VOX POP--“Since I’ve been displaced, I’ve seen more people who weren’t here before. Where my house was before, now it’s a fancy condominium.” Caridad Vasquez is talking about the changes that have come upon her neighborhood in the years since Metro – Los Angeles’ transportation system – expanded its subway and light-rail services, and helped turn this working-class, traditionally Latino neighborhood into a desirable new destination for young professionals. She is a long-time street vendor and local resident of the Boyle Heights district of Los Angeles. Today, sitting in an office of the East LA Community Corporation, Vasquez is wearing short turquoise flannel pants, a “Legalize Street Vending” T-shirt and sneakers with pink laces, loosely tied and no socks.

Vasquez is a supporter of Build Better LA (BBLA), a ballot initiative (officially, Measure JJJ) crafted by a consortium of transportation advocates and neighborhood groups – including the Alliance for Community Transit-Los Angeles (ACT-LA), the land trust organization TRUST South LA, the tenants advocacy group Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) and the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance — along with the LA County Federation of  Labor and another union group, the Building Trades Council. The proposal emerged from a number of policy discussions from 2015 onwards, and was placed on the November ballot to take the steam out of a competing measure – now pushed back to March, 2017 – that would impose a two-year development moratorium in many areas, protecting old housing stock but doing nothing to alleviate the growing lack of access to affordable housing.

Since 2008 America’s second-largest city has embarked on a $40 billion, long-overdue drive to provide itself with a comprehensive public transit system. That system is made up of Metro’s subway, light rail and bus lines, and at long last it is becoming possible and easy to use mass transit to journey from the Pacific to the far eastern suburbs, and from Pasadena in the north to Long Beach far in the south. Yet one of the side effects of this transformation has been displacement of older, poor communities – ironically, the very demographic that most uses public transport — along these rapidly gentrifying corridors.

To attack the problem, BBLA presents two goals. The first is to provide a series of carrot-and-stick incentives to developers along transit corridors to include a large number of affordable housing units in their new developments. This would essentially refuse to allow the general plan amendments and zoning changes that are needed for almost any new large development, along transit routes, unless developers either build a percentage of units to be affordable, or pay into the city’s affordable housing trust fund so as to allow units to be built elsewhere.

It is a recognition of the reality that, despite LA moving toward a higher minimum wage, for many workers the cost of housing remains entirely prohibitive. According to attorney Doug Smith, of Public Counsel, a pro bono law firm that works with affordable housing advocates citywide, a higher percentage of L.A. residents are “rent burdened” – meaning that they are paying over 30 percent of their income on rent or on a mortgage — than any other large city residents in the United States.

“The fight in 2015 was to raise and enforce the wage in the city of L.A.,” says Rusty Hicks, executive secretary-treasurer of the County Federation of Labor. “But it became clear you also had to address issues connected to housing and housing affordability.”

BBLA’s second part, which is being pushed by Hicks and other allies in L.A.’s powerful unions, is a series of labor standards to ensure that workers on these projects are paid decently, come out of union apprenticeship programs, that at least 30 percent are local hires and that 10 percent have to be from disadvantaged communities – that are made up of nine criteria, including foster care youth, single mothers, veterans, the homeless and ex-prisoners.

“We’re making clear what the rules of the road are with regards to development,” Hicks says.

Supporters of BBLA calculate that had these rules been in place over the last few years during the city’s building boom, more than 5,500 affordable units would have been built along transit corridors between 2013 and 2015, and more than 11,000 good-paying construction jobs would have been generated. While these numbers are guesstimates, they are based on an analysis of the development projects that did go through during this time and an understanding of how different those projects would have been had they incorporated BBLA levels of affordable housing into their designs.

Despite some opposition from the Chamber of Commerce, from some tenants’ groups and from the Coalition to Preserve LA , the group behind the competing initiative, with less than a month to go before the election BBLA continues to poll strongly – internal numbers from the campaign suggest support in the 70 percent region, and most proponents are assuming that come next year it will be a core part of L.A.’s affordable housing strategy. In fact, so sure are developers that it will pass that at least some have apparently sought to push through city planning commission requests to approve development projects before November, as a way to get around the anticipated new affordable housing requirements.

City planning officials didn’t respond to repeated requests to comment on this, nor did they address advocates’ concerns that the commission will be holding more frequent, and longer, hearings between now and November in order to process more projects; but Kevin Keller, deputy director of city planning, acknowledges that it’s at least possible that the developers of some projects already close to the approval process finishing line may be trying to sneak in under the wire. “Regulatory changes often do create a little blip, a spike in filing,” he says.

Jill Stewart, campaign director of the Coalition to Preserve LA, argues that the developers actually don’t have much to lose should BBLA pass. “It sets up a series of backroom meetings between individual council members and the developer,” she argues, in explaining her group’s opposition. “All of whom give the council members campaign cash, and wine and dine them.”  It is, she believes, a bad deal for the city, one that would create what she calls “backroom deals on steroids” as a central part of the city’s development strategy. She also argues that the way the measure is worded it would, in fact, give developers plenty of leeway to argue that including affordable housing would unfairly limit their profits, and thus to wiggle out of their promises to provide such units on site. “It’s going to be a disaster. Over-building without affordable housing.”

Amongst housing activists in the city, however, Stewart’s stance is in the minority. Many groups argue strongly that the initiative is a far better way of bulking up the affordable housing stock than other plans that have been put forward in recent years.

Assuming Measure JJJ passes, and assuming that, despite the concerns of Stewart and others, its changes will indeed protect and expand affordable housing, it  won’t come too soon for Caridad Vasquez.

“For me, Boyle Heights is a very humble community,” Vasquez says.  She feels, fairly or not, that “Metro didn’t benefit this community.” She talks of soaring rents, of older buildings demolished and replaced by luxury apartments, of families who have had to move out, and of mom and pop businesses replaced by chain stores. “Right before the Metro came, there were a lot of rumors it would bring change, and a lot of us would be displaced. And the rumors came true.”

What has happened in Boyle Heights is occurring in Koreatown, in South Los Angeles, in Chinatown (along the route of a soon-to-be-expanded Gold Line Metro Rail) and in old communities nestled around the huge University of Southern California campus.

Transit advocates such as Laura Raymond, of the Alliance for Community Transit, estimate that 60 percent of new housing development in L.A. is now occurring near new Metro stations; and the great majority of this housing is unaffordable to low-income Angelenos.

In addition to promoting BBLA, city officials, affordable housing experts, labor unions, transportation advocates and neighborhood groups have been pushing rule changes around development to encourage an expansion of the city’s woefully inadequate affordable housing stock. Mayor Eric Garcetti recently announced a goal for the building of 100,000 more housing units in the city by 2021, of which at least 15,000 will be specifically earmarked as affordable to low-income renters. Los Angeles, explains the city planning department’s Keller, is using an array of zoning tools to incentivize mixed-income developments, “to really produce housing along our commercial corridors.” It’s a good start, but not nearly enough to meet the cascading need as both real estate values and rental prices continue to soar in the City of Dreams.

This is, after all, a crisis decades in the making. Since the Reagan years, the federal government has failed to build up a stock of new public housing. California’s redevelopment agencies, which were once major facilitators of public housing, no longer exist. And while in LA many existing rental units are rent-controlled, recent law changes and court rulings mean that new developments are not subject to such controls. Moreover, the statewide Costa-Hawkins law, passed in 1995, has prevented cities from limiting rents on newly vacated apartments, which has diluted the rent-controlled housing stock. And a legal ruling in a lawsuit filed against the city by one of the region’s leading developers, Geoffrey Palmer, also prohibits LA from mandating affordable housing set-asides in new developments.

As a result, the city’s affordable housing stock is crumbling in quality and, as older buildings are replaced by newer developments, also declining in quantity. All of this feeds into an affordable housing crisis of huge proportions, one that helps explain the city’s homelessness epidemic, the overcrowding seen in apartment buildings in poorer neighborhoods and the increased displacement of working-class residents to the far reaches of the megalopolis.

Alan Greenlee, executive director of the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing, quotes data produced by his members estimating the city has a shortfall of more than half a million affordable housing units. “Dang man,” he says in the organization’s fourth-floor offices in a Koreatown tower block, while explaining why he threw his organization’s support behind BBLA, despite some members’ concerns about the high costs of the initiative’s labor provisions. “That’s an emergency,” Greenlee says. “We’re at a break-the-glass-pull-the-fire-alarm kind of moment.”

Nati R’s (her last name has been withheld at her request) apartment, in South Los Angeles’ Trinity Park neighborhood, is a case study of the risks in play there for long-established residents.

For years, her building has been allowed to deteriorate, with disintegrating, damp walls, floors that periodically collapse in places, an elevator that frequently doesn’t work. For years, too, the streets surrounding the apartment block were home to gangs, to shootings, to what residents euphemistically term “activity.”

The trade-off for these abysmal conditions has been cheap rent for low-income residents who don’t have other options in the city. Nati shares the apartment, whose walls are covered with Mexican artwork, with her husband, her daughter and, at times, her son and his growing family.

Over the last few years, however, Nati and her neighbors have helped reclaim their streets, prettifying the local parks while working to tamp down the violence that for too long plagued their community.

Now, however, she fears that all of that hard work will, ultimately, benefit not her but newer, more affluent residents. Recently her building was, according to SAJE staffers, sold for $2.4 million, and apartments that used to rent for $850 are now going for $1,200. “The biggest fear,” she says in Spanish at her kitchen table, “is to be displaced, to be pushed out, to be left on the edges of the city where we don’t have our community. We make minimum wage. We can’t pay $1,000 rent.”

South of Downtown, at the Tuesday afternoon tenants’ clinic, run out of the SAJE offices that are adorned with banners from an array of tenants’ fights over the years, a middle-aged woman named Sonya tells the volunteer attorney about the eviction notice she received in early summer.

Sonya, who requested that only her first name be used, lives just two blocks west of the USC campus and the city’s Natural History Museum, in a one-bedroom, $850-per-month, rent-controlled apartment complex where long-time residents now find themselves competing with university faculty — who come onto the market with tens of thousands of dollars in housing subsidies given them by the university. Ostensibly, the reason the company that owns Sonya’s building wants her out is so that it can renovate the unit – even though, under the city’s Housing and Community Investment Department rules, that is not a legitimate reason to evict a tenant from a rent-controlled building. The SAJE people suspect that, in reality, the owners want her gone so that they can bring in a tenant who would pay a far higher rent.

