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SAN FERNANDO VALLEY - Los Angeles has some of the lowest income and highest need areas in the country resulting from years of structural and institutional racism. These inequities are further made apparent as environmentally hazardous operations disproportionately impact our low-income communities of color. Despite glorified city assurances of making bold investments that lift up our marginalized communities and speak to the urgency of racial and economic justice, nothing has ever reached the threshold of the Sun Valley community. 40 years later, Sun Valley still remains this last ill-treated and chronically victimized child that needs more care and affection than the rest, regardless of who grabs a hold of the power wheel in the city council district 6 - the district of publicly condemned city council president Nury Martinez who failed in every step of the way when it came to Sun Valley.
The reality on the ground in Sun Valley is not any different now. Not surprisingly, the issues of the community are almost never covered in the news, on city council discussions as a community that has been historically underserved and neglected, more so today. It has never even been part of any pilot program, such as LA Repair or AB 617, to name just a few. It’s like Sun Valley is off the grid.
Underserved communities receive millions of dollars in grant money through different channels to help grow healthier, safer, and stronger communities by improving the infrastructure, creating accessible parks and gardens that help remedy the critical lack of green and recreational spaces in underserved neighborhoods, build transit-oriented communities before building high density apartment buildings putting the horse before the carriage. But then again, majority of these lifeline funds and grants never reach Sun Valley in any way, shape, and form. City council does the talk but doesn’t walk the walk. It is worthy of note that even special funding specifically tailored towards improvement of Sun Valley, is beyond reach. Sadly, Sun Valley remains to be misrepresented on all levels of government. But that’s another topic for another day.
With the intro out of the way, let’s get back on ever elusive funding of Rory Shaw. My first article about Rory Shaw funds was published in April of 2024. I have tried to shed some light on ever disappearing funds of a more than two-decade old Public Works’ Rory Shaw Wetlands Park Project in Sun Valley – a historically misrepresented community of color in the frontline of climate crisis. It is the recycling capital of LA – an environmentally challenged community starving for shade and green space amid asphalt and concrete.
People in Sun Valley were thrilled when the idea of Rory Shaw first came to be in 2014; families happily gathered at the groundbreaking ceremony with Congressman Cardenas, taking pictures with shovels in their hands. They welcomed this project with open arms, they were happy that their children would finally grow up breathing clean fresh air, have a fun place to play and hang out as well as find refuge during scorching summer months, among other things that this multi-benefit project would offer. They hoped it would improve the aesthetics of the community, add value to their homes, as well as resolve water crisis and flood control. Regrettably, it was too good to be true.
Groundbreaking ceremony of Rory Shaw
Sadly, Rory Shaw still remains only a project on paper turning into a daily nuisance, deterrent of any future developments, an ugly vacant lot perfect for criminal activity and illegal fireworks, and a sad reality for a community fundamentally deprived of government resources, chronically neglected, and mistreated.
The future Rory Shaw Wetlands Park is about 46 acres vacant lot surrounded by broken chain fence – ugly and unwelcoming. It requires regular maintenance presenting a major source of fugitive dust, trespassing, fire, trash, illegal dumping, and to top it off, traces of methane and organic material were discovered on the grounds that public works is supposedly treating once a year. The vacant space is also conveniently used by nearby businesses as a chronic hazardous waste dumping site as it is not protected and monitored in any way, shape, and form. Residents have asked Public Works many times before to keep the lot maintained, level the grounds to prevent fugitive dust from blowing around, protect it from vandalism, fire, illegal activities, and transient movement. Nevertheless, any major improvement to the site still remains to be seen. Some minor leveling works started back in May of 2024, then it all stopped because of a disconnect between the county and public works; seems like the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.
Public Works at work during random “maintenance”
Quite fascinatingly, the county did start rapidly building an inexplicable concrete wall in the north east corner of the site within 20 feet of nearby houses on Fair Ave; a wall that was not once requested, discussed, proposed or agreed upon. When we started inquiring about this monstrosity of a wall, it turned out that no one either on the county side or in Public Works had any clue as to who authorized building of this wall, why, how, and for what purpose exactly. It was eventually taken down.
The view of the wall from a window
Public Works promised to meet with the community quarterly and share updates on financing, availability of funds, in general, any and all developments on the Rory Shaw project through the Sun Valley Area Neighborhood Council (SVANC). They certainly do come to the scheduled meetings with the community, but as far as critical funding information, there is still a graveyard silence. It is always the same story in so many presentation slides. During the last few community meetings, we learned that there was unquestionably $27.8 M currently available. Then the question of maintenance costs came up, and people were wondering if it was really cost effective to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new fence around the site, when that money should be used on the project itself, since it is already available. So residents asked Public Works instead of using millions of dollars on maintenance, why not spend the $27.8 M available funds on the project itself, meanwhile pursuing the quest for more funds.
