Autry's Southwest Museum Press Conference Revealed As A Sham
Posted by Daniel Wright, President Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance
INVESTIGATION BY BOULEVARD SENTINEL REVEALS MAYOR, HUIZAR, AUTRY PRESS CONFERENCE TIGHTLY CONTROLLED TO EXCLUDE NORTHEAST COMMUNITY MEMBERS
On Thursday, September 27, 2007, the Mayor, Councilmember Jose Huizar, and the Autry Museum officials conducted a splashy press conference with radio, television, and print media at the Southwest Museum. Guards at both the bottom and top of the hill only allowed "approved persons" up the hill to the Museum. At this event, based supposedly on a July 2007 meeting Councilmember Huizar had with the leaders of the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition, Councilmember Huizar claimed "tough negotiating" with Autry officials had resulted in a "victory" for the community. Ironically, none of the people for whom Huizar had obtained this "victory" were allowed to attend this event in front of television cameras.
Also at this event, the Mayor announced the formation of the "Southwest Society" a new organization to be convened by the Autry that supposedly will raise money only for the rehabilitation of the Southwest Museum building. This fund raising committee for the Southwest Museum building consists of other Democratic elected officials who appear to have been misled into agreeing to be part of it. Unlike the fund raising committee for the restoration of the Griffith Park Observatory, or construction of Disney Hall, the Mayor's committee for the Southwest Museum has no wealthy people sitting on it. It is just a list of people, most of whom are known to be political supporters of the Mayor.
The time has come for a public discussion of how this Press Conference was deliberately intended to mislead the Los Angeles press to believe the Southwest Museum was being saved when in fact, the Autry, now with the express assistance of City of Los Angeles some of the elected officials who made election promises to keep the Southwest Museum in the Arroyo Seco, continues its effort to steal the collection of the Southwest Museum away to its own building in Griffith Park.
THE BOULEVARD SENTINAL'S INVESTIGATION IS AN EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED. HERE IS THE NEWSPAPER'S REPORT:
CLICK HERE FOR ENTIRE POST
zumadogg@gmail.com
ZD's Neighborhood Council Blog
INVESTIGATION BY BOULEVARD SENTINEL REVEALS MAYOR, HUIZAR, AUTRY PRESS CONFERENCE TIGHTLY CONTROLLED TO EXCLUDE NORTHEAST COMMUNITY MEMBERS
On Thursday, September 27, 2007, the Mayor, Councilmember Jose Huizar, and the Autry Museum officials conducted a splashy press conference with radio, television, and print media at the Southwest Museum. Guards at both the bottom and top of the hill only allowed "approved persons" up the hill to the Museum. At this event, based supposedly on a July 2007 meeting Councilmember Huizar had with the leaders of the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition, Councilmember Huizar claimed "tough negotiating" with Autry officials had resulted in a "victory" for the community. Ironically, none of the people for whom Huizar had obtained this "victory" were allowed to attend this event in front of television cameras.
Also at this event, the Mayor announced the formation of the "Southwest Society" a new organization to be convened by the Autry that supposedly will raise money only for the rehabilitation of the Southwest Museum building. This fund raising committee for the Southwest Museum building consists of other Democratic elected officials who appear to have been misled into agreeing to be part of it. Unlike the fund raising committee for the restoration of the Griffith Park Observatory, or construction of Disney Hall, the Mayor's committee for the Southwest Museum has no wealthy people sitting on it. It is just a list of people, most of whom are known to be political supporters of the Mayor.
The time has come for a public discussion of how this Press Conference was deliberately intended to mislead the Los Angeles press to believe the Southwest Museum was being saved when in fact, the Autry, now with the express assistance of City of Los Angeles some of the elected officials who made election promises to keep the Southwest Museum in the Arroyo Seco, continues its effort to steal the collection of the Southwest Museum away to its own building in Griffith Park.
THE BOULEVARD SENTINAL'S INVESTIGATION IS AN EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED. HERE IS THE NEWSPAPER'S REPORT:
CLICK HERE FOR ENTIRE POST
zumadogg@gmail.com
ZD's Neighborhood Council Blog
Posted by Zuma Dogg @ 10/15/2007 10:31:00 AM
24 Comments:
So the Boulevard Sentinel scoops the rest of the Los Angeles press. The press in LA has been eating out of Autry's hand for too long. The Autry has been misrepresenting the merger with the Southwest Museum for years which is why the saavy people in the Northeast remain up in arms.
