Mayor Sam to Clowncilman Smith: Go Back to Sleep
When I saw 12th District Councilman Greig Smith speak out about the ridiculous LAX hotel living wage "compromise" I was pleased that our only Republican member of the Clowncil (before any of you dum dums start with me that our favorite motorcycle cop turned Clowncilman Dennis Zine is a Republican rest assured I've come to the conclusion that whatever GOP credentials the Z man had were lost when he came out swinging for the ridiculous Declaration of Los Angeles) was actually the only person making sense.However this old, dead Republican mayor was quite shocked to see that Smith was ignoring basic economic principles when attempting to pander to NIMBYs via a local fishwrap, The Sherman Oaks Sun.
As anyone who knows anything about Los Angeles, the city is facing a housing shortage. However, there isn't a lot of available land to build on. Coupled with the tremendous and growing demand for housing this causes the price to continually rise.
Given this, it makes sense to take former industrial and commercial land which is laying empty and unused and convert it to residential use. But Greig Smith is adamantly opposed to this. It makes no sense.
To be sure, Smith wants to continue to use the land for commercial purposes. Great, but its not like folks are lining up to build more offices and factories in LA. There are a lot of reasons behind this we won't go into right now. Considering this fact, simple common sense says make use of the land for what it is its highest and best use, meeting the current demand for housing.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 2/05/2007 12:10:00 AM
8 Comments:
Mayor Sam, there is no housing shortage. That was cooked up by Smart Growth Urban Planners. There is a rental shortage. That was cooked up by influential developers. People who want something different in their backyards than what the monied developers want are indeed NIMBYs and great Americans each and every one. Down with Developers. Up with NIMBY's!
12:33 was obviously drunk or high. There is no housing shortage? Vacancy rates are less than 5%, houses in Watts are selling for $400,000, and the production of housing has lagged population growth for decades. The housing shortage is a fact, not a myth.
NIMBYs are not "great Americans." They are focused on their own selfish interests, not the needs of the larger community. In the process, they show little respect for the rights of private property owners. How American is that? The housing shortage was "cooked up" by the NIMBYs who don't care about anyone but themselves.
Whether the housing shortage can be addressed by converting industrial land, I'm not so sure. What good is it to build housing while removing jobs? There needs to be balance in zoning; we can't let all industrial land go residential just because it is "the highest and best use" today.
Yimby you make excellent points, all of which I now don't have to make.
In theory I agree with you that its not a good idea to convert industrial land or commercial land to residential. However, when you don't have people lining up to build factories in LA (or really anywhere in the USA) and the deman is for housing, you have to go towards housing.
If Smith thinks that M2 usage of land in his district (or anywhere else in the SFV) is going to even approach previous levels forget it. How many former tool and die shops are now gift basket companies, car dealer storage or in many cases, empty?
Smith is holding out hope someone is going to re-open the old LA Times plant in Chatsworth. Not going to happen, who reads printed newspapers anymore? Unlikely some other industrial application will ever go there. Why not come up with a plan to do mixed use residential with phased in office space (or even biomedical). Once you get the people living there, it could draw office tenants. (Maybe).
The key thing that Smith and the other clowncil members will have to realize is that business and industry will not come to LA until some fundamental issues are addressed. Those being LA's anti-business climate (including the "living wage" which to Smith's credit he at least opposes), onerous regulations, traffic, lack of educated work force and lack of housing for young (and other) employees.
MayorSam: Your love of all things Alger makes you just a bitter man when it comes to Smith. He's not drinking the Villaraigosa KoolAid and if it wasn't for him (and maybe Zine and Parks) we'd have 15 yesmen (and women) on the council. Thank God somebody was willing to speak up and tell the truth on the absolutely BS attempt to extend the Living Wage to only selected businesses because of a trumped up convoluted piece of logic about proximity to a City facility. Heck, Reyes wasn't even educated enough in Council debate to understand that, no Ed, the City doesn't spend millions on the airport.
Give the Smith bashing a rest.
Nice try Mitch. MS hasn't mentioned Smith as much lately. But who cares? While you're off partying your boss gives MS, Zuma and the rest plenty of material. Didn't Uncle HArvey teach you anything?
problems will never be solved until City and County learn how to come together and work effectively.
its never gonna happen.
there ain't even a link on the sheriffs' dept. website that connects to the LAPD website.
and vice versa.
does that make sense?
links on a website-- are you drunk?
what about calling 911 and getting a recording asking you to hold on or call back.
and an 11 minute avg. response time for lapd.
links on a website should be for whisky to be delivered, while you wait for your emergency call to be answered.
TWO REASONS WHY NIMBY'S BITCH:
PERCEPTION OF CRIME, AND INCREASED TRAFFIC.
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