Jane Usher spent three years as president of the city Planning Commission trying to end pay-to-play development deals and bring intelligent growth to LA.
She fought for rules that would protect the quality of life in neighborhoods, to stop the visual blight of billboard proleration and finally quit in protest over the corruption that was destroying the city.
Usher was instrumental in helping Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich's successful campaign for City Attorney and sees as the turning point, the moment where power shifts from the City Hall political machine to the people.
On Wednesday, she spoke to the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association. Watch Peter Vukovich's videos of what she had to say and you will understand why we fight for change. There's also a video of Trutanich talking to SOHA and making a commitment to stand with the people.
She fought for rules that would protect the quality of life in neighborhoods, to stop the visual blight of billboard proleration and finally quit in protest over the corruption that was destroying the city.
Usher was instrumental in helping Carmen "Nuch" Trutanich's successful campaign for City Attorney and sees as the turning point, the moment where power shifts from the City Hall political machine to the people.
On Wednesday, she spoke to the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association. Watch Peter Vukovich's videos of what she had to say and you will understand why we fight for change. There's also a video of Trutanich talking to SOHA and making a commitment to stand with the people.
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.
The guy actually brought a giant poster of his campaign to stand in front of at a homeowner's meeting? (As did Usher?) How revolting. To call him a chest-thumping double of a Vegas pit-boss as one scribe did is a huge understatement. The look on his face as he stands in front of his giant sign poster screaming his name...ugh.
Let's take a moment of silence to remember all the folks who have "quit in protest" like Ms. Usher and how they have accomplished so much more by being outside of the system, rather than creating change from the inside...okay, go!
Uhmmmmm.... hmmmm, still thinking....
In Pt 3 Usher responds to someone lamenting about how the trash fee hikes promised solely for more cops was now being swept into the general fund instead. She says that it's an example of the kind of dishonesty, mismanagement (I forget her exact words) that Trutanich is going to change.
She says that last week with there was "more spine and backbone" on the Council Budget Committee than she's seen in a long while, which is hopeful.
But WHO were the ones with "spine and backbone" who stood up to the Mayor (for holding firm on the promise to use the money for cops)?
The very 3 who OPPOSED keeping this promise and wanted to cut police hiring in fact -- starting the dust-up with Bratton too. They were Parks (long-time Bratton critic, who ended up voting against even replacing cops lost by attrition), Smith and Rosendahl. The same Rosendahl who'd held a "town hall" meeting in December so that westsiders could vent to Bratton about how they wanted MORE cops in their districts, and where the consensus was that spending for this was the one area the city couldn't cut.
Bratton told the assembled that if the budget were cut he'd have to pull more cops out of their area and elsewhere -- something he reiterated after this 3-2 Budget Committee vote. But all of a sudden Rosendahl had amnesia about his position in December and what Bratton had warned would have to happen, so he and Smith (with Zine, who's now feeling his oats and has always challeneged Bratton on everything from SO40 to the need for a new "paparazzi law") accused Bratton of making threats and tried to intimidate him by reminding him who hires whom.
For Usher to condemn the City (council/mayor) for NOT keeping the promise to hire more cops with the trash fees, but in literally the next breath applaud the very 3 who took the position she opposes, and somehow use this as an example of something positive that's already happened with "the change" that is Trutanich, is worse than double-speak. If this is what they're bringing, it's chaos.
Billboard sign districts: Jane wants a flat-out ban with no sign districts allowed like in Beverly Hills. A tiny city while L A has lots of diverse neighborhoods many of whose councilmembers demand sign districts.
Jan Perry got very combative vs. anti-billboard activists who argued that letting her have a sign district including giant lighted ones on a freeway opened a can of worms for everyone in the city. She and her supporters accused oppenents in PLUM and then full council of being insensitive to the poor, people with nothing better to do than worry about aesthetics, while she'd be getting some money towards a park from one of the companies involved. ClearChannel. Ed Reyes strongly supported her and wants his own sign district.
Wesson and Hahn want their own sign districts. For Wesson, it's some Korean businesspeople in Koreatown who apparently make that a condition of bringing some business or development -- they want it to look like Seoul's business district. Parks I think wants one. So it's easy to take cheap shots at Jack Weiss for trying to accommodate these different viewpoints (and for "Being the only lawyer in the room" when Rocky presented his deal with the billboards without divulging details that would come out later). Working to forge consensus from the 15 egos and demands will be something else. Grandstanding and casting aspersions doesn't get the job done.
Usher does it again glaringly with the "trash fees for cops" issue @1:01.
Whether or not to have billboard districts is a controversial one, and there are mahy who don't agree with homeowner groups like this one. Lots of young people, Asians like the Koreans and Japanese (though Little Tokyo is becoming more Korean), Chinese are used to flashy signs in some areas while they're banned in others. Even in Paris and other "civilized" cities you see them in commercial areas -- they're part of the fabric of the city. So it's not as cut and dried as Usher wants, and nor is L A a tiny city with just one aesthetic.
But there's no doubt we must enforce the law -- the city not having been able to idenify illegal billboards to remove them and collect fees owed is ridiculous -- Garcetti finally called out the B & S guy in charge on that, and must ride them on this. (Even as the city's cutting staff.) But then there are also the vagaries of judicial decisions, like the one that recently repudiated L A's ban on supergraphics and allowed the controversial Statue of Liberty thing to stand. I see where this kind of thing would cause Usher to say, "ban them all, period." But she and Trutanich are not considering the whole picture when they claim it's this easy.
You jerk Weiss supporters, take your corruption and laments elsewhere. He LOST big, move on with your lives.
