When The Circus Comes To Town
This coming Saturday, April 26th, the Delgadillo Traveling Circus of Backroom Deals will descend upon the community of Sunland-Tujunga in a display of stunning manipulation not seen in these parts since P.T. Barnum exclaimed " A Sucker Is Born Every Minute!"
Witness almost 100 mediators under the artistic direction of Avis Ridley-Thomas attempt the impossible. These highly trained professionals will try to mass hypnotize the 1000 participants and work to convince them to let down their guard against the evil desires of Agent Orange (aka Home Depot). It's hard to let your guard down after Home Depot has spent the last 3 years labeling opponents of their store as racists, spending $600,000 lobbying the City, and bussing in paid supporters. The mediators, who may not even realize the part they are really playing in this unprecedented extravaganza, will likely stick to the script and take their roles very seriously.
The room may be padded with outsiders, possibly hundreds, brought in by Home Depot (aka Agent Orange) in order to force the community to go along with their plans to convert a former K-Mart into the industrial warehouse store that they dream of. Home Depot owns numerous other former K-Mart sites in L.A., that they also want to transform. Could this be the test case and the precedent setter?
Mr. City Attorney, in his infinite wisdom, decided to allow anyone in the entire world to attend this show of shows, instead of keeping the matter between the local residents, who will be most affected, and the corporation wishing to infect.
If the mediators can come back to the City Attorney and say that no clear consensus emerged from the community (the community now being redefined as whoever shows up at the event), will this be the excuse a Judge or City Official needs to allow the Project to proceed?
Even though this is not a popularity contest (Home Depot still needs to go through a full E.I.R. whether they want to or not), "community" support can play a big factor in the process.
Will this be Manipulation's finest hour?
Come see for yourself. We can only hope
that our suspicions are wrong.
And to prepare you for this heart stopping event:
Read the list of questions that will be posed to the participants (written by the RAND Corporation, no less) follow this link:
http://www.no2homedepot.com/files/
Sunland-Tujunga_Discussion_Guide.doc
To see some disturbing photos of what Home Depot wants to do to Sunland-Tujunga,
visit this :
http://www.no2homedepot.com/HDSF.html
To just witness this marvel of manipulation is worth the price of admission alone! And just for you, the admission is free. The entire world is invited!
As an extra added attraction, a virtual perfect storm of L.A. Bloggers will be on hand to cover
the proceedings. The mighty Mayor Sam, Zuma Dogg, and Joseph Mailander will be there, live and in person, to report back to their respective readers. KNBC and several other media outlets will also be on hand to cover this mind boggling event.
Step right up, this is one feat of daring not to be missed.
The Sunland-Tujunga Dialogue
Saturday, April 26th,
1pm to 4 pm
Mount Gleason School
10965 Mt. Gleason Ave.
Sunland, CA 91040
Labels: avis ridley-thomas, home depot, rand corporation, rocky delgadillo, sunland-tujunga
Posted by Unknown @ 4/21/2008 07:57:00 AM
16 Comments:
I've already got my ticket for the show.
You know, cilantro is a good detox for Agent Orange....
I sure hope Home Depot doesn't bring in shills to pack your meeting. But they have done so in the past, so it wouldn't be surprising if they do. If they do, you should make a big scene. The residents of the neighborhood are the ones who matter. And like you said, its not a popularity contest anyway. The only question at hand is what the environmental reveiw reveals and if the impacts of HD's project can be mitigated. But pretty difficult to reduce that diesel pollution when you are an industrial warehouse operation.
According to Websters online:
me·di·ate
Pronunciation: \ˈmē-dē-ət\
Function: adjective
1: occupying a middle position
2 a: acting through an intervening agency b: exhibiting indirect causation, connection, or relation.
I don't see a middle position here. Either Home Depot can build a store following all the rules and limitations of the city and the community plan or they can't.
Hmmmm... seems like they can't, and are spending a lot of money to, suprise.... change the rules.
Insofar as the intervening agency, that too is a misnomer here - the intervining agency is actually the city govt, trying to get the residents to back down from expecting that the existing rules should be applied to Home Depot.
Think about it - if Home Depot could legally be there, it would be there today. If the residents of Sunland-Tujunga didn't have a case here, Home Depot wouldn't be trying to scare the city officials to change the rules for them.
