Gift to Autry from Los Angeles Taxpayers: $27.5 million

As Red Spot reported, the Southwest Museum won the initial skirmish yesterday when the Board of Referred Powers voted to delay a final vote on the Autry expansion.

What wasn't reported is that there were not just two sides to the issue, but three sides who needed to be heard in the room yesterday: 1. the Autry political machine, 2. the Friends of the Southwest Museum, and 3. parks' and taxpayers' advocates. When the dust cleared, the advocates were completely shut out of the conversation.

For the past five years, the Friends of the Southwest Museum have heavily courted the parks' and taxpayers' advocates for this fight. In the end, they stood aside while the Board of Referred Powers completely ignored the welfare of the one resource who could force the Autry's hand in their favor: the eleven acres of prime park land in Griffith Park owned by the taxpayers of Los Angeles.

The Autry expansion project as presented to councilmembers Hahn, Reyes, Parks, Rosendahl and Cardenas involves a significant construct on prime Griffith Park land. With a rent of just $1 per year, the Autry has benefitted from the location since '87 in many ways, one of which is property rentals for private events. In recent years, this practice has escalated.

In financial documents, the Autry itself reports the value of the rent that it should be paying annually to the Department of Recreation and Parks as a $550,000 annual "donation". That's a massive taxpayer "donation" equivalent to $27.5 million over the life of the lease in today's market.

As yesterday's board meeting ended, what was on the table in exchange for keeping the SW Museum a viable, healthy museum amounted to handing the Autry everything they wanted:

A final EIR without any of the significant mitigation measures called for by neighborhood councils, advocates, and City code.

A $1/yr lease equivalent to a $27.5 million taxpayer donation.

All variances including a building height twice what is allowed in the zone, excessive signage and sign heights, and an underground parking structure.

With the advocates out of the conversation, no one mentioned that bundling all of these items together for one vote is, if not illegal, then at least highly unethical.

Now the morning after, parks' and taxpayers' advocates must be feeling a lot like Zuma Dogg -- used, discarded and left homeless on the streets of park-poor Los Angeles.