Vote to Officially Carve Up Griffith Park for Special Interests Expected Today

Today the City Clowncil is expected to pass without discussion the historic landmark designation for Los Angeles' largest municipal park, officially carving it into the swiss-cheese chunks for special interests that clowncilmember Tom LaBonge has been trying to achieve for at least a decade.

LeBong 'negotiated' the deals in the fifteen minutes before the City Council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee moved the Griffith Park Historic Monument application forward with those last minute changes as part of the package. The duplicitous parties included the Griffith Trust, the Autry, DWP, and the Department of Recreation and Parks.

The Griffith Trust, chaired by the great-grandson of the larger-than-life historical figure, Col. Griffith Jenkins Griffith, is the organization who began the process to have the entire park designated a City of Los Angeles Cultural Historic Landmark. In an LA Weekly article about the need for the application, about Los Angeles' s most visible icon Van Griffith was quoted as saying: "It’s not a theme park. It’s not a movie studio. People don’t want to see it turned into Disneyland ..."

Yet even Griffith himself drank LeBong's koolaid, agreeing to exclude huge chunks of the park in the time prior to the City Council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee (PLUM's) January 12th vote for as yet unknown reasons. Since the changes were at the last minute, there was obviously no public comment on them and there was nothing in writing for anyone to examine, including PLUM committee members (Reyes, Weiss, Huizar) themselves.

During the entire PLUM hearing, wannabe City Attorney Jack Weiss never bothered to even sit up from his perpetual chair slump while Reyes seemed amused by public concern that the park remain whole in the application, in spite of the fact that more than 15,000 people -- 15,000 VOTERS -- signed a petition to safeguard Griffith Park. The evidence pretty much leads one to the conclusion that this so-called last minute wrangling was pre-planned, with the PLUM Committee in on the deal.

As for why Van Griffith allowed LeBong to have his way with his family's gift to the citizens of Los Angeles is anyone's guess, including Griffith's. From the LA Weekly:

The chafing question now, though, is whether the unwieldy preservation plan, jam-packed with City Hall–esque exclusions and qualifications that almost nobody can decipher, will accomplish what homeowners and activists have fought for — a Griffith Park protected forever from chains and large-scale development. Or is the door still open to traffic-generating restaurants, aerial tramways and theme hotels?

“I’m not sure myself,” says Griffith “Van” Griffith, who has spearheaded the defense of the mountainous 4,218 acres, a crown jewel among the nation’s urban parks. “It seems like a kind of gray area floating in limbo. If they wanted to put aerial trams in the zoo, I don’t know what would happen.”

What does this mean for Griffith Park?

As for the clowncilmember who admits to idolizing Walt Disney, the opportunity to formalize such zones of development opportunity in his personal back yard must be LeBong's greatest wet dream ever. So what has been magically 'excluded' without public process from the Griffith Park Historic Landmark application?


Biggest Holes Awaiting Development:

1. Griffith Park land leased to the Autry Museum for the criminal sum of $1 per year.

No matter how you slice it, the Autry Museum is simply a lessee of City park land. However, the Autry behaves as if they own this public land. The Autry's plans for '....their land', quoting Latham and Watkins' cave dweller Bill Delvac read as Disneyland meets the Wild West. Gene Autry's little monument to the fictitious history of the television cowboy is a private non-profit corporation that in 1985 was given a land lease of 10 acres of Griffith Park in a backroom deal proffered by Tom LeBong's predecessor through the Board of Referred Powers, which -- deja vu! -- may one again be raised from the dead to approve the Autry's current expansion plans. The merger agreement between the Southwest Museum Corporation and the Autry's Griffith Park museum promised that the art and rare artifacts displayed in the museum would stay in the SW's Mt. Washington location, keeping the City's oldest museum viable.

Expansion plan phase 1 and 2 nearly triples the size of the Griffith Park facility and takes physical control of the Southwest Museum's billion dollar inventory, while reducing the SW Museum to a community college classroom. A 100' tower (in violation of current zoning), garish advertising, an expanded event venue with another alcohol license, and a parking garage swallow up the remaining green space around the Autry.


