Gary Slossberg For LA City Council District 13

All the locations mentioned below are within two blocks of each other.

There’s a cute Spanish style multiplex up the street from where I live. And it’s boarded up with plywood and a chain link fence. Sort of detracts from the charm.

Charmless Spanish Style employs City’s own Design Standards.

Maybe this sounds like a symptom of a bad economy. But that’s not it. It’s been left this way for 7 years. It’s owned by Ronald McDonald House. They bought it in along with 5 other residential lots up the street in order to build a bigger hotel for guests who bring their sick children to the nearby Children’s Hospital. They built the hotel but left this particular parcel of land to waste away. (RMH is a worthy organization and what I am attempting to demonstrate is in no way belittling the important role they serve to the families of sick children.)

Understandably, the residing neighbor on the North side of this property is not a big fan of the dilapidated building. She takes excellent care of her property. She and husband are constantly painting over gang tags next door and hearing trespassers rustling around inside the units. The residing neighbor on the south side of the property says he hears people in there too from time to time doing, “…God knows what”.

Craftsman copies styles from the City’s nearby Light Yard.

A block away sits another abandoned property; a charming, old craftsman house on Virgil. It’s been abandoned for years. I could see inside before they nailed boards onto the windows and doors. The inside was covered in tags. Another neighborhood council member informed me that it was being used by squatters for prostitution and drugs. Now this house has a 9-foot tall chain link fence that surrounds its perimeter. One of the sides of the fence has a gaping hole.

Almost as unattractive as the City's Light Yard down the street.

A block in the other direction is a vacant double sized lot on a small, residential street. It’s been vacant with a breached chain link fence for the past 7 years. It sits there taunting the children who play in the street because there is no nearby park. Less than a block away from that vacant lot, is the DWP’s light yard which looks similar to a vacant lot only it is less attractive. The city thought that historic route 66, right across the street from a Carnegie Library, in one of the most densely populated areas of Los Angeles would be a great place to store light posts for the rest of the city. Behind a 12 foot high, razor wire fence that is patrolled nightly by a security guard, sits the worst offender of all: the light yard owned by the City of Los Angeles.

Child walks by city light yard on way to school.

Unidentifiable substance behind the fence. Hope it's safe for the children on their way to school.

If we can only hold landlords as accountable as we hold our own city agencies then I suppose things could get worse than they are now. It would be nice to think that property owners care about the community more than they do about their profits but this is not usually the case. But when the city’s own example of how to maintain property is such a hideous eyesore (located smack dab in the middle of 3 elementary schools no less), the standard for what everyone else needs to do to comply has been set. Why shouldn’t gangs and squatters look at this neighborhood and feel right at home. They can literally run recession proof businesses with no overhead and, at the same time blend in with the image the city puts forth in her own properties. Maybe the city’s plan is to attract all the crime to my neighborhood so it is more centralized.

In 1999, while Harry Markopolos was toiling as a lowly investment officer, Bernie Madoff (pronounced “made off,” as in “who made off with my retirement fund?”) was riding high as head of one of the most successful investment firms on Wall Street. The problem was Bernie Madoff was too successful. When Markopolos reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that Madoff’s consistent profits were “mathematically impossible,” the agency snoozed.

Sixteen times, in response to some red flag or other, the watchdog agency “investigated” Madoff, and each time his operation was pronounced financially sound. The truth, of course, is that Bernie Madoff was using other people’s money to orchestrate the largest financial fraud in human history.

What happened to the experts, the people in charge of making sure things like this don’t happen? How is it that the very people charged with enforcing the prohibitions against such massive fraud couldn’t see it when it was laid out in front of them with mathematical precision?

The answer, of course, is that the government doesn’t care much about money until there’s suddenly none left. The doom and gloom is widespread in this economy, but nowhere is the problem looking more serious than at the level of state and local government. You know, those people who provide things like roads, schools and fire departments.

Several months ago, members of neighborhood councils from all over the City of Los Angeles were informed in hushed and solemn tones by the keepers of the local treasury that the City was some 400 million dollars in the hole. Our leaders needed help making some tough choices.

Let’s see, do we want parks or police? Fire protection or garbage pickup? Such tough choices in these times of economic uncertainty. Not so for our highly-paid City Council members: the highest paid in the country at a $171,648 a year.

And the City’s shortfall is peanuts compared to what the State of California is facing. Turns out – surprise! – the State budget gap is on track to reach $42 billion by 2010. Just last month, the State Controller announced that the government could “run out of money” by February.

Already the states are eyeing Washington for a bailout similar to the ones handed out to the financial and auto industries. Except this one’s going to cost some real money.

What happened to the experts? How come no one at the helm of the massive engines of government and finance could see this coming down the road and prepare? Sure, times are tough all over, but most of my friends are managing to keep their heads above water.

Why? Because the money we have in our personal budgets is our own, and it’s limited. We don’t have the luxury of telling the electric company that we’ll be “running out of money this February.” Barack Obama was on the news yesterday announcing that the government will be looking at trillions in dollars of debt for years to come.

The next big battle over our dwindling resources is going to be fought at the State and local government level. People like to say that government is the problem, not the solution. Well, what we have now is the result of a government that has been asleep at the wheel for an awfully long time.