The SAJE team and the attorney advise her not to vacate, that the eviction isn’t legal. Sonya, wearing glasses, her hair dyed brown, seems to breathe easier. She knows that at her stage in life, beginning anew isn’t something to take lightly. But then the SAJE team gently brings her down to earth. Be prepared, they warn her — the landlord will almost certainly try again, looking for another excuse to kick her out, looking for some other way to take advantage of the red-hot real estate markets created by the city’s investments in its transit corridors.

“The value of the investment in public transit is diminished if you’re driving transit users away,” argues Sandra McNeill of TRUST South LA, speaking in the group’s cluttered offices in a converted storefront church a couple miles from Downtown. “There’s a tremendous rationale to having a comprehensive policy in place.” With BBLA, she says, there’s finally a chance of stabilizing neighborhoods too long roiled by unconstrained real estate speculation. “We’re just doing what I think the city should have done a long time ago.”

(Sasha Abramsky writes for Capital and Main  … where this column was first posted.) All photos by Pandora Young

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ELECTION 2016--We all like a soap opera, don't we?  Well, this campaign season has been thrilled with antics, debauchery, and backroom sleaze.  But sooner or later, there are issues, and the host of financial issues and societal/moral issues MUST be addressed.

And YOU must address them.  YOU must address taxes, the economy, law and order, etc. 
Will the money be spent well?  Do we have a pension problem, in that we're now paying as much or more for retired state workers than current workers, with equivalent problems for the cities and counties of our state?  Do you think our taxes are at reasonable levels?

There are a lot of city, county, and state governmental hands in our faces, asking for money, money, and more money!  Our money.

Yet if things are better, with unemployment DOWN and the economy UP, then why so many hands in our faces?  There's an answer, but it's only acceptable to those willing to acknowledge the painful, awful, and ugly nature of economics:

This state has exported, if not shoved out, much of our middle class tax base, and replaced it with a two-tier system of very rich and very poor individuals.  And the cost of living is such that it's hard to know the difference between "lower middle class vs. poor" and "upper middle class vs. rich".  Good-bye TAX BASE, hello DEBT.

If you think that socialism, liberalism, and class warfare is just fine, and that the examples of Greece and Venezuela just doesn't apply to our city, county, and state, then vote "Yes" to all the tax hikes.  After all, it's not YOUR problem, is it?

Except that it is.  If you work for a small business and lose your job, any "Yes" votes on new taxes will simply be a result of taking a swing at "the man" and realizing you just punched yourself HARD in the mouth.  That taste in your mouth?  It's your own blood, not that sweet taste of victory (or if it is victory, then it's as futile a victory as any).

So here we go:

• City: This is painful for me, but I recommend a "NO" vote on Measure HHH, the $1.2 billion bond measure that is sponsored by one of my personal heroes (Mike Bonin). In large part, I oppose this measure by saying publicly what I hear privately from so many of my neighbors--the money won't be spent well, because most of LA's city government is NOT as kind or virtuous as Bonin.  Also, I don't want LA to be a homeless magnet.

I oppose the Build Better LA (Measure JJJ) and recommend a "NO" vote because while it has some "feel-good" features of minimum wages for workers and requiring Angelenos be hired as workers for development projects, the top-down approach to governmental requirements repeats the mistake that well-meant socialism always teaches: it doesn't work!!! 

This spring, vote in the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative instead!!!

Measure RRR:  Vote "YES".  It's reform, but only modest reform.  It's a start, though, yet woefully insufficient...yet something is better than nothing.

Measure SSS: Vote "NO".  Yes, LA Airport Police Officers deserve a good pension, but allowing them into the same unsustainable LA City police/fire department pension plan is just throwing more weight on a train that just can't be expected to move forward forever.
And speaking of trains...

• County:  Vote YES on Measure M--It's one of the most defined tax measures we have if not THE most defined measure, and its biggest detractors claim it doesn't go far enough. Yes, I am a "pro-train" guy, but had serious doubts about this measure until I realized how popular transportation still is for our county. And I very much do want ALL of our county to advocate for each of our regions' mobility.

This next one is also painful, because I absolutely LOVE parks and recreation!  Vote "NO" on Measure A because it's a "modest parcel tax" to maintain our parks, recreation centers, rivers and beaches.  Yet if it's a cause good enough for all of us, why is the middle class the one being asked to pay for it all?  I can't think of a better way to create a future draconian "Proposition 13-style" initiative than to keep smacking around homeowners--virtually none of them are in "1%".

• LA Community College District--this is an easy one: Vote "NO" on Measure CC. What the hell is that district doing, asking for more money when they burned through billions of dollars on scandal-plagued, often-subpar work? And what the hell would be OUR problem if we fed that beast more money at this time? 

...aaaaand it's now understood that time and space probably prevents me from addressing other issues (like the state measures) for now.  But educate yourselves! Ignore the Trump/Clinton soap opera long enough to focus on the city, county, and state issues that will really affect your lives!

And vote, darn it, vote!  Even if you hate the two main presidential candidates, the "down" races and measures are more critical and affect you, your paycheck, your family, and your neighborhood more than any presidential race.  Democracy is NOT for sissies, so dig in, do your research, and vote!

(Ken Alpern is 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  [email protected]. He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)

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DEEGAN ON LA-Many attempts have been made over the decades to empower the voice of communities, often with some success through Homeowner Associations (HOA.) That community voice was organized and amplified fifteen years ago with the creation, through Charter reform, of the Neighborhood Council (NC) system. There are now 96 NC’s with 1,800 board members, representing every area of the city, and there are also countless HOA’s ranging from coalitions of a few members to huge alliances of multiple HOAs. The NC’s often work closely with the HOA’s, and some even share board members. 

Every voice in these NCs and HOAs is important as the city experiences a growth spurt unseen since the end of World War II, when LA’s population exploded and the city went through massive densification. 

Post World War II, it became evident that Los Angeles was experiencing a population boom, and that the formerly quiet neighborhoods would expand, and outlying areas, such as the San Fernando Valley, would also grow. Homeowners began to voice concerns that their well-manicured and sometimes “non-inclusionary neighborhoods” (i.e. neighborhoods in which covenants and conditions, now illegal, were attached to land deeds spelling out “who” could own property) would either be invaded by growth or bypassed for attention as newer communities sprang up to house a growing population. 

In a reaction to this, city officials made a series of attempts over the next twenty-five years to empower communities, starting in the 1950s when the County Department of Community Services created “community coordinating councils” as a way to identify specific neighborhoods, in effect giving them a “pedigree” separate from the “new growth” areas. It also created a system to coordinate county services to those community councils. Significantly, those “councils” were not activist initiators of change, but rather, passive receptors of services who were not called on for advice. 

Following the Watts Riots of 1965, the school board created a system of “neighborhood advisory councils,” to serve as a platform for public calming and give voice to distressed communities after that epochal upheaval. This was more like a super-PTA than an advisory body. 

It was not until 1969 that there was any attempt to add teeth to the empowering of neighborhood communities when Mayor Sam Yorty tried to change the City Charter to create specific neighborhoods that would have what he called “elected neighbormen” to act as local governments. Not surprisingly, because this would cut into their jurisdictions, the City Council vetoed this. 

In 1977, City Planning Director Calvin Hamilton created thirty-five “citizens advisory committees” to be a type of participatory democracy to help develop community plans that would eventually become a new master plan for the city’s growth. The City Council retired the idea, and its originator, leaving a vacuum for how to deal with growth issues. That vacuum was filled by developers who began working directly with councilmembers to get what they wanted. 

The most successful scheme to encourage participatory involvement of communities in city government has been the Neighborhood Council system, now in its fifteenth year, now with 95 NC’s that come under the direction of the City’s Department of Neighborhood Empowerment. DONE is led by General Manager Grayce Liu on its mission of “leading the EmpowerLA team as they support Neighborhood Councils in engaging the community and make government more responsive to local needs.” 

What then is the difference between a homeowner’s association (HOA) and a Neighborhood Council (NC), if both are dedicated to advocating for their respective communities and often work in tandem to meet those goals? In a word: training. 

Every fall, EmpowerLA (the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment) hosts a Congress of Neighborhood Councils that focuses on training board members to be more expert in land use, transportation, public safety and a host of other topics, including many administrative trainings to help NC’s function. On Saturday, September 24, 2016, the annual Congress of Neighborhoods was in session at City Hall, where nearly 1,000 neighborhood council board members assembled. They met first in council chambers and then attended a series of workshops that focused on specific community issues as well as topics addressing how to administratively run an NC. 

The very well attended workshops included “Meet Your City Officials,” “Planning and Land Use 101 and 102,” “How To Make A Difference at City Hall (Lobby Like a Pro),” “Community Partnerships for Better Outcomes,” “Unlocking the Traffic Grid,” “Public Safety in LA,” “The Future of the Neighborhood Council Movement,” “Code Enforcement-Solving Code Violation Problems,” “Persuasion in a Nutshell,” “LA 2040-Our City, Our General Plan, Our Future,” and “Emergency Preparedness.” 

While advisory only, NC board members are elected in City Clerk-run elections, and must meet the same kind of ethics and financial training standards as all city employees. Workshops like “Ethics,” “Leadership Skills,” “Parliamentary Procedures,” “How to Run a Successful Meeting,” “NC’s and the City Attorney's Office,” “Outreach and Events,” and “Board Basics 101,” all provided a basic training curriculum to strengthen the skills of NC board members. 

What differentiates the two groups (NC’s and HOA’s) is the holistic approach to neighborhood and community concerns taken by the NCs -- they look at the bigger community picture with multiple issues that go beyond the traditional concerns of preserving property values. (That’s how HOAs started and it’s still a valuable function of these organizations that often do additional helpful work for their members.) The workshops at the Congress provide valuable training and tools to people who are newly empowered (through election by their community to board seats) but arrive in office often unprepared to deal with the complicated details of land use, public safety, transportation, and education issues. Votes can be squandered by board members who do not take the time to be trained -- one of the truly great advantages of attending the Congress. 

