KEEP THE WOODBRIDGE VILLAGE CENTER, IRVINE!

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This discussion topic has been automatically created of petition KEEP THE WOODBRIDGE VILLAGE CENTER, IRVINE!.


Guest

#76

2014-09-29 23:37

This place was my child hood and where I continue to go hang out on a Friday night. Irvine has no other real places for young people to go that is safe and cheap. I remember many a first date there and too many birthdays to remember at Mimi's Cafe. Please save this historic place that makes Irvine Irvine.

Guest

#77

2014-09-29 23:55

Irvine company has to realize in building community it's not just about how many houses we can cram into a given space. Community is driven also by a sense of place. If they get rid of this place a lot of people will loose out on fond memories and place that doesn't feel anything like the irvine spectrum. Please keep the place that helps make our community home.

Guest

#78

2014-09-30 00:07

Irvine doesn't need any more houses.

Guest

#79

2014-09-30 00:17

Keep the Woodbridge Center! This is an important place for middle and high schooners to hang out and connect. It is also home to many tutoring centers that are in close proximity to schools and help students be better!

Guest

#80

2014-09-30 01:49

Love the shops at Woodbridge center. Champagne, theater, Barnes/Noble., Ruby's. Get my watch batteries there all the time. Love the small shops even though they have turned over through the years. We definitely use that center and shop there.

Guest

#81

2014-09-30 02:12

Leave our center alone you ass holes Irvine company idiots!!!

Guest

#82

2014-09-30 03:07

DO WE REALLY WANT IRVINE TO BECOME THE NEXT LA? Those that have been living in Woodbridge know that it wasn't like this 5 years ago. Are you guys [The Irvine Company] really that desperate for money? Are you guys really that cold-hearted and thoughtless of the community? Oh. that's right. You are desperate. You don't care at all about the city.  The Irvine Company just wants to jeopardize all our memories and extinguish all the places that make Irvine what it is and what it's known for. A safe and small community. I don't think it's any of that anymore. Living in Irvine for nearly 20 years and seeing houses being built row by row just makes me sick to my stomach. Why should businesses and memories be lost and gone just because you're building more stupid houses? A school, restaurants, and many others have been torn down for the sake of building more houses. I honestly think that if there's not enough space in Irvine for people to live in, then so be it. Don't just build more houses, that's stupid. It's unfair to those that have lived in Irvine for so many years to see new houses and new people that don't care about their community.


Guest

#83

2014-09-30 03:46

hopefully we can save to keep the center

Guest

#84

2014-09-30 04:10

I have been at the Woodbridge center ever since I was born. I don't want that memory to get taken away from me. My friends and I always go there to do homework, just talk, or hang out. Where are we supposed to go now? It makes me feel depressed just thinking about the fact you guys are considering taking it down. My mom is getting into this. I really hope you change your mind.

Guest

#85

2014-09-30 04:21

My brother and his friends hangout there for movies food and just to hangout. It's an absolutely great spot that shouldn't be removed. It's one of woodbridge residents favorite place to go.

Guest

#86

2014-09-30 04:25

I grew up in Woodbridge and Greentree. I went to Woodbridge High and was Captain of the Wrestling Team. A couple of my friends worked at the Woodbridge theatres.

Guest

#87

2014-09-30 04:38

PLEASE keep this place, it means an awful lot to everyone who lives here. :(
John Eric

