Lori Condinus already knows which way Tuesday night's Anaheim City Council meeting will go, and it won't be her way. But that doesn't mean she won't be there to lobby for a doomed housing project in Anaheim's resort district.
"We've been there supporting this project all the way," said Condinus, 42, a switchboard operator at the Anaheim Hilton. "We'll have our voice there . . . win, lose or tie."
Condinus' voice has been no louder than others in this fierce yearlong debate over whether housing belongs in the city's tourist district.
But her words at a February council meeting -- "If we are good enough to work here in the resort, why aren't we good enough to live here?" -- became a rallying cry for low-wage earners who pressed the Walt Disney Co., the City Council and other business leaders to approve the condominium and low-cost apartment plan.
"It just came from the heart," she said. "I didn't know so many people would pick up on it."
Plans for the housing project near Disneyland unraveled last month when the deal between SunCal Cos. and the owners of the 26-acre parcel near Disneyland fell through. That news prompted Councilwoman Lucille Kring earlier this month to withdraw her support of the proposal. Kring cast the tiebreaking vote in a 3-2 decision seven months ago that approved the 1,500-unit project -- sparking three ballot initiatives, two lawsuits and regular City Hall protests.
There are few details about what might replace the massive housing project, but Councilman Harry Sidhu said new potential buyers want to build a hotel on the land, currently occupied by two mobile home parks.
Condinus said she was still "digesting" the sudden collapse of the housing plan.
"I'm just hugely disappointed in the whole process the way it turned out," she said. "We fought the hard fight, but by no means are we packing up our bags and giving up. Nothing that's worthwhile is easy."
Even if the council votes as expected to overturn a zoning decision that had allowed the project, Condinus believes she and hundreds of other religious and union leaders and community officials have made their point.
"We have put Disney and other big corporations on notice," she said. "We want more than a paycheck. We want social responsibility and accountability. We've told them, 'You're making a lot of money, so how do you put it back into the community that's working for you?' "
