Last night's town hall meeting for residents of the Southeast Valley was a barn burner, lasting until 9:00 pm or so. Congratulations to Councilwoman Wendy Greuel (CD2) for showing up at 9:30 after everyone had left. Smart move. We made it for the last part due to another Valley bitchfest meeting we had to attend. Much of what we did hear was from Councilman Tom LaBonge (CD4), who seemed rather subdued, and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky who was all but frothing at the mouth with his nonsensical anti-development ranting. Good lord, it's hard to believe somebody hasn't kicked Zev back into whatever bureaucratic cubby hole he's been hiding in for the last decade. Isn't he partly/largely to blame for all the problems he's now complaining about?
Zev gained a few rounds of applause for his paraphrasing of the famous pornography quote from Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, stating that he knows what an obscene development is when he sees it - even when he sees the rendering. He also stated his opposition to the development of the Universal City Red Line station by Thomas Properties for NBC as it's currently proposed - being too tall and dense. Like the recent LA Weekly article, Zev managed to repeatedly take slaps at the City's Planing Department, referring to them at one point as "Ivory Tower planners."
We spoke with several people in attendance afterwards about what we missed, including a member of a Valley neighborhood council. Apparently, some poor sap from the MTA spoke and was hissed and booed unmercifully for allowing dense transit oriented development (TOD) around the metro stations. Zev later ridiculed TOD, noting that parking reductions for transit oriented development, specifically the Universal Red Line/NBC development, was dumb because not everyone will take the subway to work. The audience applauded, Zev smiled. By the end of the night, the once packed ballroom at the Holiday Inn in Studio City was largely empty, with a few blue-hairs and no-hairs remaining. Congrats to Zev Yaroslavsky for wrapping up the old, white NIMBY vote so early in his quest to become our next Mayor.
· NIMBY-Development War Escalates In The Valley [Curbed LA]
· Development plans upset neighbors [LA Times]
· Valley People: Will They Ever Attain Fulfillment? [Curbed LA]
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