COSTA MESA : Mayor Hits the Road to Sell Virtues of His City

Mayor Joe Erickson, long known as the city’s most visible cheerleader, is taking his routine on the road today with a three-stop tour of Unocal offices in Brea, City of Industry and downtown Los Angeles.

The oil company is moving its 76 Products Division, along with 700 employees, to Costa Mesa next year, and the mayor says he wants to make sure that they feel welcome.

The main point of the road trip, he said, is to introduce people to the amenities they can expect to find in Orange County, but he does admit to having an ulterior motive.

“These are good-paying jobs. The average salary is about $60,000,” Erickson said. “With that sort of an income level I would hope that people would buy homes and make improvements in our neighborhoods.”

Attracting homeowners, rather than renters, has long been a goal of the City Council, City Manager Allan L. Roeder said.

Historically, the city has had far more renters than homeowners, Roeder said. About 57% of the city’s current residents do not own the homes in which they live, he said, a figure that is quite a bit higher than the county average.

“There clearly is an interest to attract homeowners,” Roeder said, “because people have a broader investment in the community if they are there for a long time.”

The chemists and engineers who will be working here after the Unocal move, Roeder said, will have the wherewithal to buy houses.

Erickson said his two-hour presentation at each of his three stops will show people the benefits of relocating their families to Costa Mesa.

“I want to tell them that it is a good lifestyle here,” Erickson said. “And I want them to hear about raising families in this town from someone who has lived here for a long time, not from some person hired by the company.”