Lone County Supervisor Opposes Grand Avenue Rip-Off
By Walter Moore, Chief Economist and Legal Analyst, L.A. Policy Institute
It turns out the voters of this county accidentally elected someone with his head screwed on straight.
In today's L.A. Times, County Supervisor Michael Antonovich explains how the Grand Avenue project has gone from being one that would not require any public funding, to one that is receiving $100 million in funding -- and will likely need more.
The Supervisor explains that the City and County are letting developers use, at no charge, land the government could sell for $100 million. (Has anyone offered to let you use $100 million worth of public land free, lately?) He also notes that, if the goal is to provide affordable housing, it would be far more cost-effective to build low-rise structures; high-rises are much more expensive to build per square foot.
Antonvich also points out that, at the outset of the project, the County hired an economist, Allan Kotkin, to evaluate its likely effect on tax revenues. The economist, who has made a career of evaluating land use projects, and has testified as an expert on economics in trials, concluded the project "is definitely not a revenue-maximizing plan for the landowner [the taxpayers]." Did you catch that? He said "definitely not," which are very strong words, especially coming from an economist. Economists typically deal in probablities, but this deal is apparently so lop-sidedly bad for Joe Taxpayer that it earned a "definitely not."
And, unlike faux "economist" Jack Keyser -- the spokes-cheerleader of the trade group calling itself the "L.A. Economic Development Corporation" -- Kotin actually has an undergraduate and graduate degree in economics, and is published in the field. Read Kotin's resume for yourself.
Anyway, you can expect that, like any other voice of reason in this town, Antonvich will not be heard. The sound of all that special-interest money cascading into City Hall is just too deafening.
It turns out the voters of this county accidentally elected someone with his head screwed on straight.
In today's L.A. Times, County Supervisor Michael Antonovich explains how the Grand Avenue project has gone from being one that would not require any public funding, to one that is receiving $100 million in funding -- and will likely need more.
The Supervisor explains that the City and County are letting developers use, at no charge, land the government could sell for $100 million. (Has anyone offered to let you use $100 million worth of public land free, lately?) He also notes that, if the goal is to provide affordable housing, it would be far more cost-effective to build low-rise structures; high-rises are much more expensive to build per square foot.
Antonvich also points out that, at the outset of the project, the County hired an economist, Allan Kotkin, to evaluate its likely effect on tax revenues. The economist, who has made a career of evaluating land use projects, and has testified as an expert on economics in trials, concluded the project "is definitely not a revenue-maximizing plan for the landowner [the taxpayers]." Did you catch that? He said "definitely not," which are very strong words, especially coming from an economist. Economists typically deal in probablities, but this deal is apparently so lop-sidedly bad for Joe Taxpayer that it earned a "definitely not."
And, unlike faux "economist" Jack Keyser -- the spokes-cheerleader of the trade group calling itself the "L.A. Economic Development Corporation" -- Kotin actually has an undergraduate and graduate degree in economics, and is published in the field. Read Kotin's resume for yourself.
Anyway, you can expect that, like any other voice of reason in this town, Antonvich will not be heard. The sound of all that special-interest money cascading into City Hall is just too deafening.
Posted by Walter Moore @ 2/13/2007 09:12:00 AM
6 Comments:
Antonovich was also on McIntyre yesterday outlining the crushing costs of illegal immigration on LA County. Unfortunately he's one of the very few elected voices of reason in the wilderness in this area. Hizzoner and the other elected hacks prefer to keep their heads in the sand and pretend the problem doesn't exist.
Shocking to see Eli Broad in clowncil today. Funny they were all in their seats. What a bunch of morons!!!
Wonder how much these people donated to Antonio's school slush fund?
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Eli: its a win -win situation for everyone.
so can I have an extra 2 minutes?
Wendy: Ms Perry?
Jan Perry: that's fine.
then, after a litany of pro-Grand Ave testimonies, Eric decided to cut public comment, sorry Zuma Dogg, we don't need the public comment if it aint positive.
besides Eli took up 5 minutes of the 10.
I'm coining a new word in the English language, let it be known:
shamboozle
the process by which this City of Los Angeles is being run.
Why do they even pretend?
Time for another ACLU Brown Act lawsuit. Why wouldn't Eric let the poor old white lady from the Valley with diabetes speak? Maybe she's a nut but would it hurt? You aren't going to listen to her anyway.
Yes its entirely possible that council will have to vote all over again.
Recall Garcetti!!
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