Notes from the pressure cooker
Leave it to the grown-ups in Los Angeles’ most congested neighborhoods to stall an inexpensive, sensible congestion remedy on Pico and Olympic Boulevards. L.A. is in perpetual internal conflict. In the end—decades from now—it’ll make for fascinating reading.Southern California: where the wealthy and educated lost paradise, clinging to a belief that everyone else on the block would eschew Lexus luxury for mass transit.
I passed by the Archstone Del Mar Station apartments in Pasadena yesterday—an ochre monstrosity I watched rise from the dead over the dusty northwest corner of Arroyo Parkway and Del Mar Blvd. Archstone is among a growing number of Gold Line “transit villages,” and features massive faux pillars, a bell tower, and kitschy transit theme—perfect for the über-hip, carless, young professional who works downtown and finds his sense of place in something resembling Legoland. Never will he make a spontaneous day trip to Redondo Beach or drop in at IKEA, just because he’s in the neighborhood. Life is so clean and manipulatable on government letterhead.
A few miles down the Arroyo, the Highland Park Transit Village is coming. A four story, multi-block, all-but-certainty, residents are told. Minor details yet to be worked out include: a) what it will look like, b) whether or not it will include retail, and c) whether or not it will supplant all existing public parking spaces and provide adequate parking for the new residential units. Oh—and, what will become of the “market-priced” units when the market fails to deliver. One thing is certain: 75% “affordable” means developers Kevin McCormack, Richard Baron, and Tony Salazar will sleep soundly—far from Avenue 56 and Figueroa.I’m still searching for the young, professional Angeleno who invests $750,000 in a condo with only one parking space, among majority affordable units in a marginal neighborhood, and commutes to her six-figure job via rail and bus transfer.
Should it surprise anyone that the same geniuses who failed to notice an 800-pound sub-prime gorilla savaging the city budget in slow motion also believe they can fabricate markets, complete with consumers lining up to make bad investments? Make believe is so easy when you’re spending someone else’s money.
Meanwhile, an urgent sandwich board outside Archstone Del Mar Station reads: FLEXIBLE LEASE OPTIONS.
Labels: highland park transit village, mass transit, mta, olympic blvd, pico blvd, smart growth, transit oriented development
Posted by solomon @ 5/07/2008 06:00:00 AM
21 Comments:
I am THRILLED that the Villaraigosa - Weiss plan was put on ice by the judge.
Not because it's a bad (or good, or great) idea.
But because it exposes them for their inept, inefficient, and arrogant approach to the jobs for which they were hired.
EVERYONE will remember this, and their other, failures come election day.
I hope that the price goes to $6 and higher. It will help push the illegals out the door.
If gas prices surge, it will become harder to live here. For most of us who have the time to sit here and share our comments, we can make it work. We can get a new car with better mileage. You know it's true: all of us can get cars to make absorbing even much higher gas prices livable.
But the illegals can't afford to do this, or to pay the higher gas prices.
Thus they will start going home.
That's the great thing about surging gas prices: even Villaraigosa, Huizar, Cardenas, Alarcon, et al, can't make them come down.
Burn baby, burn.
Yes and then all the white surburban housewives can get those jobs back that they lost at the sweatshop garment industry.
Also the homies from south central will take back the landscaping and roofing jobs they had taken away
6:37am- Very curious ideas. That's like saying "Government, go on and keep shooting at us to stay sharp, and go on and tax us to your heart's desire, it's all O.K. because I'm in the group that has the Kevlar suits and my salary knows no bounds. I will survive."
What's more disturbing, that kind of thought for social solutions or the path that development is allowed to actually follow?
Nearby in CD-14
7:50, what you're failing to recognize is that MARKET FORCES, not your idiotic race card, are at work here.
If you can't afford the gas, you will leave.
Someone being successful doesn't grant anyone the right to pickpocket them. I want MARKET FORCES to decide the cost of gas. I am TIRED of the traffic, crime and disrespect for AMERICAN culture. Just because the country was open 80 years ago for my family doesn't give everyone the same right now.
And if $6 gas is the solution, I am eagerly looking forward to it. Food, electricity, gas. Raise the prices and people will go elsewhere. Stay if you can afford it.
$6 gas will be the great equalizer.
Not so fast. When we have $6 gas, expect to see the same group of panderers tax the "rich" and offer gas welfare to help the illegals fill up.
Lots of luck to anyone who tries to give a gas supplement.
That's one of those say-it-but-can't-get-it-done City Council things.
