We’re getting very excited about Thursday’s city council vote in Clearwater, Florida which may be that town’s last opportunity to rescue its downtown from becoming Scientology’s fortress against the outside world.

The council will be voting on whether to purchase a 1.4-acre parcel for $4.25 million that lies between City Hall and a couple of important [...]]]>

 
We’re getting very excited about Thursday’s city council vote in Clearwater, Florida which may be that town’s last opportunity to rescue its downtown from becoming Scientology’s fortress against the outside world.

The council will be voting on whether to purchase a 1.4-acre parcel for $4.25 million that lies between City Hall and a couple of important Scientology landmarks, including the Fort Harrison Hotel, the centerpiece of Scientology’s “Flag Land Base.” The city wants the parcel to help build tourism and pedestrian traffic downtown. The last thing Scientology wants are outsiders near its facilities, and church leader David Miscavige has offered $15 million for the parcel if the city will vote against buying it.

One of the ways that Scientology tries to sway locals (and it appears to be working, judging by our conversation with one local business owner, Leif Oskarsson), is by claiming that, against all visual evidence to the contrary, the church is actually a boon to the local economy and the tax-exempt organization still somehow pays more property taxes than anyone.

Well, we’re not so sure about that. We had a look at the city of Clearwater’s latest financial report, for the year 2014-2015, and it lists the top ten property tax payers in town. Here they are:

 
The county’s list for 2016 is a little different, but still no Church of Scientology…

 
As for just the downtown development area of Clearwater, Scientology does dominate, and if you added together its $37 million in assessed property here, it would crack the top ten for the whole city…

 
So these figures would suggest to us that despite its tax-exempt status, the church does own a significant amount of property that is taxable, at least. We’d love to hear from some local experts who can help us drill down into these numbers even more.

But we also wanted to show you another ranking that we found in the city’s year-end report because, well, it made us chuckle.

Here then is the list of top users of Clearwater’s sewer system…

 
Hey, at least the Church of Scientology is number one at something in Clearwater.

 
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Ron Miscavige strikes back

After being slimed for nearly a year with attack websites set up by his own son, Ron Miscavige is putting up his own website to present his own side of things.

 
Give it a spin and let us know what you think.

 
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Chris Shelton on loaded language

Says Chris: “On this week’s Sensibly Speaking Podcast, I talk about loaded language, one of the key control mechanisms of any destructive cult and perhaps one of the most powerful of the weapons in Scientology’s arsenal. I give some examples from Scientology of how they redefine terms to actually control how people think and act. It’s crazy stuff, but hey, that’s Scientology.”

 
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Bonus items from our tipsters

Actual caption by manager Karen Renna (Patrick’s mom): “MICHAEL D. ROBERTS booked a supporting role in the film A STAR IS BORN starring BRADLEY COOPER & LADY GAGA. Hearty congratulations!”

 
Says our tipster: “In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot, Episode 3, ‘Time Travelers,’ there’s a scene with a woman working on an android’s head, you hear the quip, ‘Ah, now she’s testing the android’s body thetans with her E-meter, and now it owes her a $100,000.'”

 
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Countdown to Denver!

 
HowdyCon 2017: Denver, June 23-25. Go here to start making your plans.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 15, 2017 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

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 about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2016 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2016), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield

 On Tuesday, Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige invited the business and property owners of Clearwater, Florida’s Cleveland Street for an unusual private presentation at the Fort Harrison Hotel, centerpiece of the church’s Flag Land Base that takes up much of Clearwater’s downtown area.

Tracey McManus of the Tampa Bay Times revealed that Miscavige had invited [...]]]>

 
On Tuesday, Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige invited the business and property owners of Clearwater, Florida’s Cleveland Street for an unusual private presentation at the Fort Harrison Hotel, centerpiece of the church’s Flag Land Base that takes up much of Clearwater’s downtown area.

Tracey McManus of the Tampa Bay Times revealed that Miscavige had invited the Cleveland Street “stakeholders” to pitch them on his plans for a revitalized downtown, and he’d even brought along top Scientology celebrities John Travolta, Kelly Preston, and Kirstie Alley to bolster his pitch. (And we spotted Scientology billionaire Bob Duggan in photos of the event as well.)

