Blocking the March of Progress?
The problem is that their plots of precious Downtown land on vest-pocket-sized Exposition Boulevard — one owned by Marc Chiat, one by Mr. Vorgeack — stand in the path of the Redevelopment Agency’s plan of converting this northeast corner of Downtown into a light rail station. Monday night’s actions called for the Redevelopment Agency to approve condemnation of their two properties. This would enable City Hall to acquire the land from the two seethingly reluctant owners. Both gentlemen cast their resistance to the transactions in terms so plaintive that Council Chambers momentarily seemed to morph into Divorce Court. Through their electric words and flamboyant body language, Mr. Chiat and Mr. Vorgeack, both longtime owners, clung tenaciously to their land through the entire process. They portrayed themselves as essentially helpless little people striking out against the premier symbol of political power in Culver City.
No Assistance from the Dais
Except for Mr. Chiat’s attorney, Robert Silverstein, Mr. Vorgeack and Mr. Chiat were on their own. No one on the dais dashed to defend them or any section of their testimony. At no time was there any hint that the four-fifths vote required in each case was imperiled. In an amazingly quiet evening on the dais, after listening to a welter of charges packing varying degrees of heat, virtually none of the Agency members questioned any portion of the process that Agency staff pursued. Into the gap stepped the Community Development Director Susan Evans, Kellee Fritzal, the Economic Development Administrator, and Murray Kane, the Agency’s legal counsel. With zest, each attempted to forcefully refute the smallest to the largest accusations by the property owners. Numerous times, each official returned to a bannered mantra of redevelopment law, that the Agency was there to accommodate the displaced owners. “One of not only our goals but our obligations,” Ms. Evans said, “one of our legal obligations, is to understand, talk to the owners, understand their needs so we can assist them with relocation. An issue we have discovered with this project is that not only does the Agency have a need to relocate the business, very often the business owner is also the property owner. What we are finding is that we have a business owner who doesn’t want to lease space back into the (city-sponsored) project but wants to find a new relocation site, a new business.
Success Has Been Common
“As I have said,” Ms. Evans continued, “we have been successful with other property owners who own the business on that property. They not only want to stay in Culver City but specifically want to stay in this district. We have been successful in finding purchase opportunities. Will we be able to fold this specific business back into this specific project? That is something we can speak to tonight. But we need to have the opportunity to sit down with the property owner and talk through those needs. That has been difficult.” Defiantly, Mr. Chiat suggested that the truth traveled a path different from the one Ms. Evans cited. “The process has not been what these people have said it was,” he charged. “I was there in September for a meeting with (Community Development officers) Todd (Tipton), Alicia (Weintraub) and Kellee (Fritzal). I know I am going down. I needed to know about a timeline. Kellee said to me, ‘Don’t worry about Phase II. Here’s an offer. We can talk about numbers and how they compare.’ I have talked to four or five realtors. Nobody could find something within a mile, within two miles. People are getting offers for a lot more. Divide and conquer. Come talk to us. I have asked them. Together. We are the community. We are paying for this. That’s why we are angry. Because I let ‘em in for an appraisal. I let ‘em in for Phase I. I was angry but I was a realist. There was a certain point where the process wasn’t working. People were showing up at my door when clients were in pre-production meetings. I asked for a meeting in September to give my life story to these people. I said, ‘You find me a building today, I will buy it.’ Nothing exists at 2500 square feet in Culver City.”
The Referee Is Mr. Rose
The outbreak of unanticipated, borderline behavior forced Steve Rose, chair of the Redevelopment Agency, to adapt and play emergency referee. He succeeded in maintaining a sense of order by loosening one of his favorite rules. When Mr. Rose served as the Mayor, he was known for halting public speakers at the precise moment their time expired. In the cases of Mr. Chiat (who had called out from his seat) and Mr. Silverstein, Mr. Rose relented and permitted them a most unusual second turn at the microphone. Mr. Vorgeack’s outbursts from his seat became so distracting to the room that Mr. Rose, not knowing who the protestor was, issued a warning. “If you interrupt once more,” he said, “I will ask for you to be taken out of here.” After Ms. Fritzal completed her presentation — the city’s side of the acquisition process — Mr. Rose cordially allowed Mr. Vorgeack to address the Agency. With difficulty. Mr. Vorgeack seemed, at first, to prefer to speak out from the comfort of his seat rather than enduring the formality of the speakers’podium. When Mr. Rose learned that the voice behind the outbursts belonged to the owner of the property, he relented even more. “As the owner of the property, sir, I will be happy to give you a few minutes more (than the allotted five minutes),” Mr. Rose said. Softening, Mr. Vorgeack said, “Oh, thank you sir.” When he departed the rostrum a few minutes later, Mr. Vorgeack said, graciously, “Thank you for your time.” In between, the treading was a little thornier.
Take a Stand Against the City
“What’s the matter with you people?” Mr. Vorgeack inquired in his plea for further consideration. (Conversely, Mr. Chiat accepted his fate, even if it was over his vehement and extended protest. He repeatedly told the Agency that he knew he was engaged in a losing proposition, but he wanted the community to know how much he genuinely loved Culver City.) Mr. Vorgeack urged the Agency members to “wake up, find it in your heart” to block the “unwilling” sale. “When I was making $300,000 a year, you had no trouble taking my taxes,” he said. “But now you have bigger plans. My own place is not good enough for me anymore. I have to get out because you feel like taking it. I might as well go live in Russia.” Mr. Vorgeack’s rounded face, marked by a bushy gray moustache and topped off by a balding pate with a fringe of hair, hardened into a scowl. “What’s the matter with you people?” he demanded. “How can you do that to me? You find that totally normal? Wake up. Please, find it in your heart. It’s terrible. It’s absolutely disgusting what you are doing. I don’t know how you can sleep at night. That’s too damned much. Thank you for your time.”
