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IN THIS SITE
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Some links on these archived pages are not operative.
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This NONCOMMERCIAL site is a harmless hobby of George Garrigues, who has lived in the Westside Village district of Palms for 12 years. These pages have no connection with any organization.
Send him e-mail with corrections and comments.
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Neighborhood councils can take the lead
Preserving cultural heritage insures the humanity of our city
By Ken Marsh
Marsh is a director of the Mar Vista Community Council
The City of Los Angeles is unique for its large size, encompassing 469 square miles, developed mostly within the last hundred years. The city’s history is rooted in the Spanish explorers and missionaries of hundreds of years ago, as well as in Native American cultures going back thousands of years.
In 1850, the city was incorporated. The booming post-WW II era, with returning servicemen and their families pouring into the region, put Los Angeles on the track to becoming the second-largest city in the U.S. and the world-class one it is today.
The history of a unique Los Angeles architecture and the lifestyles it has supported is recorded in standing examples of the residential and commercial buildings throughout the city. But with L.A. faced with periodic influxes of people and the need to expand the urban economy, demands of development have meant discarding what was to make room for what will be.
Los Angeles has sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed in maintaining its architectural history through last-ditch, case-by-case campaigns by disparate and desperate history proponents, pleaded before the City Council and the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission.
No meaningful citywide plan has been created to identify, map-out and designate appropriate sites for preservation before a development is proposed.
It is time that is changed. From our grassroots perspectives and street-intimate knowledge of our localities, the neighborhood councils can take the lead in protecting the city’s preservation-worthy cultural infrastructure. We need to support each other in our individual efforts and join together to impress upon the City Council and the mayor that growth which incorporates the preservation of our cultural heritage thereby respects our communities and insures the humanity of our city.
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L.A. may permit residents, local councils to pay for speeded-up city services
(Excerpted from the L.A. Daily News, July 26, 2005)
By Dan Laidman, Staff Writer
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An activist taxpayer group on Monday blasted a city plan to let residents expedite routine repairs by paying municipal crews' overtime costs out of their own pockets.
And while some neighborhood councils were concerned about the inequity of wealthy residents being better able to pay for improved services, others see benefits for all in unclogging the backlog of repairs.
The ripples come after the City Council's Public Works Committee endorsed a plan Friday that would have crews come out on weekends to trim trees, patch potholes and do other repairs for residents who pay their overtime costs. The tasks are jobs the city would do anyway, but perhaps not for many months. . . .
"That's outrageous," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. . . .
William Robertson, director of the Bureau of Street Services, said the program would allow people to expedite repairs they feel strongly about.
"The problem is with so much need out there, their request may go on a backlog that may be six months out or it may be a year out depending on the type of work that needs to be done. This certainly gives them an opportunity to move to the top of the list."
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Robertson's staff is researching how the plan would work. It would have to be approved by the City Council before taking effect.
Robertson anticipates that most residents who take advantage of the plan would do so in conjunction with their neighborhood council. He also envisions neighbors joining together to pool their money for repairs that benefit an entire block.
Pamela Goldfinger, a member of the interim board of the Mission Hills Neighborhood Council, said her group has yet to discuss the plan. If it provided a way to beautify the neighborhood she said the council would consider taking part.
"If it's something that ... ultimately fell within (the city's) purview or jurisdiction to provide for a citizen then I would want to take a hard look at that, at why the citizen would have to pay for something the city would be expected to provide for," she said.
Jim Sullivan, a member of the interim board of the Panorama City Neighborhood Council, said he was concerned about any program that circumvented the normal process for assigning repair jobs.
"That's always a possibility that those neighborhoods that are the loudest and have the most money perhaps get better service than the rest of the city," he said.
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Councilman threatens a slander suit after a public hearing about Wal-Mart
(Excerpted from the L.A. Daily News, July 27, 2005)
By Kerry Cavanaugh, Staff Writer
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NORTHRIDGE — Leaders of a neighborhood council on Monday accused City Councilman Greig Smith of trying to silence opponents by threatening to file a defamation suit over statements implying he'd been bought off by Wal-Mart.
The angry exchange was prompted by comments made at a public hearing that Smith's support for a proposed Wal-Mart store, given after the company agreed to pay $166,000 into a community fund, was "nothing short of bribery."
Last week, Smith demanded a retraction from Northridge West Neighborhood Vice President Sherry Ramstead, who made the comments, and President Jim Alger, who later repeated them. . . .
The neighborhood council leaders said they were shocked by Smith's letter. . . .
"It saddens me that Mr. Greig Smith, my councilman, feels a need to threaten me with legal action over a verbal opposition to his position on his issue," Ramstead said in a statement. . . .
Joshua Koltun, a San Francisco attorney who specializes in free-speech issues, said the neighborhood council leaders' statements are based on their opinion — that the community fund is like a bribe to win support for the project — which is protected by the First Amendment.
"The court would not let this out of the starting block and in California she (Ramstead) could probably get her attorneys' fees back" if Smith sued her.
Wal-Mart has proposed razing the former Best and Levitz buildings at Nordhoff Street and Tampa Avenue to build a 24-hour store. Some residents have opposed the project, fearing increased traffic to a congested shopping district.
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CLIFF CHENG
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Palms must learn to work with other neighborhood councils
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Cliff Cheng is a former member of the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission who has been an active voice in the Palms Neighborhood Council and Palms-Westside Village Neighborhood Watch. This article is taken from an e-mail he sent to Palms Representative Assembly members. It has been edited.
Cheng made a plea at the beginning of the Palms Neighborhood Council meeting on Aug. 3 for the Representative Assemby to support the Granada Hills Neighborhood Council in its fight to close down a trash dump in that area. The Assembly took no action.
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If you have not read, you may want to read the L.A. Times story (Aug. 6, 2005, Sat., Calif. section pg. 1) about how Granada Hills North Neighborhood Council defeated [the trash-hauling firm] BFI and denied it another overpriced L.A. City garbage contract.
Only one other neighborhood council, Northridge, backed Granada Hills North, which came to us too late, but I still think you all should have backed up Granada Hills.
Neighborhood councils are far more effective if we back each other up. Our credibility is damaged when we do not back up other councils.
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Some of you were concerned about the background.
The L.A. Times story has some background. It did not, however, report that BFI lobbyists played off and threatened Hahn and Villaragoisa against each other during the mayor's race.
Nor did it mention that Councilman Greig Smith told his colleagues in open session that BFI was ripping off the taxpayers by overcharging us. Also it did not mention that BFI refused to use alternative fuels.
The Palms Neighborhood Council has a honeymoon period to learn to work with other councils. That period is short.
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