2. Toyon Canyon Restoration Area.

In the 1950s, Los Angeles made the decision to shove a municipal garbage dump in the heart of the park, filling in Toyon Canyon with millions if not billions of tons of refuse.

The impact of such an action has been almost beyond mitigation. It destroyed habitat, buried a number of natural streams that provided water to the plants and animals in the area, polluted the ground water and air via the millions of truck trips to and from the facility, and created a methane-filled mountain of potential landslide that today must be carefully groomed and maintained to keep it from sliding onto a popular picnic area below. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that the Bureau of Sanitation, tasked with this maintenance, does not have the correct diameter of pipe installed to handle turbulent-flow runoff at the level needed in Southern California. If true, ignoring the huge environmental devastation this landfill brought to the local ecosystem, families with children at the Mineral Wells Picnic Area may be in physical danger on a regular basis.

Of the many possible, the one true mitigation measure promised to the citizens, both human and animal, was the restoration of the canyon -- now a mountain -- to natural habitat. The official Toyon Canyon Landfill Closure Plan calls for exactly this. Closure and restoration of a landfill to usable land takes decades. Today, partway through the official closure process, endangered bird species such as the shy meadowlark have already returned to Toyon.

In conversations between members of the press and Tom LeBong's office, regarding Toyon, representatives from CD 4 have reiterated the councilman's mounting frustration at "...letting all that land go to waste." To the controversial 2005 Melendrez draft of the Griffith Park Master Plan, LeBong has added full-sized baseball fields with lights, parking, and cable cars running from either the Zoo or the picnic area to the top. "Angel's Flight meets Dodger Stadium", if you will. Although LeBong has had to distance himself from the Melendrez draft due to major public backlash, he still chafes at all that wasted land up there.

Expect these little projects to be back on the table after today.


3. "Headworks"

Dumping things like landfills and City Clowncil-kitch seems to be the ongoing fate of Los Angeles' most iconic piece of land. When the residents of Silverlake decided they wanted to keep their reservoir above-ground where they could enjoy the view and 'passively' recreating around its perimeter, the below-ground tanks planned for Silverlake were unceremoniously dumped into Griffith Park without any public process. "Headworks", lying next to the main equestrian entrance into Griffith Park, had been slated for trails and an equestrian picnic area. The land where DWP will be burying part of Los Angeles' s water system is next to the 134 freeway and LA River and is highly polluted by MTBE. DWP authorities promise the tanks will not leak or be contaminated by the ground pollution. However, the DWP plan calls for directing part of the LA River through the property and back out into the channel.

No comment so far on just how much MTBE if any will be added to the river itself.

Griffith Historic Ap Moves Forward with Last Minute Deal-Making

The City Council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee moved the Griffith Park Historic Monument application forward with a number of last minute changes brokered by LaBonge's office, the Griffith Trust, the Autry, DWP, and the Department of Recreation and Parks.

The standing room only crowd was fairly quiet after the vote, obviously confused by the last minute legal wrangling that the PLUM committee chose to include in its recommendation to the full council. Autry lobbyist Bill Delvac described his portion of the wrangling in his public comment as both 'excluding all non-contributing element projects already in the pipeline at the time of the historic application', and as simply excluding any project related to non-contributing elements (regardless of when they are initiated) ... So which is it, Bill?

In the last allowed public comment, a lawyer for the Griffith Trust said that they had just then agreed that Toyon Canyon - where LaBonge has wanted to build ballfields and cable cars - was to be excluded from the designation as was the Autry and the DWP's pending Headworks project. (All of these are on land that is truly part of Griffith Park.) Rec and Parks maintenance employees were to be granted six months training time to understand exactly what the designation would mean to their protocols.

No public comment was heard on these changes since no language was available for anyone to look at prior to the hearing, including the PLUM committee members themselves. However, given that Jack Weiss didn't even bother to sit up from his perpetually-bored and uninterested chair slump the entire meeting, it's pretty clear this so-called last minute wrangling was pre-planned.

Next stop for this issue -- and the only time the public will be able to comment on the new exclusions -- is the full City Council on Jan 27th.

