INSIDE CITY HALL - In Los Angeles, where the car is king, few things represent a greater threat than the loss of parking.
Neighborhood councils are feeling that pain.
Members of the grass-roots advisory boards used to have unlimited free parking at City Hall.
However, the Department of General Services, which oversees the parking lots, recently rescinded that privilege because of security co ncerns.
"They were concerned that if something happened, they wanted to be able to have a name attached to a car parking here," said Jeremy Oberstein, a spokesman for City Councilman Paul Krekorian.
Krekorian, who chairs the council's Education and Neighborhoods Committee, intervened and was able to get two parking passes for each of the 93 neighborhood councils.
However, the groups have to call in and identify the driver and car before they can use the permit.
"It is a security issue," Oberstein said. "If a neighborhood council member needs to come downtown on city business, we can arrange parking."
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If you think Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has had a hectic travel schedule, just wait.
On June 21, he takes over as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Villaraigosa, who has been making frequent trips from L.A to Washington, D.C., as he pleads for federal transit funds, will have even more reason to travel to the nation's capital.
Villaraigosa will also bring a different perspective to the Conference of Mayors.
He represents a city of 3.5million that is the most culturally diverse in the nation. His predecessor, Elizabeth Kautz, represents Burnsville, Minn., a city of 60,000 that is 77 percent white. (More Rick Orlov here)
(Rick Orlov covers City Hall for the dailynews.com. His Tipoff column appears Mondays. For a daily political fix, go to the Sausage Factory at insidesocal.com/politics. You can contact him at [email protected] ) –cw
Tags: neighborhood councils, Mayor, Antonia Villaraigosa, Paul Krekorian, parking
CityWatch
Vol 9 Issue 45
Pub: June 7, 2011
