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.