LA City Beat's story on LAUSD's attempts to build a school on Site 9A--the area around Alvarado, Marathon, Santa Ynez and Mohawk streets in Echo Park--kicks with the perspective of a local family who ultimately lost their homes: "Two men showed up..they were officials from the Los Angeles Unified School District, and they had come to talk money. On the spot, they offered Antonio Villanueva $700,000 for his property." The Right Site Coalition's Christine Peters, whose core argument is that the school isn't needed because there's a decrease in the number of elementary school-aged students in the region, is quoted in the story as is Mitch O’Farrell, district director of constituent services for Councilmember Eric Garcetti’s office, who calls the now-vacant spot "a disgrace.” The Right Site Coalition's latest suit against the LAUSD (and the suit is still winding its way through the courts) was over the school district's supposedly "shoddy" Environmental Impact Report, while Tom Calhoun, L.A. Unified’s development manager for the central region, says LASUD is suffering damages of $110,000 a week due to all the setbacks. But he promises the paper that the school will be built.
· Degree in Devastation [LA City Beat]
· 9A Dust Up [Curbed LA]
Filed under:
Loading comments...