CommentsERIC PREVEN’S NOTEBOOK - When the hot Santa Ana winds come through, the local fauna can spring into action a little early.
This was the case all over town, including in South Los Angeles, where Mark Ridley-Thomas was captured popping up by CBS’s Craig Fiegener, who had an exclusive chit-chat with the former county supervisor on 97.1 KNX.
As one of the two CD10ists at present, including Heather Hutt who is collecting Mr. Ridley Thomas's check at present, as we all await Kenneth Mejia's ruling on whether Ron Galperin should have shut off his paychecks, MRT told Fiegener that his one mission and objective was to fight homelessness.
Obviously, restoring his good name and conducting a nasty legal battle to get out from under the FBI indictment, is number two. Since, Marilyn Flynn, the Dean from USC who allegedly bribed MRT, pleaded guilty, this is a nail-biter but also a slow-burning groaner. Go UCLA!
Anyway, it was nice to hear Ridley-Thomas bellowing on briefly and down at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration on Tuesday, there were plenty of feelings. Not necessarily about MRT, though they love him there but rather another progressive icon, Sheila Kuehl, was saying goodbye to county service.
She was weeping like a senior at graduation but only 19 viewers were watching as the recognition was scheduled at a Special Meeting before two closed sessions. "No further questions, your honor. "
Above, the eloquent, Lindsay Horvath praised Kuehl.
Here’s one of the few public comments:
Smart Speaker: Yeah, I'll give a little public comment on the items, all of them, and a quick general public comment, as well.
Well, it's come to the point where we're honoring supervisor Sheila Kuehl for her service to the county. I'll join in and thank her for some of her efforts.
Sheila was the smart one is the way we thought about it out in the public. She seemed to know a lot about how the law and the government worked and yet we knew that she had a soul, so to speak, so we would target her in order to allow her to feel the pain of what she knew was the wrong thing to do.
Sometimes she would vote no all alone, in a world with Don Knabe and Mike Antonovich. Where Mister Ridley-Thomas would happily abstain. But, it was great work, eventually, Sheila would help move the big boat in the correct direction and so she gets credit for that.
She's a quote "progressive icon" but she's a progressive icon who once said to me, quote "as you well know, the first amendment requires that you be able to speak, not that we are forced to listen."
To which I reply, [expletive] Bullshit.
We, in the public, always find a way, one way or the other.
I appreciate all the hard work because it is a lot of work. Though, I did once comment on how your calendar was light, to extra lite, when compared to say, Queen Elizabeth's calendar. May she rest in peace, but you're not dying so you get to enjoy the rest of your life. This is great news.
It's been tough at times. You've raised the thresholds on many items so they'll never come before the board and so we'll never see the problems that the public really should be scrutinizing and calling out.
The sole source contracts are off the charts bad and it must be great when you're the one deciding who gets them, but not in the public's interest.
It's a big world of many things to do and you did a lot. You did a lot.
And I just want to thank you for being the poster child for killing the women's jail at Mira Loma and Patty Giggans knows the real truth about that one.
Executive Officer. Your time has expired.
Smart Speaker: Ditto.
Bass Urged to Prioritize Restrooms:
Metro has re-adjusted its proposed new fares schedule, following a series of withering broadsides delivered by transit-riding members of the public. The latest fare proposal will be heard by the LA Metro board on Thursday, Dec. 1, beginning at 10 a.m. To watch the meeting virtually, go to boardagendas.metro.net.
And in Studio City where the best bet is to pee in the tunnel connecting Fat Burger to the Red Line station, during low traffic times because Paul Krekorian does not believe in public restrooms.
FAQ:
Public; Why?
Metro: It costs too much to have them maintained.
Public; Then, why not open the Metro staff restrooms, with an attendant, that are currently caged and locked?
Metro: Your time has expired.
Public: The automated units that douse the entire cabinette with water are clever-expensive, and as one resident told me recently, unusably disgusting.
Maybe Karen Bass could prioritize public restrooms.
One Hundred and fourteen Item Salute:
Smart Speaker: Yes, it’s Eric Preven and I would like to speak on all 114 items and a general public comment. Which are available?
City Attorney: 1 through 3, 12, and 69 through 113, except for item 86 and the item that was reconsidered from the prior meeting. We’ll set the clock for three minutes.
Smart Speaker: Is seventy-five open?
City Attorney: Yes, that’s open.
Smart Speaker: Well, listen, what a great meeting. I think this is going super… well. I feel like it was a little bumpy at the start. To be fair. The shrieking and yelling and screaming with you and Krekorian playing the role of seven and twelve, in the marvel series, rule 7 and rule 12.