The homeowner groups in Griffith Park are beginning to grasp the magnitude to the Autry expansion project the Mayor and LaBonge want to jam down their throats so Autry will be able to unnecessarily move the Southwest's collection to enhance the Autry's second-rate reputation.
It is time for some investigative reporting on the relationships between Autry, Latham & Watkins, PCR Services Corporation who prepared the Autry's EIR for Griffith Park, and City officials.
None of these folks are working to protect the public interest.
10:55am,
I hear you on the investigations of those relationships.
Someone told me all the names of who sits on the board, and all the relationships. Gotta go try and dig that up, or call the person again who told me. L&W kinda DOES run the town even more than CC or BOS.
Smell out the "SELLOUT" of a campaign promise.
The old Southwest Museum facility is pre-WWII, not earthquake retrofitted, and as a crumbling stone relic it's not feasible to fix it. No one was going out there anyway, a seedy area. Traffic or no in Griffith Park, there is no other option to save it. I did like poking around in the old thing, but with a handful of people in a huge broken down building, it felt like an archeological site, not a museum. If Sam and the Mt. Washington HOA wants to find a Getty or Broad billionaire to bail them out, fine, but NO TAX DOLLARS for that elephant.
Alarcon and his predecessor Pacheco already saddled the whole city with another white elephant, the Children's Museum, which was their problem, now it's ours. And a big part of our budget deficit.
SW Museum is going to be an indian casino - high roller version like a W hotel type.
Padilla not Pacheco.
My understanding is that the museum was being closed to retrofit it with FEMA money that was given for that purpose 10 years ago. They have to use it or lose it.
Broad would only be interested in preserving it if he could put his name on it.
The ones that resigned were supporters of Villaraigosa, Huizar and Nunez. They got PAID for work on campaigns, and it wasn't minimum wage. They also sit on the local Democratic endorsement board and endorsed the candidates that sold the activists out. There was definately a sell out. Check the campaign filing statements.
ARROYO SECO NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
Letter about:
Southwest Museum
The following is text of Councilmember Huizar's letter to the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition:
JOSE HUIZAR
COUNCILMEMBER OF THE FOURTEENTH DISTRICT
September 27, 2007
Dear Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition Member:
I am excited to share an update on the future of the Southwest Museum and Casa de Adobe, two of the cultural cornerstones in our community.
As I wrote to you last month, I am committed to ensuring that the Museum's historic buildings and priceless collection are protected and restored at the current Mount Washington site. Further, the Museum must reopen at the Mount Washington site as a stronger, more vital institution than ever before, with expanded educational and cultural experiences for all Angelinos. In my previous letter, I also outlined a list of specific requests concerns I planned to communicate, on behalf of the community, to the Autry National Center.
I am delighted to report that my conversations with the Autry have been very fruitful. The Autry has made a number of written commitments to the community and to me as your elected representative. (Please see attached memorandum.)
Among other commitments, the Autry has agreed to:
• Save the Southwest Collection by cleaning,repairing, and cataloging more than 250,000 artifacts and storing them in museum-standard conditions;
• Preserve, rehabilitate, and maintain the original historic Southwest Museum building and the Casa de Adobe, with more than $5 million already allocated and a commitment to finish the job;
• Create and publicly disseminate a phased plan to systematically maintain and improve the Mt. Washington campus over the next decade;
• Commit to keeping the Southwest Collection on view, on a rotating basis, at the Mt. Washington Campus;
• Commit to reopening four out of five Museum galleries for public display of the collection, rotating art exhibits, and other educational, cultural, community, and museum activities;
• Commit to storing a portion of the Southwest Collection at the Mt. Washington Campus;
• Make available for public review at the Southwest Museum and on-line a photographic inventory of the Southwest collection;
• Continue public activities for weekend programming, beginning now and expanding with the reopening of the Museum;
• Beginning with the reopening of the Mt. Washington campus, establish regular public hours for the Museum's public spaces;
• Reestablish educational programs for elementary school students, including fourth graders;
• Maintain American association of Museums accreditation for the Southwest Museum;
• Include in the Autry's published materials—such as What's Next and Convergence Magazine—all programming at the Mt. Washington campus.