The Congress this year was a success. According to Cindy Cleghorn, Chair of the Neighborhood Council Congress 2016, “…803 registrations and 150 walk-ins signed in. Attendance exceeded 850 throughout the day. Most all workshops were at capacity. This is the sixth consecutive Congress for NCs. There have been others but not consistent. We are anxious for feedback and making the NC Congress better each year.” 

Empower LA General Manager Grayce Liu added, "I love the Congress of Neighborhoods because it brings together all of our amazing Neighborhood Council volunteers across the City to share their successes and to learn how to overcome the obstacles they are facing in their work. It is this type of collaboration that has made LA's Neighborhood Council system so successful and is a big part of the reason why we'll still be here to celebrate the 15th year anniversary for the first Neighborhood Councils in December." 

Looking at the arc of the past six decades since WWII, and the various attempts to bring communities to the table, it’s apparent that having a seat is not the same as having a voice. Having a voice is not the same as having a trained voice. This is the critical advancement of the NC system: it brings professionalism to bear. 

What can you do? Start attending your Neighborhood Council meetings and make public comment. Join a board committee as a stakeholder. Run for a board seat. And become one of the people in the community with the loudest, trained voice.

(Tim Deegan is a long-time resident and community leader in the Miracle Mile, who has served as board chair at the Mid City West Community Council and on the board of the Miracle Mile Civic Coalition. Tim can be reached at [email protected].) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

HOW IT’S DONE AT CITY HALL--Is the so-called Neighborhood Integrity Initiative really something to be feared?

I think it could be a great advancement for the city of Los Angeles. But business people seem to view the possibility that it will pass in the March 7 election with much the same kind of dread that 14th century Europeans looked upon the arrival of the bubonic plague in the nearby village.

At least, at a Sept. 22 politically oriented luncheon held by the Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce, denunciations of the initiative got hearty applause, such as when Los Angeles City Councilmember Nury Martinez said, “This initiative is dangerous.”

What’s more, what’s been called the broadest coalition in LA history to fight an initiative has formed to oppose the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative. It is made up of chambers of commerce, developers and other business interests, but also labor groups, affordable housing proponents, a few city councilmembers and others. Billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad is among the contributors.

Yes, lots of folks – not just business people – hate the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative.

Why the wrath? It’s mainly because the initiative calls for a two-year moratorium on most major construction in the city of Los Angeles. Well, either two years or until the city updates its general zoning plan, whichever comes first. Opponents say it is nigh onto impossible to accomplish such a mammoth task in less than two years. So, realistically, construction will seize up for that span.

Opponents also imply that the entire initiative is cynical because it was started and bankrolled out of self-interest by Michael Weinstein, the head of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and an unrepentant gadfly. (He’s the guy behind the successful initiative requiring condoms on porn movie sets.) Weinstein is irked because the 28-story Palladium Residences towers are going up next to his Hollywood office, blocking the view from his 21st floor window, and that makes his new initiative a selfish and petulant attack against the city, some believe.

Well, maybe so. But Weinstein experienced the same fury and frustration that thousands of powerless Angelenos feel when they wake up one morning to see a tower under construction next door on land that wasn’t supposed to allow such structures. If they investigate, they likely discover that – surprise! – a deal was cut in City Hall.

Indeed, that’s how development is done in Los Angeles. Deals are cut, one by one, in City Hall. Since the city’s zoning map is woefully outdated (intentionally so, the initiative’s backers claim), that means developers must get a variance, an exception to the zoning code, whenever they want to build much of anything substantive. To get that variance – guess what? – they must schmooze the appropriate city councilmember to get his or her sign-off. Weinstein’s group claims city councilmembers and the mayor have gotten $6 million from developers since 2000, and that’s just in campaign contributions. Has anything other than campaign contributions been forked over? Well, I’ll leave that up to you to guess.

By the way, if a business did what the city is doing, that business could be charged with running an extortion racket. And rightfully so.

I agree with the proponents in this regard: The city must be forced, bludgeoned if necessary, to meaningfully update its zoning codes. It needs to come up with a realistic and transparent set of rules to guide what kind of city we want built. That way, citizens and businesses would be forewarned about the type and scale of development that may go up around them. And once the codes are set and understood – and provided they are realistic – developers could simply get routine permits and wave to the elected folks as they walk by their offices. They would no longer have to stop and pay, ahem, homage.

Sorry to be cynical, but this points out why several city councilmembers hate the initiative. If it passes, it would derail their gravy train.

Having said all that, I agree with the initiative’s opponents in this regard: That two-year moratorium is a killer. It is simply unrealistic to presume a meaningful general plan and all that goes with it (think public hearings in every neighborhood) can be done quickly. As a result, we would be stuck with a two-year hiatus for most construction throughout Los Angeles, and that makes the initiative lethally flawed.

Doesn’t this feel like prime time for a compromise? A statesman is needed to come forward. (Former Mayor Richard Riordan, who supports the initiative, pops to mind, but surely there are other candidates.) Someone needs to work with the Weinstein group to help them achieve their goals but not with that two-year prohibition on construction. Perhaps there can be a waiting period of two or three years before the hammer of that punitive construction moratorium comes down, which would provide time and a deadline for the city to come up with a new general plan. Call it a moratorium for the moratorium if you wish, but a compromise of some type is needed.

If that type of solution were figured out, then we’d have the chance to achieve something truly meaningful: a transparent general plan that creates rational building patterns and doesn’t virtually require a shakedown of developers. And it could be done without a two-year construction moratorium.

That would be something not to be feared by businesses. Indeed, it would be embraced by the grateful arms of a relieved city.

(Charles Crumpley is editor of the Los Angeles Business Journal. This perspective was posted most recently at Fox and Hounds.) 

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POLITICS-Even before the Washington Post reported the videotape revealing Donald Trump’s lewd comments about women, the Republican candidate was proving to be an anchor weighing down Republicans in California. Campaign pollsters say that Republicans running for assembly and senate seats that were doing well suffered a drop in numbers after a barrage of negative hit pieces tying them to Trump—whether the local candidate supported Trump or not.

Post debate, it appears many Republican voters will hang with Trump despite Trump’s braggadocio on the videotape. According to a Politico Poll taken after the tape was made public (but before the debate), Republican voters that supported Trump were sticking by him. The debate won’t change that. In fact, his debate performance might have lessened the bleeding his campaign was experiencing among some Republicans. 

The attacks and counter punches were there last night. Hillary Clinton was either the devil (according to Trump) or acting like Abe Lincoln (according to Clinton.) But its unlikely few minds were changed by the debate performances.

In California there are fewer and fewer Republicans as the latest figures from the Secretary of State’s office reveals. While a number of Republicans stick with Trump, it is less certain that independent voters will come his way and that could hurt down-ticket Republicans even if, as Congressional candidate Scott Jones has done, candidates announce they will not vote for Trump.

Of course, the Trump tape is not the first time that sexual misconduct has been an issue in a presidential campaign.

Go back to the beginning of the Republic when disaffected Thomas Jefferson supporter turned political journalist, James T. Callender, put in print the long rumored story that Jefferson had several children with a slave named Sally.

Another episode was Grover Cleveland’s child out of wedlock and the tale concocted by his aides to put the blame on the child’s mother. And, of course, more recently, there was Bill Clinton’s history that Trump brought up during the debate and with his pre-debate press conference featuring some of Bill Clinton’s accusers.

It should be noted that all three candidates painted with the brush of scandal won the White House.

Tying down-ticket Republican candidates to Trump in deep blue California could well lead to supermajorities for the Democrats in both houses of the state legislature. Could Trump’s anchor bring the number of Democrats to a large enough supermajority to offset some moderate Democrats abandoning legislative leaders on certain issues?

Turnout is the key. If this latest episode with Trump solidifies Clinton’s standing through Election Day, her California supporters may see no need to vote, which would help down-ticket Republicans. Or could the revelation that Hillary Clinton is speaking out of both sides of her mouth on issues important to Bernie Sanders progressives reduce the Democratic vote in California? Both scenarios could counter the Trump anchor effect that has shown up in state polling.

(Joel Fox is the Editor of Fox & Hounds  … where this perspective was first posted … and President of the Small Business Action Committee.)

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SKID ROW- “Bad math,” “bad leadership” and “bad direction” or “BBB” is how Angelenos should respond to Measure HHH. 

“Bad math” because with Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s Homeless Count of almost 50,000 homeless individuals in LA County, why would voters generate 1.2 billion dollars to house only 10,000, leaving a whopping 40,000 all over our streets and still visibly present throughout our communities? Over a billion dollars to support a so-called solution that only accounts for one fifth of all the homeless, leaving four fifths stranded on the street? All this with no follow-up solutions in place? Wow. 

THE PLANNING REPORT-“Metrolink moves a lot of folks in Southern California -- 60 percent of them across county lines.” -- Art Leahy 

In April 2015, Arthur Leahy assumed leadership of Metrolink, Southern California's second-busiest transit provider based on passenger miles. Leahy, a longtime regional public transportation leader, took the reigns of an agency with serious issues of declining ridership and financial transparency. Speaking to the Transit Coalition in late August, Leahy provided an overview of his priorities at Metrolink as he looks to lead the regional transportation agency into a new era of ridership. He spoke about his efforts to recruit young talent, find common-sense solutions to fiscal and organizational hurdles, and rebrand Metrolink as the region’s most effective way to cut freeway congestion. 

TPR is pleased to present an excerpt of Leahy's remarks.  

Art Leahy: “When I came to Metrolink, not only did we have a board that was ready to break up, but within the management staff, we had a culture of avoidance, deferral, and concealment or denial. 

“Let me tell a few anecdotes to illustrate the culture in the organization at that time. 

“I remember once, the then-CFO wrote a board report that was devoid of content. When I asked him why he didn’t include more real content, his answer was: ‘If we do, they’ll just ask more questions.’ 

“That’s exactly backward. Another time, shortly after I arrived, we were about to rehab a bunch of old locomotives. I realized that in the long run, it would be cheaper to buy new ones that had better fuel economy, higher horsepower, and lower emissions. On every dimension, it made more sense to buy new ones.  

“But when I went to fellow who had made the decision and said, ‘It makes more sense to buy new ones,’ he said, ‘I know -- but the advisory committee said not to.’ I said to him, ‘We must make the business case. We must talk about dollars and cents and outcomes and results. We cannot make recommendations based on this person liking it and that person not liking it.’ In a matter of a couple months, we had all five counties in line to buy new locomotives. 

