He likes to call himself the “Z-man” and even “Super-Z” — a 
That view of Dennis Zine comes to the surface in an article in the LA Times today by Bob Pool about Zine’s leadership in the destruction of the quality of life in Woodland Hills.
It is a story focused on efforts to build a
And it’s more than that — a window into City Hall’s war against the city’s neighborhoods in the name of jobs, jobs, jobs no matter how much harm is done to people’s lives and the credibility of our elected leaders.
“Zine was in a defensive mood when he
walked into the crowded Woodland Hills middle school auditorium,” Pool starts his story recalling a mid-September community meeting.
“Half a dozen police officers stood at the ready outside the door. Inside, a standing-room-only crowd of 300 waited.”
It was an angry crowd, the kind you see at so many community meetings where the rights and interests of residents are being trampled.
But cops? In Woodland Hills? Did Zine expect to be gunned down or beaten to death by his constituents in one of the city’s most affluent areas?
He might have had good reason.
A big box store with its back wall running for an entire block right along Victory was nothing like what was envisioned at any time during the decades of controversy and broken promises that have occurred since movie mogul Jack Warner sold his ranch.
The vision for Warner Center, articulated in the 1993 specific plan, always was for a pedestrian friendly area with condos and apartments woven between high-rise office buildings and retail centers, a satellite center where people live and work..
This last big open property in Warner Center was supposed to be called
Westfield is no Rick Caruso. They got away with a monstrous $1.25 billion expansion of the Topanga Mall that brought luxury shopping at Neiman-Marcus and Cartier to the heartland of LA’s middle class, stores that are noticeable mostly for their lack of customers and failing restaurants.
Fueling residents discontent was that half a dozen community meetings had been held to refine
“It’s a done deal — I stand by that comment,” Zine told the crowd. “That
meant I support them coming to this community. I’m trying to bring in
jobs … tax revenue. I’m not telling Costco to go away.”
“It offends me when people criticize me” for trying to improve the
community, said Zine, dismissing threats of a recall: “I think it’s absurd when you
have a councilman trying to bring in jobs.”
Jobs, good-paying jobs at Costco? Who’s he kidding? A good-paying job is what Zine has with a $180,000 salary and $100,000 police pension with luxury health benefits and perks.
As far as City Hall is concerned, it’s all about jobs, mostly low-end service and retail jobs, and the revenue increased property, business and sales taxes bring to the city treasury to fend off bankruptcy a few more months.
It’s got nothing to do with what the people want or what’s good for the city as a whole.
The business of City Hall is business, the public be damned. That’s the policy of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, First Deputy Mayor Austin Beutner and the entire City Council. They are giving away the public’s land rights and the public’s money to feed the special interests that fund their political ambitions.
That’s no small matter with Beutner eying the mayor’s office, Zine hungering to be City Controller and the mayor needing all the friends he can buy to stay out of jail.
It’s not the view of the city’s residents.
“This is the last great superblock left in Woodland Hills,” resident Peter Fletcher
told Villaraigosa at a homeowner’s association meeting last week. “This should be our town center — an area we could
stroll through and meet our neighbors and have a true center to this
town.
“We’re not against Costco. We just want them to respect our community, to see the value of our community.”.
The mayor heard all kinds of complaints and offered little reassurance even to questions about Costco closing its store at Canoga (corrrected not Topanga) and Roscoe.
“They’re going to get me riled” if they close it and simply transfer
Canoga Park’s operations to Warner Center, the mayor said. “I would not
be for them closing that other one down. They’d have to do something
with it. This was always an addition game, not a subtraction one.”
Riled up? Scary thought.
Understand that the policies of neighborhood destruction didn’t start with Villaraigosa’s failed administration and City Hall’s desperation to save itself.
They go back 20 years in Warner Center alone.
Fearing the voter backlash that did throw her out of office two years later, then Councilwoman Joy Picus tried to scale back development in Warner Center, according to a 1991 LA Business Journal article that began: “Warner Center growth again thrown into turmoil by dispute over
allowable density
“
The specific plan written in 1993 supposedly limited density but LA planning rules are made to be broken — something Beutner is about to make dramatically easier by short-circuiting the process to speed development with little or no meaningful public input.
Three years ago, the city began the process of rewriting the Warner Center specific plan for the benefit of Westfield and other developers — interests Daily News writer Kerry Cavanaugh described as “drooling” at the prospect in a 2007 article.
She noted how Warner Center was “once hailed as a jewel of development” but now “finds itself at a crossroads — torn between its urban ambition and suburban legacy.”
“On the drawing board in the 1970s, Warner Center was envisioned as a modern mini-city surrounded by suburban single- family neighborhoods. It would be larger than Century City but connected by mass transit and without the
“While some worry
At the time, Zine postured as his constituents’ defender.
“I don’t want another Century City. I wanted to slow things down so we could catch up,” Zine declared. “”We were going to lose that jobs-housing balance. We were going to end up with more gridlock.”
Does a Costco gas station at the congested Topanga-Victory intersection and a big box store fit into Zine’s commitment to the interests of his constituents?
Or is the “Super Z” man talking out of both sides of his mouth, again?
Do Woodland Hills folks think they have any more pull with the city/developers/greedies than any other area of the city has? Yes, they do because they have been able to get better treatment from the city before. But they are going to have to really band together. It will be difficult to get the city to keep the promises and plans made when that area was all open field waiting to be developed. As a former WH resident I wish you all the luck and strength you will need.
