THE CITY-I personally get tired of hearing the Millennials or others complain, “My vote doesn’t count.” One has to look no further than the recent CD4 primary race on March 7, 2015 in which David Ryu edged out his opponent O’Grady by a mere 207 votes.
What does 207 votes equate to? They equal: a neighborhood mixer or an appearance at a Senior Center or at a Town Hall. Those attending influence others when they tell them, “I heard that candidate at our last HOA meeting and he made a lot of sense. I am leaning towards voting for him.” David Ryu’s approach to grass roots campaigning paid off in a big way. He now sits as the newly installed Councilmember of Council District 4.
Ryu recently came out in favor of consideration of the Mosaic Church before the Historical Commission, and also in favor of designating the Church as a Historical Monument for the City. If the proposal is confirmed on September 17 it will then go before City Council for an up or down vote. Council will have 90 days before they have to vote on it.
It’s interesting that the City Council just voted to form an ad-hoc committee to study bringing the Olympics to Los Angeles. They have a three-week OIC deadline to meet. The City Council must vote by then to approve bringing this $6 billion expense to the City. Yet it’s going to take them 90 days to figure out if a historic building is suitable to become a historic monument?
“Good enough”, you say? Not by a mile. Naively enough, I used to vote like this: first, review the candidates, then decide whose positions were most in line with mine, and then trust they would follow that path. But elections are few and far between in relation to the problems this City faces. So what is our recourse when faced with out-of-control development, lagging infrastructure repairs, developers’ deep pockets and public safety issues?
The City boasts that they will spend $1.3 billion over the next 30 years to fix the sidewalks, but the fact they had to get sued in order to make this happen is ridiculous! The fact that countless neighborhood groups have to hire an attorney to enforce City rules and regulations, such as zoning, to protect their neighborhoods is insane. They have to endure the insult of being labeled NIMBY’s when the reality is, what happens in your neighborhood today will happen in mine tomorrow. We need to get angry, and take that frustration out on our elected officials – make them do their jobs without prodding from the electorate.
So in lieu of waiting to take it to the ballot box what can you do? Call your City Councilmembers, e-mail them, engage in community meetings, and attend your neighborhood council meetings. PICK AN ISSUE AND GET INVOLVED.
Sign our petition to support designation of the Mosaic Church as a historical monument and oppose the three hideous metal and glass skyscrapers proposed for this site at La Brea and Hollywood Blvd.
Save Residential Hollywood has been fighting this fight for over a year now and we are only as good as the people who support us. Groups like ours need angels and benefactors to succeed. Historians, attorneys, land use experts and traffic engineers are all expensive.
If you are mad as hell over out of control development: SIGN THE PETITION.
DONATE AND GET ANGRY. We have to tell our elected officials we mean business and its not going to be “Busine$$ as Usual.”
(John Campbell is a community activist and represents Save Residential Hollywood.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 13 Issue 70
Aug 28, 2015
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