But where do we go from here? I feel like we’re repeating the first act over and over again. We need to get to the second act and do something exciting.
I don’t think the riot gear is helping. The optics are not great on riot gear in a public meeting.
City Attorney: Do you want to go on to the items?
Smart Speaker: Well, I’m doing fine. Would you like to specify which items you’d like me to go on, and then, in what order?
City Attorney: So, you’ve mostly used up your general public comment time. So you still have—
Smart Speaker: No, no, no, that’s not fair, Fauble. You have got to at least give me my general public comment. I am trying to talk about the items, there are one hundred and fourteen of them, 114. You are not letting me get there… I admit to a circuitous approach, but it’s intelligent, and fully vetted. Did you see that I was recognized by the LA Press Club? And others, so I suggest you give me my damn minute and we can stop quibbling. Would you agree to that?
City Attorney: If you want to go to general public comment, go ahead.
Smart Speaker: Ok, I’ll give a one-minute comment, but I am warning you it will be quite strong. I want you to sit down and be sure you have your mask on.
Karen Bass is taking the city in a new direction. Up!
Though the leadership has struggled.
It’s time for everybody to remember that what Kevin DeLeon’s contract says and requires is one very small isolated area of what we do here in the City of Los Angeles.
We do other things as well, including presiding over what has been described by the many impacted bystanders as our national disgrace. Mayor Garcetti and Sheila Kuehl get a lot of credit and will be missed.
In CD14, there is a lot of work to do and Mr. DeLeon has excelled at that work, more than say Bob Blumenfield, who is mired in the Cube museum recusal investigation. Who knows what’s going on over at the cube museum where his wife once worked?
This is why we sought the mayor out of town records from CD6, where Ackley Padilla, the son of Senator Alex Padilla, jk. Senator Padilla’s brother. Ackley is Alex’s younger brother.
Some will remember how he resigned abruptly as Nury Martinez’s chief of staff, without leaving the ‘mayor-out-of-town’ records with the other big chief at CD6, Alexis Wesson, who married Herb Wesson’s son Justin, the floor manager for his father at City Hall.
Alexis has worked closely with the disgraced, Nury Martinez, for as long as I can remember.
The public requested the records to be sure how many days Nury was Mayor when Eric Garcetti was out of town to assist the President of the United States and the people of India.
So, please, make public the out-of-town records since Nury Martinez was appointed Council President in December 2019. Thank you.
As for Blumenfield’s fundraising, it’s excellent.
No idea how the Cube thing got away from us as Blumenfield has always been almost too diligent on that. He’s the bronze medal-winning third-place finisher in the 2022 City Council recusal tally.
Once again, Curren “the King” Price who recuses himself with tremendous frequency as Del Richardson, his current wife in a sequence of possibly conflicted wives, gobbles up eminent domain replacement contracts from the city like Turkeys getting ready for Thanksgiving.
Paul Krekorian takes silver like his hair as the City’s chief dirty work administrator, who only recuses when a sticky vote impacting renters, arises. This way, he’s doing the high-minded/underhanded thing. Perfect.
But why is he recusing?
None of your business.
No obligation to discuss the merits of a shameful non-vote. They simply step out of the room and don’t “vote.” So we hope that makes you feel better. For shame.
People are a little disappointed that only Joe Buscaino made it to Kansas City for the National Cities Summit when the whole effing city council was dark for the week.
We’re all very much looking forward to Mr. Buscaino’s detailed report on the exciting Cities summit.
And why don’t we have a Curren D. Price Jazz Museum here in Los Angeles?
Sweetest Little Town in the Valley:
Smart Speaker: Greetings. It's Eric Preven. I'm a long-time resident of Studio City, and thank you, More or Mr. Song, for having this hearing.
The Sportsman's Lodge has always been an important part of our community and, you know, there's been a long trajectory to get to this point, [01:54:00] but I'm here to tell you as a long-time resident who used to swim at the hotel when Steve Scheck was the manager—
I love that place and this has been… a bait and switch.
You don't see a nice organic group like Erewhon, the luxury grocery store people, suing the developer Midwood because they've been so forthright and helpful. This has been a complete bait and switch.
Nobody expected a skyscraper let alone Residences at this property. We are not trying to tell people what to do with their land but we do want to focus on the community assets that mean something to… the community here in Studio City. This is the wrong spot for Midwood’s aspirations.
