The Todd Tipton who answered tough questions on Monday morning about redevelopment on Exposition Boulevard seldom is on display publicly. Eminently disciplined, he is low key and very private. He possesses one of the least known resumes of a public figure in this town. Acerbically worded arrows routinely are aimed at Mr. Tipton, the Project Administrator of the Community Development Dept. The arrows flung at him during the past week have been dipped in an especially unpleasant inkwell. Encountered in the elevator on the way to his top-floor office at City Hall, Mr. Tipton was so relaxed that he looked as if he already had begun his Fourth of July holiday. Once at the third floor, he sank gracefully into a large easy chair. Leaning back, he crossed his legs and folded his hands, all taken as signs that he was poised on the firing line. The essential question was, How do you respond to people who say you and your people are cold-blooded villains? “This work is an extension of who I am,” says Mr. Tipton. “Those who know me know that I am not a villain. A lot of people have worked hard to get the community where it is today.” When he is lathered with criticism, Mr. Tipton said that he attempts to maintain balance within himself “by focusing on the differences we are bringing to the community.” Another answer is that someone whose job is inherently negative sounding to a segment of the city, such as a bill collector, never is loved. This is Mr. Tipton’s job: Once territories for major redevelopment have been scouted out, it is the duty of him and his team to approach the entrepreneurs. To be succinct, their hand-in-glove message is that the owner will need to sell to accommodate the greater public good of the community.
Any Old Accusation
The combination was lethal. It was comparable to standing in a telephone booth with 10 of your closest relatives who have cultivated an unhealthy proclivity for the grape. The crowd was not — how you say it? — stellar. The story, “Blacks Call on UCLA to Reform Admission Policy,” was reported 10 days ago in the Los Angeles Times by the journeyman reporter Stu Silverstein. He is not one of the Times’s trenchant correspondents. When the Times and its army of opinionated reporters — the affirmative action-types and the marginally talented white boys and girls — disagree with the premise of a story, a countering view is commonly included in the opening sentence. In this typically unbalanced Silverstein report, UCLA is accorded 2 sentences. The kernel of the story is that only 96 black students are among the 4700 scheduled to enroll at UCLA in September, the lowest number in more than 30 years. In an academic sense, the fact that only 2 percent of the incoming freshman class is black should be of no more significance than the fact that only 2 percent of freshmen had mothers born in Kansas on a rainy Monday. When the Times agrees with a premise, legitimation is scarcely of concern. Any person can make accusation.
Ousted Owners Say City Hall Not Truthful
The last two beleaguered property owners left standing on tiny Exposition Boulevard say that contrary to frequent assertions made by City Hall, the city has not, in fact, relocated any of their fellow business owners in the 8800 block. All 12 entrepreneurs on the
knows his next address. None has received any of the publicly and privately pledged assistance from City Hall in finding a new site. “We can be out on the street for all the city cares,” said Mr. Chiat. ”The city obviously does not care what happens to us.” They charged redevelopment personnel with callous behavior, putting themselves out of reach when they didn’t want to talk, and giving evasive answers when they did dialogue. The last two Exposition survivors are, at the same time, “angry” and “devastated” over their “impersonal” and “misleading” treatment by the city as City Hall clears land in anticipation of the building of a light rail station in some unknown year in the future. The rail station may or may not be built for a myriad of political and fiscal rewasons. Both men say their personal lives have been permanently disrupted ever since the Community Development Dept., the professional arm of the Redevelopment Agency, came into their businesses a little less than two years ago. They are not quite sure when or how it will end. They agree, sadly, just that they have lost.
knows his next address. None has received any of the publicly and privately pledged assistance from City Hall in finding a new site. “We can be out on the street for all the city cares,” said Mr. Chiat. ”The city obviously does not care what happens to us.” They charged redevelopment personnel with callous behavior, putting themselves out of reach when they didn’t want to talk, and giving evasive answers when they did dialogue. The last two Exposition survivors are, at the same time, “angry” and“devastated” over their “impersonal” and “misleading” treatment by the city as City Hall clears land in anticipation of the building of a light rail station in some unknown year in the future. The rail station may or may not be built for a myriad of political and fiscal rewasons. Both men say their personal lives have been permanently disrupted ever since the Community Development Dept., the professional arm of the Redevelopment Agency, came into their businesses a little less than two years ago. They are not quite sure when or how it will end. They agree, sadly, just that they have lost.
Whats the Plan at City Hall? Asks Silbiger.
After unexpectedly joining his colleagues on the Redevelopment Agency board last Monday in unanimously approving the transfer of two privately held properties to City Hall control, Mayor Gary Silbiger said today it is time for the city to pause. He is worried that those in charge of redesigning or updating the shape of
They Made Me Smile Again
Certain residents of this community are determined not to allow School District Supt. Dr. Laura McGaughey to respectfully fade into retirement without milking the story for just one more smile. The Dr. McGaughey I have known the last few years is a nice lady. Personable and courteous. Whether she was overmatched in the position is a discussion for a different day. It is important to maintain our equilibrium and our perspective. We are not talking about someone who has selflessly contributed a century of perspiring, backbreaking service to the greater good of the
to the home.
to the home.
Wrong Lives up to His Name
The worst and least surprising news of the morning was that Mayor (Mexico First, Last and Always) Wrong of Los Angeles and the unethical leadership of two teachers unions k-nocked heads yesterday while they were hurriedly staggering into bed with each other. He desperately needed their backing, and he cut a whisper-whisper deal to pull off the upset. The power-greedy mayor’s bid to become the unquestioned czar of the dilapidated
Silence Is Golden and Also Odd
One Worry Still To Be Resolved
Its All Relative, Pal
Democrats Prefer a Cold Peace
Sweet Revenge for the School District?
For the sake of Culver City students who eat, it probably is a good thing that the late Mrs. M. Antoinette — who famously said “Let them eat cake” – dropped dead, after a fashion, a couple of centuries ago. She would only have reminded the students of what used to be. It isn’t final and it isn’t official yet, but cake-eating on Culver City campuses, at least in spirit, soon will be going the way of the dodo bird, into a museum, parked alongside the blacksmith, Packard, Nash, Studebaker and dinosaur displays. At next Tuesday night’s School Board meeting, members are expected to adopt significantly more stringent guidelines regarding the types of food that can be dispensed and consumed throughout the District.