• Keep community members and stakeholders well-informed on plans and programming at the Mt. Washington site by attending community meetings and providing monthly email updates through the SWMFuture.org site.
I can't thank you enough for your continued dedication to these community treasures. This victory truly is your victory.
With thanks and congratulations,
JOSE HUIZAR
Councilmember, 14th District
cc: City News Service, citynews@pacbell. net
ASNC, asncalert@yahoogrou ps.com
NortheastLA Moderator, northeastla- owner@yahoogroup s.com
Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, aguzman@kpcc. org
Christopher Reynolds, chris.reynolds@ latimes.com
Rotation exhibits from Griffith Park ???
Southwest Museum Gets New Patrons
Irantzu Pujadas
EGP Staff Writer
The fate of the Southwest Museum and Casa de Adobe has turned another corner, now that the Southwest Society, a new group committed to the restoration, revitalization and preservation of the museum’s building and collections will raise funds to permanently reopen the doors of the historical Mt. Washington location in 2011.
For some years, the future of the extensive and valuable collection of Native American artifacts and the historic building housing the collection appeared uncertain, as a coalition of museum purists and the museum’s owner, the Autry National Museum, battled over where the artwork could best be stored and exhibited.
Los Angeles Councilman José Huizar (CD-14), Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Autry National Center’s president, John Gray, announced last week that a group of local elected officials and community leaders will help raise funds needed for the Southwest Museum and the Casa de Adobe, assuring their permanent operation.
“This issue has been one that without question has strained relationships, has divided a community but has also at the same time united her,” said Villaraigosa, adding that we live in a time when governments and communities don’t support museums, arts and cultures the way they should.
The museum’s collection, one of the largest and most important of its genre, and the building, which houses the city’s first and oldest museum, suffered substantial damage due to environmental conditions such as rain and earthquakes, as well as damage caused by time and inadequate storage facilities. Some critical safety issues have already been addressed with the $6.5 million raised to date, such as electrical, security and lighting; others, like stabilization of the building’s tower and waterproofing the building are still in process, according to the Autry.
The Southwest Society will expand public use of the Arroyo Seco campus, including the Casa de Adobe. The plans call for parts of the Southwest collection to be exhibited and stored at the Southwest Museum.
So-called “public use” of the facility as a community center and the moving of portions of the collection to the Autry’s Griffith Park facility, along with the cutting back of museum quality exhibition space, have been major bones of contention between the Autry and Friends of the Southwest Museum, a grassroots coalition of about 75 organizations and members of the local community who have long opposed the Autry’s plans for the 100-year-old museum, which appear largely unchanged by the formation of the new Southwest Society.
Friends of the Southwest Museum were noticeably absent from last week’s Southwest Society unveiling.
Nicole Posser, Chair of the Friends of the Southwest Museum, told EGP she was surprised by the announcement of the new group and unaware of many of the details unveiled by the Autry National Center and elected officials last Thursday.
“The announcement of the Society raises a lot of questions, how much money are they committed to raise? Is the Autry committed to make the Southwest a world-class museum?” said Posser, assuring that her group wants to dialogue with the members of the Society.
Posser told EGP that the Friends group will hold a meeting next week to discuss how formation of the Southwest Society will affect the museum’s future, and how her group will proceed to support the museum. Posser says this appears to be a step forward, although she will reserve judgment because there are still two issues that need to be addressed: How to make the Southwest Museum a world class facility and ensure that it happens.
But according to Huizar, the Society plans to increase educational and cultural programs at the Mt. Washington museum and expand public understanding of the history of the southwest area of the U.S.
“This astonishing museum was the first in all of Los Angeles. Our mission today is to build on this history, and make the Southwest Museum and Casa de Adobe into living, thriving destinations,” stated Huizar.
President of the Southern California Indian Center, Paula Star, said that she felt very honored and pleased to be part of such an occasion.
“The visual records of the lives and contributions of American Indians in the museum collection is unmatched and is a vital component of the American Indian culture and history and we are very appreciative to be part of the process,” she said.
Honorary Charter Members of the Southwest Society include elected officials, such as U.S. Rep Xavier Becerra, Supervisor Gloria Molina, Sen. Gil Cedillo, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, Council President Eric Garcetti and others. Local community members include Tony Scudellari, and Eliot Sekular, a former chair and one of the founders of Friends of the Southwest Museum, who has since split from the organization over strategic differences.
