Update July 6, 2023

Just found out tomorrow July 7, 2023, 401 Carl Karcher Way is scheduled for death row destruction. A bit of hyperbole?  Maybe, but AHA!Grace, Rookie Mayor Ashleigh, council folks Steve, Natalie twice, Jose, Carlos, Norma; Jim Liverpool.  Can you help?

Can we get 30 day temporary stay while efforts are made to purchase or repurpose as a mixed use tribute to Carl and Margaret?

Please!  It was said previously we have both plenty of land and resources to do affordable housing.  And, even though 401 has been a convenient source for enterprising unsheltered scavengers over the last few years to acquire eBay copper and metals.  This can be remediated.

But once that skip loader or the ball of death is swung at the brickwork, the city of Anaheim will be making it much more difficult to use it again.  Those 26,000 sq ft can rise again to honor a great man so many are working to forget.  I’ve noticed many of the Carl’s Jr. CKE restaurants are dropping the picture of a little girl in the arms of the founder at the hot dog cart that cost $311. Is it because families are not as important any more, like during Andy’s GQ midlife crisis undressed ladies phase, thankfully gone.  He did it his way but must he stand by, like city planners saying “it’s too late”, to make sure nothing is left of the pioneering patriarch and matriarch?

How about leaving this little bit of Anaheim history intact and honor a great man of the city?

How about a Carl Karcher Classic Catholic Academy? Or, If you don’t like Catholics, a multi-purpose building surrounded by Jamboree#9  affordable public housing to improve the tax dollar yields to the city.  Efforts are underway to raise funds now that the word is out it is being destroyed.  30 day moratorium isn’t too much to ask for.

I thought this was the city of dreams, Walt Disney and all.  God love her, our rookie Mayor was quick to snatch the sisters of perpetual indulgence from the Dodgers rebuff, and unfurl the universal pride flag, even though she is sadly clueless as to what it truly stands for.

I believe I do. Having served the youth for decades in this city and county, I see how the groomers have more status than the suicide bound victims of evil…and the citizens and residents of our fine home of Ana.   If you haven’t seen the Sound of Freedom yet, we MUST end this enslaving the young and turn back evil.  What has this to do with 401? YOU tell me why we must tear down an iconic building. It already has the Mill’s Act of sorts, tax exempt for years.  Caviezel recently uttered this phrase:

God’s Children are NOT for sale.

Carl knew this and lived it; he fought to save precious preborns and he honored God’s call to be open to many children, the true wealth of America. Karchers stood against this culture of death by standing firm for:

Family. Faith. Freedom. FreeEnterprise not Stalinesque Equity forcing everyone to have equal misery.  He saw the beauty of America the Beautiful and fought to preserve what is good to protect our young.

We have a battle underway; the Democrat party is at war with itself. American Marxism is practiced on way too many universities by the protected class, tenured ivory tower dwellers who spew all kinds of poison into the indoctrinated late teen “students”. Lawlessness is celebrated by Sorosian DAs in every blue city.  YET, there is HOPE.  Always will.

Can we get 30 day temporary stay while efforts are made to purchase or repurpose as a mixed use tribute to Carl and Margaret?

===original post from July 5===============================

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for…a question to be posed:

Is the Anaheim Housing Authority wise to destroy an iconic and perfectly usable office building that saw so much entrepreneurial spirit, work and not mentioned, philanthropic gifting by Carl and Margaret Karcher.  If those walls could talk…

And Carl’s little girl, named for his wife and her mother, pleads with the city to think outside the box Gov “Slick” HairGel Cal has cornered them into: the god of unlimited housing club.

One excellent councilmember, Stephen Faessel, as a favor has considered this issue; he’d be a solid witness since he IS a good historian on what Anaheim was and is.  The Marywood Chapel in Orange, now gone replaced with housing.  Rosary’s Gym. Still a blessing to a great Catholic girls high school.  So many more examples of the generosity that began with $311.

Carl Karcher is synonymous with so much that is amazing about Anaheim over the last eight decades; and once successful, the list of those people and organizations that benefitted from the Karcher family generosity is long and diverse.

