“I” is for idiotic. It also stands for “Irvine.” And, not-coincidentally, “iShuttle.”
What, you ask, is iShuttle? It’s a monstrously expensive bus service cooked up by Irvine’s Agran-Kang-Krom crew to move people around Irvine and to get them to the airport, too.
“What a good idea” you might think at first. But then after you reviewed the hard, cold facts you would have to think again.
It may have been expensive and empty but it sure was clean…
As admitted by then Irvine Mayor Sukhee Kang himself, in 2011, the iShuttle shuttled 88,000 fares the previous year, or only a measly 350 riders per work day. And yet this service cost the taxpayers of Orange County – via the OCTA – $1,400,000 per year. And that folks, amounts to an astonshing cost of $16 per ride, virtually 100% subsidized by the taxpayers. And boy was the sky the limit – up to a staggering $121,000,000 for empty buses! Might as well have bought those people taxi rides.
Dazed and confused…waiting for Larry’s script…
The OC Register also covered the shifty deal that created this squandering of the public’s money, and its trust.
It’ll get you there – eventually
Unfortunately, this is precisely the same sort of cavalier indifference to economy and common sense that marked Sukhee Kang’s tenure on the Irvine City Council, a tenure characterized by his unfathomable waste of $250,000,000 on the “Great Park” swindle.
Balloon goes up, balloon goes down. Hey, wait a minute, where’s my Great Park?
Smart enough to see the handwriting on the wall, Sukhee swiftly swerved out of Irvine and has recently alighted in Fullerton. Sukhee wants to represent north Orange County in Sacramento as our State Senator. Sukhee says his top priorities are jobs, transportation and education.
No-bid jobs for crony consultants? Transportation that is wasteful and useless? Well at least we will be getting an education – all about Sukhee’s notions of competency and efficiency.
October 18, 2015 at 6:45 am
It’s all about OPM – OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY. I wonder when Democrats will quit seeing its waste as some sort of badge of honor so long as all the right buzz words are used.
October 18, 2015 at 6:47 am
True enough, Bill. But look around the OC landscape and you’ll see all sorts of magnificent boondoggles foisted on us by Republicans. Does ARTIC spring to mind? That useless tomb cost us two hundred million bucks. I could go on and on.
October 18, 2015 at 11:43 am
Perhaps Sukhees 15 year experience as a salesman at Best Buy gives him thoughtful insight into expensive great parks and public transportation. Perhaps not.
In any event, Sukhee must be smarter than most NOC Dems — which explains why so many California Democratic Party leaders are endorsing him.
October 18, 2015 at 12:30 pm
A mutual acquaintance who worked along side of Sukee at Best Buy told me BB squeezed Sukhees brain dry. After all selling big screen TV’s and car stereos can be mind numbing.
October 18, 2015 at 8:22 pm
No, I think he worked returns. Broken appliances, scratched DVDs. Stuff that didn’t work the way it was supposed to.
October 20, 2015 at 7:48 am
Looks like the balloon isn’t even going up any more:
http://www.ocgp.org/visit/balloon/
“Closed for maintenance.” Indefinitely!!
Sukhee’s legacy lives on!
October 23, 2015 at 4:55 pm
http://www.kangforsenate.com/about
Kang has a business and entrepreneurial background?
Carpetbagger Sukhee Kang really lacks political ideology which he stated that he has worked at a now bankrupt retail store Circuit City and then he and his wife ran a few Stride Rite shoe stores.
On What it takes to win in the 29th State Senate District Section:
Work across party lines? Really, he has lost the congressional election to John Campbell back in 2012 due to the strong Republican tilt in voter registration. His success in Irvine as a nonpartisan city council and mayor thinks he can win a partisan run for congress. He is wrong.
Sukhee Kang is a right Democrat to win the Senate District 29 next year in 2016? He proved that he is a strong Democratic candidate which is not because his record in Irvine could hurt is campaign next year. Carpetbagger Sukhee Kang has done plenty of damage to the Great Park along with Larry Agran and Beth Krom by wasting $200,000,000 instead of building the Great Park in Irvine. I’m pretty sure that his opponent (Ling Ling Chang (R) and Josh Newman (D)) would attack him for his record in Irvine. As mentioned, Democrat Josh Newman (http://newmanforsenate.com/) is running against Carpetbagger Sukhee Kang and Josh Newman is from the district.
A demonstrated fundraiser?
Carpetbagger Kang has lost 40 percent of his campaign funds back in 2012 during the Kinde Durkee scandal http://ocpolitical.com/2012/02/15/cd-45-durkee-embezzlement-case-freezes-40-of-sukhee-kangs-warchest-john-campbells-warchest-1-1-million/ and http://ocpoliticsblog.com/2012/02/16/why-is-irvine-mayor-sukhee-kang-running-for-the-45th-c-d/ . Kang is outfundraised by his opponent by over 1 million dollars.
October 29, 2015 at 11:45 pm
You can ask any Irvine resident if they see any people riding these shuttles during the day and the answer will be a resounding, NO. It’s a complete waste of money. Even a few Republicans on our council have drunk the kool aid that since the money for the shuttle is coming from OCTA money and not city coffers, that that some how justifies wasting millions of dollars on it.