Comments
ABOUT LA - I don’t trust government. Any government. Not city, county, state or federal. Evidence strongly suggests that their primary purpose is to enrich themselves and their “friends” and not serve the people who elected them. The people who elected them (sometimes only a minority of the population votes) hope against hope that this time it will be different. That this time those they elected will do the right thing and fulfill whatever promises they made, no matter how improbable they sounded at the time. In Los Angeles we have been living on hope for so long I believe we could be classified with long term Stockholm syndrome. OK, maybe I jumped the shark on that one, but maybe not. Only time will tell. But that’s precisely the point because I’m almost 81 years old and 3 years past shelf life according to the CDC. So, I am definitely in the last chapter of my life, and maybe my last election so no more kiss ass and no more excuses! I’ve put in the time and the work and apologize to no one. I am writing as an individual and not affiliated with any group. I have no idea if this will be a one and done story or the start of something new. It doesn’t matter. Only right now matters because right now is everything, literally.
I want to start addressing the insanity we are living under with the Bass administration. Those who really believe we are operating under a weak Mayor, strong City Council system because that is what the Charter says are delusional. Karen Bass is no weak anything. She has conquered Sacramento and Washington DC so do you really think Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson or Katy Yaroslavsky or any of the other council members are going to get in her way? Do not underestimate her, she is a force to be reckoned with and pleading and begging never works with someone of her ability. I am stating this because my day started with multiple requests from individuals and groups asking me to send a letter to the mayor stating:
Mayor Bass,
We urge you to publicly voice your support for Draft #3 of the CHIP program as recommended by the Los Angeles Planning Department on September 16, 2024. It adds significant housing on our commercial corridors and meets the requirement of Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing for all our communities. We feel Draft #3 gives every community “skin-in-the-game” in solving the housing needs of the city. We need the Planning Commission to hear your public support for Draft #3 without the “options” that were added without any of us being made aware of them.
You want to send a letter like this fine, but then what do you do when you get a thumbs down on your request. Do you think for one moment that she doesn’t understand exactly what is going on? Do you think she hasn’t been made very aware of the twists and turns you have been put through up to this point? You have been patient; you have come up with excellent alternatives and you deserve a well done. But if that doesn’t happen you need to vow to never believe city hall or cooperate with them again. Instead, some part of this group needs to resurrect the succession movement and split this city up into manageable entities. That is the only Charter reform that will work. More on that later, maybe.
To those who have not been following this issue it is about the Housing Element and the fact that developers want to be able to put multi-unit apartments in single-family neighborhoods, especially in Historic Preservation Overlay Zones (HPOZ’s). Neighborhoods and their leaders have been working to protect their neighborhoods for several years now. There have been so many assurances from the planning department, council offices, Mayor’s representatives etc. that there are enough properties available to build all the housing necessary without destroying single-family neighborhoods and yet here we are writing last minute “pleas” to the Mayor. I am calling BS!
Let us be clear Mayor Bass has a telephone and a pen. With that telephone she can have each member of the City Planning Commission (CPC)in her office in a heartbeat and tell them to vote for draft #3. If they refuse, she can hand each of them the pen and tell them to sign a letter of resignation effectively immediately. Anything short of that or a quick approval of draft #3 will tell us we have been had again. Do not believe for a moment she can’t do this. She can and will if it is in her interest. That said even if we win this one the investor class who are really behind this will be back next year or the year after that. They need the land our single-family homes sit on to keep driving up their profits.
Then there is Katy Yaroslavsky on this topic and TVC 2050. She is a disgrace and needs to be defeated in the next election. The TVC 2050 project guts the Wilshire Community Plan and makes a mockery of the Framework Element. A lawsuit needs to be filed, and you have to hope for a judge who is smart and follows the law. They are getting harder and harder to find lately.
But kudos to my friend Shelley Wagers and her article in CityWatch on TVC 2050. I was sick and had to skip the trip down to the CPC hearing, so I missed some old friends who made the trip. That was a who’s who of neighborhood activist who struggled to keep their neighborhoods viable for the last 30 or so years. The same neighborhoods these vultures now want to pick clean.
I can’t close without a shoutout to a couple of regular CityWatch contributors who are still in the fight and have inspired me to write a bit over the years. I have a great deal of respect for them, namely Tim Campbell, Jack Humphreville, Ken Alpern and Eliot Cohen. I also like some of the Westside Current and am constantly looking to get relevant information about our City and surrounding areas. Know of any send me a link.
(James O’Sullivan is the retired ex-president (25 years) and current ex-officio of the Miracle Mile Residential Association.)