If not Mr. Faessel, Madam Mayor?  Our beloved rookie mayor Ashleigh, the center of some Franklinian letters from Silence Dogood reincarnated as “Silence d’NoMoore, Esq.” simply pointing out Truth in a challenging world.  Is their any hope our beloved city has a heart for our pioneering heroes?

Can Ashleigh exercise her capable gavel to find a solution to 401 W Carl Karcher that doesn’t involve demolition similar somewhat to a replay of the Solomonic “split the baby” scenarios. Word has it Mr Karcher did not want it to become another apartment or housing complex, but it is difficult to get his opinion from heaven.  You have the word of the little girl, now mom and grandmother, who asked the question. Her picture is above; she’s the one on the right.

The endangered building sits next door to a functioning Carls Jr restaurant on a 99,200 sq ft lot; as you read this, before demolition, it is surrounded by chain link fencing with No Trespassing signs posted by the Anaheim Housing Authority.  A little background might help.

Rightly so, they ARE the current owners, so “Ana’s Home Housing” have the Authority to turn on the skip loader and crash the front door.  But, there are alternatives…

Oct 17, 2013, the Karcher family, Karcher Partners transferred the property to Karcher Partners LLC.

Then 401 Carl Karcher Way was sold to US Pacific Group LLC for $6,150,000, recorded Jan 15, 2015. County records then show US Pacific transferred it to the Anaheim Housing Authority on Oct 18, 2019.  The Karcher kids had every right to sell off the building, but maybe, just maybe…   Like all large Catholic families, they disagreed but loved each other; many still in the Church, others gone elsewhere. Similar to post-Alex the Great probate distribution, when his empire was split four ways, the kids have carved out different sections of the company franchises and businesses.

Over time, mistakes were made which is inevitable.  Success is still rampant, though the founding CEO, after the Pudzer takeover, was not tickled having naked ladies strutting their supple chicken breasts selling beef burgers and more.  That was one of the toughest arrows impaled on this Man of God; I’m just a dad of 11 and grandpa to 22, but my undereducated guess is that wound never healed.  My MBA tells me companies, as they grow, face different challenges at distinct levels of growth. For a man dedicated to the value of motherhood and what a woman is (despite supreme court newbie Jumanji Jackson Brown’s inability to define woman), Carl knew what the ultimate woman is when he married way up: Margaret, a true matriarch echoing what Mary believed: she drew all to Jesus her son the Savior.  Faith. Freedom. The Blessing of America and the city Light on a hill.

These three flagpoles used to grace the patriotism of the founder with Old Glory, the American flag raised higher than the California Bear and the CKE banner.  Today, they are barren as they raise their top globes to the heavens.  Shh. Just don’t tell those grounded in destroying this great land.

After the hairy times of Harry & the Angels, is railroading this building to the ground a smart move? Better asked, how do you honor the wishes of an Anaheim man who contributed much more than the cheap price paid for his building and surrounding land?

With the corporate HQ move, he wanted it to be used for other purposes and not destroyed.

Does anyone in the most capable  rookie mayor’s office or the council seat occupants, or our efficient and talented city manager, or the shadow leader of AHA!… or maybe others that knew Carl & Margaret, friend or a little less friendly, care enough to speak up?

I, for one, as a resident for 65 years who was privileged to see Carl after a Saturday 6am Mass from time to time and the small privilege, to have the Orange County Life Centers (he IS avidly prolife without the typical Democrat and wussy Republican lame excuses for killing preborn kids that might need affordable housing) sponsor an honorary dinner at that same church, St Anthony Claret he attended for early Saturday Mass once St. B ended it.

Though much of the Karcher pro bono love went to their home church near their Colony home, aptly named St Boniface after the German saint for a city named for the Home/Heim of Ana.

Acts of Kindness was Tom Tait’s mantra; same with Ashleigh, newly installed and everyone on the council.

Many of us who have lived in this city (I first came her in 1958 with Paul & Irene Beckman WITHOUT a car seat in the Plymouth station wagon.  Same auto company as the Plymouth the Karchers pawned for $311 seed money.

