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Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Hey Tom, Stick to Talking About Football...

Tom, this isn't about football, and it's way too complicated for you. PLEASE DON'T SHOOT YOUR MOUTH OFF SAYING, "I AM STIIL OPEN TO LEARNING MORE...BUT MY GUT TELLS ME THE PROPOSAL IS SERIOUSLY FLAWED" -- then slam the program after you just admitted you haven't even read the study, yet. Tom, you wouldn't yell, "HIKE", before you read the playbook, would you?

Well Tom says, "I am still open to learning more from a planned study to be conducted by our Dept. of Transportation, but my gut tells me the proposal is seriously flawed." [ZD says, "I didn't like the movie -- and as soon as it opens, I am going to watch it to make sure.]

So...to the "Bob Euker" of LA Politics...you can't have "great taste" (more and more high density) AND "less filling" (no cross-town mobility plan.)

BUT I KNOW WHAT THIS IS REALLY ABOUT....TOM WANTS TO BUILD HIS RAIL PROJECT (No, not the one SCAG wants to build, Tom has a different rail project, plus "subway to the sea" and a bunch of other things that should be ready within the next twenty or thirty years. So let's wait for all of Tom's future idea to get here. Meanwhile, let's put out a press release AGAINST something (something more efficient, at that) while admitting you haven't even read the study.

TOM, no one elected you for your "gut" -- they elected you to represent the collective, community opinion of the people you represent. So again, no one cares about YOUR opinion. Now go expand the Griffith Park area without running it through Parks and Recs! (Doubling the square footage is more than a 5000 foot expansion. HEY NEIGHBOORHOOD COUNCIL...CALL CM TOM LABONG AND ASK HIM WHEN THE NC MEETING IS ON THE GRIFFITH PARK EXPANSION?

On Pico-Olympic One-Way Proposal: “Let Me Assure Everyone, I’m Against the Plan
By Tom LaBonge

CLICK "READ MORE" FOR MORE OF TOM'S (anti-deming) STAND UP ROUTINE:


Nothing gets residents more riled up than to think cut through traffic on residential streets may increase or, for business owners, that access to their stores will be restricted. Who could disagree?

These very legitimate concerns were raised at the City Council’s Transportation Committee during public comment on whether to make Olympic and Pico Boulevards one-way to increase cross-town mobility. Let me reassure everyone, I am against this plan.

I am still open to learning more from a planned study to be conducted by our Dept. of Transportation, but my gut tells me the proposal is seriously flawed.

I*m a neighborhood guy as well as a big proponent of extending the Red Line along Wilshire Boulevard to the ocean, a.k.a. *subway to the sea.* I also support our Planning Director Gail Goldberg*s notion of villages within our 465 square miles. Creating the surface street equivalent of freeways is not the answer.

But I do support a dedicated Rapid Bus lane during peak traffic hours along Wilshire to encourage riders … as long as the MTA fixes the roadway they are helping to deteriorate. (Tom LaBonge is the Los Angeles Councilman for the 4th District. This report was excerpted from the LaBonge 4th District Newsletter.)

[TOM -- YOU JUST SAID SO MUCH, AND NOTHING AT THE SAME TIME...You suppprt "this", but only if they do "that". (Yeah, let's wait for MTA to fix the roads FIRST...you know that'll be another twenty years to get started.)

Let's not fix the problem in a meaningful way (Olympic/Pico plan), let's just throw a diversonary "feel good" solution (peak hours on Wilshire) PEAK HOURS ALONG WILSHIRE AINT GONNA CUT IT -- THE WHOLE DAY IS A PEAK HOUR. ]

SO IF I'VE LEARNED ANYTHING THIS PAST YEAR, IT'S THIS...THERE IS MORE MONEY TO BE MADE "BUILDING" NEW THINGS, THAN THE SIMPLE SOLUTION OF A "POOR MAN'S" SUBWAY TO THE SEA, THAT COULD START WAY SOONER. Now go spend $150 million to double the size of Griffith Park, without running it past Park and Recs for approval (as required).

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

No one has ever accused Tom LaBonge of being a great thinker. What did you expect?

As for Griffith Park, he's determined not to let the community and environmental groups have a say in park development.

He should be recalled too!

