Costa Mesa FINALLY has a new Director of Economic and Development Services

Welcome to Costa Mesa, Carrie Tai!

Man, it’s about TIME.

As you might recall, City Hall got punched in the gut when Jennifer Le, the former Director of Economic and Development Services, left the city abruptly at the beginning of the year after being poached by the Irvine Company. Since then, several projects have felt somewhere between adrift and in development hell (pardon the pun), including: the Fairview Development Center master plan, many housing element programs, and the rezoning of our Measure K sites. I’m sure a number of other projects were impacted by her departure as well. It’s been a long, long ten months.

So who is Ms. Tai?

Well, she’s certainly experienced. She’s held economic development services posts at both Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach, and before that it sounds like she was in Long Beach working as a zoning administrator. That’s great, but I wouldn’t exactly call either Manhattan Beach or Hermosa Beach, ahem, growth-oriented. So it will be interesting to see how she fits into a city looking to potentially grow its population by 10%.

On the plus side, she seems to like living in an urban environment: here she is in a piece about her former post in Manhattan Beach gushing about her ability to walk and bicycle to work. She is also a Boston native and a Hunter College grad, which is of course located in New York City. So she’s got an intriguingly East Coast/big city background.

But honestly, I’m just relieved we have this post filled. It’s going to take a while for her to get acclimated but I hope she hits the ground running. 2025 is going to be one of the biggest years in the city’s history (thanks to the rezoning and FDC) and she’s going to be smack dab in the middle of it.

Goat Wrangler
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2 responses to “Costa Mesa FINALLY has a new Director of Economic and Development Services”

  1. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    So, we’re not seeking to address a critical housing “shortage,” we’re looking to GROW our population by 10%. Thanks for that clarification.

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    1. Goat Wrangler Avatar
      Goat Wrangler

      If you have a shortage, you have more people looking for homes than you have homes available for them. Some of them will crowd into existing housing, some of them will commute in from other places. The “market” doesn’t respect city lines, and it would be straight up communism to reserve new housing units only for current residents. Ergo, if you build new houses, your population is likely to increase.

      This is not a controversial statement. The entire handwringing about RHNA is precisely that no one wants more people to live here. If complying with RHNA only meant adding new homes and not new people (and most relevantly, new cars), no one would really care except for the aesthetes.

      This “PULL UP THE DRAWBRIDGE!” Attitude is toxic and has to stop.

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