6:33: Get a life and take your meds. Pitiful that you even admit you "don't care if the plan is a bad (or good, or great) idea," but are purely motivated by spite.
That was clear as the motive behind your nasty little, failed recall, the tone of the website, the continuing tone of the Tract 7260 diatribes (what a misuse of an HOA for personal spiteful diatribes) and how the handful of you speak.
The judge's ruling had to do with DOT's utterly inept support, above all Rocky's office being unable to prepare properly, and Rosendahl's spinelessness. He's a nice guy, but uses up council time on things like Iraq and national issues that have nothing to do with local issues, and has been MIA on the billboard issue, for example. We're trying to get him on board -- frankly, I'd rather dump him and get a leader like they have in CD5. No one cares about that dumb recall since the longer it went on, until it fizzled for lack of signatures -- why you pulled the plug, so no one would find out how FEW you got, you don't give a damn about saving the city money as this issue shows and you've proved time and again, it's about your fear of any change -- you became laughed at all over the city as not only NIMBY's but CAVEs. The lack of a subway system is on the shoulders of you ancients, too. Many of whom showed up at recent Metro meetings as the ONLY ones in the city to actually speak out AGAINST a subway across town, even now. Afraid it would go anywhere near your neighborhoods.
BUT your hero Rosendahl will give you the karma you've earned, when all the meters along Pico and elsewhere jump soon from $1.00 an hour to $4.00, and fines skyrocket, too. No one will shop there then.
Take your meds, get a life, so sad.
12:24, this shows you what a complete idiot you are. I don't even live in this area.
I made my comments solely on the basis that we have totally INEPT officials in this city. And the only thing that can get us progress is if they continue to fail, as they have for years, on projects like this.
Spite. Yes, this is spite. And that is what these officials have earned. Our loathing disgust with them.
So some of us cheer at their public failure. Time for new leadership in this city.
What THIS post proves is that you THINK you are only dealing with people who this proposal impacts. But you fail to consider that there are others of us in this city whose areas haven't gotten even a tiny bit of improvement. So people here are disgusted with our own traffic problems. Ignored by the officials in this city, others and I are laughing our asses off at this public failure.
I can't wait to see what Villaraigosa does for work when he's booted out on his shoe-shining ass a few months down the road.
That time he wasted with Mirthala.
The freaking million trees that weren't planted.
The congestion that wasn't fixed after FOUR years!
Oh, and his running around for Hillary was TIME THAT HE SHOULD HAVE SPENT ON THINGS LIKE THIS PROJECT!!!!! HE DIDN'T DO HIS FREAKING HOMEWORK OR AN EIR!!!! IF VILLARAIGOSA WAS IN TOWN INSTEAD OF ON THE ROAD WITH HILLARY OR SCREWING MIRTHALA, OR RUNNING AWAY WITH HIS STAFFER'S WIFE, YOU WOULDN'T HAVE MANIACS LIKE ME RANTING ABOUT IT AND LAUGHING ABOUT IT AND CHEERING ABOUT IT ON MAYOR SAM FOR PETE'S SAKE.
Okay, and now for a Heineken! Who wants one?
Vallejo, California declares bankruptcy because of budget deficit. Will Los Angeles be next?
With the slumping retail and real estate markets, Vallejo, California a City of 117,000 people declares bankruptcy. Part of the budget deficit was caused by the labor unions being unwilling to renegotiate their contracts. Sound familiar? The bankruptcy filing will allow them to renegotiate their union contracts and debts.
Vallejo, California declares bankruptcy because of budget deficit. Will Los Angeles be next?
With the slumping retail and real estate markets, Vallejo, California a City of 117,000 people declares bankruptcy. Part of the budget deficit was caused by the labor unions being unwilling to renegotiate their contracts. Sound familiar? The bankruptcy filing will allow them to renegotiate their union contracts and debts.
12:36/ 6:33 a.m.: You only proved even more that you need to get a life and are a spiteful, pitiful person.
If as you claim you don't even live on the westside let alone that area, but want a potentially "good, or great" plan to go down because some judge is too mired in some petty issue and can't see the forest for the trees, thanks to Rocky's inept preparation -- just out of spite, you are beyond help.
They're talked about this idea of Pico Olympic as one way streets for years. Why didn't someone do an impact report years ago? Why didn't Antonio tell someone to start it when he first started talking about the idea? It'd be done already and then they could decide whether to do it or not.