Do Woodland Hills folks think they have any more pull with the city/developers/greedies than any other area of the city has? Yes, they do because they have been able to get better treatment from the city before. But they are going to have to really band together. It will be difficult to get the city to keep the promises and plans made when that area was all open field waiting to be developed. As a former WH resident I wish you all the luck and strength you will need.
Really makes one love City Hall. And so much for Super Z and his deisre to be Controller.
This is everybody’s battle since it may be a battle coming to your neighborhood.
I’m suprised anyone has to even ask if Zine is talking out of both sides of his mouth. That’s all he does. He loves to make noise and seemingly stand up to the other city council members, and then quietly vote right along with the majority when it comes time to back up his talk. Prop S, the phony phone tax, comes to mind. He made a lot of noise about being against it, only to cave and vote to pass it when the moment of truth came.
This is an excellent example of the nature of the power a council member has in his district. And, I agree – anything that brings in tax revenue is what the council, the two mayors and the unions are after. That’s why every opposed development will end-up being built contrary to specific and community plans. All they care about is keeping their jobs. Their political careers. And locking down their pension plans.
The laws and land use plans are conveniently ignored because city hall and planning well knows that unless there are legitimate grounds for a lawsuit, most communities can’t mount the effort, coupled with being able to pay for the attorneys’ fees, to stop whatever the council member has decided a community wants.
Correction on your article – The existing Costco is at Roscoe and Canoga Ave (S/S Roscoe-E/O Canoga Ave.
What doesn’t make sense is the line that the Mayor and Zine believe that Costco will maintain the Roscoe store. The whole concept of big box stores is to have an abundance of merchandise in a large sq ft store to accomodate a vast region to draw customers from. Two stores in the West Valley contradicts this premise. These stores will be within 3 miles of each other. I predict the Roscoe store will stay open for a couple months after the Woodland hills store opens, then it will shut it’s doors, meaning no new jobs, just transferred jobs.
Well, this is the moment where an aroused citizenry can band together and enact a recall through the petition process. The way to do it would be to start now and make it a very public action. I suspect that after the first 5000 signatures have been gathered, there will be some quick walking back of the proposal.
The total number of signatures required is 19,168, give or take a few newly registered voters. A few wealthy supporters and the local residents associations could raise a few thousand dollars to hire people to collect signatures. If they are serious enough about saving their community, they should be able to come up with 25,000 dollars to run the campaign and collect the signatures.
After the March 2011 primary, we should talk seriously about an organization that would provide information to grass roots folks about what is necessary to enact a recall. This has a huge advantage over the clean sweep idea, because it involves a well defined goal within a well defined time frame, and the goal is reasonably attainable in at least some cases.
What evidence do you have that Beutner wants to be mayor? I don’t buy this.
Right now he has all the power of the office but none of the responsibility. And the decisions he’s made since he inveigled his way into city hall hardly seem geared to boost him politically.
Beutner is all about enriching himself and his cronies, not political office.
Its a wonder that Zine didn’t run this through City Council as “special” and had it approved before he announced “done deal.” He is as crooked as all the other Council persons. Which ever way, clean sweep, recall, he needs to be gone. Not worth $180,000 yr. plus.
I heard Garcetti proposed that the City’s General Plan be revised/revisited/rewritten every ten years.
Can anyone confirm that?
Jeff is correct. I believe the Daily News noted that Costco has every intention of closing the Roscoe/Topanga store when the Victory store is completed.
As far as DoubleSpeak Zine goes, if we learned nothing else from Measure S, it’s that we can’t trust anything Zine says. He was steadfastly against the phony phone tax right up to an eleventh hour arm-twisting meeting with the mayor (and I believe Greig Smith who was also against it), and both changed their minds.
It only would have taken ONE vote to keep the measure off the ballot. So now, instead of an illegal 9% tax, we’re paying nearly 11% on “communications.”
Measure S not only taxed phone service, but all communications, so now there’s a 9% tax on cable TV, Internet access and who knows what else they consider “communications.”
For all I know, there’s a hidden tax on every word Ron, you and I have written here.
“S” saved us nothing! And what was Zine’s excuse for his last minute change of mind?: The voters can decide.
Uninformed voters, listened to Villaraigosa and Bratton, who both lied that the tax would pay for more cops.
Do you see more cops on the streets? I don’t.
Zine’s a snob.
Anyone who touts himself as a “Z” man has an insecure male complex and most likely less in the dept. where it counts if you know what I mean. There are so many council members who are so corrupt its nice to see so many blogs calling them out. They can’t get away with the shit they’ve been doing because one of the blogs will out them. Alarcon is up shit creek cause there are DWP bills saying he used less then 8.2 gallons of water a day at the house he supposedly lived in. Huizar is fundraising not for schools, libraries, parks but a trolley costing $100 mil even though he reps poorest community in the city. Reyes supports illegals and allows the lawlessness in his area. Continues to develop and hand out liquor licenses and is the reason the marijuana shops got out of control on Plum. Garcetti, Perry, LaBonge, all in bed with developers big time. Cardenas paying his sister with contracts, Smith flip flopper and sleeps during meetings and the list goes on. So glad these blogs inform the voters of the City
Garcetti has a grant application into HUD for federal money to pay for a rewrite of the Northeast Community Plan.
Garcetti and Reyes have a grant application into HUD for federal money to pay for a rewrite of the Northeast Community Plan.
Zine makes a big deal about support of Neighborhood Council but in fact does not publicize NC events in his news letter.
Most of the residents of the west valley are all for this new Costco, it’s just a small number of people with a lot of time on their hands making a lot of noise.