Miscavige is trying to throw a wrench into the city’s $55 million, 10-year redevelopment plan it calls “Imagine Clearwater,” the city’s latest attempt to resuscitate a town that was invaded by the church (operating under a fake name) in 1975, and a downtown that has been strangled of life in the decades since by Scientology’s presence. One of the elements of that plan is a 1.4-acre parcel that an aquarium company has committed to sell to the city for $4.25 million, pending a vote by the city council next week. But Miscavige wants to derail that transaction, offering not only $15 million for the parcel, but also promising to spend some $8 million for new facades on the buildings along Cleveland Street.

Based on what one of those Cleveland Street business owners, Leif Oskarsson, told us yesterday, Miscavige was clever to pit those stakeholders against the city’s plan. We don’t know, however, if that will be enough to derail next week’s vote.

Anyway, at some point yesterday, we realized that there was one Cleveland Street business owner we hadn’t noticed in any of the reporting or photographs of the event, and so we gave him a call.

Lucky Anchor pub owner Clay Irwin seemed to know why we were calling.

“I wasn’t invited,” he said. “And I’m hot. I’m really unhappy about it.”

If there’s someone who symbolizes the city’s struggle to revitalize itself despite the presence of the Church of Scientology, it might be Clay Irwin. In December, he opened his pub on Cleveland Street and talked optimistically about bringing life back to the downtown district — and with the involvement of the church. On his Facebook page, Irwin posted photos of Scientology workers visiting his bar like they were all fraternity brothers. And he’s told us that he was happy to be in the church’s shadow and didn’t perceive any problem with them.

 
But that was before the trouble started.

The last time we told you about Irwin, he’d caused a stir when one of his bar guests, a construction worker, offered to take him on a tour of the Tom Cruise double-penthouse being constructed down the street. Irwin broadcast his visit to the unfinished penthouse on a live Facebook stream, which one of our readers then shared with us a few days later.

Within about an hour after we posted the video, Irwin was visited by a church representative who demanded that he take the video down from the Internet.

And now, a few weeks later, he was conspicuously left off the invite list for David Miscavige’s big celeb party at the Fort Harrison Hotel, during which the church leader revealed plans for giving facelifts to businesses that would presumably include Irwin’s Lucky Anchor bar.

“I know what they’re all about now,” he told us during our phone call yesterday, sounding decidedly different about Scientology than he has in our previous conversations.

But wasn’t he excited about the prospect of Scientology paying to give his business a facelift?

“I’ll take them to court before I let that happen,” he said, insisting that he likes the way his bar looks now.

“I had the whole city government in here yesterday. The mayor, everybody,” he said, and he talks about having a good relationship with his landlord, implying that he’s there for the duration, even if he’s now no longer such a happy neighbor of the Church of Scientology.

Hey, Clearwater residents. If you’d like to see the city stand up against David Miscavige and his attempt to scuttle the city’s development plans, you could do worse than to stop in at the Lucky Anchor and support Clay Irwin by buying a beer.

 
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Countdown to Denver!

 
HowdyCon 2017: Denver, June 23-25. Go here to start making your plans.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 14, 2017 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

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 about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2016 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2016), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield

 Tampa Bay Times reporter Tracey McManus had another great piece yesterday, this time about Scientology leader David Miscavige holding a briefing Tuesday night at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida for local business owners to wow them about his plans for revitalizing the city’s dead downtown. But Tracey really buried the lead on her [...]]]>

 
Tampa Bay Times reporter Tracey McManus had another great piece yesterday, this time about Scientology leader David Miscavige holding a briefing Tuesday night at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida for local business owners to wow them about his plans for revitalizing the city’s dead downtown. But Tracey really buried the lead on her story. You had to read nearly to the end to find out just how serious Miscavige was about impressing the locals. He brought out the big guns — John Travolta, Kelly Preston, and Kirstie Alley! (In a new version of the story, the celebs have been moved up to the front. Well, sure!)

One of the people invited was Leif Oskarsson, who owns the Signworx store on Cleveland Street. Leif posted photos of the three big celebs and a shot of himself with Travolta to his Facebook page. “Sitting there and watching this just stunned everybody,” Oskarsson told McManus for her story. “It was so gorgeous. … How can you not welcome the help financially to help the city of Clearwater come alive again?”

OK, sure. But what about the celebrities, man! We tried to call Signworx but no one answered, and we sent Leif an email asking him if he could tell us something about how the celebrities were used in Miscavige’s big presentation. We hope he gets back to us about that. We’re sure it was a hoot.