Support the Griffith Park Cultural Historic Monument effort

HELP BRING LANDMARK STATUS FOR GRIFFITH PARK HOME

GRIFFITH PARK LANDMARK APPLICATION FACES FIRST CITY COUNCIL TEST TUESDAY, JANUARY 13

In late October, before a standing room only crowd, the Cultural Heritage Commission voted to recommend landmark status for Griffith Park. The news was greeted with jubilance citywide. But it's not over yet and next week the nomination enters the homestretch. First stop is this Tuesday, January 13 at 2 p.m. , Room 350 City Hall,200 N. Spring Street. The City Council's Planning & Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee will debate whether or not to send the matter to the full council for an up or down vote and, as we saw on October 30th, a strong public presence can affect the outcome.

Please be there, but if you cannot, you can definitely help influence PLUM members by e-mailing them your individual message of support forthe designation (see addresses below). If you belong to an organization that supports the nomination, please include that, too and cc your communication to councilmember.labonge@lacity.org

Your advocacy has and will continue to make a difference!

Chair, Councilmember Ed Reyes: councilmember.reyes@lacity.org

Councilmember Jose Huizar: councilmember.huizar@lacity.org

Councilmember Jack Weiss: councilmember.weiss@lacity.org

( courtesy www.savegriffithpark.org )

Big Week for LeBong

Two biggies this week for aging Marshall High football star Tom LeBong.

On Tuesday, PLUM takes up the issue of the Griffith Park Historical Monument. Proponents get to finally find out what cuts, slashes, and overall emasculation LeBong and his office have managed to do to the Griffith Trust's original application since the Historic Resources Commission passed its recommendation to make the entire park a historic cultural resource last October.

If PLUM (Reyes, Huizar, and Weiss) passes the proposal, file 08-3086 is set to be heard in full Council on the 27th, which, coincidentally, is the last day the council can take action on this item. Does this suggest what the Autocrat of Griffith Park's real strategy may be to kill this perceived threat?

Rumor has it that Friday the Clowncil votes yet again on the Zoo's new $42 million elephant exhibit. This time LeBong has the support of celebrity zookeeper Jack Hanna as he tries to make the case that the clowncil wasn't wrong the first two times it voted for the project. Meanwhile, we're just waiting for Guido Cardenas to resurrect his idea for the City to go into the Elephant Sanctuary business using taxpayer money and public lands. As ridiculous an idea as this is during such financially difficult times in the City, clowncilmembers simply love the sound of their own clever ideas. So we know Cardenas's brainstorm will definitely ....be baaaaaaaack.

Don't let Griffith Park be like the Titanic.

For those who haven't been following the Griffith Park adventure, a few years ago there was a Master Plan proposed by Councilman Tom LaBonge for the future of the park.

That's okay. I like a man who sets boundaries and thinks about the future! However, this Master Plan includes a hotel, restaurants, a pier in the LA River (!), flying trams, and all sorts of things to turn the Park into Disneyland North. No word on if there's room on the trams for the GP animals that will be squeezed out.

Getting Landmark status from the Historic Cultural Commission is essential to protect the park from arbitrary use and building like this. The meeting is TOMORROW!

The future of Griffith Park is in your hands. Please show your support by attending the 10AM Thursday Commissioners' meeting in Room 350, third floor, City Hall.

Ron Kaye recently sent it on as an email alert, as well:
ACTION ALERT: Support protection of Griffith Park as a cultural-historical monument by turning out for the meeting of the CULTURAL HERITAGE COMMISSION at 10 a.m. Thursday, Room 350, City Hall. The commission is expected to vote on the issue.

But there's another way you can support this, if leaving your computer would be a hardship, and it only takes a minute - trust me, I did it. Register support at: http://www.friendsofgriffithpark.org/GPPreservationRegister.html

307 people have registered. Don't more people than that use the park? Come on, be #308! And any comments you make there will be printed out for the whole Commission to read.

But I'm torn. I'm getting a lot of pressure from my esteemed and intense Griffith Park Open Space Committee, of which I'm a member, to actually go to this meeting. At 10 AM. Downtown. Aside from the fact that some people HAVE to work, it's almost as if they didn't read my previous post on this! Not to mention that at the last meeting LaBonge didn't even show up, nor did one of the Historic Cultural Commission! How rude.

