(This article was published Sunday in the Daily News.)
Taking back Los Angeles
THREE months have passed since I retired as editor of my beloved Daily News, and I've learned a lot about how little I really knew about the city and the people of Los Angeles.
I've met with dozens of community groups and hundreds of community activists, and I have to admit the anger at City Hall and the frustration of the citizenry is far greater than I ever imagined.
The anger is boiling over at the disrespect bordering on contempt for the people, the lethargy of the bureaucracy and the smugness of the politicians and the lip service they pay to good government - anger greater than I saw at any point during the San Fernando Valley secession movement.
From the Eastside to the Westside, from San Pedro to Sunland-Tujunga, people are mad as hell and don't know what to do about it.
That's what led me to the brainstorm - most would call it a brain cramp - to declare I was going down to City Hall on Bastille Day, the anniversary of July 14, 1789, the day the French Revolution began. I'll be depositing a bag of garbage to protest the outrage of double taxation for trash pickup - something our tax dollars go for, and we're now being charged for again because City Hall squandered the biggest revenue surge in city history.
I expected to be standing alone at noon Monday on the steps of City Hall, looking like a fool, something I've never been afraid of. But then my friend Teddy Howell with the West Valley Women's Republican Club declared she would come with me. And then another, and now I've heard from people from all across L.A. who want to add their voices and help give birth to a concerned citizens coalition to change the political culture of the city.
At this point, it's an ad hoc group calling itself the Saving L.A. Project - or SLAP.
Our theme for the Bastille Day rally is Take Back Los Angeles - Demand a Great City. We're going to demand our elected officials sign a contract with the people to commit to complete openness in government, respect for the people and their neighborhoods, accountability, and major reforms of campaign-finance laws to end the sellout of the public interest to special interests.
It's no longer just about garbage. It's about the hundreds of issues that smart, dedicated people can't get fixed in their neighborhoods, about the dozens of issues citywide that we all want fixed. Most of all, it's about empowerment of the people.
This is the moment to put aside the differences of race, class and philosophy that divide us, and find the common ground that brings us together as residents of L.A., as people who want a great city with great schools and great neighborhoods. The power structure has used these differences to keep us separated and weak, begging for crumbs from the table of power while the insiders feast on the city's wealth.
We need to change the system. We need to seize power and make our government accountable to us, to do what we want.
There's only one way for this happen. It's through a community coalition that is united in support of each other, united in demanding a great city. This is America, and the basic civil rights of the ordinary men and women of L.A. have been trampled upon for too long. We have a right to own our schools, our neighborhoods and our city.
So come to the South Lawn of City Hall at noon on Monday. We'll listen to each other's frustrations with city government and with the schools. We'll talk about overdevelopment and bad development, the failure to find solutions to traffic congestion now and long-term solutions for the future, the lack of a real strategy to rid our streets of hardened criminals and provide alternatives to save our children from gangs.
There are many other issues as well. We need to learn from each other. We need to understand each other. And we need to come up with solutions that achieve the greatest good for the greatest number. We know there are no easy answers. But through an honest and open public conversation, we can do a lot better than what we've been doing.
This can be the start of something big, something great. It's not going to come from on high, from the people in power. It's going to come from the grass roots, from you.
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the National Enquirer.
"Low Income Housing Measure on November Ballot," by Kerry Kavanaugh, July 12th (yesterday), Daily News. It WAS there yesterday, under News stories, but after receiving some harsh criticisms for the PR spin Kavanaugh (usually a fair reporter, so I'd thought) gave this, the article just disappeared -- I can't even find it under Search or Archives. Walter Moore and others left comments about how biased the slant was in favor of the high-density, low-income housing the measure was meant to make easier to pass, so it seems the paper pulled the whole story out of embarrassment. If anyone can find and post it, it's of supreme importance.