The real shocker was to learn about a new alarming discovery over two decades later. Initially, we were informed there was a $212.2 M gap to fill to take this project to completion. Out of total estimated cost of $240 M, the county informed the community that only $27.8 M was readily available, of which $17.8 M from the City of Los Angeles Prop. O, and another $10 M from the Safe Clean Water Program. Nonetheless, Public Works now tells the community, sorry folks, we got NO money left. No money, no transparency, discrepancies in storytelling, conflicting information, what’s next?
In other words, there is no $27.8 M. Any reasonable person would realize that the public works has been purposely hiding the fact that there were no funds. First, there was $27.8 M available and $212 M was needed to fill the gap. Fast forward 20 days from the date of last meeting, the story took a turn, in their own words, “most of the $27.8 M secured to date is not yet available”. This was yet the biggest blow on the face of Sun Valley community.
It is undeniable, that the county has not been transparent about this project from the get-go. There was no community outreach, no scheduled updates on the timeline of the project website, no mention about the project being pushed back further and further away from its anticipated completion deadline, and from this lifetime, altogether. All the community is fed are fruitless promises - smokes and mirrors.
Now, the million dollar question remains: when and how did the $27.8 M suddenly cease to exist? Shouldn’t project funding status remain the same? After all, this is a critical issue in any county Public Works supervised project.
The community is now learning that the “Prop O funding ($17.8 M) will not be received until the agreement with the City is officially executed and there are still a few details being refined now that the project has the increased momentum to move forward”, according to Public Works. Public works constantly reassures residents that this project is a priority and they are dedicated to securing funding to move it forward. According to Public Works, they will continue to explore the most expeditious means to initiate the project as sufficient (and perhaps incremental) funds become available.
But no one knows when these oh-so-unattainable funds will finally become available to Sun Valley. The reality is that the city wants you to think there are no funds to do any improvements in Sun Valley. But there are more than enough funds for disadvantaged communities, except they are not accessible to Sun Valley. That’s the bottom line, the root of all evil in twisted with red tape city politics and creative bureaucracy when management of funds comes to a marginalized poor community where the very own city councilmember, born and raised in Sun Valley, chooses to look another way; if you keep quiet and do nothing, things will go away, people will eventually get tired of fighting, give up, and forget, just like they did for decades.
Will it take another lifetime to secure funds for Rory Shaw? Another two decades, perhaps three or more? The community deserves answers and transparency. This vacant monstrosity of an inactive landfill is a cumulative source of dust and impacts public health, hand in hand with the neighboring recycling plants and other polluters, making people sick. The community pays taxes and should not beg the city or state for services, life altering projects, or just very basic amenities such as sidewalks and green space. People are not asking for a free ride but what they are owed by the city. They earned these services with the hard work and dedication to their community. Rory Shaw is one of these services that has been put on a back burner for over two decades.
No one gives the community straightforward answers and timelines. Once again, Rory Shaw is not a charity for this disadvantaged community. It’s a MUST, a NECESSITY. Residents pay increased taxes every year to replenish these funds, and yet, they have nothing to show for. Where are these taxpayer moneys spent on if not in our own community?
Desolately, the more I look into this project, the more loopholes surface, the more frustrated I get. In the final analysis, we're left with a multitude of questions but no concrete answers. Yet, it's increasingly evident that the prolonged delay of the Rory Shaw project isn't solely attributable to funding shortages. Rather, it underscores systemic issues plaguing Sun Valley, a marginalized community facing environmental injustices. Projects like Rory Shaw, despite their potential to transform lives, often find themselves relegated to the backburner amidst competing municipal priorities. Unfortunately, securing meaningful change in such circumstances remains an uphill battle.
In summary, the delay in the Rory Shaw project, presumably caused by financial limitations and bureaucratic impasse, represents more than just a minor inconvenience for the marginalized and neglected mostly colored community of Sun Valley. Consequently, residents are left to endure scorching summers without the anticipated relief of green spaces and shade.
(Mariam Moore is a resident of Sun Valley, community and public health advocate, and an environmental activist.)
(Mihran Kalaydjian has over twenty years of public affairs, government relations, legislative affairs, public policy, community relations and strategic communications experience. He is a leading member of the community and a devoted civic engagement activist for education spearheading numerous academic initiatives in local political forums.)