May 01, 2007 9:38 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Yeah!!

Let's recal;l the whole lot of them.

Just a couple of problems:

Need a petition signed by enough regisgtered ledgal voters in the district.

Need money to get signatures, etc.

No money for coffee, food or gas.

Oh, that? Get a job!!!

May 01, 2007 1:30 PM  

Blogger Zuma Dogg said:

Dear Bitter Low Reading Comprehension Way Too Uptight Loser,

I didn't say "re-call The Bong" -- someone else did. What does my having, or not having a job have to do with it? I don't want to re-call Tom, I just want him to try and be more mindful of serious issues, and not close down the street to one lane, 5pm on Friday, to splash some multi-color paint on the roads, when we are trying to combat graffiti.

I just don't want to expand Griffith Park by twice the size, just because it will cost $150 million to start...who knows how much to actually finish. And just because Latham and Waktins wants Antonio to. It's gotta be approved by park and rec and neighborhood council must be part of the process. It's not like a football game, where the QB can simply decide to call his own shot because he is holding the ball. That ball is called the City, pal...and you are elected to represent the community -- not dictate to it. onr,d. yfm?

May 01, 2007 2:08 PM  

Blogger Zuma Dogg said:

Huh...huh...huh...

NOW look what you made me go find:

Title: Gene Autry vs. Southwest Museum: Piracy or preservation?
Date: 2005-08-18
Author: Robert Greene
Source: LA Weekly

Autry retained legal powerhouse Latham & Watkins, and the coalition responding with its own land-use attorney.

The local community paper warning that the Southwest was being looted.

And the politicians weighed in. Villaraigosa, while still on the council, told coalition members that when he was elected mayor, he planned to “yank their chain,” referring to the Autry. Councilman Ed Reyes, whose district includes the Casa de Adobe, warned that he would not allow the “cultural piracy” of the neighborhood.

“There’s this perception that only downtown Los Angeles can have museums,” complained José Huizar, who promised to block the institution’s operators — the Autry National Center — from moving a century’s accumulation of Native American baskets, arrowheads, kachinas (and, it must be admitted, human bones) from the Mount Washington tower to the modern and airy Autry facility in Griffith Park, or any new annex that might be constructed there.

“I join [City Councilman] Ed Reyes in saying that this is cultural piracy!” Huizar added.

Huizar is only one of several candidates and elected officials who have promised to block any building permits for new Autry construction in Griffith Park, where a display and storage facility for the Southwest collection is to go.

In some ways, it’s a battle for possession of the city’s cultural heritage.

For decades, cultural Los Angeles has run east-west, from MOCA and the Music Center to LACMA and the Getty. Museum-support dollars — and campaign contributions — flowed downtown from the estates of Brentwood and Beverly Hills. The blue bloods of Pasadena also sent their bucks downtown and to the Miracle Mile and the Westside, but the historic arts and cultural institutions of the Arroyo Seco languished.

Between the lines of the argument come layers of ethnic politics and social complexity.

“The cultural legacy of Los Angeles is about to be lost,” Possert claims. “If the city does not understand that our first museum is about to be replaced by something six miles upstream for no reason, what are we saying about our history? Our culture?”

The new institution founded by singing cowboy and movie star Gene Autry got a sweet deal from the city — virtually free land in Griffith Park, arguably in violation of the city charter. And the displays emphasized the American pop-culture image of the West — The museum, renamed the Autry National Center, is currently featuring the spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone.

Let’s face it, the place is a lot of fun. But the pop-culture emphasis is a rather shocking counterpoint to the anthropological collections at the Southwest.

Eliot Sekuler said he is counting on city officials to block any new Griffith Park building permit for the Autry unless the Southwest retains its role as the home of at least part of the Native American collection for which the museum is known.

May 01, 2007 2:31 PM  

Blogger Zuma Dogg said:

Was just looking over the ethics site...MAN, does that Jackie Autry like Tom Labong.

May 01, 2007 3:29 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Jackie Autry likes Huizar too.....

May 01, 2007 6:46 PM  

Blogger J.C. "Fanz23" Lewis, Jr said:

Ahhhh, no, please Tom don't talk at all.

May 02, 2007 3:39 PM  

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