CommentsGELFAND’S WORLD--Over the past week, numerous angry comments have appeared regarding remarks by Kevin de Leon, the state Senate President Pro Tem. Basically, de Leon insulted neighborhood council members and what we try to accomplish. In a televised interview, he said that City Council members (who he left unnamed) were secretly asking him to pass a pro-development bill that they felt they had to oppose publicly.
The city council members, he claimed, spoke distastefully about neighborhood councils. The neighborhood councils were described as being NIMBY personified ("Not In My Back Yard") and were also accused of being threatening. The idea that we would try to protect the character of our neighborhoods is apparently a problem to the deal-makers at City Hall.
Our neighborhood councils were even accused of strangling and handcuffing the city council. Considering the lack of official power held by neighborhood councils, an amusing thought, no?
Needless to say, there was a flurry of angry responses asking that we censure not only de Leon but also the anonymous city council members for their failure to love and respect us.
I have a different point of view. We should celebrate de Leon's remarks as an indication that neighborhood councils are finally functioning as they were meant to be. It's the old saying among the politically experienced -- It's better to be feared than to be loved. I tend to doubt that members of the city council are feeling abject terror of our neighborhood councils -- perhaps some concern about political fallout -- but the remarks by de Leon suggest that we are at least moving away from being kiss-ups and wimps. That's an improvement from being in the councilmembers' back pockets.
Unlike writer Jill Stewart and my other fellow CityWatch colleagues, I'm not at all sure who the city council members in question might be. But it's possible to describe patterns of behavior by city council members that point to their failure to treat neighborhood councils as the City Charter intends. One little example: over the course of the years, city council members in my district have appointed their own committees when some particularly tendentious topic arises, whether it be homelessness, a major development project, or what to do about a landslide taking out a seaside road. Neighborhood council positions are given lip service. Similar stories are heard around the rest of the city.
That's to be expected. Why should an elected official cede power and authority to what he sees as a ragtag bunch of self-selected know-it-alls. This is not an accurate representation of the people I have known for more than a decade, but it is obvious that a lot of city council members have viewed us in this light over the years. The remedy for this is not to beg and plead for influence. The real remedy is to develop the political base -- that means having a large number of people aware of the neighborhood councils and attending their meetings -- and out of this political base, explain to the city council representatives what the public position is on something that is important to us.
Here's one example of the public extending their influence: Over on the west side, there have been redesigns in the way that various streets are arranged. For example, one main thoroughfare was reduced from two lanes each way to one lane each way. The professionals refer to the organization of the street as a "road diet." The restriping was supposed to make it safer and easier for people to travel by bicycle. This is supposed to save lives and also to be one step towards a more sustainable environment in which fewer people commute by car.
It doesn't take a great deal of savvy to figure out that (a) this isn't a great way to move towards sustainability or (b) that thousands of people who are dependent on commuting to survive would find this whole process annoying.
It turns out that lots of people found the rearrangements a lot more than annoying. Now they are taking up a recall on Mike Bonin, the city council representative who supported the changes. It will be another month or so before the organizers can get their recall petition certified, and in the meanwhile, as you can imagine, Bonin is back peddling as fast as he can. Unfortunately for the recall organizers, the recall is being supported by radio station KFI, so Bonin has an argument that he is being attacked by right wing talk radio. He's not wrong on the facts, but it's a pretty weak argument. Even KFI can be right every other decade or so.
Addenda
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article for CityWatch titled The Gulf Coast is Toast. The intent was not to be funny, but to point out that there is a reality to global warming, and one predictable result is that tropical storms that were manageable hurricanes in previous years are now turning into monstrous category 4 and category 5 storms overnight. The Gulf Coast, Florida, and the Caribbean are now places to avoid building on if you take this seriously. It's therefore of interest to me that Salon.com has just come out with a similar piece on the topic, How Many Big Storms Before People Abandon Coastal Cities.
I also wrote about the role of amateur ("ham") radio in disaster responses. In a call to the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), I was informed that contrary to my previous comments, the official communications system in Houston held up pretty well. Yes there was a serious contribution by radio amateurs, but the authorities didn't lose control. The place in which ham radio has been really important is the Caribbean. In an area this spread out and smashed by multiple storms, communications systems were hit hard. Amateur radio is even now playing a substantial role. Just a day ago, I heard a story on National Public Radio (NPR) explaining how an amateur radio operator in Pittsburg has been talking to another radio operator in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The two operators pass messages from survivors in Puerto Rico, explaining to the stateside relatives that their people are alive. Multiply this story by hundreds and you get the idea.
A Wonderful Super Film Festival this Weekend and Next
Disclosure: I am part of this festival in a distant supportive role. Credit for the San Pedro International Film Festival (SPIFF) belongs to Ziggy Mrkich. The festival begins this weekend with some remarkable content. Come on down to the Warner Grand Theatre in San Pedro and join us. Spiff.
(Bob Gelfand writes on science, culture, and politics for CityWatch. He can be reached at [email protected])
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