“Now, we’re rebuilding the organization for the future. We have a new deputy CEO, new deputy COO, new communications director, new chief financial officer, new government affairs manager, and other new leaders. These folks are all very smart and very committed, and we’re going to focus on the classic values of safety and service.  

“We’re very pleased to be among the first in the country to have positive train control (PTC), which we’ve had in effect for about 14 months. We’re working closely with the Federal Railroad Administration on that. We’re also among the first in the world to have Tier 4 locomotives. We recently got our first one; it’s in testing. I look forward to beginning to release the rest in a month or two. We’ve done a great deal of work on our locomotives, and the old ones are in the process of being replaced over the next year or two. 

“In the 16 months I’ve been here, one of our tasks has been to rebuild our relationships with the five counties. In the past, we were not forthcoming with them. But they are the stockholders; they pay the bills. And if we’re not honest with them, they’re not going to trust us. It’s okay to make a mistake, but we have to confront it, we have to tell the counties and the Board, and we have to fix it. A year and a half ago, we could not give our county stakeholders any financial reports on expenditures, accounts receivable, accounts payable, etc. You can imagine the level of distrust that this created. 

“Now, we’re doing regular financials. Our new CFO talks to the county CFOs and the technical advisory committee. Our financial situation has improved significantly, including our reserves. There’s no rocket science here: We’re talking to the stakeholders about our status and accomplishments.

The JPA with the counties is now much stronger. We still have some issues to work out, but we’re not in crisis; we’re making progress on it. 

“Another area where we’ve had big issues in making progress is project delivery and keeping projects on schedule. Metro, our major funder, has had a great deal of concern about this. They wanted to know: “Why are we giving you more money for projects when you haven’t delivered the old projects?” Fair enough; it’s hard to argue with that. But I’m pleased to say that we’re making some progress, and have also become more forthright in communicating with the Metro Board. 

“I do want to comment on the Raymer to Bernson Double Track -- a double-tracking project in the San Fernando Valley. Everything that was said is accurate about a small group of people blocking the track. I think the messaging done by Metro was perhaps more. Metro’s justification for the project was that it would allow them to carry additional trains. The neighborhood’s not crazy about that. The bulk of the area along that line going out to Chatsworth is industrial and commercial. There’s one short segment that’s residential. If there’s one area that might be sensitive, it’s right there. Now, we’re going back to Metro and trying to figure out how to reinvigorate this discussion. We’re having a parallel discussion on the San Bernardino line. Much of that line is single-track. As a consequence, the on-time performance is not very good. 

“We’re not trying to do double-tracking in order to increase capacity. We want to do it so that we can reduce the time that trains have to stand idly while they’re waiting for another train to pass. In this case, there is a community benefit to double-tracking. And if we link double-tracking to quiet zones, and maybe sound walls, we can begin to put together a partnership among Metro, Metrolink, and the host cities. 

“We had an issue with the joint powers authority with the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor (LOSSAN). I was back in Orange County 12 or 13 years ago when the idea of empowering the LOSSAN board occurred to me. I was in Oceanside, and I saw a Metrolink train and a COASTER train standing right next to each other, both waiting to depart with their engines running. As I’m sure you know, buses, trains, and airplanes cost money by the minute. To have two trains standing there while they reverse directions is just not a good use of public resources. The real charge of LOSSAN should be to generate synergy among Metrolink, Amtrak, and COASTER commuter trains. 

“Citizens could care less about the difference between Metrolink and Amtrak. All they want to do is get where they’re going. To have institutional rivalries between two organizations is not productive from the taxpayer’s point of view. 

“This is particularly acute because the taxpayers of California pay for the Amtrak services, and the taxpayers of Southern California pay for the Metrolink service. In other words, it’s the same people. We ought to be creating synergy among one another, not rivalry and competition. That synergy manifests itself in our customer experience. For example, I think our Metrolink service shuts down way too early. Here we are, the second biggest city in the country, with plays and concerts, and the train shuts down so early you can’t even go to a Dodger game. I hope to work with LOSSAN and the counties to get later-night train service. 

“I was COO when Metro opened the Blue Line back in 1990, and I learned a good lesson about later-night train service. Because construction was not yet done when the line opened, the last southbound departure was at around 7:00 in the evening. That train was always dead, but all the trains before it were very busy. When we added an 8:00 train, it was dead -- but the 7:00 pm train got busy. And when we opened up the 9:00 train, the 8:00 train got busy. The lesson is this: The last train is the insurance train. If we open later-night service, we’ll get more riders on the earlier trains. 

“We have an issue with maintenance of our track.  

“There are significant segments of the track that have not been maintained properly. There are ties that are rotting, there is some track that is worn on curves that needs to be replaced, and there are some short bridges that need some work. We’re redoing our messaging to the counties so that we can show in detail what we need.  

“At the moment, our engineers will come forward and say, ‘We need to place some ties between Milepost 12 and Milepost 19 on the Antelope Valley line.’ As accurate as it may be, it sounds like these areas are distant and irrelevant to daily life. 

“I’m telling them, ‘Say something like: Between Burbank Airport and Van Nuys, the ties are no good! Show them photographs and take them out there to look at it, tell them what you’re going to do, and tell them what it’s going to cost. You have to put some meat on the bones. “Milepost 12” doesn’t mean a thing to anybody except us.’ I’m critical of our overall messaging as well -- how we’ve described our role and our benefit to the region, and how we’re positioned in the market. 

“For example, we say, ‘We carry 403,000 people a day.’ Metro says, ‘Well, we carry a million and a half.’ It’s easy to see that Metrolink’s ridership is very small. Now, we’re trying to re-message that. We’re positioning Metrolink in the region to show why it’s a good investment and what the benefits are. Our conclusion is that Metrolink is the best investment to reduce traffic and clean the air. 

“It’s true that in boardings, our ridership is small. But our trip length is 10-15 times longer than other agencies. In terms of passenger miles, we’re one of the busiest carriers in SoCal -- after Metro, but ahead of Riverside and Orange Co. combined. Metrolink moves a lot of folks in SoCal -- 60 percent across county lines. 

“Another benefit is that Metrolink takes cars off the road. The demographics of Metrolink riders are different from bus riders or Metro train riders: Their per capita income is higher. While many Metro and CTA riders are transit-dependent, Metrolink riders, more often than not, have access to cars. What this means is that almost on a one-to-one basis, a Metrolink passenger is a car off the freeway. 

“Metrolink relieves the 5, the 91, the 60, the 10, the 134, the Hollywood, and more. Our fare-box return is higher than other transit agencies in the area, at about 43 percent. Metro’s is 25 percent -- and dropping -- and so is OCTA’s. This is powerful: Because our fares are high, and our trips are long, our subsidy per passenger mile is the second lowest of any carriers in Southern California. It’s cheaper by far than Metro’s or OCTA’s. (AVTA runs express buses on the freeway, so theirs is very low.) In other words, Metrolink is the best investment. 

“I’ll close by talking about the need for new people at Metrolink. I’m seeking to hire people who are very intense, very intelligent, and very willing to learn and understand the railroad business, as well as Southern California. I very strongly hope that, in a few years, somebody who works at Metrolink will succeed me, so that they understand the service area, the service requirements, and the politics and the complex issues that we have to deal with. At Metrolink, in addition to addressing the right-now problems of budgets and maintenance and things like that, we’re building an organization.” 

Audience Question: “Driverless technology is developing much more rapidly than analysts expected. Uber is going to have a fleet of driverless cars in the next few months. Elon Musk says he’ll have them by 2019. That’s going to be quite a disruptive new element to public transportation, given that a lot of these will be cars on-demand. Do you figure this eventuality into your strategies?” 

Art Leahy: “We are working on agreements with Lyft and Uber. Union Station is a major destination for people taking Lyft -- and they’re coming to take Metrolink or Amtrak. They won’t take Lyft or Uber 80 miles, but they’ll take it five miles to get to the train station, which can take them 80 miles for a fraction of the cost. I think the disruption will be a bigger issue for shorter-distance carriers; it’s a market niche. We had some objections on the Metrolink Board to such an agreement, but I think we’ll get past them. These things are happening; we’ve got to get used to it. Our executive staff needs to understand the business. The business is not in the headquarters building; the business is out in the field. And you’ve got to get out there and see it. That’s why about once a month, Metrolink has an executive staff meeting on a train.  

“That happens to be fun, but there’s a dismal aspect to this, as well: I’ve told our deputy CEO that she must visit some scenes of fatal accidents. I said, ‘I’m sorry for saying that to you, but you have to understand that safety is not just a technical or financial issue. When you see what happens -- the awful consequences of one moment of bad decision-making -- you become a believer in safety.’ The first fatal I had to go to was in 1981 -- 35 years ago -- off of York and Armadale in Highland Park. I can still see it. But if you’re going to be in transit, you’ve got to understand profoundly how committed you must be to safety.” 

(The Planning Report is published by Abel and Associates. This piece appeared in the September 2016 issue.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

ELECTION 2016--After seeing the last presidential debate and witnessing the last 48 hours of insanity and hypocrisy take over the nation with respect to "who owes whom an apology", it struck me that--in a different but very real way--this traffic-plagued, overtaxed County of the Angels has been harmed not only by past misdeeds but by the need to dwell on them.

I won't get into any presidential politics (not now, at least), but I will say that there are times to talk, and to debate, and to apologize, and then there are times to ACT:

1) There are a few reasons why, until recently, I was on the fence for Measure M--but no longer.  In a nutshell, the ultimate factor in my decision was the amazingly popular response and increase in ridership from the far-flung Westside and San Gabriel Valley regions, which now each have their own light rail lines.

2) The openings of these lines were followed by a loud outcry from the San Fernando Valley and South Bay Cities about how long it would take for them to get an Orange Busway-to-Rail Line conversion and a South Bay Green Line Extension.

3) And I learned from attending key Eastside Light Rail meetings that those regions wanted inclusion into the Metro Rail Network.  Apparently, ditto for the Southeast Los Angeles Cities.

It is certainly easier (and tempting!) to tell the civic leaders of the San Fernando Valley, South Bay, and Southeast Cities that they OWE their own constituents and the rest of the county a bevy of apologies for their misbehavior:

1) After  witnessing the cowardice of the political leaders of the San Fernando Valley fail to repeal the Robbins Bill, and allow the Orange Line to be built as a light rail the first time, it would be tempting--yet self-defeating--to tell that region to go pound sand.