1:32 is the kind of intelligent response we can expect to see from you acolytes who drink the Koolaid without thinking.
Two huge issues, two glaring cases of double-speak fingerpointing which only ignores the real problem. Spotlight's on them now, live with it.
They can't get away with this sort of and double-speak fingerpointing anymore. Everyone is watching and will hold them to the same fire.
1:32 -- how about if you get over the election yourself and stop being such a simpleton. Let people with opposing viewpoints speak. Try adding a little respect and you may just get some back for your own position(s), idiotic though they may be.
It doesn't matter if Wesson, Perry, and Reyes want "sign districts". They shouldn't be allowed to create citywide precedent for the sake of their own financial or political gain. STOP ALLOWING THOSE ELECTRONIC ADVERTISING BOARDS. Those elected officials are looking for kickbacks. The obvious problem...Electronic signs raise obvious safety concerns and quality of life concerns, most especially when the electronic signs are viewable from freeways.
Trust me, nobody really wants them other than special interests and non-residents. Can anyone say with a straight face that residents wish to live within sight of those brightly flashing lights?
I attended the Westside townhall meeting hosted by Bill Rosendahl and mentioned by Anonymous (May 23rd 1:01 PM). Bill Rosendahl went out of his way to state that the trash fee was never meant for police and was only raised to reflect the true cost of trash service. Of course, all the tax revenues collected help pay for all City services including trash, street, etc. And Rosendahl neglected to mention that the trash fee was advertised to help pay for police, just like Measure R (2006) was advertised as Reform when it only served to enriches incumbents with a shot at an additional term (3rd) which give them 4 more years of salary and benefits and an enhancement to their pension.
So according to Jane Usher, it was not only Rocky Delgadillo but also Jack Weiss who brokered the "Billboard Companies Get Out Of Jail Free" agreement. According to Jane Usher, that agreement let the billboard companies out of the lawsuit by the City of L.A. against them, when the City of L.A. was winning the lawsuit.
WAS IT THE JACK "PRO BILLBOARD POSITION" WEISS THAT CAUSED THE MONEY PEOPLE OF LA, AS WELL AS VILLARAIGOSA, TO THROW WEISS OVERBOARD AND TO FAVOR TRUTANICH AS A NEW CITY ATTORNEY???
JANE USHER SPEAKING ON THE VIDEO...Here's what I have to say. We don't need to become the billboard purists. We don't need to become the people who say, you know, no growth, stop everything. But on this issue that we've been so unable to get our arms around, on this issue of billboards where we have been so unable to enforce our own law and get control of our own destiny, let's take a pause, even a two year pause. And then, let's adopt a sensible policy, based on the consensus of our neighborhoods and communities and business people. My children and my grandchildren will thank us for it.
Thank you Ron for sharing these videos with us. We can't all be at these events, and now we know what is going on in the City. Trutanich and Jane make a fantastic pair & we will all help them in cleaning up this city.
That Kool-Aid must be quite a hallucenogin, 6:07
Thank you Ms. Usher. Good riddance Weiss and Delgadillo.
8:57, try it, it may cleanse your heart and soul for the common good.
6:42p, hey, that's what Jim Jones said!
The Mayor and Huizar must be pooing their pants.
I agree with 4:11. Who CARES what the other council members want. If we have laws against having billboards, why change them? They're there for a reason.
There are people who don't care about billboards one way or another. Those same people don't care about much of anything as they cruise through their lives. They probably wouldn't pick up other people's litter either. They are not visual people and don't care about flashing bright lights and hideous signs. But they are in the minority because most people do care. Especially homeowners and if you choose not to be a homeowner, that is your right. It doesn't bother me either way unless you get to vote on the billboards that ruin my property values because you are are not a visual personality.
They look cluttered, they are a safety issue, they're graffiti magnets and they should be banned totally.
This is all about the money. Those who favor billboards got money from Clear Channel. So if they promise to give Jan Perry a park for her poor constituents, she's okay with them. That IS pay to play in my book. I don't know if Clear Channel gave money to Janice Hahn but her brother surely had some big billboards. As did Rocky Delgadillo. I don't know if the mayor had any or not but I'm sure a quick check at the Ethics Commission will show that.
I think because our illegal billboards are few in comparison to areas that allow them and have proliferations of old disgusting billboards, that most people don't even realize there is a billboard "fight" out there because they aren't able to see what the future holds billboard-wise.
The anti-billboard people need to do a glossy brochure with the streets - oh, especially in the valley, lol - blanketed with billboards. Act like the lobbyists for the billboard companies if they were opposing. Show the people what their own neighborhoods could look like. If you can do it with Trutanich, you can do it with billboards. That should be Trutanich's first order of business. Get us OUT of that settlement "deal" we did with the billboard companies.
That last post about people being visual made me realize that even the people who would care just aren't paying attention and if they saw it and how ugly and disruptive it would be, they would join your fight and there is power in numbers.
I just watched the Trutanich speech to the SOHA and he had one line that made me laugh. He said, "I'm not a politician", and now I paraphrase the rest because I can't go back and quote it, but I'm going to do ___ and ___ before the 8 years is done. Not a politician, eh? Sure.
Most peope are busy with their lives and leave it to professionals to take care of business. However, the lobbyists who show up at every city meeting know what they are talking about. The only way for the citizenery to understand in the little time they are given, each & every issue that comes their way from the city, is to demand at the least a three-dimensional depiction of the billboards that will show the future look of their community. How many people understand that a Plan Amendment to Regional Commercial would allow billboards in that area. CD4 residents should pay attention to a Planning Department Public Hearing held today for that request.