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PRIMARY ELECTION - Los Angeles leaders are once again asking taxpayers for more money.
More assessments. More taxes. More fees. More “investments.” More promises.
For years, I voted yes.
I believed in supporting infrastructure. I believed in helping fund public safety, services, and improvements for our communities. I believed local government, while imperfect, still fundamentally respected the people footing the bill.
I don’t believe that anymore.
My experience fighting the proposed MorningStar assisted living project at Rinaldi and Shoshone in Granada Hills opened my eyes to what local government in Los Angeles has become — a system increasingly designed to accommodate developers while treating residents as inconveniences to be managed.
The project itself became a symbol of everything people in the San Fernando Valley are exhausted by: density pushed into inappropriate locations, fire concerns minimized, infrastructure ignored, zoning bent beyond recognition, and public input treated like an obstacle instead of part of the democratic process.
This is not about being “anti-housing.” That phrase has become a weapon used to silence legitimate concerns.
Los Angeles does not have a simple housing shortage problem. It has an affordability problem, a planning problem, and a corruption-of-priorities problem.
Working families are not struggling because there aren’t enough luxury apartments or institutional-style developments. They are struggling because wages have not kept pace with reality, because investors and speculative development distorted the market, and because city leaders have confused nonstop construction with actual community planning.
And while they continue approving more and more projects, the Valley’s infrastructure is visibly collapsing under the pressure.
Hospitals are overcrowded. Emergency room waits can stretch for hours on ordinary nights. Public safety resources are strained. Traffic congestion grows worse every year. Water concerns are real. Fire danger is real. I personally waited 24 minutes for 911 to answer a call. Anyone living in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone understands that evacuation routes matter — no matter how inconvenient that reality may be for developers or planning officials trying to hit production targets.
Yet the answer from City Hall is always the same:
Build more. Approve faster. Streamline harder. Ask fewer questions.
And when residents do ask questions, they are often treated with outright disrespect.
After eight separate requests to meet with Council District 12 regarding MorningStar and related concerns, Councilmember John Lee’s office finally agreed to a meeting.
We arrived with one additional attendee — a former Granada Hills Neighborhood Council president who now serves as a Commissioner for the Los Angeles Board of Neighborhood Commissioners. Someone well known to CD12. Someone with years of civic involvement and public service.
What happened next was disgraceful.
Instead of being welcomed, we were scolded and spoken to like children by the Chief of Staff. We were told one of our members had to wait outside the conference room so the commissioner could attend — despite there being more than enough chairs available. We were effectively forced to “exchange” attendees like we were bargaining for access to our own elected representatives.
Anyone who has spent time around City Hall knows developers and lobbyists are not treated this way.
No one is barking at applicants, consultants, land-use attorneys, or paid lobbyists when they bring extra people into meetings. No one is humiliating them in waiting rooms. No one is acting as though their presence is a burden.
Because in Los Angeles, influence increasingly determines courtesy.
Residents are expected to accept whatever is handed down to them while developers are treated as clients.
And I’ll admit something honestly: when I attended my first Los Angeles City Council meeting, I didn’t understand the anger.
The first speakers I saw were screaming profanity, flailing at the podium, accusing councilmembers of corruption and betrayal while elected officials barely looked up from their desks and continued chatting among themselves as if the public wasn’t even there.
I was horrified.
I thought: How can this be allowed? First Amendment or not, how can people come into City Hall speaking this way?
Then it was my turn.
I’m a senior citizen. I crawled across the San Fernando Valley before sunrise to get downtown for my single minute to speak to my government. My elected representatives. The people who work for us.
As our group approached the podium, my own councilmember saw us and walked out of the chamber.
The others continued shuffling papers, talking quietly, checking phones, barely making eye contact.
And in that moment, I finally understood the people I had judged earlier.
Those speakers were not simply angry. They were defeated.
They were trying, in the ugliest and rawest way possible, to say:
“You don’t listen to me. You don’t care what happens to me. You don’t respect me. Why should I respect you?”
And that is where we are now in Los Angeles city government.
That collapse of mutual respect did not happen overnight. It was built over years of residents feeling ignored while lobbyists, developers, consultants, and insiders receive access, urgency, courtesy, and accommodation.
Ordinary people get one minute at a podium.
Developers get meetings, workarounds, streamlining, consultants, lobbyists, and direct lines into the system.
And City Hall wonders why public trust is collapsing.
That culture is poisoning public trust.
And now those same institutions want voters to approve another round of tax and assessment increases while refusing to provide meaningful transparency, accountability, or respect.
People are tired.
Tired of hearing that communities must sacrifice more while basic services deteriorate.
Tired of being told every project is an “emergency.”
Tired of watching zoning standards, fire concerns, environmental review, and public process become optional whenever enough money or political pressure enters the room.
Tired of being talked down to by political staffers who seem to forget they work for the public — not the other way around.
The social contract is breaking down in Los Angeles because government no longer behaves like it is accountable to residents.
Trust is earned.
Respect is earned.
Transparency is earned.
And until City Hall relearns that simple fact, many of us are done rubber-stamping every new request for taxpayer money simply because officials tell us to.
The culture in Los Angeles government needs to change.
Existing homeowners matter.
Neighborhoods matter.
Infrastructure matters.
Fire safety matters.
Public process matters.
And constituent voices matter.
Or at least they should.
Because right now, too many residents are hearing the same message from City Hall:
“Shut up, pay your taxes, and we’ll let you know when your opinion is welcome.”
(Eva Amar is a Granada Highlands community coordinator advocating for transparency, public safety, and accountability in land-use decisions. This analysis is based on publicly available records and documents obtained through the California Public Records Act)
