Near the end of the latest bitter debate over the closure of Fire Station 39 in west Pasadena, Councilman Terry Tornek lamented: “The neighborhood has lost confidence in us.”
But like others on the City Council, he accepted that the only solution at hand for the next couple of years was to put an ambulance crew in a rented house on a narrow side street and staff it 24/7.
“The takeaway from all this is some problems don’t have great solutions,” he said.
In the 10 months since City Manager Michael Beck dropped a bombshell at a news conference that six fire stations were so antiquated they needed $59 million in upgrades, and a seventh, Station 39, needed to be closed as a safety hazard, residents west of Arroyo Seco south of the Ventura (134) Freeway have gone without fire engines or paramedics located in their community.
To say that many of them — especially those who live near 159 Glen Summer Road, where the ambulance will soon be located — are unhappy is an understatement.
They have organized, gone to dozens of meetings, confronted city leaders, filed a long stream of public records requests and threatened to sue the city in what has become something of a case study of what happens when government disconnects with the people who pay the bills, who expect to be treated with respect and get the services they need.
My deepest belief as a journalist and community activist is this: In the 21st century, people are grown up enough to make decisions for themselves, or at least be part of the process. We don’t need patronizing officials to decide what’s good for us. We need a partnership based on mutual respect.
Last April, Beck called a news conference to announce that a seismic study completed the previous November showed that nearly all the city’s fire stations needed major upgrades and the oldest — Station 39, built in 1948 — was beyond repair.
“I tried to identify solutions, but I wasn’t able to,” he recalled. “I felt I’d be irresponsible to ask employees to come to work when I have a report on my desk that says that in a significant earthquake, the building could collapse in a pancake fashion, resulting in serious injury or death. I couldn’t wait any longer.”
Station 39 was closed without warning on the day of the press conference.
“It was a big mistake,” Beck acknowledged last week. “We called a press conference to make the decision public so that we could communicate to the community what we were doing, why we were doing it. We did it in a press conference instead of in a community meeting. We were talking to the community through the press. We weren’t talking to the community. I take full responsibility for that mistake. We’ve never recovered from that.”
Trust in City Hall was shaken. Fire and paramedic services are a life-and-death issue and there were no simple solutions.
Maybe Station 39 could be rebuilt over two or three years. Maybe it costs too much. Maybe it’s a possible historical landmark.
The city looked at 400 sites, went in-depth at more than 100 of them, drew layouts on several, moved forward on San Rafael School and a house nearby. All were unworkable or scrapped in the face of opposition.
The community — professionals, business people with incomes well above average — went crazy.
“We’re not respected. We’re very upset at the process,” said Dr. Ronald Paler, a resident of Glen Summer Drive and a leader of the effort to get full services restored within the area.
“We asked for an apple, a fire engine, and we’re being given an orange, an ambulance. The city manager is acting unilaterally to put an ambulance on our street at a rented house with a park on the corner. It’s unsafe. There are kids. There are cars parked on both sides of a narrow street.
“They ignored everyone who came to the council, ignored the laws for [environmental study] for a conditional-use permit. This has not been done in good faith. It’s sneaky. They used a lot of loopholes under the guise of public safety.”
Ron, you wrote: “My deepest belief as a journalist and community activist is this: In the 21st century, people are grown up enough to make decisions for themselves, or at least be part of the process. We don’t need patronizing officials to decide what’s good for us. We need a partnership based on mutual respect.”
Yes, and for the people in the San Fernando Valley, the time is now . The redistricting
meetings are a farce.
You’re right! CAVEAT: (The view expressed in this post Is NOT the view of AEG., Staples Center, Camen Trutanich, the City Council, the Mayor, the Board of Supervisor or any other elected official because none of them represent anyone other than themselves or campaign donors.)
Mr. Herb Wesson-Oil – Since you rejected those government entities, are you involved in an attempt to create CHANGE? I will help an effort. But do you think
you could facilitate an effort here in the Valley. I cannot organize anyone anymore
because I am ancient, but I am trying to help Ron and many others to get Kevin James and Cary Brazeman elected as Mayor and Controller. We need a bunch of
young people who are honest and interested in good government,
May I say “Eureka” we have another patriot to make the difference we need here
in this foresaken city?
If Kevin James and Cary Bozo get elected, what would happen to all those free tickets at Staples? What would happen to all those new Digital Billboards? What would all the layed off useless City Employees do if they couldn’t work? What would people do if the DWP’s books were opened and everyone found out it had all those Billions of dollars?
No, I don’t think the voters want to learn all that stuff. They want to keep living the lie they love so much, in that L.A. is a City of Dreams instead of a 3rd world hellhole. Look forward to $5.00 per gallon gas in L.A! Toodles.
HWO: Now, now, ignorance is no excuse. Start here: send Ron Kaye’s
messages to your “list”. I do. What say you? If we are the ones with the problem,
we have to get involved. HELP
Love ya Teddy you’re right. But I am afraid Herb Wesson Oil is also right. Where, oh where, are the people who care?
You know what I think part of the problem is? Ironically, because the computer is a lifeline of ideas and information—-part of the problem (I think) is the computer. As a society, we are being trained, 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, to point and click, rather than operating in the three dimensional world. This kind of relentless behavioral conditioning is bound to take a toll on proactiveness. I see it all around me, every day. In fact I find that I, myself, feel unreal many times at the end of the day, having floated in the ether for hours and hours. Cleaning the house helps, but the inertia from all the staring into screens is extremely hard to overcome and I am afraid it is just getting worse.