I predict the Historic Commission will approve this status. But like the Felix The Cat sign, that's not going to cut it. The fate of Griffith Park, and most issues in LA, it seems, lies not in the hands of the Historic Cultural Commission, but in the City Council members, who oversee the Historic Commission.

And in the City Council, almost all of the Council will defer to the councilperson whose district the issue is in. In this case, that's LaBonge. Who is against this proposal.

So do I really have to go? [/whine]

If LA can't protect Felix the Cat, what chance does Griffith Park have?

UPDATE: The Historic Resource Staff (which is not the 5 Commissioners, but has influence over them, DID vote yes!) Also, contact emails to let your voice be heard are added at end.

Only a few more days left! No, not for Knotts Scary Farm, as fun as that is. 9 days until we find out if Griffith Park will pass the next stage as an Historic Cultural Landmark - ie, be saved and protected from the developers.

Under this status, significant future changes in the park would require approval from the commission. (particularly building permits, which always go to Historic Resources. Unlike black bird balls, which DWP gaily throws all over Ivanhoe Reservoir without permission or even informing Historic Resources of their foolish action.) More details about the Disney-fied future of the Park WITHOUT protection are in my blog here.

The Cultural Heritage Commission and the public apparently had a very dramatic meeting in August, which I missed, damn. There, Councilman Tom LaBonge's assistant (he didn't show) said,

"he supports the historic-cultural designation for the park's buildings "but not an entire park."

Tom has appointed himself Mayor of Griffith Park, but I realize now that he probably just means he's Mayor of the Ranger Station, the stables, and the bathrooms.

Rec & Parks (Jon Kirk Mukri) remained neutral. The Gene Autry Museum said they wanted to stay out of the Landmark designation. (probably worried that the $1 a year rent they pay to Griffith Park might double, or even triple. Plus, this way, they can keep building.) The LADWP also excused themselves from the designation. (LaBonge's main reason for disagreeing with the application: the Landmark status might adversely affect the rights of this utility to put in pipes. Good one, Tom!)

According to the Times and other witnesses I talked with, the Commissioner who almost stopped the whole application in the packed August meeting was Glen C. Dake. Dake followed LaBonge's thinking: what about the poor DWP? Would Landmark status mean no more water or water pipes in the Park? (This isn't Dake's first big conflict: he voted no to giving Felix the Cat on the Chevrolet dealership, Historic Cultural status, too!) But Dake was persuaded by the other 2 Commisioners to change his mind for Griffith Park, and say yes for the next Commission meeting.

I called Ken Bernstein at Historic Resources today to find out what the holdup is! This application was supposed to go through a couple of months ago, and the meeting with the Cultural Heritage Commissioners has been postponed twice.

The Commissioners are all volunteers. He explained that any application has to pass 3 out of the 5 Commissioners. In this case, one of the women had already been hired by Rec & Parks for something, and had to recuse herself. But last time only 3 Commissioners were there, and only 2 said yes. Ken said one of the Commissioners, Oz Scott, is a "well-known TV and film producer, so he's always going on location." (Oh, WELL then, that's ok, if he works in the industry!)

But the meeting for October 30 is still scheduled to happen, with 4 Commissioners. The HR staff itself will also weigh in with a verdict of yea or nay. The Commission does take the majority of the staff's recommendations (since those busy Commissioners are off doing their own thing, that's a good plan.) The staff's answer will be made public on Tuesday.

Ken wasn't able to tell me their secret verdict, of course, but I heard that smile in your voice, Ken! He did say this application was bigger than any they've ever gotten (350 pages, and a cost of $75,000.) He also said they got a couple hundred letters asking for Griffith Park to be given this Landmark status. This all sounds very positive, doesn't it?

But here's the kicker: remember my mention of Felix the Cat? Felix is NOT a Cultural Landmark. It did pass the Historic Resources Commission - in spite of Dake's no. But as you may know, the City of Los Angeles has some unholy alliance with the City Council. So of course after the Commission rules on a status application, it goes to the LA City Council. [Please cue the scary music.] And the Councilman for Felix the Cat voted no. And the whole application failed.