2) After witnessing how a few small-minded South Bay leaders (and they know who they are!) obstruct and prevent the South Bay Green Line Extension from being prioritized for years, it would be tempting--yet self-defeating--to "punish" and tell that region to wait.

3) Aftering witnessing how a few conflicted Southeast/Gateway Cities leaders (conflicted as in ambivalent, while others were conflicted as in conflicts of interest) led their region on a quixotic quest to make the Santa Ana Rail Right of Way a MagLev high speed rail line, it would also be tempting--yet self-defeating--to "punish" that region and making them wait.

Because it's the old adage of "when you point one finger at someone else, there are three fingers pointing back at you".  

Because there is plenty of baggage and bad history with the Expo Line and Gold Line Construction Authorities...and their leaders are so guilty of past bad behavior that whether it's human nature, the nature of politics, or just dumb luck that the Mid-City, Westside, and San Fernando Valley got their rail lines first, it's pointless to trot out old regional missteps.

Because we have a Metro Long Range Transportation Plan that ranks the different rail lines (and freeway projects, too!!!) in terms of cost-effectiveness, and that is only tangentially related to Measure M, the half-cent sales tax which extends funding for transportation for decades to come.

If Measure M is to be passed Tuesday, November 8th, then it is entirely reasonable and appropriate to demand that certain battles and changes take place on Wednesday, November 9th:

1) For example, I very much DO want the Orange Line Busway to be converted into a light rail...and sooner, not later.  And I am not alone.

2) I very much DO want a South Bay Green Line Extension to Torrance, with a Major Investment Study, to boot, of linking the Green Line to San Pedro and the Blue Line.  And I am not alone.

3) I very much DO want a Southeast/Gateway Cities rail line to connect that portion of the county with the Green Line and Union Station, with a Major Investment Study, to boot, of revisiting the Green Line Eastern Extension to the Norwalk Metrolink Station. And I am not alone.

In my last CityWatch article, I mentioned a "domino effect" of regions wanting "in" to the budding county passenger rail network that would be established once Metro Rail connected to LAX, and once the MetroRail system became a logical network with the Downtown Light Rail Connector.

Well, that's going to happen by 2022-24.  Perhaps it's the Olympics bid, perhaps it's a host of other factors, but that's going to happen.

But the system established by the Metro Long Range Transportation Plan requires a hard, tough prioritizing of projects that forces the regions of our large and balkanized county to work together.  In other words, if YOU want something for YOUR region, you had better be prepared to put up your dukes for the other regions' projects.

Because until those higher-ranked projects have to be paid for before YOUR project will be properly funded and constructed.

Right now we've got major parts of the county (particularly from the south and east) who want their own rail lines, and their major complaint about Measure M is that it doesn't go FAR enough to guarantee and expedite each region's rail lines.

Which sounds like there are quite a few battles and changes to be made on November 9th...but they can ONLY be fought until Measure M passes!

So while it would certainly be a fine and timely idea to have Mayor Garcetti, Westside Councilmember Mike Bonin, and other Metro leaders demand an expedited South Bay Cities Green Line, and an expedited Southeast Cities Light Rail Line ...

... and while it would certainly be a fine and timely idea to make those two rail lines a major talking point in the Hahn/Napolitano county supervisor race...

... it behooves our county to pass Measure M and let old screwups remain in the irrelevant dustbin of past failed ideas and misguided efforts.

... and on the day AFTER a passed Measure M, we can ALL put up our dukes together to demand federal and state matching grants to build the rest of our countywide rail network, after we've shown Washington,DC and Sacramento that we're willing to put our money where our collective mouth is.

(Ken Alpern is 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  [email protected]. He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)

-cw

EDUCATION POLITICS-Joe Mathews of KCRW's Zocalo thinks so. I listened to Mathews complain about California's new accountability plan today on Los Angeles' NPR affiliate. He said the new program, which gives feedback on multiple measures rather than API, is confusing and lacks coherence. 

He's missing the purpose of this shift. 

“People want simplicity (that test scores provide) but simplicity hasn’t gotten us very far,” said former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Bill Honig, in an Edsource interview.  “We really have to look at the breadth of what is going on.” 

If we encourage parents to choose a school based on a Yelp-like rating, we're encouraging a superficial look -- usually based on test scores. 

The new accountability plan aims to give parents a picture of many aspects of a school. That's important, because more and more research shows that test scores are a result of a lot that is beyond a school's control. 

Encouraging parents to look at the many aspects of the school is a good thing. 

Through most of the years of my children's education, schools were reduced to a single number. That meant that schools that were well-resourced, with students who were well supported at home and easy to teach, scored high, while those schools that served needier students scored lower.

Should I look only at schools with one type of student? No. Diversity is better than division.

Walgrove Elementary school in my neighborhood of Venice has had a stellar special education program whose families are embraced by the whole school community. It's a large part of the culture of the school. Consequently, special ed students come from all over. But this impacted the school's overall test scores for a while, making it look like there was a problem. One parent tried repeatedly to get the rating website GreatSchools.org to broaden its criteria, to no avail. I told LA Times columnist Steve Lopez about it, hoping he'd write about it. But he found it hard to believe that many parents really picked schools based on online ratings. (Isn't that almost sweet?) 

The new accountability plan gives a school like this a better chance of continuing to do its good work because it provides some context to parents. 

There's another reason the broader focus is better. The obsession with test scores pushed too many schools to narrow class offerings to what is tested. 

We want to help parents navigate, but we don't want to be overly simplistic. It's important we get it right, too. 

"All across the country people are paying attention to what California is doing,” Stanford's Linda Darling-Hammond recently said. 

What do you think? You can leave comments on Joe Mathew's story here: KCRW Zocalo. 

(Karen Wolfe is a public school parent, the Executive Director of PS Connect and an occasional contributor to CityWatch.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

THE VIEW FROM MID CITY--Herb Wesson, the man who would be king, recently appointed himself Councilman of District 7 in the San Fernando Valley (17 miles north of his home in CD10) after Councilman Felipe Fuentes stepped down to become a lobbyist for the Associated General Contractors of California. Wesson loves to bend rules but may have gone too far with this one. 

A CityWatch article by Eric and Joshua Preven reports that "according to Section 407, [of the City Charter] only individuals who live in the district are eligible to fill the seat. The Charter also makes clear that appointments are not made by the Mayor or Council President but by the Council as a whole." 

Typically someone from the chief legislative analysts office would step in to run things until the March election but ever mindful of what it takes to "move on up" Herb grabbed control of the district rather than follow the City Charter requirements. Why? Doesn't he have enough responsibilities handling Council District 10 AND Council President? 

One scenario has it that when and if Garcetti is re-elected he may leave midterm in 2018 to run for Governor. In this case, the Council President (Wesson) steps in to complete the term. Becoming mayor in this easy slide to power puts him in a very favorable position to run for re-election as an incumbent mayor. Incumbents are typically difficult to unseat. Herb is very good at avoiding truly competitive elections. So this little power grab is seen by some as a way to ingratiate himself with the valley folk in preparation for an eventual run at Mayor when he fights for a second term. Why else would he want the job? Well ... maybe it's because he needs the money. 

Daniel Guss writes in CityWatch about Wesson's inability to meet his mortgage obligations many times over. The article clearly exposes a critical weakness in Wesson's thinking and a financial management style that raises serious concerns about his ability to control the city. 

With one of the top government salaries in the country and income from rental property why can't he make his mortgages? Why does he keep defaulting and more importantly, who keeps bailing him out? 

It appears as if one of his favorite political strategies has been the concept of being “beholding”. If he is considered a top power player in our city, isn't it important for us to know if he is beholding to anyone? 

Even better why not just start playing by the rules and follow the City Charter and let a new leader be legally appointed, take a step back and start focusing on his own district.   He could start by visiting small local businesses and asking what he could do to help. Something he hasn't done in 8 years in the district.

(Dianne V. Lawrence Is publisher and editor of THE NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS … founded in 2008 to cover the events, people, history, politics and historic architecture of communities throughout the Mid-City and West Adams area in Los Angeles Council District 10. She is an important voice in her community and will soon help launch a new online section in CityWatch: Neighborhood Politics.)

-CW

@THE GUSS REPORT-According to voter registration records, Herb Wesson, the current Los Angeles City Council president, may have voted illegally for up to 11½ years between November 1993 and June 2005 by providing false address information -- and confirming that false information -- each time he voted. Whether the LA County District Attorney Jackie Lacey’s Public Integrity Division gives him a James Comey/Hillary Clinton free pass remains to be seen.

RX FOR DRUG PRICES-Despite all the disgust with pharmaceutical price gouging and the public shaming of CEOs like Heather Bresch of EpiPen infamy and “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli, we’ve yet to see any concrete steps to actually cut drug prices. 

Now California voters can take matters, and their health, into their own hands – and set a national model by passing Proposition 61 in November. 

"Since 2008, the price of brand name drugs has risen by 164 percent." 

Writing for the industry website PharmExec.com Tom Norton branded California “Ground Zero” for their perennial war to protect their windfall profits. The initiative, he frets, “would establish an incredibly deep, mandatory discount … for the public purchase of prescription drugs in America’s largest state.” 

That could happen through a simple approach taken by Prop. 61 – adapting a price cut to the one public agency that has full federal authority to demand lower prices, the Department of Veteran Affairs. 

Prop. 61 would direct California to pay no more for medications for patients it covers through state health programs than the prices paid by the DVA, which could cut prices for those patients by up to 40 percent – and save the state billions of dollars in drug purchases. 

To head off that nightmare for the drug profiteers, the industry is pouring money up to $100 million into California to flood the airways and social media with a misleading campaign of deceit and scare tactics. 

At the heart of the fear mongering, and their brass knuckles campaign, is a threat that drug prices for veterans will jump if Prop. 61 passes. 

Steve Dunwoody for Vote Vets- Yes on Prop 61 from National Nurses United on Vimeo. 

Except for one fact. Federal law requires substantial discounts in drugs sold to the VA, and the drug companies will not be able to increase out of pocket costs for veterans no matter how much they try to retaliate for Prop. 61.  

“People need to see beyond the deception of those saying it will hurt veterans, it won’t,” says Iraq war veteran Steve Dunwoody. 