Now, we’re only half joking about this. We really do think the presence of the celebrities is as important as anything else that happened Tuesday in that presentation. If you remember, Miscavige couldn’t get anyone better than Jenna and Bodhi Elfman to last year’s grand opening of the new Los Angeles media studios that he spent a crapload on, and that was a pretty big moment for the church. So for this trio to show up at the Fort Harrison Tuesday night should give you some idea that for Miscavige, the current situation in Clearwater with the city council is a VERY BIG DEAL.

To help understand why that is, we decided to try and visualize things a bit better with the help of the city’s $55 million plan for resurrecting downtown, which they call “Imagine Clearwater.”

(We’re guessing the original title was more like “Imagine Clearwater Without Scientology,” but these things tend to get edited for sensitivity. Ahem.)

So, to get a sense of what the city is trying to do, we pulled this slide out of the Imagine Clearwater presentation about how the goal is to revitalize the waterfront, which will increase the pedestrian traffic and fortunes of Osceola Avenue and Cleveland Street (in this view, north is to the right)…

 
We’ve added a red rectangle to show you the parcel that’s causing such a fuss. It’s a vacant lot that has two very important Scientology properties adjacent to it. To the east, across Osceola Avenue, is the legendary Fort Harrison Hotel, Scientology’s holiest site (marked No. 1). To the south of the parcel is the Oak Cove Hotel, another Scientology location where church members come to stay for expensive processing (No. 2). The current City Hall is to the north (No. 3), and just for fun we’ve marked the condo building that is being transformed so that Tom Cruise will have a double-penthouse up on the top two floors (No. 4).

As you can see in this diagram, if the city is going to “knit” the waterfront to Cleveland by way of Osceola, creating that flow of pedestrians and increased business, then that vacant lot is a pretty important part of the puzzle.

Currently, it’s owned by an aquarium company that at one time hoped to move there as part of an expansion. But Scientology reportedly helped to sabotage that project, which might be why the aquarium company is staying committed to sell the 1.4-acre parcel to the city for $4.25 million, and is ignoring the stupid money Miscavige is waving around in an attempt to kill the deal. He most recently upped his offer to $15 million for that small piece of land. $15 million! But so far, the aquarium company is still committed to the sale to the city, pending an April 20 city council vote.

Why does Miscavige want that piece of land so badly? He says he wants to build a swimming pool there for the guests of the Oak Cove, but that’s a laugher. As any Scientologist will tell you, when you’re in Clearwater, you’re kept busy racking up huge bills on expensive auditing and other processes. (The Flag Land Base in Clearwater takes in more revenue than all of the other Scientology facilities around the world, combined.) David Miscavige doesn’t give a hoot about the leisure time of his guests.

So why is he so afraid of the city getting that parcel to the point that he brought out some of his biggest celebrities to schmooze Cleveland St. business owners? And why is he pushing an $8 million plan to upgrade storefronts along Cleveland — with the unstated condition that the city kill the Osceola land purchase and allow the church to buy it?

Well, we think this slide from the Imagine Clearwater presentation might help explain what’s giving Miscavige the sweats.

 
Former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder explained to us the other day that Miscavige will want to keep the “wogs” away — non-Scientologists. He said that the worst thing for Miscavige would be for the city to put a large structure on the parcel so that non-Scientologists could get a great view right into the Fort Harrison and Oak Cove.

And sure enough, take a good look at that slide. You can see that that’s exactly what the city is proposing. Choosing examples from Miami, Denver, and nearby St. Petersburg, they’re hoping a sizable and hip edifice might be put up on that plot of land (which is to the left in that diagram) and a couple of others. And boy, what good views you’d then have of what the Scientologists were up to next door.

No wonder Miscavige is willing to spend so much (tax-free) parishioner cash, and wrangled his big celebs out to gladhand the local burghers.

 
UPDATE: Leif Oskarsson was good enough to get back to us with a response. Here’s what he sent us about Scientology’s celebrities and the presentation…

Yes, they were there and they were great to talk to and meet. The meeting was very informative and was really getting all of us as business owners and also property owners excited about the progress.

When it comes to all the celebrities that were present — and I don’t know all the names — the spirit from all was high. As a non-Scientologist and a business owner I was impressed with the way they have set it up and the presentation. The amount of help from the large designer firm Gensler, paid for by the church, to help design the owners’ properties at no cost to the property owners was impressive. The virtual view of Cleveland St. and downtown was so amazing.