What do you think will happen if the Griffith Park proposal passes the Commission, and goes to Council? And Tom LaBonge gives his negative opinion? [Loud scream.]

To make a fuss (and I asked specifically - Resources Board considers emails to be the same as letters):
Historic Resources: ken.bernstein@lacity.org
Tom LaBonge: rory.fitzpatrick@lacity.org




Photo by Christine Cotter of the LA Times.

Fate of two Los Angeles cultural icons unites activists,....with some conditions

The efforts to preserve Griffith Park and the Southwest Museum will continue this Wednesday, October 15, with activists converging on City Hall for the regular 10:00 AM meeting of the City Council.

The Save Los Angeles Project with a broad spectrum of community groups, plan on taking their campaign to gain "historic cultural monument status" for Griffith Park and preserving the Southwest Museum with its collection of art work, on the slopes of Mt. Washington in Council District 14, directly to the fifteen people that will decide their respective futures.

But as more citizens and groups join the growing movement to grant historical status for Griffith Park, do they all care in preserving the Southwest Museum in its current location??

The Los Angeles Conservancy for example has jumped on the "Cultural Historical Monument Bandwagon" and has posted a "action alert" on their web site that call upon their supporters to attend the October 30, 2008 meeting of the The city’s Cultural Heritage Commission, which will vote on the Griffith Park's HCM nomination.

But its Executive Director, Linda Dishman is a founding, blue-ribbon member of the "Southwest Society", a group of political hacks and associates of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Councilman Jose Huizar who were suppose to raise money to restore the museum. Thus you have the Executive Director of LA's leading preservation organization backing the effort to preserve Griffith Park but yet is supporting the expansion of the Autry National Center which would adversely impact the park, what gives??

Associations?? One can type into the Google search engine, William Delvac of Latham and Watkins, Brenda Levin, and Linda Dishman and get this .

All three contribute to the Los Angeles Historic Resource Assessment Project, a project of the Getty Conservation Institute. This summery report came up with strategies for preservation of cultural entities such as neighborhoods, churches, buildings, and yes, museums.

But when preservation of our cultural, historic locations is predicated on our public institutions and their political overseers, then the best of intentions become political considerations that are expose to the whims and political needs of the powers to be, and those who seek to preserve our civic treasures become beholden to those who control preservation funds.

Thus a person such as Jackie Autry can spread around the "Benjamin's" to the likes of Steve Sugerman, William Delvac, Brenda Levin, Linda Dishman, Councilman Jose Huizar, Councilman Tom LaBonge and Mayor Villaraigosa, in her quest to make off with the Southwest collection, in what would go down as the greatest "legalize" heist of Northeast Los Angeles Cultural History.

........and spread the "cancer of development" on the sacred land that Col. Griffith sought to preserve in its natural state.

Shameless LeBong Press-Op Trivializes Firefighter Deaths

Anything for a press op, eh - Clowncilman?

We've all seen him on the Channel 11 News violently shoving the Mayor aside when a camera's nearby. So it's probably not news that The Autocrat of Griffith Park has a disturbing, almost visceral obsession with bright lights, paparazzi, and the primal will to rebuild Griffith Park in his own, warped image.

But this latest move by the self-proclaimed reincarnation of John Ferraro is literally one for the high school history books. According to a Rec and Parks Commission Board Report (08-272 ) for October 3 2008, LeBong finds himself obliged to install yet another commemorative plaque in Griffith Park because...

"...In October 1933, the deadliest fire in Los Angeles history struck Griffith Park.

(Yes -- this is true... and in 2006 AND 2007, LeBong held press ops installing park memorials to honor the men killed in this tragedy.)

...The community banded together to fight the fire and the blaze was under control before nightfall.

(According to published accounts, the 'community' consisted of firefighters, family members of the injured and deceased, press, park workers, and nearby residents.)

...That evening, rank and file members of the newly-formed Screen Actors Guild Board submitted their resignations in order to allow stars to take their places thus giving their union more "clout." This was a key moment in establishing the Screen Actors Guild as a powerful, unified voice for actors.

(Uh, O-K. Now...what does this have to do with Griffith Park and the 1933 fire, exactly?)