#88 John Eric Yopes

2014-09-30 04:48

Asking the Irvine Company to consider the wishes of Woodbridge residents is pointless. They will do want they want to do to make more money. But the Irvine City Council has the power to refuse building permits, without which the Irvine Company can't legally build or change anything. So the solution for Woodbridge is not to beg the Irvine Company, but instead to change the City Council. There is a candidate for Irvine City named Melissa Fox who has promised to prevent the Irvine Company from changing the character of Woodbridge or Woodbridge Village Center. In her blog post called "Woodbridge’s Fate will be Decided at the Ballot Box," she wrote: "Woodbridge residents are gravely concerned that new development will soon add unwanted housing and traffic congestion to Woodbridge and forever change the character of their beautiful community – without their input or consent. Here is what the group Friends of WVC (Woodbridge Village Center) recently said in an email: “Big changes are in the works for the Woodbridge Village Center. The Irvine Company is presently evaluating options to replace the Village Center with either a residential development (most likely condominiums), or with a standard shopping center. Regardless of the option selected, the current Village Center will most likely be destroyed.” When Woodbridge opened on Father’s Day in 1975, it was Irvine’s premier master planned community, showcasing Irvine’s commitment to creating villages of single family homes and townhouses, with parks, greenbelts, bicycle trails, interconnecting pathways, open space, and neighborhood shopping. By any measure, Woodbridge has been a fantastic success. Community spirit has been, and continues to be, tremendously high. Sure, there are a few problems and some things that people would like to see changed or improved. For example, many people would like to see a new anchor store in the Village Center and new coffee houses and restaurants. Liike most of Irvine, the WVC could use more ample and more secure bicycle parking, especially since Woodbridge has some of the most used and beautiful bikeways in the City. But these few problems and suggested minor changes are very small in comparison to the great sense of community belonging and community pride shared by the residents of Woodbridge. Woodbridge remains one of Irvine’s most walkable, bikeable, and beautiful communities. And, as someone wrote in OC Housing News, “the Woodbridge Center is an integral part of Irvine, connected to both lakes, Woodbridge high school and walking trails, literally in the center of Irvine.” After 40 years of success, the people of Woodbridge love their community, and they love their Woodbridge Village Center. That’s why people are so upset by the prospect that their Village Center will be destroyed and replaced with high density apartments and condos or office buildings What people may not realize is that the City Council has the full legal power to tell the developer that it can’t do whatever it wants to the Woodbridge Village Center, and specifically that it can’t unilaterally change the fundamental character of the community. In fact, I believe it is the obligation of the City Council to ensure that the public interest – in preventing over-crowding, increased crime and congestion, and in preserving the character of our communities – comes before the private interests of developers, no matter how big and powerful those developers may be. As another Woodbridge resident put it in OC Housing News, “Slow the growth. Build with creativity and respect for the Woodbridge neighborhood. The great recession is behind us. Time to dial back to measured growth and masterful planning such as the community was built on.” I could not agree more. Unfortunately, the current City Council majority of Mayor Steven Choi, Councilmember Jeffrey Lalloway and Councilmember Christina Shea, see it quite differently. They want more development, faster development, and denser development. This a City Council majority that has hastily approved an unprecedented 10,000 additional new houses and apartments in Irvine (bringing along an additional 20,000-30,000 new cars and 30,000-50,000 new people), jamming our traffic and over-crowding our schools. If the current City Council majority is retained – if Mayor Steven Choi and Councilmember Jeffrey Lalloway are re-elected – nothing will stop developers from doing whatever the developers want to do, in Woodbridge and throughout the City. In contrast, I pledge that when I am elected to the City Council I will use the full legal authority of the Council to prevent runaway development, to demand that the voices of Irvine’s residents be heard before any new development is approved, and to ensure that no new condos, office buildings or housing tracts will be permitted without proper planning and consideration of their impact on our traffic, our schools, and the character of our communities. The fate of the Woodbridge Village Center – and Woodbridge’s survival as a family oriented community with a relaxed village atmosphere – will be decided this November, at the ballot box." http://melissafoxblog.com/2014/09/10/woodbridges-fate-will-be-decided-at-the-ballot-box/


Guest

#89

2014-09-30 13:43

Don't remove the Woodbridge center

Guest

#90

2014-09-30 15:20

It would be devastating to see them go!! Wood bridge is a special place...

Please keep Irvine beautiful place to live. Don't create fish market with so many apartment buildings.Irvine residents will start moving out.

Guest

#91

2014-09-30 16:33

The Woodbridge Village Center is the HEART of Woodbridge. Our family has and continues to frequent the Art Studio, Yahama Music Center, Sticky Fingers, Barnes & Noble, Woodbridge 5 Movies, Champaigne's and Ruby's. Don't replace with high density residential. We don't need more traffic in Irvine/Woodbridge!

Guest

#92

2014-09-30 16:49

Why bunch so much in one city, making too much traffic and problems. People need space and peace. People need fresh air. People need good health. We have so much land to build on but not to crowd on. Don't get politics in this whole thing cause politics messes up things mainly for money. We need more nature than city. People can find another home...so leave it.
Budge

#93 Greed vs. Good

2014-09-30 16:51

This is the hub of childhood for youth in Woodbridge on many levels, I'm pretty sure the Irvine company's $20B+ isn't going to be too impacted by making a moral decision rather than a monetary one..for once.

Guest

#94 Irvine Change

2014-09-30 17:41

It's impossible to know who to trust in politics  However, we KNOW we cannot trust CHOI.  GET HIM OUT!!!!!!!!

Paula

#95

2014-09-30 18:54

Nearly 21 years ago, I lived in neighboring Santa Ana and had to take Barranca to the Kaiser just up the street from this center.  I'd never taken this route before and when I got to this spot...the center with the bridge over Barranca and the lake on the other side, I absolutely fell in love with Irvine.  What a difference in environment from what I was used to !  Ruby's has become a regular weekend breakfast spot for me and my now adult children, not to mention the theater.  The City and the Irvine Company need to do a better job pulling in more/better businesses to the center, not tear it down for more residential. 


Guest

#96

2014-09-30 22:40

I love this place!

Guest

#97

2014-09-30 23:42

We need to keep the Woodbridge Village Center!

Guest

#98

2014-10-01 01:16

This is the center of Woodbridge. Its proximity to the lake and surrounding schools set it apart from the other developments. As a child and young adult it was a place you could walk or ride your bike to, without fear of crossing any large streets. I know the area has had some hard times, but I think it is a matter of finding the right stores and not demolishing the unique architecture to put up bland apartments! Sincerely, a 25 year resident of Woodbridge, born and raised.

Guest

#99

2014-10-01 02:22

Woodbridge Village Center is part of the lives of people living in the community. It is what makes the place unique..dont take out that history from Irvine

Guest

#100

2014-10-01 03:32

I have been going to this place for the Ruby milkshakes some high school. Ruby ' s and names and Nobles are places I take my kids regularly now. We don't need more housing; we need space that's low key to bring our families.