David Bell, East Hollywood Neighborhood Council

Written by Stephen Box, Hollywood Resident and Bike Activist http://SoapBoxLA.blogspot.com

A writer friend once told me that the simplest cure for writer’s block was to simply “Go for a walk!” I’ve tried  it and it works, especially here in Hollywood. Within a few steps one is guaranteed to find adventure, sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always exciting.

Yesterday was no different as I set out on foot to the Hollywood Farmers’ Market. It was a beautiful day, I ran into old friends, and I discovered the Coffee Cellar which specializes in organic, shade grown, and fair trade certified coffees. I love this neighborhood!

I also took some time to wander around and to ask the simple question “What would make this a more walkable neighborhood?” The streets were full of people walking, riding their bikes, shopping, waiting for the bus, hanging out, parking cars, parking more cars and circling the block looking for parking so they could also park their cars. There were great moments of hope but then there were moments when I was confronted by  one of the “traffic moats” that separate the casual walkers from the committed.

As I stood at Hollywood & Vine and looked up at the W Hotel project I thought back to all of the community planning meetings when the CRA, the LADOT, the Planning Department, the Council office staff and lots of consultants and experts from the Developer’s team presented the plans for the project, a fairly significant and ambitious project!

I remember lots of discussions of traffic mitigation, auto parking, street widening, intersection engineering, signal timing and capacity for motor vehicles. But try as I might, I could not remember any discussion of evaluating the project in terms of walkability.

It’s too bad because the City’s Planning Department has a great tool called the “Walkability Checklist” that helps the community and the developers evaluate a project in terms of its impact on the “walkability” of the immediate neighborhood. I think we should be using it.

Rick Cole, the City Manager of Ventura and one of America’s leading new Urbanists, shook up developers and residents alike when he drew a big circle around Ventura’s downtown and declared it the “walkable zone.” First and foremost, people can walk safely and efficiently within that zone. Other modes are then incorporated but never at the expense of the safety and efficacy of walking as a mode of transportation.

Quoting Greek Essayist Plutarch, Ventura’s General Plan now declares “A city, like a living thing, is a united and continuous whole.”

As for Hollywood, I think we could benefit from that kind of re-orienting or recommitment to the simplest and most basic mode of transportation, walking.

This is not to suggest that other modes aren’t important and essential to a thriving and vital community, In fact, they are, it’s simply a matter of repositioning human powered mobility as the starting point. It’s a commitment to a solution that isn’t based on the typical “either/or” proposals but instead holds for a higher standard that includes all modes as vital and viable and defines a sustainable community as one that works for everybody.

For too long, our City’s leaders have offered us choices based on false dichotomies. Recently during the budget discussions the uproar was over “Would you like to close the libraries or cut back on police?” This was followed by the “loss of access to our parks or reduced fire department” and through it all the LADOT is notorius for offering communities the “Would you like to move cars or would you like to move people?”

As I finished my walk, I was resolute. I want it all! Either/or options are for mediocre communities and I want Los Angeles to be a Great City!

I want streets that work for mass transit, for private autos, for cyclists and yes…even in LA…for pedestrians. I want Great Streets! I want streets that are clean, graffiti free, interesting and vital, filled with wide sidewalks and bike racks, street furniture and trees. I want to be able to cross those streets without having to fear for my life and I want to see lots of wide-eyed, sun-burned tourists carrying dog-eared guide books, all walking up and down the streets of Hollywood and I want to smile, acknowledging their conformation that the streets of Hollywood are truly walkable.

I don’t think this is too much to ask for, after all, this is Hollywood and we are surrounded by the most creative and talented people in the world. All that’s missing is vision and commitment.

Who’s in?

p.s. If you’d like to look at the Walkability Checklist from the City Planning Department, you can download it here.

18 Story Condo Tower Planned for Hollywood Blvd. at Edgemont St.
By Kimberly Gomez, Ledger Contributing Writer

EAST HOLLYWOOD—Parking spillover, traffic congestion and height are some of the concerns area residents expressed in October about a new development at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Edgemont Street.

The project—expected to break ground in 2011—proposes a 15-story hotel and a 18-story condo tower on the 1.5 acre property.

Over 60 people attended a city sponsored public meeting about the project at 4900 Hollywood Boulevard. The project’s developer is Los Angeles based Cen-Fed Ltd.

Many at the meeting spoke of possible restricted views of Barnsdall Art Park, which lies directly east of the property, should the development be approved as is.

“It would trouble me to see this project moving forward as it is currently designed,” said Gary Slossberg of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council.

The development, as proposed, will have 172 residential units—including 164 condominiums—eight two-story townhouses and 150 hotel rooms along with retail and commercial space. Currently, 472 total parking spaces are planned.

“We think this is a community that is situated in proximity to transit that could absorb the type of density that is needed to reduce urban sprawl,” said Michael Gonzales who represents the developer.

But many at the meeting were not convinced.

“Any development over five stories would dramatically change the nature of our neighborhood,” said Kenneth E. Owen, Chair of the Planning, Zoning and Historic Preservation Committee of the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council.

Owen said the GGPNC may ask the city’s planning department to demonstrate the height of the project with poles or even balloons. Plans currently indicate the project will reach 220 feet in height.