The City has thought about doing Trap Neuter Return for feral cats for years and years. Finally, a Director wants to do it but he did no impact report. Now he blames the lack of an impact report for not being able to do TNR. Why didn't he just order one when he first started talking about it? It'd be done by now.
The Mayor and Department heads know that any new plan will need an impact report. Even private people have to do impact reports for developments. The City should try to get it done asap instead of whining about it later. They know it's part of the process. This is just their excuse for not doing something about the problem sooner.
Tim Rutten has an article in his column today about these NIMBYs who stalled the Pico-Olympic plan, comes down heavily against them, as denying a valuable traffic solution to the rest of the city. HE's right on on this one.
Except that the truly wealthy aren't involved, this is the same group of people -- Jay Handel, who owns an eatery in Brentwood with no parking, so is head of the WLA Chamber behind it, egging on the other stores, and is on the HOA too, plus Barbara Broide and Mike Eveloff of the Century City shakedown, etc. -- who also fought and are still fighting Expo Line.
Also shows the idiocy of Rocky's office in "defending" the city, they didn't prepare at all. The dumbness of Gail Goldberg, who doesn't know the city, and didn't weight in one way or another, just says she wasn't asked -- but she's always in favor of "walking villages" even if they're in the middle of busy thoroughfares that obstruct traffic. I'd say, that's what happens when you bring in a clueless outsider, but we've got Mike Woo born and raised in Silver Lake, who went to New York/ Manhattan for the first time in his life while a Councilman, and came back determined to replicate it.
And the Mayor ought to get his DOT guy, Jaime de la Vega, up to par -- as CityBeat reported recently, Zev made mince meat out of him at a public meeting, when Vega didn't know that the State stiffed us on the $1.2 BILLION in surplus gas tax that was supposed to go toward our transit needs just last summer.
Then there are the cowardly Wesson, who pulled out right away at the first whiff of controversy, although his stretch has the Pico/ Fairfax/ Wilshire nightmare tangle; then cowardly Rosendahl pulled out as soon as these same NIMBY's showed in Transportation Committee one day, AFTER he'd appeared in a photo op agreeing to the deal, and AFTER the same people and issues had been discussed by Weiss and his staff at 18 meetings in 18 months.
Instead of thanking these two for doing their heavy lifting, trying to rescue Zev's haphazardly lobbed "plan," they stab the Mayor and Weiss in the back and run, playing the "people's heroes."
So 1:16 is one of those animal nuts, who hate the Mayor and the City and want to take it out on a good plan to fix traffic gridlock on the westside.
These wingnuts are allied with those same NIMBYs who'd like to set up toll gates at either end of "their" stretch of Pico and Olympic, and see their Councilman and Mayor as interlopers. Why don't they get elected to something first, besides the same incestuous boards of HOA's and NC's because 99.9% of people don't participate.
5:02 Private developers have to do impact reports. When the City wanted to expand LAX they had to do an impact report. When the city wanted to open a dog park, they had to do an impact report. Everyone knows you have to do an impact report. Why didn't the City just do the report years ago? It takes six months to a year to do a full report. They could have done it but they didn't. Instead they wait until we really need the projects, then they blame their own policy and NIMBYs for the hold up. That isn't the hold up. They held themselves up. They should just do the report like they make everyone else. The city is the one that made the law that you have to do an impact report if your project could have an impact. I'm not an animal crazy that hates the City. I'm actually all for these plans.
City loses another lawsuit. Firefighters suspended 24 and 30 days get over $1,000,000. The city attorney should have settled. Every time the City loses another one of these they just make the payout bigger for the next one. The public knows that the City treats some employees and exemployees unfairly.
$1.6 million upheld in LA firefighter harassment suit
Daily News Wire Services
Article Last Updated: 05/07/2008 01:16:35 PM PDT
A $1.6 million award will stand for two Los Angeles Fire Department captains who alleged excessive and discriminatory punishment after a firefighter they supervised was fed dog food-laced spaghetti by another member of the department, a judge ruled today.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ruth A. Kwan denied the city's motion for a new trial on grounds the two captains failed to prove they were discriminated against because they were white and that their damage awards were too high.
Kwan said the jury reasonably concluded that John D. Tohill and Christopher R. Burton were suspended without pay for 24 and 30 days, respectively, because they were white males, while the firefighter fed the dog food as a prank, Tennie Pierce, was black.
Burton, 62, and Tohill, 51, both worked at the Westchester station with Pierce. They maintained their skin color caused them to be punished more harshly than the Latino perpetrator of the prank, Jorge Arevalo, who got a six- day suspension.