By virtue of geography, size and past land use, however this lot is used affects the character of the town. There is no compromising when it comes to saving this town from being the industrial center of the foothills.
Woo hoo! Save me a seat Joe B.! I'll spring for the popcorn. :)
xoxo
Rocky is a shady, shady character, as evidenced by his dealings with Clear Channel/CBS outdoors -- he gave them more rights to put up illegal signs, refuse to reveal where they are, and then refuse to pay what they promised in return for this sabbotage of the City Council's demands: a $300 inspection fee per billboard. Our city could sure use that money NOW, instead of these draconian cuts in services and raising the fees.
And HD is shady, shady, too, the way it bused in "supporters" who could barely speak English and didn't even understand the issues. They might, at most, have been prospective employees.
BUT this is NOT a matter that only concerns S-T, since the community's opposition to HD amounts to forcing the city into an expensive lawsuit on its behalf, something the rest of the city does NOT want and has a right to oppose. The two sides must reach a settlement. Frankly, I'm sick of HOA's filing suit any time they don't like a decision, like the Pico-Olympic issue, which seems like a specious effort by a group of people who have demanded to act like a separate fiefdom within the city. The S-T people seem a lot more down-to-earth and have a much more valid issue: their input over the one and only large retailer in their community. But if I were representing the city I'd be careful about setting precedennts for other areas, like the litigious group in West L A.
Let's not forget that the Home depot only applied for Pemits on 1piece of the property, and it isn't the piece where the majority of the Store sits.
It was a cover-up from the Start because that second Address has an
Elementary School within the 500ft
Building Zone.
L.A.U.S.D. has never been notified by any City Agency.
All rules and Laws protecting School Children are being Violated.
Even the School district has taken a position of requesting a full EIR
for the Protection of the Students.
So why are the Mediators asking
us Dumb Questions that are unrelated to the issues?
Can You say Smoke Screen?
Latham and Watkins is in Conflict of Interest with this Lawsuit.
They are the Lawyers that worked with the SCAQMD to develop rules to protect the students from these violations (Rule 1401.1)
and are now suing the City for their Client, (Home Depot that is breaking it).
The City Attorney covering all of this up?
Can he possibly be in Conflict of interest also?
Joe,
Maybe the Wildlife Way station will loan us the Dancing bear!
Lydia
Good afternoon sots (tips hat):
We'll send the Navigator, for he does parlour tricks and the Bard for he, if you will, is the party, savvy?
Captain Jack Sparrow
Oh Boy! A dancing Bear and The "Orange man group" . This is an event not to miss. Put me down for a pair of box seats.
I thought that Flying Circus image was of zuma and his two fools at the council. No, wait, they're the Three Stooges, not limber enough to fly.
So that must be Sam, Joe M and zuma, the trio you've got linked up here.
No one sane will comment on a thread where you include Zuma as a credible opponent to anyone, even Rocky Bullwinkle.
Great picture. It looks like one of Tony Vilar's dreams.
Everyone in Sunland Tujunga should send e-mails and letters demanding that the City Ethics Commission criminally prosecute Latham & Watkins for knowing and wilfull violation of the City Lobbying Law.
Latham was hired by Mrs. Jackie Autry's Museum in Griffith Park in 2005 to help get a permit to expand her museum to the size of 2 Home Depots. Latham was supervising the writing of the EIR for two years before Latham finally listed Autry as a client and began reporting payments in 2007. That's a clear violation of law and City commissions now have no idea how much Jackie Autry has shelled out to get her way in Griffith Park.
Why does the City bother having a lobbying law if the biggest lobbyist in town is allowed to ignore the law?
Latham has been trying to SCREW Sunland-Tujunga on Home Depot, it's time for Sunland-Tujunga to screw Latham by helping raise support to criminally prosecute Latham for its misdemeanors.
Woo hoo! I thought it was in the morning. Not only do I get to sleep in (finally!) this Saturday morning, but I get to hook up with my friends Zuma Dogg and Joe Mailander to go out and cause some "delicious trouble" and then party with the peeps S-T style.
Following which, I'll be available for dates that evening with any of the single Sunland-Tujunga hotties who wish to take advantage of such an enticing offer.
5:35pm, Trust me I hear you about L&W. Let us get through this HD mess
first. There is only so much time in a day, and this particular problem is taking all of it.
Rocky is angling for the Chief Counsel's job at Home Depot; no one else would hire him.
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