2009: Time to Conceive, Believe, and Achieve

From: CityWatch YearEnder-‘08/’09
By Noel Weiss

It's not that people want to believe; they need to believe - Believe in themselves; believe in the integrity and competence of their institutions; believe in core principles and social values which reflect and implement those values - principles like freedom, the importance of maintaining a strong middle class, the joy that flows from turning obstacles into opportunities, and the benefits from overcoming the inevitable resistance which attends any serious, significant challenge. What is needed throughout this City is that the City's disempowered citizens be empowered; and that we strive in every instance to get a fair result, fairly obtained following thorough, thoughtful, open debate.

Who are the disempowered?

They are the Valley Village Homeowners who see a City Council unresponsive to their values of preserving the character and scale of their neighborhoods; the activists in West Los Angeles who want a logical, coherent, competent policy on airport improvement, and reasonable controls on airport expansion, yet see the City Council as not being as responsive to the true needs of the situation as is required.

They are the Citizens in East Los Angeles who just got roughed up by a zoning ordinance rammed through by Councilman Reyes which downzones 11,000 parcels without a full EIR; people who just want their property rights respected in the same way as the City Council would respect the property rights of Citizens residing in West Los Angeles or elsewhere.

They are the Citizens of San Pedro who don't want land use entitlement speculators profiting off of the backs of the community; they are Citizens of Watts who ask only that the system respect their needs and their rights, and facilitate their individual empowerment rather than burden it; they are tenants and landlords who ask that the system work to promote respectful communication between them rather than needless confrontation.

They are Citizens in the Fairfax and West Los Angeles areas who merely ask that the laws against having huge complexes next to single family homes be enforced; they are Citizens of Sunland -Tujunga who reasonably insist that their leaders find ways to make our institutions responsive to the accomplishment of their community vision of what is right for them.

Both a positive vision and a disciplined approach by the City Council are required. If the middle class is to prosper and new business is to come to the community, the community has to be safe; the schools have to be competent and effective, and health services must be available. In short, doing whatever it takes, even if what it takes is making a firm commitment in the face of an uncertain outcome, and risking disappointment or short-term setbacks. The reason? Because it is those short-term set-backs that instill and create the drive to arm us for the greater challenges that await.

The City Council has not lived up to its potential. We have no Housing Policy; we have no Transportation policy; we have no enforceable policy on Billboards. These are three of the most obvious examples. The highlight of Councilman Jose Huizar's career so far is the rhetorical question he raised during the 10 hour debate in March and April, 2007 (over two sessions) involving my proposal to raise the tenant relocation fees. Mr. Huizar asked his colleagues on the Council (he was new to the Council) if the City had a Housing Policy, and if so, what was it exactly. His question was met with stony silence. Mr. Huizar got his answer. He has never asked again.

When the tenants at Lincoln Place were met with deliberate indifference by the Mayor and the City Council (failing to act to prevent forced involuntary evictions and enforce a 'no eviction promise' the speculator AIMCO and its partner Robert Bisno made to induce the City to grant them their land use entitlements), the tenants had to sue the City and AIMCO. That should not have been necessary.

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