On Sunday, November 23, 2008, campaign supporters Jennifer Moran and David Bell are hosting the first official fundraiser to elect Gary Slossberg to City Council. Contact the campaign at gary4citycouncil@yahoo.com or at (323) 342-2270 if you wish to attend.
L.A. Weekly article published on November 19, 2008
…City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo played a key role in bringing the [settlement deal with the billboard companies] to the Council two years ago. But much of the responsibility also lies with Councilman Garcetti, the fresh-faced enviro who runs the council with a strong hand, pushes hard for unanimous votes, and rewards his favored members with plum committee assignments.
Garcetti, who for five years has tooled around L.A. in an EV1 electric car, long ignored criticism of the sweetheart deal he helped to push through. Despite outcry from Valley, Hollywood and Westside residents, it wasn’t until a few weeks ago, amidst the erupting anger in Silver Lake - in a neighborhood not far from Garcetti’s own, where he has many friends - that Garcetti, a billboard enabler, began to question himself.
“It was probably a mistake,” Garcetti told The New York Times on Nov. 5. A week later, he went further, telling L.A. Weekly,” It was a really bad decision,” in which he was “blinded” by a promise that some illegal billboards in his own area, Echo Park, would be removed…
….For weeks this fall, Garcetti seemed stunned by what he and the City Council had unleashed. Long a backer of supersized outdoor advertising, Garcetti suddenly switched sides…
…But by the time the powerful City Council president had taken an interest, it was two years too late. Residents want the signs gone, but an estimated 50 recently switched-on LED displays - the behemoth at the intersection of Topanga Canyon and Victory boulevards that can be seen from a Santa Monica Mountains overlook; or a piercing sign that floods a bedroom in Cahuenga Pass - are almost certainly here to stay.
They are unaffected by the six-month moratorium now under consideration. Legal experts say that the eyesore will loom over charming Silver Lake Boulevard for years. And Garcetti is already lowering expectations, using the term “extremist” to describe any plan to actually ban LED billboards…
…Few environmentalists or anti-clutter activists trust Villaraigosa, Delgadillo or Garcetti to hold tough, once the proposed moratorium ends in mid-2009. For years, their efforts to address L.A.’s worsening clutter have sputtered and backfired, including Garcetti’s televised - and, it turns out, hollow - public vow two years ago to remove 15 illegal billboards on Echo Park Boulevard not far from his own “green” home recently featured in Dwell magazine. He has managed to remove just two…
…Nobody - not Villaraigosa, Garcetti or any of the other City Hall politicians who have taken money from outdoor advertisers or received free campaign billboard ads from them - publicly questioned Delgadillo’s behavior. He brought to the City Council a “settlement” he had hammered out with Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS Outdoor. The odd deal, never debated by the neighborhoods it would affect, was quickly accepted by Garcetti and the council, and signed by Villaraigosa.
Today, there is little disagreement that it was a major capitulation to the billboard giants, unparalled in the United States. Yet Garcetti is still confused, claiming a few weeks ago on KPPC radio that the settlement allowing digital conversions was a result of the city losing its case in court.
In fact, the city won. Garcetti now tells the Weekly, “it is embarrassing” that he, the Council, Villaraigosa and Delgadillo all settled, knowing they had won in court…
…Garcetti clearly doesn’t like his unflattering new image. He ran for office as a green candidate and lives the Silver Lake ethos - except that he has taken eight contributions from outdoor advertising companies, according to the City Ethics Commission.
Dear Friends:
Last week America took a historic step in the direction of hope.
But as we all breathe a sigh of relief, and take a much needed rest from politics, I would like to take this time to remind you that the fight for social justice, accountability and openness in government is not over. Tip O’Neil famously said: All politics is local, and the more I’ve gotten involved in the politics of my community the more true that seems to be.
On March 3, 2009, there will be another election in Los Angeles - this time to elect the members of the Los Angeles City Council. I am sending this message out to a select few - those of you who are politically engaged, connected, and energized - and I am asking you to continue the fight on behalf of the people of this community.
For too long the people of Los Angeles have lived with a government that is utterly unresponsive to the concerns of its citizens and one that is in the pocket of big-money developers who don’t even live here. While the super-rich have been getting richer off of the land in this city, the average citizen has been left to fend for him or herself in a city with grossly inadequate infrastructure, a public transit system in need of drastic improvements, non-responsive city services, garbage piling up in the streets, violence among our youth, and the greatest lack of parks in the entire country!
I am asking you on behalf of the people of my community, your community, and the City of Los Angeles as a whole to bring your commitment to change home to the local level - where your energy, your integrity, and your hope for the future can bring real change into the lives of ordinary people.
Less than a decade ago, Barack Obama began his journey to the White House as a community organizer in the inner city of Chicago. It was there, at the grassroots, local level, where he developed his message of change and devised a strategy to bring hope from the streets of Chicago to the entire world. Don’t let this moment pass. Don’t let the people who believe they have already purchased the Los Angeles City Council get away with four more years of unfettered profits at our expense.
Please forward this message to your friends who have demonstrated a commitment to change during this past election. Help me work toward victory on March 3, 2009. Visit www.gary4citycouncil.com to see how you can help bring about change on our local level.
Yours truly,
Gary Slossberg
Candidate for Los Angeles City Council
Council District 13