What the industry and those held in its thrall refuse to acknowledge is the crisis that nurses and patients see every day as a result of skyrocketing drug prices. 

"Why are our elected leaders unwilling to act?" 

Families who say they can’t afford the co-pays for the medications their children need to continue treatment for illnesses like leukemia and face becoming homeless or giving up other basic necessities to care for their child.  While the price of a drug like Gleevac, for leukemia patients, has shot up from $26,400 for an annual treatment regimen in 2001 to $120,000 today. 

Diabetic patients admitted to the hospital with elevated blood glucose levels because they couldn’t fill their medications while insulin prices have doubled and tripled in price. A diabetic who rations insulin can suffer organ damage, blindness, loss of limbs, heart attacks or strokes. 

Coronary patients with heart stents who can’t afford the follow up drugs to prevent blood clots in the new stent who come back to the ER with chest pain, if they don’t die from a heart attack or stroke before getting back to the hospital. 

Opponents of Prop. 61 suggest waiting until lawmakers in Washington or Sacramento set limits on the drug pirates. We might as well wait until the sun sets in the east. 

Congress has repeatedly blocked legislation to permit Medicare to negotiate bulk discounts, the way virtually every other country uses the power of government to curb the price gouging, or to allow patients to buy cheaper drugs from Canada. 

Why are our elected leaders unwilling to act? 

Since 1998, the pharmaceutical industry has spent $3.4 billion in federal lobbying, nearly twice as much as even that other behemoth the oil and gas industry. In 2015 alone, the pharmaceutical industry employed 1,400 federal lobbyists, nearly enough to assign three lobbyists to every member of Congress. 

The drug giants are also lavish spenders in elections. Since 1990, it has handed out $340 million in campaign cash to candidates for Congress. 

In California, even with substantial Democratic majorities, pharmaceutical lobbyists successfully buried two bills this year, SB 1010 and AB 463, both of which would have just provided more transparency on charges without even cutting prices. 

Big Pharma spends big in California to intimidate lawmakers as well, $75 million on lobbying and $17 million on contributions for candidates to state offices since 2000. 

The result of all this influence peddling has been a green light for the industry to charge whatever it wants. Since 2008, the price of brand name drugs has risen by 164 percent.  

Bernie Says Yes on California's Prop. 61 from National Nurses United on Vimeo.  

Everyone has heard of EpiPen, with its 500 percent increase for a two pack of a longtime family staple to deliver epinephrine to block potentially fatal allergic reactions to peanuts, shellfish or bee stings. 

But EpiPen is hardly an outlier. 

One of the most notorious is Sovaldi, the breakthrough drug for people struggling with hepatitis C. But maker Gilead charges $1,000 a pill or $84,000 for a 12-week treatment course, so much that it has threatened to bankrupt public programs which now commonly ration the drug. 

Those who don’t get Sovaldi “can die some of the worse deaths I’ve ever seen,” New Mexico nurse practitioner Laura Bush told The Atlantic last September. 

Today one in 10 Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control, don’t take their prescribed medications, while the world’s top 50 drug companies made $1.6 trillion in profits the past 20 years.

If you think all that wealth is being put back into developing cures for cancer or vaccines for the latest epidemics, think again. 

Nearly all drug companies spend more, usually far more, on marketing than research, much of it funded by taxpayers and conducted at public universities. 

Consider the current race to find a vaccine for the Zika virus. The biggest obstacle is how much profits Big Pharma can make from a vaccine. The French firm Sanofi SA jumped in, but only after getting $43 million in funding from the U.S. government, aka us taxpayers. Did Sanofi really need the help? It made $4.6 billion in profits in 2015 alone, and $83 billion in profits the past 20 years. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. In Egypt, Gilead sells the Sovaldi for just $900 for the same 12-weeks of care for which it charges $84,000 in the U.S. Overall, prices for the world’s top 20 selling meds are three times higher in the U.S. than in Britain, six times higher than in Brazil. 

The Big Pharma drug cartel, which would make a credible stand-in for the next season of Netflix’ show “Narcos,” certainly knows what’s at stake. 

“Adoption of VA pricing by the State of California,” Norton warns in PharmExec.com, “would be a pricing disaster for the entire U.S. drug industry” and “would shake the rafters of every single public state drug program in the nation.” 

Good. Let’s stop rewarding the arrogance of this out of control industry, and take real steps to cut drug prices, beginning in California by voting Yes on Prop. 61.

(Deborah Burger is a registered nurse and a co-president of National Nurses United. This piece first appeared in CommonDreams.org.) Photo: National Nurses United. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

EDUCATION POLITICS--Is California abandoning its poorest students? That question would be dismissed as absurd by our state’s education leaders, especially Gov. Jerry Brown and the State Board of Education. For years, they have been building a new educational architecture they say will do more for the poorest kids in the poorest schools. 

But as the many elements of this architecture are put in place slowly—and I do mean slowly—they have begun to look like a Winchester Mystery House, so full of complicated rooms that the structure doesn’t fit together coherently. On its current path, the emerging educational architecture of California seems likely to undermine public accountability, resist meaningful parent and community engagement, and make it difficult to figure out whether disadvantaged students and the schools they attend are benefiting. 

The new architecture is built on a foundation known as Local Control Funding Formula, a multi-piece formula that is designed to give more money and authority to local school districts, especially those with concentrated poverty. That formula was approved in combination with the establishment of new Local Control and Accountability Plans, intended to give parents and communities more say in how money is spent. The state also adopted Common Core standards for math and English that emphasize critical thinking, and combined the standards with a computer-based testing system to better track individual students. 

And last month, the state wrapped all of these elements together in a new accountability system to track the progress of schools and students on new measures that go far beyond test scores.

The governing theory is that all these new educational structures—in concert with social programs to raise the wages, improve the health care, and provide more social services to poor Californians—will make it easier for a greater number of disadvantaged students to prepare for college and careers.

But examining the pieces in detail, the architecture is so hollow and unsteady that it’s hard to understand how students will benefit. 

Consider the new accountability system, approved by the State Board of Education in September. The board passed it in a meeting that was heavy on self-congratulation, and light on detail. 

The system introduces six indicators for measuring schools (such as college and career readiness, and the progress of English language learners) as well as local factors, like parental engagement and school climate. This was hailed as an improvement on a previous system that the board abandoned three years ago and had not replaced, leaving Californians in the dark about how their schools were doing. 

But, at least for now, this new approach to accountability offers more clouds than sunshine. It could be years before data for some of the new measures exists. There are also real questions about how you could reliably measure parental engagement and school climate, or whether the effort would be worthwhile, given all the other demands on California districts. 

Even worse, the board resisted urgent calls from many education and child advocacy groups to boil down this new system into something that the public might be able to understand. Instead, the board, defiantly, released a sprawling draft built around a confounding color-coded grid that deserves immediate induction, without the customary five-year waiting period, into the Hall of Fame for Bureaucratic Idiocy. “Making sense of it is practically impossible…” the Los Angeles Times editorialized, “… the Local Control and Accountability Plans required by the new formula are like the Holy Roman Empire—they aren’t local, they don’t really provide control or accountability, and they aren’t even plans.” 

Fixing this accountability system isn’t just a matter of redesign, which the board is saying it will do next year. The trouble is that the accountability system is built upon the other pieces of the new architecture, and those are similarly confusing. The new local control formula encompasses eight priorities, many of them hard to measure, and myriad sub-priorities and different grant formulas under those. And the Local Control and Accountability Plans required by the new formula are like the Holy Roman Empire—they aren’t local, they don’t really provide control or accountability, and they aren’t even plans. They are longwinded, technical answers to longwinded, technical questions required by a state template. School districts, naturally, have struggled to get parents and community members to participate in drafting these documents, which in many cases run to hundreds of pages. 

And if all that doesn’t give you a headache, the new system could soon get even more complicated. The federal government is in the process of developing its own plan to help the worst-off schools, under the new Every Student Succeeds Act, the successor to No Child Left Behind. 

The federal law requires states to identify the bottom five percent of schools and figure out ways to improve them. California’s emerging architecture doesn’t provide any easy way to identify those schools. Instead, state leaders are lobbying against the new federal system, and continue to design the state’s system in ways that are at odds with the federal law. Last week, Gov. Brown vetoed a bill, overwhelmingly passed in the legislature, to require the California system to align with the federal one. 

In the end, it’s possible there will be not one but two accountability systems for California schools—one answerable to Sacramento, the other to Washington. 

In watching this process, I can’t help but wonder if all the confusion isn’t cynically deliberate. Throughout, the state has followed the advice of its powerful teachers union, the California Teachers Association, which has opposed any system that offers coherent ratings, and thus meaningful comparisons, of schools. The union prefers to have as much evaluation as possible done at the local level, where they are most powerful. By enacting a state system that no one can manage or understand, California may effectively leave things in the hands of the locals. 

What does that mean for making sure poor kids are actually making progress? It may mean that we never know. Gov. Brown gave the game away in an interview with CALmatters earlier this year when he questioned whether the achievement gaps between disadvantaged and other students can be closed, even with the help of his Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). 

“The gap has been pretty persistent,” he said, “so I don’t want to set up what hasn’t been done ever as the test of whether the LCFF is a success or failure. I don’t know why you would go there.” Closing achievement gaps is “pretty hard to do,” he added. 

The defenses of the emerging system are equally lame. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has argued that the complexity of the new system is a virtue—since education, and life for that matter, is complex. 

The State Board of Education president Michael Kirst, a Stanford scholar whose writing on educational systems is distinguished by its clarity, has in this instance taken to issuing uncharacteristically foggy pleas for patience and delay. We’re still ironing out the kinks and the whole system will evolve continuously, he argues. “Concluding now that the system is too complex,” he wrote for the website EdSource, “would be no different than arguing that people would not be able to use a smart phone based on the engineering specifications when the device is still in development.” 

Professor Kirst is right about the need for patience, in a way. It will take at least until 2019, when California finally gets a new governor, before Californians will have any chance to stop construction on this incomprehensible mess, and to focus coherently on our poorest students. 

(Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square, where this piece originally appeared. Primary Editor: Andrés Martinez. Secondary Editor: Sara Catan.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

BEVERLY PRESS FOLLOWUP—(Editor’s Note: As Richard Risemberg reported in CityWatch Sixth Street in the Miracle Mile neighborhood has become deadly. Lives have been lost.