The Autry National Center merged with the Southwest Museum in 2003 to save the Mt. Washington building and the priceless collection from deterioration and financial woes. The Autry, which has invested $6.5 million in the museum and Casa de Adobe, says it wants to maintain the Southwest Museum’s accreditation from the American Association of Museums, and make greater public access to the collection possible through an online service with a photographic inventory of the museum’s entire collection.
“The Autry has invested millions of dollars in restoration and preservation efforts and we want to work together with the new society to create a new dynamic cultural destination in Mt. Washington,” said the President of the Autry National Center John Gray.
For more information about EGP's various services, contact the following:
Advertise@egpnews.com Classified@egpnews.com Editorial@egpnews.com Service@egpnews.com
12:20 p.m. is peddling the pack of lies from Autry CEO John Gray:
"The old Southwest Museum facility is pre-WWII, not earthquake retrofitted, and as a crumbling stone relic it's not feasible to fix it. No one was going out there anyway, a seedy area. Traffic or no in Griffith Park, there is no other option to save it. I did like poking around in the old thing, but with a handful of people in a huge broken down building, it felt like an archeological site, not a museum."
This is the pack of lies the Autry has been disseminating for the last three years.
In fact, the Autry first prepared a facility assessment report for the Southwest Museum. The building has so much poured concrete and steel rebar in it that it has survived 100 years of earthquakes -- the same cannot be said for a number of state-constructed buildings in the Civic Center that were torn down after the Sylmar quake.
Autry's own own facility report concluded the building was sound and could be rehabilitated to meet museum collection storage and artifact exhibition standards. The report also concluded that if the Autry reopened the museum and marketed it at the current location in Northeast Los Angeles, it would perform financially within the normal range of museums in this country. (Unlike the Autry itself which recovers a pittance of its operating costs.)
It was Autry CEO John Gray who slapped a letter on the front of that facility assessment report for the Southwest that claimed, contrary to all the data inside, that the museum was not economically feasible without some complimentary uses added to the site. Now his tune has changed again. Now he says it cannot be used as a museum at all. But last week, he changed again and said artifacts from the collection could be stored at the Southwest Museum building and two galleries would contain two rotating exhibits. The Autry has a new story each day which screams that they really have no intention to doing anything but sell the property when they suck the Collection out of the building.
When Autry took charge of the building, John Gray was aware of some existing roof leaks that needed to be addressed. Instead of seeking to fix the roof leaks, John Gray deliberately put the Southwest Museum collection at risk by using the 2004 severe rains as a press event. He brought in the LA Times to show the leaks but funny thing, as a fiduciary in charge of protecting the collection, he deliberately had done nothing to fix the minor roof leaks for the prior 2 years before the rains came.
The Autry said at the time of the merger with the Southwest Museum that it would bring its formidable resources to the help of the Southwest. Instead, Autry has done nothing but seek to steal the Southwest Museum's collection, its independence as an institution within the Autry National Center, and its separate identity to the public.
There's a big story here and it may make the Getty Museum scandal small by comparison. At least the Getty is not using taxpayer owned land in Griffith Park at no cost to subsidize its operations.
The Southwest Museum will become an INDOOR SWAPMEET if you read between the lines of the agreement.
It is a wonderful old building built by Charles Lummis and should be kept open. There is a GOLD LINE station dedicated to it, no reason to allow Autry and Company to build more parking spaces in Griffith Park in a park that should be public land and not let out to the highest bidder for sure.
Save the SW museum but not with some worthless promises in some email sent to Huizar.
"At least the Getty is not using taxpayer owned land in Griffith Park at no cost to subsidize its operations."
YES HE IS!
MOST OF THE MONEY AUTREY GETS IS TAX MONEY PARCELED BACK TO THE COUNTY AND CITY.
Autrey got that property for $1.00. Autry gets FEMA and CRA money. Autrey gets COUNTY AND STATE GRANTS. That's a lot of money that could and should be given to the SW.
He said Getty not Autry = the Getty is on private land, Autry is not.
And Gene Autry by the way is dead. Maybe he should blog here.
Jackie Autry married him before he croaked and she's the one responsible for getting the museum going, selling his broadcast empire to the Tribune/LA ANTONIA TIMES and the Angels to Disney.
