece, JP. NUMBY, that is PERFECT!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post and the great links. We are reading you!
Wonder who Santee's City Attorney is?
Could it be the infamous Glenn Sabine? Friend of developers, foe of the First Amendment, here, and in El Cajon. . .
Yes, there is a huge double standard with the illegal immigrant issues and construction workers hired by "subs" (sub-contractors). Some of these crews do an excellent job. The money saved on their labor is pocketed by the officers of the corporations, like Barratt, like Mick Pattinson.
Are you reading this, Mick? Can you and Roger spell HYPOCRITE?
Pattinson's next column should be nothing less than stating his full support for the proposed power plant if he wishes to continue his thin veil of credibility.
ReplyDeletePattinson complained about the many ballot measures but now the 52 will be funded and reach Fanita Ranch because of the passing of Prop A.
ReplyDeleteAhhh... you guys are just jealous that a NUMBY is making a buck. This is capitalism. Should he not be allowed to succeed because you guys think he should respect our laws or is he just taking advantage of the loopholes?
ReplyDeleteIs it wrong to change your opinion on a monthly basis? The real criminal (convicted felon) is Roger Hedgecock. He broadcasts the drivel from his advertsiers reagrdless if it is in direct oppostion to his stated positions.
In all of this you have the power. Don't listen to Hedgecock and don't purchase from his advertisers. If there are enough of you that feel the way you do he will go out of business.
However, maybe there are to many NUMBYs out there and he will succeed.
Pattinson is a man without honor.
ReplyDeleteI love your post JP. It says pretty much exactly what we all thought when we read the article a few days ago. We can all see right through this guy, always have.
ReplyDeleteTwo faces are unatractive on anyone.
J.P.
ReplyDeleteCan we get back to the subject of North Leucadia?? Where is the positive spin (lipstick on a pig)on the Log Cabins?? What about the lack of sidewalks from Grandview south to Jupitor. I want to read how you put spin on the FLOODING in that area, the "NO LIGHTS ZONE!", the weeeds and dirt in the center median of 101.
Leave Santee to the residents of Santee. AS my Granddaddy used to say "stop trying to muddy up the waters" focus on the Name of this Blog: Leucadia!!!
Santee has enough problems without a bunch of "Surfer Dudes" coming along and putting in their 2 cents worth!!
FIX LEUCADIA FIRST!!! Then you can fix Santee!!
RSPB-PS, I am the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby!!!
RSBP,
ReplyDeleteI think it is clear that JP is going to tour all Leucadia in due time so hold your pee for a minute.
Is any post about Mick relevant to Leucadia. It sure is. Barratt, Ecke, David Meyer, and Doug Harwood are the financial support and shield for the Encinitas City Council, the City council that is ultimately responsible for the state of Leucadia.
Students need safer streets
ReplyDeleteBy: North County Times Opinion staff -
Our view: Encinitas teen's death is tragic reminder of importance of improving walking routes near schools
We mourned with the rest of North County the accidental death of Ryan Hwang on Jan. 31. The 14-year-old was killed by a pickup truck driven by a fellow San Dieguito Academy student as he walked at lunchtime through the Santa Fe Drive underpass below Interstate 5.
By all accounts, Ryan was a fine boy, and we offer our sympathies to his family, friends and neighbors.
Grief for Ryan has been mixed with concern that the lack of sidewalks along the busy roadway contributed to his death. Others have questioned the high school's open campus policy, which lets students walk or drive to nearby eateries for their midday meals. Still others have lamented the dangerous driving of high school students.
These are all worthwhile questions to ask. Parents, you hardly need reminding, but if you don't seize opportunities such as this to talk to the kids holding the car keys in your house about safe driving -- especially on wet streets -- you risk compounding one family's tragedy with your own.
A recent study by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm Insurance found that teenage drivers greatly underestimate the dangers of distractions like cell-phone use, chatty passengers or their own emotions. Car crashes remain the leading cause of death for American teens; about 5,600 U.S. teens died in automobile accidents in 2005. Our words of worry and wisdom may be destined to go in one ear and out the other, but we have to try for at least the first ear.