...In the years to follow, fire fighters would extinguish many more fires in Griffith Park and actors would make additional sacrifices on behalf of the Screen Actors Guild and their fellow actors.

(...whuh....?)

...In commemoration of its 75th Anniversary, the Screen Actors Guild is honored to dedicate this tree to its members - past, present and future - and in tribute to those who fight selflessly for the good of others. "

Well... Of course! That all makes perfect sense now, doesn't it? So heck, let's try to summarize. LeBong's latest descent-into-complete-insanity-just-for-a-press-op includes:

1. Trivializing the deaths of 29 CCC workers in the 1933 Griffith Park Fire by reducing the event to an excuse for a photo-op.


2. Spinning history to intertwine two entirely uncorrelated events in the minds of the public just for a photo-op.


3. Bypassing any real public, common-sense process for deciding how, why, and where plaques and monuments are placed in public green spaces and instead simply ordering Rec and Parks to do this himself, and then ordering them to say that they approved of it.

Looks like no tactic is too base, no opportunity too miniscule for this particular public servant to show us all who is really in charge of Griffith Park and the Dept. of Recreation and Parks. What a stellar example of our tax dollars hard at work; our public servants looking out for our best interests.


Given the man's level of self-indulgent propriety with respect to Griffith Park, is it any wonder that when faced with the Griffith Family's Historic Monument application, the Clowncilman is thrashing and flailing like a cockroach lit up by a spotlight?

LeBong in Secret Meeting: "Oppose Griffith Park Historic Designation!"

The Autocrat of Griffith Park is at it again. Recently calling all General Managers in this City to a secret meeting at his office, LeBong then ordered all their respective departments to oppose the Historic Designation application for Griffith Park.

The Historic Designation application was filed by the Griffith Trust, a family foundation run by Van Griffith, the great-grandson of the man who created Griffith Park and donated the land to the City, Griffith J. Griffith. The application is in direct response to the continued carving up of the park by LeBong for development by his personal friends and donors, and to the violence which he sometimes responds with when questioned by his constituents.

While away in Germany ostensibly on City business yet again, through his sock puppet proxy, Rory Calhoun, LeBong told all the GMs that the application was filed because the community has no confidence in the Department of Rec and Parks. The reality is that the public is completely fed up with LeBong continually concocting schemes for handing over chunks of the park to his buddies, big money donors like the Autry and prominent members of the Korean business community, to name just a few.

Actions by LeBong make it pretty clear that the Clowncilman thinks Griffith Park is his personal backyard. He completely rewrote the version of the Griffith Park Master plan that the community opposes so strongly in the image of Disneyland, complete with a pleasure pier, two funiculars (cable cars) -- one from the Observatory to Mt. Hollywood and one from Mineral Wells to the top of Toyon Landfill -- multilevel parking structures, and new baseball fields on top of the landfill when current closure plans for the landfill call for its restoration to natural habitat.

LeBong also recently promised his Korean financial supporters that they could take a substantial chunk of natural habitat and create "Busan Point" -- a Korean garden of their own design and use. Bypassing official processes and Rec and Parks approval, LeBong often orders or pushes around Rec and Parks employees to build or bulldoze whatever his whim is at the moment. It could be a monument to George Harrison 'here' or a tree for victims of the 1933 Griffith Park fire 'there'. But in the case of 'there', the tree is actually no where near the location where the victims fell, but instead at a location that allowed LeBong to have the absolute biggest press conference possible. It seems that the Clowncilman's sense of propriety with regards to Griffith Park is what the public, and the Griffith family itself, is tired of fighting.

It's worth noting that the "Busan" in LeBong's "Busan Point" promise is one of the Sister Cities of Los Angeles. Contrary to popular belief, the Los Angeles Sister Cities program is not a City program. It's run by a private foundation funded by some of the biggest financial movers and shakers in Los Angeles, including the powerful Korean business community. LeBong has already built the "Berlin Forest" in Griffith Park for yet another Sister City. At last check, there were 27 Sister Cities of Los Angeles, and the number continues to grow as more ethnically linked members of Los Angeles' business community jump in the game. If left unchecked by such efforts as the Historic Designation proposal, LeBong will be handing out chunks of Griffith Park to all of them.