$311 won’t buy the Big Bang fireworks box from Ashleigh’s Canyon High stand on the 4th today, but it’s the amount that fueled the beginning of a family friendly, quality food empire.  Thousands of jobs, true philanthropy and much more.

Rags to riches, risk, investing in others, helping the needy, these are the things the American Miracle is all about.

I know, Len you are an idiot to think politicians would consider taking the higher road.

Maybe a different plan for the property that could keep Slick HairGel’s toxic totalitarianism on ruling California land use from his Blessed Sacramento first floor office; AND satisfy Mr Karcher’s hope for the remnants of his empire.   I have some ideas, so do others.  Margaret Levecke Karcher has a few, no doubt.  Maybe the whole Karcher klan as well.  We are NOT living in the past by recognizing the good prior to today’s first cup of coffee…we can do what is right and just, IF we have the vision.

Could we hold off on the wrecking ball for some discussion; or is affordable housing so essential we have to destroy what’s left of a good man’s working space?  Gov Newsom is too busy campaigning for president and ruining other remaining parts of the tarnished Golden State.  It’s doubtful he would notice; he’s gotta worry about his Abortion Tourism (AborTours Inc) and California sanctuaries of transmutilation of preborn and teens.

Instead of “gender affirming care” that chainsaws young people’s private parts publicly, with preborn hearts and livers, and teen breasts and penises sold separately, consider a Karcher heritage affirming choice: USE the building and build around it, if you must.  Add a sculpted family tribute at the corner, as a testimony that America is worth saving.  Free enterprising by hard and smart working does not die and Woke silliness can be turned back by mature adults in the council room and Anaheim at large.

Carl loved America, his children, Ana’s Home, success and his deeply Catholic faith, the Catholic Church, helping others of all faiths philanthropically.  He married a wiser and older woman, similar to three of my children…together they became formidable entrepreneurs.  Must we banish them in the city they called home to the dust bin of history.  Skip loader giant scoop at the ready.

Meanwhile, Ray Kroc started another empire when he bought the MacDonald’s Brothers inland empire hamburger joint; at the time, he sold Taylor machines and they used a lot of them making shakes.  Ray bought the idea and the high speed process of simple Henry Ford assembly lineage, as well as their store in San Bernardino

Carl was an ideas man, often not patenting things he should; wise businessman, sometimes too trusting.

He helped OTHERS succeed, a noble thing to honor keeping his last building intact. Ashleigh, what say you?  You probably have battled already for the funds for the latest public housing project.  I know you can’t be bought, as a Catholic woman of integrity, but would you reconsider the current narrative?  You’ve been a Federal prosecutor successfully; how about an Anaheim warrior for good things that go against the crazy juggernaut of SacraDEMento’s dementia?

NOT all scoops rip down brick and mortar. Carl was an innovator; he thought putting fries in paper bags one by one with giant tweezers was dumb; a scoop device would be more efficient and less time. And little things, small changes can make a big difference.

One day, he sent an employee home with instructions to make a prototype, which turned into a standard; Carl might have been the real life subject of the Cheaper by the Dozen original movie.  Frankly, they complemented each other.  Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, great match for Carl and Margaret…in the first movie not the modern remakes.

Similarities? When the mom of a dozen, Mrs. Gilbreth in the 1920s,  was approached by planned parenthood hussies wanting to use their spacious home, Lillian called her kids downstairs, who lined up with the bannister, all twelve of them.  Planned Parenthood, like they do today, hated kids except as drawn and organ quartered… and stomped out.

One could imagine the questions Carl and Margaret got over time as they kept adding organic tax deductions.  Don’t you have a TV?  Don’t you know there is a population problem?  Look how much of God’s essential trace CO2 gas you are emitting as a family (of course “…of God’s essential trace…” edited out. CO2 just FEEDS the WORLD)?

Of course, Anaheim council males and females are not true scientists; recognizing what a woman is, that male and female are the only sexes and true population demographics, may not be their expertise:

Yes, there IS a population problem, but it’s not what the baby killing teen mutilating demoniacs believe:  50 countries are one generatiom away from extinction…

…and climate changes every day, local global cooling predawn rising to local global warming due to hydrogen nuclear reactions 93 million miles away.  What the hydroelectric dam has this to do with 401 Carl Karcher way? Everything. We must NEVER ignore history, or stop playing the role of the little boy seeing the Emperor’s new translucent clothes.