Trying to detangle the convoluded article, it seems that there are still laws on the books in L A dating from the 50's prohibiting affordable housing units to be above 2 stories in height and more than 5 units, in reaction to the huge projects that went up in previous decades. But the city found ways to get around this prohibition over time (look at Jordan Downs, Ramona Gardens) and so in 73, a series of 5 more bills were passed attempting to restrict these projects. Now, having been stymied by the Felipe Fuentes/ AB212 bill being caught and having to be pulled due to public and official outcry, the city (via spokesperson Mercedes Marques in Housing) feels stymied in its efforts to implement state affordable housing measures which would entitle L A to many millions in subsidies (she means AB 1818 for a start).
OF course, the citizenry already hate AB1818 and the last thing they want is to revoke outstanding if obscure ordinances which protect them from it. But the article kept emphasizing how "outdated" these laws were, and the loss of revenue to L A, but not being able to build high-density, low-income projects "along transit corridors." (I'm all for some sort of affordable housing but we're talking here of modern-day projects, which Ed Reyes as head of PLUM has been openly pushing with his colleagues Alarcon, Cardenas, Rosendahl -- lamenting that they don't have the 8-member majority yet to override Community Plans. So this seems to be something else slipping into the November ballot, WITH NO FANFARE AND IN A MISLEADING WAY.) Anyone have detail on this?
By the way, of relevance to Ron and his problem with the illegal conversion of single family to 3-unit: L A Times' story today about Escondido's efforts to rid the town of illegal immigrants, by going after "quality of life" issues. One target are these conversions: quoted in opposition is one illegal woman whose husband does earn much so their family and another share a 2-bedroom apt. The city is also targeting unlicensed drivers, and impounding their cars, in some cases imposing jail time if there are outstanding warrants. Their cops are actively locating and turning over to ICE illegals, especially those who re-entered after deportation -- which raises the penalty from a misdemeanor to a felony. To counter allegations that this is profiling, they only check for legal status if a license is a fake or they don't have one. Who could argue with that? Who wants multi-ton killing machines on our streets, assigned to people who never even took a driving test and have no insurance or money?
Re: the previous post on schools: I'm sure the one lady's blunt comments will rile some and aren't how I'd present the case. (The kids she talks about aren't local, but from out of the area and from a different culture, which is the real issue not their color.) But at essence is the fact that if reasonable people like Ron, the good people of Escondido and around the country, can speak out against illegals crowding into homes, crowding the streets with their (often illegal) cars, crowding their schools and hospitals and making them much worse for citizens who've paid for them -- why are only the schools in L A supposed to remain an island of political correctness, where the exact same consequences, when pointed out, are blamed on the victims/ citizens, as their fault somehow?
http://www.dailynews.com/search/ci_9858808?IADID
=Search-www.dailynews.com-www.dailynews.com
I think that's the article you are looking for with 13 comments...you'll need both lines of the above url
The Cavanaugh story is there as "Housing Limits go on the November Ballot," in a shortened form and without the critical comments by Walter Moore and others. It has to do with overturning Article 34 dating from 1950. I don't see anything about this critical measure in the L A Times yet. Garcetti and Marquez are quoted as saying that if voters don't overturn that "outdated" restriction, the city will lose out on upto $1.2 billion in state affordable housing subsidies, which are given out only if projects aren't restricted in number of units, and as long as they're along transit corridors.
Ron, thanks for that at 1:10, so promptly! (Guess the pro with a deadline will always be there.) That's the 2nd version referenced at 1:13, but the gist is there. I hope we hear more about this.
1:10 comment...please email me sometime, thanks
I just received your request to be downtown tomorrow, July 14. I am scheduled to work (for the city) in a library. While your e-mail interests me, for tomorrow, I chose to go to work. The library is important. I choose to be there.
I fully support your idea and will be there in spirit. I work at a school that is in session and I can't call in sick.
My only concern is that it isn't enough to rally and shout and demand change. We have to have a plan. If we demand that our elected officials change, we have to tell them exactly how we want them to change, what we want them to do, and how we expect them to do it. Than we have to tell them what we will do if they don't. Do you have any of that worked out?
I hope Monday is a great success. I would be far more inclined to vote for you for Mayor than for Rick Caruso. But my guess is that you wouldn't want to put yourself in that position. I'm sure you feel you can be more effective out on the grass with a sign than in the office looking out the window at those on the grass.
Good luck to you and to this movement.
Sandy Valadez
Sunland
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