I heard she is kind of like Jackie Goldberg.
Anyway I don't think Gene - were he alive - would approve of raping the Southwest. He was old school where a deal was a deal.
In case you're interested Jackie married Gene Autry in 1981 when she was 40 and he was 74. His first wife had passed away about a year before.
By the way the museum was originally called The Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, then Jackie changed the name to Autry Museum of Western Heritage and now its just Autry National Center. I guess she wanted it named after her too, not just the Cowboy.
Let's also not forget $500,000 per the Daliy News -
federal funds head home
About $1.3 million for Los Angeles social programs won a thumbs-up today from the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The bill funding the Department of Labor and Health and Human Services includes:
- $500,000 for the Southwest Museum of the American Indian at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles for its Native American learning lab.
- $250,000 for L.A.’s BEST after school enrichment program.
- $200,000 for Children United Nations foster child mentoring programs.
- $100,000 for Educating Young Minds
- $100,000 for the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art museum for education and outreach.
The measure still has a long way to go before it reaches President Bush’s desk and could face resistance from the White House for broader provisions in the bill substantially expanding federally-funded stem cell research.
The bill makes existing stem cell lines derived before June 15, 2007 eligible for research. Bush has limited the number of eligible lines to those derived before August 9, 2001.
Posted by Lisa Friedman on June 22, 2007 02:48 PM | Permalink
From: The Oaks Homeowners Association Pres. Gerry Hans
http://www.oakshome.org/index.shtml
Spring 2007
Many of us remember how quickly the Autry Museum sprang into
existence back in the late 80’s. In a not-so-public process, the City
gave the private Autry foundation a long-term lease on ten prime
acres in Griffith Park at the rate of $1 per year. It all happened so
fast that many Park users had no knowledge about it until ground was
broken. Now, another fast-track project in Griffith Park is in the
making.
In 2003, the City’s oldest museum, the iconic Southwest Museum,
merged with the Autry. The Southwest’s main building had some
unfortunate, but fixable, structural problems because of the
Northridge earthquake. Those problems combined with other short-term
financial woes led it to the merger table. Initial promises were made
to keep and revitalize the Southwest at its current scenic location
on Mt. Washington.What seemed to be obvious when the merger was
struck — that the two museums would be administered separately at
separate locations — is now severely compromised.
A 150-200 million dollar fund-raising campaign is silently underway
to fund an expansion of the Autry Museum in Griffith Park in order to
relocate the Southwest Museum. According to preliminary sketches seen
by some, there are plans to nearly double the size of the Autry.
Then, in a second phase, a private “Institute for Study of the
American West” is planned that would include an underground parking
structure reaching all the way across the current lawn area to the
golf course at the south. Yet, no master plan has been publicly made
available to this date as one might expect, given that the property
is solidly within the boundaries of a public City park.
A few weeks ago the LA TIMES reported, “…the building footprint will
be maintained, but plans call for doubling the exhibition space.”
Well, in fact, not true. In fact, Autry CEO John Gray uses the word
“footprint” to refer to the ten acres of land, not the actual
building. The Times reporter (like other intelligent persons) assumed
“footprint” referred to the building when she got her information.
Don’t be fooled. The Autry wants to almost double the size of the
building itself And they’d like to break ground next year.
First, let’s look at the implications for Griffith Park. The Zoo/
Autry area of the Park is already on the “slippery slope”. One might
be tempted to say, “There’s already development here, so what’s the
problem with adding to it?” Everyone wants a chunk of Griffith Park!
Indeed, now that the Zoo and the Autry have their stakes in the
ground, it appears hard to control their growth. However, if we
continue to open the door to private institutions, such as museums,
schools, and foundations, we have opened the door to commercialism,
corporate partnerships, and all the other things that a park (our
“Urban Wilderness”) is not about.
Furthermore, the expansion will be costly. No doubt, there will be
expanded opportunities for the museum to charge the public for
enhanced services, such as a nicer restaurant, additional meeting and
facility rentals, and more feature exhibits and programs. But this
leaves fewer opportunities in the Park that are truly “free to the
masses”, which is what Colonel Griffith specified when the City
accepted his gift of the land the Park now occupies.