OK, Carl’s gold watch after decades of service sits on the corner of a street named for himself; are you going to rename it a residential public housing project name in the commercial zone like Heim Housing Row.  I bid $311 for that street sign when the Authority renames it and retires it.  It’s only 15 years since Margaret, Carl etc.’s dad left this mortal coil 2 years after the matriarch moved to heaven.  You believe that once the wrecking ball follows the first skip load groundbreak, everyone will forget.

Imagine IF you kept the $6 million building intact, added mixed use housing and ? in the same area. I’m sorry this will tick off AHA! who are chomping at the bit to break bricks and build.  But…

I’d love to keep my kids in California and Anaheim, too and have four state flags so far proving that the Sacramento carpet bagger boogers destroy more than they create.  Including fossil fueling the Eastward Ho! $4000 UHaul craze…

At a stoplight, Frank Gilbreth was asked “Hey, mister! How come you got so many kids?” Gilbreth would pretend to ponder the question carefully, and then, just as the light turned green, would say: “Well, they come cheaper by the dozen, you know”, and drive off.  No matter how many kids we have, we just can’t keep up with those destroyed by Slick HairGel and his fellow demons.  Carl and Margaret were inspirations, that having a dozen CAN be a good thing for real America; we only got to 11 before my Donna headed heavenward at age 48.

Innovations? Today, most fast food establishments use a scoop; I did when I was paid $1.45/hour at the State College McDonald’s.  He shared the idea with Kroc and other food industry leaders.   Same with charging BEFoRE you serve, another idea he shared with Kroc and others.  Kroc thought he was nuts, it wouldn’t work.

Today, EVERYONE pays before the food arrives at the drive up 2nd window OR inside.  Except of course at sit down restaurants.   And as many good wealthy people do, Mr. and Mrs. Karcher became able to give and keep giving.

Steve Faessel and other long time residents may remember the comp cards Carl loved to give out for a free meal, evidence little givings are good too. I still have mine with a wet signature dried with time; he included it with a thank you letter for an idea I sent to him decades ago.  Anaheim is a GREAT city not just because of Walt’s dreams; Carl is right up there with the love of his life and residing in heaven with Margaret.

America’s best days are ahead.  Could Anaheim show an ounce of compassion for the memory of a man and his co-founder whose name means more than a way sign at the corner of Anaheim Blvd and yes Carl Karcher’s Way.  Who contributed untold millions to the city and county, let alone American commerce. Note to ex St Norberts altar boy and great city manager, James Vanderpool: where do I register my $311 bid for that street sign.  Take notice: there IS a STOP sign on the pole.

Other ideas I can share; we Anaheimers OWN the land though legally recorded as part of the successful public/private cheaper housing spear called AHA!  PLEASE consider a pause before the wrecking ball is brought to bear against the brick building’s edifice.

Ashleigh, like the city we are, has a heart for the needy.  We just built 120 apartments at $508,333 per unit when Anaheim partnered with Irvine-based Jamboree Housing Corp. to bring Finamore Place to life, making it the eighth collaboration with Jamboree in Anaheim and an example of a successful city, nonprofit and private sector partnership. Our hit was “only” $14 mill.

“Anaheim has raised the bar on affordable housing communities,” Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken said. “With a commitment of $14 million from the Anaheim Housing Authority, the city worked with Jamboree to create more than just a home for people and families. It’s now a place of belonging, comfort, support and so much more. For the kids living here, they now know what a home should look and feel like, and more importantly, the kind of home they deserve. Projects like this become a success through collaboration, and we thank our community partners for joining our vision.”

On her path to state wide office, Ashleigh WILL succeed. 8 years hence.  But today, can we take a breath to right a potential wrong that CAN be solved.  AHA!  There IS a solution, combining the desire to help the less fortunate while honoring one of our top local pioneering heroes.

Len Beckman

Lenbeckman@gmail.com

714 267 1413