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Rancho Ortega Blog discusses matters of public interest in South Orange County, including the communities of San Juan Capistrano, Ladera Ranch and Rancho Mission Viejo.

The writings of Don Juan Ortega on the Rancho Ortega Blog are the personal views of the author. This blog is not authored by nor does it have any affiliation whatsoever with any other person, place or entity using the name "Rancho Ortega" (or any similar name).

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http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/3489

Rancho Santa Margarita is the Second Safest City in California

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has issued a press release, highlighting the fact that eight OCSD contract cities have made the SafeWise “50 Safest Cities in California” list. According to the release, “SafeWise [is] a safety and home security company has completed extensive research while comparing their data to the FBI’s Crime in the US [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/3444

Civic Opportunities for Residents of Mission Viejo

Residents of Mission Viejo have a number of opportunities to get involved in the civic life of their city. From the City of Mission Viejo, here are some open committee positions:

Cultural Arts Committee The Cultural Arts Committee promotes the knowledge, enjoyment and appreciation of the performing, literary and visual arts through community interaction with [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/2550

An Introduction to Planning Area 2

With the success of Sendero (originally known to some of us as Planning Area 1), Rancho Mission Viejo is already working on Planning Area 2:

For those who are just starting the home shopping process, Rancho Mission Viejo would still welcome you out. As Johnson explained, “We’re already working on Planning Area 2 to begin [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/3117

Public Hearing on I-5/El Toro Widening Project

For anyone interested, OCTA has scheduled a public hearing tomorrow on the plan to widen the I-5 freeway from El Toro Road to the 73. The hearing will be held in Mission Viejo from 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM at the Norman P. Murray Community and Senior Center at 24932 Veterans Way. More information is [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/2987

Pondering the Future of Unincorporated South Orange County

According to the San Juan Capistrano Patch, San Juan Capistrano city officials got their seat at the table when LAFCO begins discussing local governance options for unincorporated South Orange County. No word yet on whether the Ladera Ranch Civic Council received the same courtesy. You know how we feel about that. Recall, in an earlier [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/2965

Cityhood or Annexation: A South County Tug of War Begins

In a way, we blame the Ladera Ranch Civic Council for starting this. They started talking about Rancho Mission Viejo/Ladera Ranch cityhood before the first resident had moved into Sendero. The Ladera Civic Council had a roadmap for cityhood and began pursuing it. Don’t get us wrong — cityhood is an important issue. We’ve been [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/2889

Update on AOL/Patch Closures

The Editor of the Rancho Santa Margarita Patch just issued this statement about this week’s closure of 400 Patch news sites nationwide:

For those of you who have perhaps heard about the shuttering of about 400 Patch sites around the nation, I’m pleased to tell you that RSM will continue to operate. Although many have [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/2837

Which Local Patch Sites Will be Lost?

If you’ve read our blog for a while, you know that we frequently link to and quote some of the local Patch sites. Patch is an experiment in hyper-local online journalism, and it has had some remarkable successes. We have some great local editors reporting on local news here in San Juan Capistrano, Rancho Santa [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/2806

Congratulations to Two Mission Viejo Bloggers

Congratulations to Shripathi Kamath and Dan Avery for sweeping the news/political blog category in this year’s Orange County Press Club awards. Both men blog at the Mission Viejo Patch and are frequent commenters on articles of local interest. As all the local Patch sites are linked with shared comments, chances are if you read any [...]

http://www.ranchoortega.com/blog/archives/2769

Article About SAMLARC Board Meeting, Next Steps on Water Safety

Martin Henderson continues to do an excellent, yet sensitive, job covering the 4th of July tragedy in Rancho Santa Margarita. His latest article is available from the RSM Patch here.

We tend to avoid the more sensational news stories here, leaving that to the newspapers. This issue, however, is relevant to all of us who [...]