Also, if equestrians, hikers and runners weren’t already displaced by
the current Autry structure, they most certainly would be displaced
when the rest of the ten acre plot is developed. There will be more
traffic and an increased danger for bicyclists and pedestrians using
the park for recreational activities. Mr. Gray stated on KPCC radio
that the expansion will attract another 600,000 visitors a year!
Just as important, let’s look at the consequent impact on the Mt.
Washington / Arroyo Seco area. To many, the loss of their treasured
Museum, as the landmark white adobe structure boldly towering over
the Arroyo Seco, is a sad and shameful outcome. This area is the
heart and soul of the early history of Los Angeles. The distinction
and legacy of hosting LA’s first and oldest museum in the Arroyo is
an important consideration for all Angelinos.
The Southwest’s founder, Charles Lummis, put together a vast
collection of fine artifacts of the Southwest and raised funds for
the museum. Not far from the Museum is El Alisal, Lummis’s home in
the Arroyo, built by him at the turn of the century. Certainly for
any of us today, planning a tour of significant sites for out-of-town
guests, a favorite choice is a visit to both locations on the same
day — first to El Alisal, and then the Southwest. These two sites are
so historically integrated that one must question the logic of
separating them geographically.
The City brought the Metro Gold Line to the Southwest, and dedicated
a light rail passenger station in its honor, an easy walk from the
Museum. This development allowed over 100,000 students, as well as
far-away residents to reach the Mt. Washington campus easily, and in
an environmentally-friendly manner. Griffith Park’s access, on the
other hand, is mainly vehicular, with no nearby Metro connection.
The Southwest Museum operated continuously since 1907. Last year, a
funeral procession was staged in protest, as the doors closed.
Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition has a vision for
rehabilitating the Southwest Museum, using some of the funds that are
currently being raised for the Griffith expansion for the Mt.
Washington venue instead. Their plan helps us protect Griffith Park
by significantly reducing the Autry’s expansion and negating the
severe impacts to the park of such an expansion, particularly
increased traffic.
Many organizations are joining to support The Friends of the
Southwest Museum, both financially and in spirit. Without an outcry
by the public, it seems that the writing is on the wall: the new home
for the Southwest will be in Griffith Park. Please let our board
members know how you feel about this issue.
For more information about the Friends of the Southwest Museum, you
may go to their website at: www.FriendsOfTheSouthwestMuseum.com.
Wasn't Griffith Park land donated under the condition it remain open space?
Wouldn't any EIR and Community Impact Report indicate that it would negatively impact the surrounding two and four legged residents? I guess that all depends on who does the report and who pays them.
Southwest Society and Blue Ribbon committee are the same group and traitors to our community. They only have their own personal agendas to fulfill and they are morons that believe that a memo is a legal document.
Doesn't the Blue Ribbon Society raise money for the Philharmonic and other causes around town, too?
Aren't they made up of society matrons married to rich old guys, who try to get their faces in the paper for doing cultural and charitable deeds? If so, they're dilettantes and just fundraisers not decision makers.
Groups like that do whatever the wives of the biggest rainmakers, like Broad or Riordan, tell them. (Are Riordan's two girlfriends on the Board?) The women are ladies who lunch and and throw parties and galas to show off their dowdy and expensive new clothes and jewelry.
The Southwest Society was formed by Autry and the Mayor for one cynical reason: to mislead the public into thinking the Southwest Museum will be saved, as a museum. It's a lie.
Serious philanthropic organizations put major donors and persons of wealth and connections to wealth on their board. Guess what? Last year the Autry expanded its Board of Directors from about 16 people to 70 people. Who was invited? Autry's biggest donors they have been smoozing for money to expand ONLY in Griffith Park.
Now look at the list of people in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Blue Ribbon Southwest Society. There are retirees who live on Social Security and government pensions. They are Democratic operatives in Northeast who lick the boots of the Mayor in hopes of getting help on their own personal agendas. There are some elected officials and others who thought they were signing onto something that sounded good. They are lending their names to help Autry portrary a NON-EXISTENT "division" in the community over the future of the Southwest Museum.
In fact, the Friends of the Southwest Museum Coalition, formed from the Arroyo Seco cultural organizations but now encompassing some national organizations, is growing stronger as more Los Angeles homeowner associations and other groups concerned about the Autry's games are signing onto the Coalition to help assure the Southwest Museum, remains a museum.