The judge also said the jurors apparently found the captains to be truthful.
"What it comes down to is credibility," Kwan said. "This shows the jury believed the plaintiffs were extremely credible witnesses."
On March 3, Tohill was awarded $1.052 million in damages and Burton received $592,000. The Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated for about 1 1/2 days before reaching a verdict in the captains' lawsuit, which they filed in October 2006.
The
Advertisement
award came about six months after Pierce received a $1.43 million settlement in his lawsuit against the city.
Defense attorney Edward P. Zappia argued the economic losses to the captains because of the suspensions amounted in both cases to less than $10,000. He also said neither showed any proof of emotional distress and instead continued to work.
The LAFD hierarchy acted appropriately when deciding who should be punished and how severely, according to Zappia.
Outside the courtroom, Gregory W. Smith, an attorney for the captains, said he hoped the city's attorneys would not appeal the verdict because interest will have to be paid on the award if they lose.
Burton, Tohill and Arevalo all testified during the trial that Arevalo made the decision to put the dog food in Pierce's spaghetti on Oct. 14, 2004. They denied Pierce was targeted because of his race.
Burton, who is now assigned to a station in Wilmington and lives in Dana Point, said previously that he plans to retire next January. Tohill is now a station commander in Eagle Rock. The Agua Dulce resident said in March that he is scheduled to retire in four years.
As part of the settlement reached with Pierce last September, he resigned from the Los Angeles Fire Department and dismissed all claims against the city. He had been on unpaid leave since Dec. 28, 2005.
In 2006, the Los Angeles City Council approved a $2.7 million settlement for Pierce, but the deal was vetoed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa when photos surfaced of the firefighter participating in hazing activities.
Persistent allegations of racism within the department resurfaced in January 2006, when City Controller Laura Chick and the city's Personnel Department released audits documenting inappropriate behavior, despite efforts to clean up the agency a dozen years earlier. The audits and the Pierce case prompted former Chief William Bamattre to step down in early 2007.
You can want market forces to determine the price of gas all you want. The reality is that gas is not determined by market forces, but by political forces.
5:xx wingnut: Comparing Pico-Olympic, changing traffic flow by removing some meters and synching lights, to expanding LAX -- a HUGE undertaking involving the FAA, private airlines, roads and many communities -- is crazy. Even likening it to creating a dog park is bizarrely stupid -- that attracts new people, dogs and manure, and cars...
Shows how nutty and stupid you people are!
What the city's proposing is done all the time. Anyway, having small shops without parking was maybe OK in the 50's but they've lingered on this long only because of a total lack of city planning til now.
There's been no vision or planning, and that's what they city is trying to rectify all at once. Do they need community input and oversight? YEs. But crazy comparisons like this as an excuse to stall a simple plan makes you irrelevant and unqualified to offer that input.
7:33 Changing the parking and direction of traffic on two of our biggest east west streets in LA is a MAJOR thing. There are many things to consider such as parking, car and pedestrian accidents, effects of a sea of headlights going in one direction, change in bus routes, change in metro stops, loading zones, valet parking zones, fire hydrant access, taxi zones, changing all signs so they face the other way, effect on sound and pollution levels, how people will be able to get from far right side to far left side across six lanes to turn and of course the cost to make these changes. Even billboards will now have to be turned around on one side of the street. Private businesses may have to change their signs as well. This is why an impact report is needed.
What if they do their report and find out it'll only help traffic a tiny bit but it'd cost the city lots of money to do the physical work, loss of tax revenue from businesses, loss from meter money and parking fines, losses from potential lawsuits, not to consider the snarled traffic we'll have while the work is done and when it first opens? The judge was right that a report is needed if you are going to do something this major.
Sheesh, someone disagrees you with and you just call them a city hating animal nut. I'm neither, just a logical citizen who wants the city to do the right thing.
8;44; This proves you old people have way too much time on your hands.
Do you work yourself into a paralysis before ordering the early bird dinner in case there's a tad of corn oil or salt, or maybe worry that the frycook didn't like you and spit in the food?
Do you fly into a panic if they're out of the chopped liver and eggs you order every day to avoid decisions or anything different,
and do you have palpitations when your prune juice runs out in the morning?
You worry that billboards will have to be turned about, headlights glaring at night (when the streets are least traveled), and all the other minutae that makes one wonder about a mind that dwells on such catastrophes, given what else there is to worry about right now? The problems the plan is addressing?
Between this paranoia that busy and normal people find bizarre, and your sheer spite, you really need a life.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home