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 [ LOS ANGELES ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=312)

#  Next Women’s Protest Should Be Directed at LA City Council

January 23 2017

Written by Kenneth S. Alpern.

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ALPERN AT LARGE--We just saw a huge (yuuuuge?) turnout in Downtown LA (and throughout the nation) to let our new President know he was on notice to represent all citizens and constituencies of our nation. So why does our City Council get away with treating ITS citizens and constituencies like lower life forms?

Measure S allows us to have our own local turnout to serve the Mayor and the City Council that THEY, like our new President, is on notice to represent ALL of us.

The LA Downtown Establishment, the Planning Politburo, the Developer Elites, and the Density Hawks are all ready to send us straight to an unlivable, environmentally-nightmarish, and family-unfriendly City of Los Angeles.

Oh, those pesky taxpayers and ratepayers. Give us an LADWP Ratepayer Bill of Rights while overcharging us in order to indirectly get that illicit cash to the City of Los Angeles General Budget!

Talk to us about raising taxes while spending our taxes poorly and hurting us with initiatives that don't fulfill the intentions of those tax hikes.

Supposedly, the upcoming Measure S "[befuddles" candidates](http://www.laweekly.com/news/anti-development-ballot-measure-befuddles-candidates-7816053)--and 10 out of 14 sitting City Councilmembers and our Mayor have come out against Measure S.

And developers are ["howling"](http://www.dailynews.com/government-and-politics/20170117/developers-howl-over-ballot-measure-to-end-spot-zoning-of-oversized-projects-susan-shelley)) over an end to spot zoning of oversized projects, while they KNOW DAMN WELL they could build aplenty along our major commercial corridors an ocean of 2-4 story livable projects with sufficient affordable housing and parking and infrastructure mitigations to the community.

Unfortunately our "anti-Trump" "progressive" City Council only backs down when the taxpaying, voting citizens of our City raise a hoopla--like [Paul Koretz did](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php/los-angeles/12459-councilman-koretz-caves-on-caruso-tower-faces-grassroots-backlash-calls-to-step-down) when developer Rick Caruso tried to ram an oversized project into the Beverly Center area.

And now our LA Times, which has supported overdevelopment (to hell with true environmental and sustainable development!) as "progress" for years suddenly comes up with the idea of banning [developer contributions](http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-developer-donations-20170115-story.html) to City Hall ...

... because the Times, the Downtown Elites, and the Planning Politburo know that the process is rigged, favoring big money and sending the taxpayers of our City straight to hell. We can scream and be ignored.

- Until Measure S became a reality.
- Homeless advocates: For Measure S.
- Affordable housing advocates: For Measure S.
- Environmental advocates: For Measure S.
- Neighborhood advocates: For Measure S.

Measure S is NOT cruel. It demands that City Hall and the Planning Department obey its own laws, and that they cannot thwart the rule of law and the laws of physics to support oversized development "for the greater good" or "for overriding considerations" of whatever nonsensical tripe that can be thrown into the faces of the rest of us...who have to obey and uphold the law!

We CAN make more affordable housing. We CAN obey the law. We CAN create livable and environmentally-sustainable neighborhoods.

And the City of Los Angeles can learn to represent us and obey the laws. It's a doggone pity it had to take Measure S to do it, but at this point it's the only chance we have to ensure that City Hall represents its own constituents and obey its laws.

Vote YES on Measure S, and reclaim the City of Los Angeles as YOUR city, too!

*(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D. is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties. He is also a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at  <alpern@marvista.org>.* *He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at [www.fogl.us](http://www.fogl.us). The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)*

*-cw*

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