If the Autry SERIOUSLY wants to raise money for the Southwest Museum -- and not just to fix up the building to sell it -- but to really restore an outstanding museum with its own dedicated rail station stop on the METRO system, it should have a friends organization that looks like the one to save the Griffith Observatory:
http://www.friendsoftheobservatory.com/directors.php
Now THAT is a list of some people who were able to raise the millions of dollars needed to restore the Observatory -- an icon of Griffith Park.
Look at the HUGE membership list for the observatory:
http://www.friendsoftheobservatory.com/members.php
These people have donated between $49 and $10,000 each to restore an important City icon.
We could do the same for the Southwest Museum and Antonio Villaraigosa could lead the way. But he is addicted to campaign money promises from Jackie Autry, John Gray, and the Latham & Watkins attorneys hired to "fix" the City Hall vote on the Griffith Park expansion.
Instead, the Mayor's office creates this illusion of the "Southwest Society" that will exist until the Autry gets approval of its expansion in Griffith Park and then it will fade away having served its purpose of misleading the Los Angeles Press and the public into thinking the exapnsion in Griffith Park was the only option.
The Southwest Museum is even more historically significant to the earliest history of this City than the Griffith Observatory. It is the iconic building that literally ensrhines the history of the culture of the Arroyo Seco. The location has spectacular views of Catalina Island to Mount Baldy and the history-rich Arroyo Seco below where early Los Angeles power was centered before it moved west.
Ironically, now the power base of the City is moving back toward downtown and incredible new investments are being made in the City's core. The adjoining neighborhoods of Lincoln Heights, Highland Park, Echo Park and El Sereno are enjoying a smaller scale movement of film industry and others who are rediscovering some of the oldest and most historic neighborhoods of the Pueblo of Los Angeles. These new economic trends bode well for the Southwest Museum area but the Autry's shills on this board have branded the area "seedy." Many new residents in the area beg to differ.
The clueless former Southwest Museum Board members never properly marketed the museum or exploited the dramatic location in Highland Park and Mount Washington. Some of these incompetents moved over to the Autry Board taking the same mind-numbing lack of vision.
Sadly, today, the Autry Board has converted the Southwest building into a warehouse as part of a literally diabolical plan to steal this collection for itself. Former exhibit halls have floor to ceiling shelves holding the collection. This is a collection Autry covets as its own instead of fulfilling its Merger Agreement promises to restore the Southwest Museum to its former glory. The Mayor is about to ably assist Autry to breach those promises.
Jackie Autry said she came to offer a helping hand to the Southwest, but instead her name will be remembered as selfishly helping herself. She, and the corrupt institution she heads, speaks with forked tongue.
i don't feel like reading through all these comments because i'm not trying to be a top expert of SW museum...but did anyone post that they wanna turn the SW into a recreation center -- although ZD heard "culture" center...is that the same thing?
We in the Griffith Park area are only now finding out about the massive size of the Autry's expansion ambitions. If the entire Autry project is approved, the Autry will be far larger than the Griffith Observatory! And last night, Autry representatives disclosed for the first time their ambition to extend the ground lease in Griffith Park to a total of 100 years instead of moving out of the park at the end of 50 years.
Last night the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council overwhelmingly voted (1 dissenting vote)to write comments demanding a much more serious examination by the City Recreation and Park Department in the EIR for Autry's Expansion Proposal in Griffith Park:
(1) More seriously explain and disclose the details about full restoration of the Southwest Museum site as the preferred museum location that exhibits the Southwest's collection as a way to mitigate the need to expand so much on taxpayer land in Griffith Park. After all, Autry owns the Southwest Museum site and only occupies the Griffith Park location under a $1 per year ground lease.
2. Remove or deny the proposed parking structure Autry wants to build. Greater Griffith Park NC is opposed to such a negative precedent in the Park.
3. Challenge the location of the research institute in Griffith Park as NOT a valid parkland use of land that benefits the visitors to Griffith Park.
4. Require more environmentally sound building design including green building strategies and capture and cleaning of parking lot runoff.
More and more Griffith Park leaders are alarmed at what looks like a raiding of the Southwest Museum just to benefit Autry. We sympathize with Northeast communities that are alarmed. It would be like someone in Highland Park telling us that they were going to move the historic Griffith Observatory to a hill over there. Of course people would be upset.
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