Open campus policies also deserve scrutiny. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to calculate the increased risk to students allowed to roam free from adult supervision during the school day. Since so few of their parents are home and so few of their outside eating options healthy, parents can and should ask whether they want their local school to open its campus during the day. It was only 6 1/2 years ago that five students in a convertible were injured in a lunchtime collision with a truck two blocks from campus on Santa Fe Drive.
Finally, everyone familiar with the I-5 underpass at Santa Fe Drive knows it's a dangerous spot for pedestrians. City officials have said that it would cost too much to cut into the steep sloping concrete beneath the freeway to create sidewalks for pedestrians along Santa Fe. They point to the long-awaited Caltrans widening of I-5, now projected for 2009, as the cost-effective opportunity to address pedestrian safety.
The freeway widening may be the best option, but certainly it's not the only option. We encourage Encinitas residents and leaders to look for cost-effective, interim solutions that will improve pedestrian safety in this key intersection. A sidewalk may not have saved Ryan's life; a guardrail might have.
The city's options are likely limited by the liability it could incur with a half-measure there, such as installing a guardrail but not improving the pedestrian pathway. But if half-measures can keep families and communities whole, there ought to be a way to eliminate risks to pedestrians. Especially when they are our children walking to and from schools.
Encinitas deserves credit for making a priority of improving safety along the routes students use to walk to school. Tragically, Ryan's death reminds us again of the importance of that effort.
Where were you when the council was deciding what spend all that borrowed money on? Are you going get down there now to tell them to hold off on the hall property until after the roads are upgraded? We will be down there to support you!
ReplyDeleteWhy does it take the death of someone for the NCT to call for sidewalks in Encinitas???
ReplyDeleteWhen will the next tragedy occur at that location?? There are plenty flowers at that location, obviously the students are going to that location, deadly as it may be!!
WHAT DO WE WANT??? SIDEWALKS!!!
WHEN DO WE WANT THEM??? NOW!!!
I was wondering who was going to be the first one to do an Anna Nicole joke. (batta boom!)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with "RSPB fan"-there is indeed, an "axis of evil" and the same names keep popping up, again and again. As a firm believer in free enterprise and property rights, I can't deny someone who wants to make a buck. It's the guys who want to make millions of bucks, without any concern for traffic impact, community character, and environmental concerns that piss me off. Over the last 20 years I've seen local papers give forums to scumballs like Jim Hersch, Greg Dennis, David Meyer, Mike Andreen and now this creep, Pattinson, who is a NIMBY, (Naturalized Immigrant Money-grubbin' Bestial Yes-man).
Go back to England ya bloody wanker!
"Ahhh... you guys are just jealous that a NUMBY is making a buck. This is capitalism. Should he not be allowed to succeed because you guys think he should respect our laws or is he just taking advantage of the loopholes?"
ReplyDeleteHiring illegal aliens is simple capitalism?
GET A CLUE AND GET SOME ETHICS.
Where I went to high school, a different town in Southern Calif., we had sidewalks. Some speeding teen driver still managed to jump the sidewalk and kill someone, injure several others one horrible morning, many years ago.
ReplyDeleteSidewalks near schools and businesses are needed; they certainly should come before regional sport specialty parks, or a roundabout at an intersection, Hermes, that has had only one accident in the last ten years.
The Hermes intersection with Leucadia Blvd. has had less than one tenth of the state overall percentage of accident rates at similar intersections throughout California.
Council has been distracted by developers and its own capital improvement development projects. The City needs to focus on maintaining and improving what we have now, especially our walkways, addressing traffic circulation and congestion, too.
JP, I thought this was a thoughtful, well written post by you. Roadside bum can start his own blog. People are posting here from throughout the City, too, not just Leucadia.
ReplyDeleteI think some are more worried about the aesthetics, the "look" of sidewalks and traffic circles, than in studying the facts so we can reduce the number of accidents and relieve congestion, not just go through the motions for the sake of "traffic calming measures" for the EIR's, for developers. These corporations, like Barratt, are adept at using political favors to sway City Councils, manipulating Council members, massaging the data. They are expert at using taxpayer funded projects to justify increased density, to allow higher profits for their corporate heads, such as Michael Pattinson.
Guard rails could well be a practical solution, particularly under the overpasses, and perhaps on Leucadia Blvd., where it crosses Vulcan and 101, until we get a legitimate pedestrian under or overpass.