People will love it if this goes through and the city sells that lot for the hotel swimming pool which has not been used for 30 years and is just dirt there anyway. As a business owner in downtown and in Florida through my other business I really know how much of a cost this has been for them to just support the city and help with reviving a tired downtown. Between tourist tax dollars that the church will pay and with the enormous amount of money spent in the greater Tampa Bay area and also in Clearwater, it is nothing but good stuff.

If it was a Jewish or Catholic or any other organization doing this it would be no issues from the city, but because of the church I think it is just sad. They are just doing something good and putting the money were their mouth is and no one else has stepped up to offer to revive an entire city even of properties that are not owned by them.

The church is not asking for anything but to offer to support the aquarium and give any funds to them that the city would get if it sold to the church. And it’s really no brainier with what should happen here. The incredible store front facings and the fresh Florida theme look of tired buildings with us as tenants would so help the city.

The stars did not really speak much except for and with us the owners of businesses. I was talking to Kirstie since she has a storage unit next door and she is really helpful if we needed any support as business owners. John was one of the nicest guys I ever talked to, humble and friendly. He listened to anyone wanting to speak to him or take pictures with him. He has Clearwater in his heart and is more than willing to represent our city to help us make our city grow. How great is that? How can we not have that as a great support for our city. One of the most beloved actors in the industry.

People who do not live here and do not run businesses in Clearwater and really do not know and see what we as locals see and experience are making statements that really should not be. We should all try to make our city and our county the best it can be and for that it takes all of us regardless of religion faith, race, etc.

The grassroots of making this great is for all of us to stand together and work together and make our city great. The amazing changes that can be done for a small thing from our city is just greater than for any one group person or media to have this not happen. After seeing business lasting three months on Cleveland Street and property owners discounting properties to get tenants in, how can we change that?

Not by events once a month or draws once a month. We need consistent foot traffic. We need more than just a band playing in the park to make our city great again, a city that I love, live, and bleed for.

The amazing Gensler group has amazing drafts and blueprints for our city that will make any city jealous world wide.

We would be the amazing city of Clearwater and proud to live and do business here with the transformation that can be so easily done by the help we could get.

 
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Jenna Elfman’s Reddit AMA disaster

Observer writer John Bonazzo had a fun piece yesterday about Jenna Elfman’s disastrous “Ask Me Anything” session over at Reddit that was intended to promote her new ABC series, Imaginary Mary.

Even before this week’s premiere, the show was getting some poor reviews and it seemed like another bad choice by Elfman, who has had a string of bad luck since her days on Dharma and Greg.

But even with all that as background, things went far worse than anyone might have expected.

As Bonazzo pointed out, two things happened.

First, a bunch of shills who had signed up for Reddit accounts only hours before the AMA lofted a bunch of softball questions — which Elfman answered.

And a bunch of riled up Redditors who could see what was going on reacted angrily and hit Elfman with a lot of pointed questions about her involvement in Scientology — which she did not answer.

But we’ll differ with the people Bonazzo quoted who assumed that Scientology was behind what was going on. We actually don’t think it was the church behind the shills asking Elfman the softball questions.

That’s also the conclusion our Celebrity Centre source came to. You remember our CC source, the same one who said that Jenna was one of the “Bitter Enders” who will never leave the church.

Here’s what our source said after looking over the charred remains of Jenna’s AMA:

“The AMA thing I’m sure was a bright idea of her public relations people or perhaps the public relations department at ABC,” he says. Friends and family were probably rounded up to help out, he adds.

He points out that Scientologists live in such a bubble, they wouldn’t know about Reddit or what an AMA is. And even Jenna, he says, is probably unaware of just how bad the press is these days for Scientology.

“She just got a real glimpse of how Scientology is perceived in the real world,” he says. “But I don’t think the Church was involved in having shills go on Reddit.”

 
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Aaron Smith-Levin on how to speak Scientologese

Says Aaron: “Let’s say you want to engage a Scientologist friend, family member or acquaintance in a conversation about Scientology in order (hopefully) to open their eyes to things they are likely not aware of. If you want to be taken seriously by the Scientologist, it’s important that any Scientology-speak words one attempts to use are used correctly. This video is the first of a series I’ll be doing on how to use certain terms the same way a Scientologist would use them.”

 
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Countdown to Denver!

 
HowdyCon 2017: Denver, June 23-25. Go here to start making your plans.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 13, 2017 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

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 about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2016 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2016), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield