Where in the U.S. the next set of Scientology ‘Ideal Orgs’ will be popping up next

 
Rod Keller keeps his eagle-eye on David Miscavige’s building efforts around the country…

We reported in April that the org in Columbus, Ohio was nearing their target to pay for renovating their Ideal Org. That target has been reached and they are asking for volunteers for organizing the central files. It’s an important step towards opening, but city records show they’re just starting on construction.

The plans are being reviewed for fire safety before the permits are issued. Columbus is moving from a small downtown location to a large office building in a suburban setting with little foot traffic. We think Columbus will join three other Ideal Orgs in the U.S. opening in 2019.

 
After years of fundraising the Austin org has moved to a strip mall in the Highland Park neighborhood while renovations are being done to the old org on Guadalupe Street. The building has been gutted and a new story is being added to reach the required 50,000 square feet of space for an Ideal Org. This org does have great foot traffic and is near the University of Texas.

 
The new Kansas City Ideal Org is being renovated more than a decade after its purchase by Scientology. The location is ideal, being only three blocks from the Sprint Center arena in the Power & Light District.

 
The planned Ideal Org in Ventura is being billed as a replacement for the Santa Barbara org, but it’s 30 miles away from that location. It’s also the last Ideal Org planned for California, leaving donors free to work on Albuquerque, Honolulu and others that are planned for 2020 and beyond.

It’s difficult to tell from the permits, but we think Austin is next to open, then Kansas City, then Ventura and finally Columbus. Despite all of this expansion of real estate, there’s no reason to think there is a turn-around in the slow decline in the number of Scientologists. With each opening ceremony the number of square feet of org space per member is increasing. It’s a trend that can’t continue indefinitely, but Scientology will continue to open six or seven Ideal Orgs per year for the foreseeable future.

 
— Rod Keller

Thanks for that dispatch, Rod. We’ll add that we recently received our own report from a tipster that fundraising has kicked into higher gear for the Philadelphia Ideal Org, another significant empty building that Miscavige has left rotting for a decade.

 
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Big Blue is a bad neighbor

Lynn Campbell sent us this report about Scientology’s neighbors in Los Angeles getting fed up with its noisy indifference.

Neighbors who live close to Scientology’s ‘Big Blue’ headquarters in Los Angeles say they have been dealing with trucks and buses idling outside their homes and construction noise late into the night coming from the complex.

One of the local residents, Tracy Walker, documented the incidents and then set up a meeting with the field representative of our City Councilmember, held at the LAPD’s Northeast Station. I was there.

George Hakopiants (Councilman Mitch O’Farrell’s field deputy) facilitated the meeting and provided a written agenda and format. His purpose for the meeting was to address ongoing quality of life concerns reported by neighbors about Scientology’s activities and to “establish ways to move forward in a way that mitigates these issues.” He was hoping for the outcomes of (1) having addressed some of the issues that are causing distress for the neighbors, and (2) having everyone get a better understanding of next steps that will be taken to mitigate these issues.

There were 11 people at the Thursday morning meeting. Scientology officials Janet Weiland and Ken Long brought Tess Fraser with them (I guess as their “neighborhood support.”) She lives on Kenmore and is Scientology public who I believe has a daughter in the Sea Org, so she’s well and truly under their thumb.

In addition to Tracy Walker, who set up the meeting, three other neighbors were there. The police officers present were Sgt. Ruben Arrellano, who’s in charge of the eight Senior Lead Officers who patrol the area, and Detective Rodrigues, who’s investigating an incident Tracy said a Scientology worker on a cherry picker was staring at her through her second-story window.

After the introductions, Hakopiants had the neighbors speak about the issues they were experiencing. Tracy has documentation and pictures for everything she mentioned. She started out with Scientology’s 21 precepts from ‘The Way to Happiness’ and showed how Scientology was not practicing their own precepts, regarding their activities in the neighborhood. Her documentation showed how she’s tried to handle the issues numerous times, and nothing effective has been done to address them.

At one point Weiland got defensive and tried to interrupt Tracy to make a point. Hakopiants had to verbally smack her down and tell her it was the neighbors’ turn to speak and that she would get her turn later.

Weiland and Long did a good job of smiling and nodding and looking concerned, while Tracy and the other neighbors were speaking. But when it was time for them to answer, they couldn’t come up with anything effective that had been done to address the issues. Janet made various excuses and several statements attempting to “blame the victim,” but Hakopiants picked up on it. When Janet said that Tracy should have curtains or blinds to prevent people looking into her window, George called her on it. She backed off and said that the cherry-picker situation “absolutely can be corrected.”

While Janet was asking for details, I wondered if she wasn’t trying to figure out if there was a main complainant that they could single out for harassment.

Ken Long attempted to provide her some cover by taking on the question of construction noise at odd hours of the early morning and late night. He took the PR position that the complaints were caused by the increased activity of their “expansion.” Each time he spoke he said, “We are big, and we are growing.”

He said they’ve had a lot of expansion in the last three years, so they’ve had more activity with deliveries. (We know they’re not expanding, so I’d love to know what’s really behind the increase in activity over there.)

Then we got to the mitigation part of the meeting. George suggested that Scientology appoint a single point of contact to address any future issues. They supposedly did that already. Susanna Furios is the one they appointed, but she hasn’t been effective, and Janet had previously admitted this to Tracy. So Ken said the neighbors could contact him about the delivery trucks honking their horns at odd hours, because there isn’t usually anyone at the loading dock to let them in. He said again, “We are big, and we are growing. We’ll be there and we’ll deal with it.”

George said they can’t do loading and unloading at 3:00 a.m., and it’s not negotiable. Ken “completely agreed.” George recommended that Scientology share their schedule for receiving deliveries with their vendors, so the trucks don’t have to stand with their engines idling for long periods, blasting exhaust fumes into the neighbors’ windows.

Detective Rodriguez wanted to talk to the person who was looking into Tracy’s window, and he came over to Janet to show her the pictures Tracy had taken of him. Janet was smiling and nodding and looking concerned, but I think she was having an “Oh Shit!” moment.

— Lynn Campbell

 
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

 
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Now on sale: Twice the Miss Lovely!

 
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. What a pleasure it is for us to work with her on this after we wrote about her ordeal as a victim of Scientology’s “Fair Game” campaigns in our 2015 book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, which is also on sale in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions.

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] L. Ron Hubbard’s son was troubled, but don’t discount him entirely: few knew his father better
[TWO years ago] Some churches take care of the old — Scientology instead works them to death
[THREE years ago] Australian media outs Scientologist behind ‘super city’ plans near Melbourne
[FOUR years ago] Scientology attorneys ask Garcia judge — Keep Mike Rinder away from us!
[FIVE years ago] EXCLUSIVE: Roslyn Cohn’s one-woman show skewering Scientology — complete!
[SIX years ago] Sunday Funnies: Scientology Sets Its Worldwide New Year’s Party!

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on December 16, 2018 at 07:00

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Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

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