VOICES-(Re: CityWatch article ‘Anti-Neighborhood Council Conspiracy …’) Yes the likes of Fuentes would like nothing more than NCs gone. In March 2014 I wrote an editorial piece and it said in part....."...The NC & city was a symbiotic relationship that worked well. It was so successful that the mayor’s successor (yes this is where my opinion is shaped) perceived an immediate threat to his power in the NC system and tried to disband them. People were making a difference at the NC level. The ear and actions offered by the city staff by their involvement with the NC representative was giving power to the people. After that brief attempt to disband them resulted in an almost riotous public he acquiesced and left them alone.
Hmmm, how can you take the power that had been gained by the NC system but do it quietly? Simple really. Anyone notice that after the new mayor (Villaraigosa) took office the city council and all other departments whose pay checks were signed by the mayor, stopped working with the Neighborhood Councils with the same vigor and enthusiasm that was first offered them? In fact as the council office changed hands up here in Sunland-Tujunga the ear became “in one ear and out the other”. Too many trips down to hearings, meetings with planners, etc fell on deaf ears.
Case in point, just to give some specifics, one can look at the soccer field that was erected here on Tujunga Canyon Boulevard. There was nothing about it that was sound, safe and complied with any codes (including permanent Porta Potties) but despite this and several arguments between NC reps and the planners it was allowed any way.
Why? Well think about this. Who became the buffer that made it so the city officials did not get the complaints, the phone calls, the emails and general upset feelings....the Neighborhood Councils became that buffer. It became the fault of the NCs and their representatives every time a bad decision was forced on the area. I hate to burst anyone’s bubble but the NC is not to blame that your parks are full of transients, the NC is not to blame for staggering fees now being charged by Parks for use of them at big venue events, NCs are not to blame for the affordable housing project being shoved down your throat. But the NC became the scapegoat, the one getting the call, hearing the complaint, the subject of the discord felt by many.The target, my friends, although now hiding behind the NC and having lost the attention among the blogs of hate, the newspaper that is a local Elvis-is-reborn-and-arrived-as-an-alien paper, that target remains your city officials. If YOU are unhappy about the conditions in your area your focus of unhappiness is to communicate this to your city officials and work with the NC representative demanding that the city listen. The NC is only powerful when the city pays attention. The city only pays attention to the NC when backed up by its real power....YOU. The strength behind the NCs has always been the people.
Sadly the NC system has been, for the most part, shut out since Villaraigosa. The NCs were in touch with the people and rallied large groups in mostly land use fights. Those large numbers are a very strong influence. That ability to unite constituents has been greatly weakened by the in house dramas (local people fighting because nothing is getting done).
Frankly there is no better way to take the power away from the people than for the city to ignore the NC and not get things done. By not listening or ignoring the NC, the people will get angry at the NC, the NC will be to blame and the blogs & papers will blame them. No volunteer wants to see their name in RED BOLD LETTERS so the number of candidates will be low and the drama will be high. Meanwhile as that system implodes everyone is so immersed in the drama that the real responsible parties go on hiding behind their comfortable paid positions.
It is sad that a group of volunteers has started to receive the wrath of the decisions made by the well paid elected officials who are staffed to handle this very wrath. City officials need to go on notice: The NC is not your shield and not your whipping post.
Our neighborhood councils need to recognize that they are being ignored and address that. The NCs were meant to increase the power for the people. The effort to ignore the NCs and the people they represent will not be tolerated. United we are a formidable force. We hold the power to do anything. We won’t ever forget it." NCs need to wake up and wield that power instead of dancing with the devil who wants them gone.
(Tomi Bowling is realtor and an activist and lives in the Valley.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 6
Pub: Jan 20, 2015