Some of the neighbors and Councilman Ryu’s office have a busy calendar these days however and safety doesn’t seem to be in the cards of this community any time soon. Too busy with incoming Metro stations, LACMA construction, etc. A hard cop out to buy if you’re one of the families impacted by hurt or death … or worried about the next deadly crash.

PERSPECTIVE-Would you agree to guarantee a contractor a virtually unlimited amount of funds to build a house? If the answer is “yes,” then there are some business people in Nigeria who would like to talk to you. 

The MTA board may as well relocate its office to Lagos. 

By an 11-2 vote, the board approved a permanent sales tax which is estimated to raise $860 million per year in today’s dollars. Theoretically, forever. 

Proponents of the measure argue that the voters can always rescind it down the line if they are not happy with the results. 

What would be the odds of success? Average citizens would have to not only organize a grassroots movement, but raise many millions of dollars to fight proponents backed by the deep pockets and logistics of developers.

We do need to raise many billions of dollars for transportation projects, but there must be accountability. An unlimited stream of cash will not incentivize the MTA and its contractors to manage budgets. Only the sobering reality of losing future funding offers a chance of ensuring financial discipline. It’s a fact of life – MTA board members will come and go. They will not have to live up to long-term promises. 

The Measure attempts to assuage the concerns of the residents with the formation of oversight committees and independent audits, but there are no legal requirements for the MTA to implement recommendations or fix audit findings. 

The only way to control the effective use of funds is by requiring the MTA board to re-approach the voters periodically – say in 20 years initially, then every 5-10 years thereafter, to up the level of funding. If they want to exceed the 40-year horizon of the proposed wave of projects, they must earn our support first by demonstrating cost-effective and timely progress. 

Putting the onus on the passengers of a train to prevent a trainwreck, rather than insisting that the engineer apply the brakes before one occurs, is “bass ackwards.” 

But that is essentially what Measure M will do by almost certainly assuring unlimited funding.

(Paul Hatfield is a CPA and serves as President of the Valley Village Homeowners Association. He blogs at Village to Village and contributes to CityWatch. The views presented are those of Mr. Hatfield and his alone and do not represent the opinions of Valley Village Homeowners Association or CityWatch. He can be reached at: [email protected].) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

CLIMATE POLITICS--"Megadroughts" that last for decades are threatening to strike already parched California and other western U.S. states by the end of the century, a new study finds, with one model predicting that a drought lasting about 35 years may be a "near certainty."

A megadrought would bring back the devastating dustbowl conditions of the 1930s to California, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado, but would last for a much longer period of time, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. 

"Using a combination of temperature and precipitation models," the Guardian reports, "the study predicts a 70 percent chance of a megadrought by the end of the century, should rainfall levels remain the same, with a 90 percent chance of an elongated drought should rainfall decrease, as most climate models forecast."

"We can't rule out there could be a 99.9 percent chance of a megadrought, which makes it virtually certain," Toby Ault, a scientist at Cornell University and lead author of the study, told the Guardian.

"Historically, megadroughts were extremely rare phenomena occurring only once or twice per millennium," the study observes. "According to our analysis of modeled responses to increased [greenhouse gas emissions], these events could become commonplace if climate change goes unabated."

A map shows the rising risk of megadraughts corresponding to varying increases in global temperatures. (Image: Science Advances)

"With 4 degrees of warming, which is the rate the planet is currently heading for, megadroughts are almost a certainty," EcoWatch notes.

"A megadrought occurring again in the (California and the) Southwest in the coming decades would impose unprecedented stresses on water resources of the region, and recent studies have shown that they are far more likely to occur this century because of climate change compared to past centuries," write the study authors, scientists from Cornell University, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Indeed, California's six-year-long drought has already changed the landscape, according to the Guardian: "Areas of the Sierras have burned a few times and the forests aren't recruiting back, they are turning into grasslands and bush lands," Mark Schwartz, professor of environmental science at the University of California, told the newspaper.  

"Water availability is a deep issue for people living in the arid south-west," Schwartz added. "Megadroughts have the ability to dry up Lake Mead [which supplies water to Las Vegas] and hamper crops in southern California. We are doing a relatively poor job of allocating water efficiently. We need to get better at that."

"The new report does proffer a crumb of hope," the Guardian writes, "if greenhouse gas emissions are radically cut then the risk of megadrought will reduce by half, giving a roughly 50:50 chance that a multi-decade stretch of below-average rainfall would occur this century. But the research found that the emissions cuts would have to be far steeper than those agreed to by nations in Paris last year, where a 2C limit on warming was pledged."

"We would need a much more aggressive approach than proposed at Paris," Ault told the newspaper. "It's not too late to do this but the train is leaving the station as we speak."

(Nika Knight writes for Common Dreams … where this report was first posted.) Photo: Shever/flickr/cc

-cw

GUEST WORDS--This is not about Donald Trump. And I mean it.

From the moment the first scribe etched a paean of praise to Nebuchadnezzar into a stone tablet, it’s reasonable to conclude that never in history has the media covered a single human being as it has Donald Trump.

RANTZ & RAVEZ--While I am always on the lookout for good RaveZ to bring to your attention, I find very few in dealing with our City, County, State and Federal Governments. When I do find something of significance, I bring it to your attention. Well, I have three for you this week. 

1. I begin with the DWP Air Conditioner Optimization Program. The Program deals with a FREE service of your Air Conditioner System by a Professional Air Conditioning Company contracted by the DWP. A professional technician from Mediterranean Heating and Air Conditioning inspected my home. In addition to a full 2-hour inspection, I received a new state of the art Nest Thermostat to control my air/heating system. This FREE program was sponsored by LA City Councilman Bob Blumenfield and approved by the City Council to soften the impact of the multi-year increase in the DWP rates. All costs of the program are paid for by the DWP. The program is scheduled to run for three years at a cost of $4.5 million a year to the DWP. 

If interested in this TOTALLY FREE service, contact the DWP A/C Optimization Program at (877) 427-0418. 

2. Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer slams Wells Fargo for ripping off huge numbers of customers and over 450 United States Military Personnel. The San Francisco based Wells Fargo Bank was accused of ripping off thousands of customers by opening over 2 million fake accounts with bogus fees, and the repossession of private vehicles owned by United States Military Personnel. The company fired over 5,000 employees involved in these unethical actions and owes the following amounts of money to various organizations and individuals. In total, the amount is well over $200 Million. The specifics: 

1. $100 Million to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 
2. The City and County of Los Angeles are due $50 million. This is the largest fine ever levied against a financial institution by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 
3. $35 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and untold figures owed to affected customers. 
4. In addition, $10,000 to each of the military personnel that had their vehicles illegally reposed by Wells Fargo. 
5. This story is not over and additional fines and sanctions are in the making on many levels from state and federal authorities. They say image is everything when it comes to consumers and products and services. What will the ultimate consequences be for Wells Fargo? Only time will tell. 

Congratulations to Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer and his staff for protecting the Los Angeles consumers. The next question is how many other banks utilized the Wells Fargo tactics to meet goals and earn bonuses. Time and future investigations will bring about the truth of this and related matters. I am sure we have not heard the last of this procedure by various banks. 

I can see Mike Feuer running for Los Angeles Mayor in the future. 

3. A $6 Million lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles, Central District with the author of RantZ and RaveZ, Dennis P. Zine (photo above left), and resident James Bibeau as Plaintiffs vs the City of Los Angeles and Charles Beck (photo at top right), Chief of Police vs the City of Los Angeles. This RaveZ concerns all Los Angeles taxpayers and has the impact of over $6 Million for the next three years. Being a former LAPD Supervisor, City Councilman, LA City Resident and local taxpayer, I found fault with the Rams Football Team receiving FREE LAPD security services for all home games. 

Within days of filing my lawsuit against the City of LA and Chief Beck, the Rams came forward and agreed to pay for security and related services at all home games played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. 

With the shortage of LAPD Officers and great demand on police services, it was proper to implement legal action against the City of LA and Rams Football Team. If the city leaders were truly concerned about the taxpayers and public safety, they would have resolved this matter before agreeing to have the Rams return to Los Angeles. 

Remember that the Rams Football team is only going to be playing football at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the next three seasons. After that time, the Rams will be moving to Inglewood and will play all home games at the new Inglewood $3 Billion Stadium. In the future, the City of Inglewood will be providing all public safety and related services to the Ram’s Football Team. With all the services provided by Inglewood, the tax revenues and related income will all benefit the City of Inglewood. 

There you go. Three cases of RaveZ for your consideration.

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If you have a RaveZ that you would like to share with our readers, please email the information to me at [email protected].  The most recent report showed that over 400,000 people reviewed my RantZ and RaveZ column. That is impact and a great opportunity to spread the word.

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With all the media focus and talk about the November Presidential Election, and the many ballot measures that are so confusing to most of us, who do you turn to where we can find the truth of the matter. Who is going to give you the straight facts, and nothing but the facts, on the various ballot measures. There is one source that is accurate and honest and to the point. That one reliable and trusting is none other then the RantZ and RaveZ. Recommendations coming in future editions as we approach the November Election.

(Dennis P. Zine is a 33-year member of the Los Angeles Police Department and former Vice-Chairman of the Elected Los Angeles City Charter Reform Commission, a 12-year member of the Los Angeles City Council and a current LAPD Reserve Officer who serves as a member of the Fugitive Warrant Detail assigned out of Gang and Narcotics Division. Disclosure: Zine was a candidate for City Controller last city election. He writes RantZ & RaveZ for CityWatch. You can contact him at [email protected]. Mr. Zine’s views are his own and do not reflect the views of CityWatch.)

-cw

OVER-DEVELOPMENT ONSLAUGHT-Billionaire Manhattan developers are proposing a surprise 419-unit apartment mega-project on the Los Angeles River -- next to a long-promised state park -- and recently explained themselves to the local community. They ended up showing quite a bit of contempt for Atwater Village and Glassell Park, the communities they seek to gentrify. 

The mega-development, dubbed “2800 Casitas” after the dead-end riverside street where the sprawling luxury housing would be shoe-horned, would radically remake the Glassell Park/Atwater Village community. As envisioned by developer Pan Am Equities, the massive project would dramatically impact a scenic and woodsy stretch of the LA River bird flyway, near a laid-back art-scene locale along the river, called the Bowtie. (Photo above.) 

