Thursday Late Night Snack
Westside homeowners couldn't toss out Jack Weiss but managed to broker a deal to get over $7 million from developers. However, its not the HOA's that are seeing the money.
Used to be your home was your castle. Now if crotchedy old white ladies in your hood think you contracted the deadly "mansionization" disease, you're going to have to build your house the way Tom LeBong thinks is in "character" with the neighborhood. Interesting that Jose Huizar has said hold the phone - but he's probably just thinking about tax dollars and campaign contributions than slipping into a free market mentality.
Not sure if this is in "character" with the neighborhood, but some folks are building homes out of old cargo containers. Sounds like a great idea to recycle!
A market based incentive to deal with traffic - toll roads could be coming to LA!
Internet radio host Sarah Symonds is doing a show Saturday on "The Risky Business of Having an Affair," which will prominently feature Mayor Villaraigosa.
As a member of a Neighborhood Council this has me scared - a proposal under consideration would allow each Council to introduce three City Council motions per year. I'm not sure we're ready for this. But then again, democracy is not supposed to be pretty.
Used to be your home was your castle. Now if crotchedy old white ladies in your hood think you contracted the deadly "mansionization" disease, you're going to have to build your house the way Tom LeBong thinks is in "character" with the neighborhood. Interesting that Jose Huizar has said hold the phone - but he's probably just thinking about tax dollars and campaign contributions than slipping into a free market mentality.
Not sure if this is in "character" with the neighborhood, but some folks are building homes out of old cargo containers. Sounds like a great idea to recycle!
A market based incentive to deal with traffic - toll roads could be coming to LA!
Internet radio host Sarah Symonds is doing a show Saturday on "The Risky Business of Having an Affair," which will prominently feature Mayor Villaraigosa.
As a member of a Neighborhood Council this has me scared - a proposal under consideration would allow each Council to introduce three City Council motions per year. I'm not sure we're ready for this. But then again, democracy is not supposed to be pretty.
Labels: los angeles politics, mayor antonio villaraigosa, mc mansions, neighborhood councils, tom labonge, transportation
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 1/10/2008 10:51:00 PM
7 Comments:
"a proposal under consideration would allow each Council to introduce three City Council motions per year"
A great case of grassroots activism -- without the roots.
And so much for the "advisory" status of NCs.
How did they arrive at the number three, anyway? Did someone decide that the L.A. City Council could only handle an extra 200 to 300 motions per year?
This is guaranteed bloat to the city bureaucracy. NCs are a very good thing, but not in this case.
My NC for one is composed of insular, almost all retired, people who oppose everything -- and they're allied with other Boards on other NC's who do the same. Younger people are too busy working in our expensive area to even know who these people are, let alone attend meetings or know what they're upto. These people don't represent us and it would be downright UN Democratic to treat them in any way analogous to a real elected body.
Another problem with the Mansionaizatin ordinance, besides giving too much power to more of these sorts of retired busybodies, is that it excludes the hillsides which have the biggest problems with developers gouging out sheer lots, putting up some faux granite to "retain" the walls, however dubiously -- they fall and crumble even in normal rains -- and these are sometimes directly under existing homes which freak out.
Frankly, I see that Century City group more along the lines of an HOA group claiming too much power, from its sheer arrogance: they're acting like a fiefdom, demanding this money to do with as they want.
What kind of precedent is that for a city that's already had a bad rep in business circles when it comes to approving developments that are opposed by a community, requiring living wage for non-city hotels near LAX, etc.? We're desperate for real estate tax revenue, as is the whole state, but frankly, if this developer knew upfront they'd have to pay up $7 million to some local groups, they may have thought twice in today's economy. That's just what this Eveloff group wanted but how great is that for the city?
This is very different from the S-T Home Depot situation; this is a really classy project replacing a rundown one, with upscale uses, not the issues raised with Home Depot.
The City Council ignores a notable percentage of the motions its own members introduce by letting them disappear into the bureaucratic process for years and then quietly burying them. We surely can expect some of the ideas that would be introduced by NCs via this proposed new device to meet with the same fate.
That is so rich... Can you imagine the motions that Bradley from the Glassell Park NC would make? Since none of the other broad members are able to stand on their own much less put two words together. They just follow the leader...
The City Attorney has already said that if NC's are able create City Council files it would NOT take them beyond being advisory. Submitting motions is NOT decision-making.
The City Clerk has said that even if there were no limit on the number of motions that could be submitted, it would not impact their workload.
Bradley and his NC could not force a file to be created on their own. It would take two other NC boards to second it. This number was simply the result of the legislative process like most other numbers that appear in rules and regulations.
It is nothing to be feared. There are many motions that no one in the City Council would have the courage to submit. That's what started this whole thing. It was the refusal of an NC's City Councilmember to submit a motion that the NC had asked for, because he didn't agree with it.
"It was the refusal of an NC's City Councilmember to submit a motion that the NC had asked for, because he didn't agree with it."
...and you don't see a problem with this?
Funny. Maybe he/she knows more about the councilmember and his/her refusal to submit the motion?
Damn those pesky neighborhood council people getting on the nerves of our esteemed council people. (all of whom were elected by an extremely small percentage of the voters of the city, then turned to diss the NC's for the same thing)
Yes Jack, I definitely see a problem with that. I guess we aren't supposed to disagree with the CM's.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home