Community support is key and many speakers talked about wanting to preserve the mid-century modern hotel located at the site.
I hope Mr. Marmol hasn’t tuned out to design another luxury home and is still listening.
I live in an RM Schindler house in Studio City and in my view, this hotel is a very important part of Studio City’s Modern Architecture culture. This building is very special. If you don't believe me ask Ken Bernstein.
The whole [01:55:00] property has been a part of so many lives in Studio City because of the way it's been used.
The “use” was an event center and hotel. To modify that “use" to become residences, where we can't even manage what's been happening now at the event center luxury mall rework, in terms of the parking and traffic problems. Bad.
And when you start to widen out you realize that some sneaky activities are underway in Studio City. But we don’t want to bother Paul Krekorian, who dumped it all on Raman, who is also busy.
Why did the widening of Ventura Boulevard plan that was supposed to help with some of this congestion go away mysteriously along with some guy who retired from the Department of Transportation?
This project is WAY too big for the current location.
And the hotel was a great community asset that we all loved. This hotel should be fixed up. Call it an “adaptive reuse” Mr. Marmol, you’re a very smart guy. Certainly, our old friends at Midwood who have been there for thirty years, holding the line on community, can be the owner-operators.
If Midwood is such a wonderful family company why would you [01:56:00] want to destroy our neighborhood?
Why not just do the right thing and restore the greatest hotel in the valley? It is the greatest hotel in the valley. That's what it should be and I don't know when that plan was changed. I can tell you why it was changed.
If you wanna know “why?” Because of the lobbyists and the money.
And the greed. Greed. That's five letters. Greed.
We don't need a skyscraper and to be using the 78 very low-income units. Those would be the first affordable, and we do want affordable housing, but not at our over-the-hill choke point and not in such a way that rejects our community's history.
It's just disgusting. It's disgusting.
So my recommendation would be to go through the CEQA process until Midwood realizes that this is not the right fit for Studio City.
Thank you.
More Song: Great. Thank you.
Nithya Raman White Paper
Councilmember Raman must realize that Prop K does not stand for Paul Krekorian or Lisa Karadjian, It stands for Kids. In Studio City, PRB is one thing but PRV stands for Pure Rita Villa.
In Studio City Parks, when we say kids, we mean… Open Space.
The details regarding Lisa Karadjian's (faux) complaint about her own Neighborhood Council’s INTENTIONAL failure to notice the community about the third in a string of sneaky meetings are available.
In sum, the cool kids conspiring with Garcetti/Krekorian et al. held an unpublicized LVNOC meeting where they agreed to literally ruin Beeman Park with a giant net zero building to replace the small one that is fine but BOE wants to send to a landfill.
The Karadjian gold is certainly compelling on (pg. 33, 34) but page 1 is pure Rita Villa…
Holiday Gold: Chron LVNOC #3 Studio City Prop K - 8/17/17
Chokepoint Charlie:
After receiving overwhelming pushback from the public, Midwood is opting NOT to build a giant blob of Residences
and will continue with the original plan to restore the mid-century modern Sportsmen’s lodge hotel, according to a dream made public by Eric Preven.
A new Preven-dreamed report has urged Midwood
to keep the god damned hotel instead of building a skyscraper at Coldwater, or face a relentless eternity of local opposition
Also, the Preven dream retains the swimming pool and poolside Patio and the Cheeseburger with French Fries and a Diet Coke.
The previous plan released in October called for 525 units and a building with more square footage than the largest IKEA in the United States which is located in Burbank.
The skyscraping height of 94 feet, which is excessive, was the most cited objection at a virtual public hearing held on Nov. 21. This hearing really happened.
Almost 100% of those who commented at the hearing were residents speaking against the greedy plan initiated by Midwood.
Many said the developer had been in bad faith and warned him that the community support was not in place. The large residential tower component was described by locals as a bait and switch.
The proposed layout at a well-regarded choke point would be particularly burdensome for thousands of local stakeholders.
Hopefully, Midwood is thinking long and hard about some of the details of the blistering attack from Studio City Residents.
People here, are eager for Midwood and City Planning to co-release a statement announcing that Midwood plans to reverse course, but at the very least demand that the next public hearing scheduled for December 15, be pushed back so that the many residents with elevated anger can get to Doctor appointments to manage their blood pressure meds.
Midwood should definitely consider adopting the following attitude, “We took the community feedback seriously and withdraw our application.”
(Eric Preven is a longtime community activist and is a contributor to CityWatch. The opinions expressed by Eric Preven are solely his and not the opinions of CityWatch)