All of our backyards, and frontyards, our streets and highways, together, combine to make our community. I've lived in Cardiff and love that part of us, of me, also.
My previous post was a joke with a little seriousness in it. However, if you have evidence of pattinson hiring illegal aliens send it to ICE. Make damn sure you are correct.
ReplyDeleteHow many people do hire illegal aliens? Plenty in this city, that is why you see so much roadside hiring.
You may not like the houses that Pattinson builds but tell me the laws he has violated. I believe that all your complaints are unfounded other than some of his houses are ugly. Someone had different taste because they purchased them. If you don't like what this city council is doing that lets him build then you should remove the city council. Oh, I forgot Dalger got the most votes in the last election and was returned to the council. I guess the majority of the voting public in our city like what the council is doing.
So wake up and quit complaining. Go to the city and work for change. Someone said it on another topic Baaa..Bahaa... for you.
Ever hear our boy Jerome Stocks call in to the Rogers show. He is a frequent caller / groveller and can get his nose so far up Rogers ass that it hurts to listen.
ReplyDeleteHe does however avoid the sprinter topic since he is a major reason for that boondogle.
Probably the majority of the people who voted for Dalager are not aware of his ties to developers. Be realistic. His incumbency gave him a huge advantage over the other candidates. Dalager had great visability because of his signs, and because he is an old hometown boy. But I believe he got less votes in 2006 than in 2002, so some, in the know, were disallusioned with Dan.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the majority of the people reading this blog, who keep track of what is going on in our City, did not vote for Dalager.
However, he's in, and I hope he does what is right for the entire community. Is a development project going to begin on Hermes, that would make a traffic circle there desireable? Is it his own project on that street? We were told this was to be for four homes, only.
Look where Dalager's campaign contributions came from. This was in a recent NCT article.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteand I thought I was the only one that was creeped out by the "too many choices" column...thanks for seeing it the same way
ReplyDeleteAnonymous-
ReplyDeleteI have never said that only people from Leucadia are allowed to post on this blog. As far as I know J.P. allows anyone to post here.
Sure anyone can be killed at any time on a street or highway, sidewalk or no sidewalk. We you then call for ALL sidewalks to be removed because you might still loose your life?? Not likely. Sidewalks save lives!!! I couldn't careless about the "look" of sidewalks, I'm interested in safety, something your city council doesn't seem to be the least bit interested.
To cover this city with guardrails would be doing a disservice to it's asthestic appeal. But if you are going to use guardrails everywhere, I hope they aren't the rusty type like those installed in Leucadia 10 years ago by Sheila and company.
AS a Cardiffian, you should be outraged by the death of a student on a street with neither guardrails nor sidewalks.
RSPB- I wonder, will there be sidewalks leading to and from the Library???
Clueless...clueless...Clueless....
ReplyDeleteYou know who is back in the blog.
Clueless is in the house....Blaaa, blaaaa, blaa.. Conspiracy is everywhere...blaa, blaa, blaaa
JP are you editing posts now?
ReplyDeleteWelcome back and myself are completely amazed at all these bloggers who believe that powerful rich developers are able have influence in American government.
ReplyDeleteBloggers THIS IS AMERICA! There is no corruption and all or our government officials do the right thing! This is not MEXICO!
Dalager did get a lot of votes. This is a really good point. Does that mean no one should point out the problems? Does that mean the public knew about the problems when they voted?
ReplyDeleteDo you think he would have won without all of the developer money supporting him?
Do you think he would have won if he sent out truthful mailers? See http://leucadia.blogspot.com/2006/11/dalagers-amazing-lies-half-truths-and_03.html#links
From the Nov 2006 Archives.
JP, thanks for pointing out the wonderful connections that Developers have direct to our local media. It's a shame that Barratt and Pattingson need to have Roger shill their product, that only sells because of his drumming of immigration issues.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine the only reason he gets to write a column for NCtimes is because of the large ads and monies he gives the NCtimes to sell his homes.
Free media is the way to go!
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2003/09/22/editorial5.html
ReplyDeletesantee should have been reading the North County Times and Mick should read his own paper.
ReplyDeleteThe powerplant should not have been such a surprise.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/05/06/news/top_stories/22_47_085_5_06.txt
Roger has to wear that brace because he has spent so much time on his knees in front of Rush Limbaugh sucking cock.
ReplyDelete