Pan Am’s is among a frenzy of proposals that would shoulder aside LA’s lively civic discussions about re-greening the Los Angeles River, supplanting that public debate with developers’ private plans for dense, luxury “waterfront” housing in what are now working-class areas. 

Pan Am, owned by the billionaire Manocherian family, which owns 85 buildings in Manhattan alone, was drawn to LA by growing word that you can buy Los Angeles land, get the local land zoning tossed out in a backroom deal at City Hall, and then build as big -- and as inappropriately -- as you want. 

Having already held backroom meetings with City Hall leaders, Pan Am Equities was trying hard to win over the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council’s Environmental and Land-use Committee, by sending a local, Atwater Village architect, Mark Motonaga, to speak at its September meeting at Christ’s Church. 

Motonaga is a principal with Rios Clementi Hale Studios, the mega-project’s designer. Because Motonaga was filling in for the Manhattan developer, he had to repeatedly turn to Pan Am representative Reed Garwood -- sitting in the third pew of the chapel -- to answer questions.

And that’s when Garwood told the ugly fib, that Pan Am Equities’ plan was purely preliminary.

In fact, Garwood blithely assured Atwater Village and Glassell Park residents that Pan Am hadn’t even filed an application for a land zoning change. 

That wasn’t even close to the truth. 

Atwater area resident Cheryll Roberts held up Pan Am’s detailed, 90-page, land-rezoning application submitted to the city and chimed in, “Yeah, you did. I have it right here.” 

Ninety pages long -- hard for a developer to deny they’d already filed it with Los Angeles City officials. 

Pan Am wants to jack up the zoning from a furniture storage and shipping building to a far more intensive and river-impacting round-the-clock use: several hundred humans and their several hundred vehicles, wedged next to a supposedly coming public river park. 

The Coalition to Preserve LA is sponsoring the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative on the March 7, 2017 ballot to protect communities like Atwater Village and Glassell Park from wildly inappropriate land-zoning changes known as “spot zoning.” 

The once-denigrated LA River, one of the nation’s most important bird flyways and a rare natural resource for the entire Los Angeles public, is now among the most-threatened land in LA.

The Coalition has pressed Mayor Eric Garcetti to end ex parte (backroom) meetings between developers and City Hall politicians that cater to developer greed and terrible planning like 2800 Casitas. 

Nobody disputes that by the time residents in places like Atwater Village hear of a project such as 2800 Casitas, backroom deals have already been made between the developer, local LA City Council members and planning officials. The public is cut out entirely, until far down the road.

At the meeting, residents from Atwater and nearby were shown a slide presentation and artists’ renditions of buildings soaring as high as 85 feet, prompting them to question how this out-of-character-development on the banks of the Los Angeles River could possibly represent smart planning. 

Everyone questioned the tall boxes along the river and near charming old neighborhoods of architecturally interesting one- and two-story homes. At more than 60 housing units per acre, on 5.7 acres, 2800 Casitas would set a major precedent, encouraging a luxury housing stampede of developers demanding zoning riverfront changes from the local LA City Council members. 

Pan Am’s big buildings “look like a fortress,” as one community member remarked, while others questioned the intelligence of creating a giant community on a small dead-end road. 

“Have you talked to the fire department about this?” Committee Chairman Larry Hafetz asked. “There generally has to be two outlets.” 

With a nod to the nearby active Hollywood Earthquake Fault that travels along Los Feliz Boulevard and runs deep into Atwater Village, resident Diahanne Payne said: “What if the 2 Freeway (on the proposed mega-project’s north border) collapses? People would be trapped. I’ve got a problem with that. 419 units means 840 cars or so. That’s an access problem. God help the poor suckers who live on Casitas Street.” 

And the proposed buildings, Payne said, “Look like tenement buildings, no matter how much green you add to the walls.” She meant the developer’s plan to somehow mask the huge structures with vines. 

Larry Hafetz cited two other communities now fighting the gridlock and neighborhood destruction brought on by LA’s City-Hall encouraged luxury housing frenzy. According to warnings by the city’s housing department, the overdevelopment has left a huge 15% vacancy rate in all LA luxury housing built in the past decade. 

Hafetz said: “The community needs to be preserved. This is not Hollywood or Silver Lake. Our community is the river. Density is going to be a hard sell.” 

(David Futch writes for 2PreserveLA.org. Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

BILLBOARD WATCH-In April of this year, the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety issued a permit for temporary construction fence signs at the site of a church on Lincoln Blvd. in Venice. Those signs have since advertised movies, TV shows, and Airbnb to an audience of motorists on one of the most gridlocked thoroughfares on the west side of the city. 

Lincoln Blvd. is also a Community Design Overlay (CDO) District, with standards and regulations that include a ban on new billboards and off-site signs. Since none of the signs plastered on some 200 ft. of plywood attached to a chain link fence at the edge of the church property have advertised products or activities available at the church, they’re clearly off-site signs and thus prohibited by the CDO. 

So why would the building department issue a permit for those signs? Before that permit was handed to the sign company, the City Planning Department had to provide a “clearance” attesting to the fact that the signs wouldn’t conflict with any zoning regulations. So one might think that the CDO’s ban on off-site signs would have prompted a thumbs down on the permit. 

But no. The planning department issued the clearance on the grounds that the off-site sign ban in the citywide sign ordinance contains an exception for temporary signs, and that this exception applies to the Lincoln Blvd. CDO.

This makes sense only if facts are ignored and logic twisted. One, the sign permits were issued under a special ordinance allowing advertising signs on fences surrounding construction sites and vacant lots. These signs at construction sites can remain for the duration of the site’s building permit or two years, whichever is less, and there are specific limits on their size, number, and spacing. 

In contrast, signs permitted under the citywide sign code’s temporary sign exception can only remain for 30 days at a time, with a cumulative annual limit of 90 days. There are also size limits that are proportional to the street frontage of the property. 

The total square footage of the signs at the church property on Lincoln Blvd is considerably greater than that allowed under the temporary signs provision of the citywide sign code. And the signs have violated both the 30-day limit and the 90-day annual limit. Yet the building department has declined to cite those violations because the signs comply with the provisions of the permit issued under the ordinance that allows signs on construction walls. 

Confused yet? 

The signs violate the CDO’s ban on off-site signs and they violate the size and time limits of the temporary sign regulations, yet the two responsible city agencies regard them as legal. 

In other words, black is white and up is down. 

To add insult to injury, the Lincoln Blvd. CDO also has design standards stating that fences and walls should not front Lincoln Blvd., and any such fences required by code should be no more than 42 inches high. These provisions are intended to enhance the visual quality and the pedestrian friendliness of the boulevard. 

The plywood wall that provides the backing for the church property signs is eight feet high. 

Furthermore, there is no sign of any construction activity at the site, which includes the church, a separate auditorium building, and a parking lot.

(Dennis Hathaway is the president of the Ban Billboard Blight Coalition and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected].) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

ALPERN AT LARGE--In my last CityWatch article, I recommended a "NO" vote for just about every tax measure this November based on the fact that the new funds would be poorly spent.  The big exception, of course, is Measure M--because the money and projects are well-defined, and well-vetted by the taxpayers of LA County. 

We do NOT want to "feed the beast" of unsustainable pension/benefits of public sector officials and workers who perform vital jobs but are being reimbursed and pensioned at a level we just can't continue to fund.  After all, are California (particularly LA County) residents paying less or MORE than the rest of the nation? 

And are we getting a good "bang for our buck" with respect to what our taxes pay for? 

But the reason why the schools and "general fund" taxes and bonds should be rejected is that we don't know where the money is going, while the opposite is true for Measure M. 

Opponents of Measure M are people who, for the most part, should be listened to and worked with for years to come.  Metro's come a long way since the crazy-spending of the 1990's, and there are a lot of good reasons why Caltrans let Metro take over and/or finish local freeway projects--in short, Metro typically spends their money well, and is a model for adhering to its budget. 

A model that school districts, water districts, and other public sector/sphere jurisdictions would do well to emulate. 

But with Measure M--as with the previously-passed Measure R in 2008--there will be a domino effect of MORE money coming into LA County from Sacramento and Washington. 

LA is no longer last but among the first when it comes to federal and state eyes and wallets opening to support a county "that has its act together".  And, of course, a county willing to put its money where its mouth is. 

The "Friends of the Green Line" project that started shortly after 9/11 found that the critical LAX/Metro Rail connection now funded by Metro with a 2024 due date (LINK: ) will happen faster if Measure M passes … call it the Measure M Domino Effect: 

1) South Bay residents would want "in" to the Green Line/LAX connection 

2) Increased interest in a Norwalk Green Line/Metrolink connection would occur that might bring in dollars from both Orange and Riverside counties 

3) Westsiders and Downtowners would want better access to the LAX/Metro Rail connection as well, facilitating interest in extensions via Lincoln and Sepulveda Blvds. 

Similarly, there would be a Domino Effect for the Foothill Gold Line, which would be funded by Measure M not only to Claremont (the eastern edge of L.A. County in the Inland Empire) but to Montclair in San Bernardino County.  That brings that county on board, particularly if the line were to be advocated for extension to Ontario Airport, and/or with more Metrolink connections. 

Would there be an increased effort to connect Orange County with any Santa Ana Pacific Electric Rail Right of Way to the Southeast LA County cities and the Green Line?  Probably--the 405 freeway isn't getting any lighter with respect to traffic, and Orange County residents would certainly want a better way to access Downtown. 

So enter another Domino Effect. 

And the more these projects get promoted, the more that federal and state matching funds could be achieved, allowing Metro to work their way down the list to build these projects (including Metro projects in the South Bay, Southeast LA County Cities, the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys, and the like) to fulfill the needs of ALL LA County residents. 

Domino Effects are usually negative, and not desired, by taxpayers...yet it does appear that Measure M has the strong potential (and strong likelihood, based on our experience with Measure R in 2008) to create a positive and favorable Domino Effect. 

Hence Measure M deserves our consideration, and our vote, come this November. 

And if Measure M passes this November, any work done to expedite transportation improvements throughout the county, and/or to fine tune Metro's priorities, could begin in earnest the very next day.

(Ken Alpern is 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  [email protected]. He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)

-cw