Eleventh in a series
[img]989|left|Denny Zane||no_popup[/img][Editor’s Note: For more than 30 years, Denny Zane, 63-year-old visionary-philosopher-politician-arch activist in Santa Monica, has been in the forefront of shaping and influencing public policy and environment-related projects. This is a first-person account of that journey. Summing up the way he has morphed through a series of (always-linked) career changes, he said: “I got into the habit of making a living by pursuing my personal political priorities.” Now concerned with mass transportation, accent on light rail, his address is movela.com]
Re “The Rocky Airport Years of Mayor Hahn”
After Jimmy Hahn lost the confidence of voters, Antonio Villaraigosa, who had signed the pledge to oppose LAX expansion, was elected Mayor of Los Angeles in 2005.
Not long afterward, lawsuits were filed by ARSAC, the Alliance for Regional Solutions to Airport Congestion. Keep in mind, ARSAC never was more than a half-dozen individuals whom became empowered by our canvass operation in their name. ARSAC paid for the canvass against LAX expansion and collected the pledge cards.
ARSAC brought suit against LAX on grounds they had violated the California Environmental Quality Act. Subsequently, there was a settlement Antonio presided over that made concrete commitments about what would happen at the airport that assured its modernization without expansion.
This was another example of collaboration between Antonio and me. Through the Clean Bus effort, through the Carl Moyer program and through the LAX stuff, Antonio and I never had spent any time one-on-one of a casual nature. It always was political. Never socialized. We knew each other’s policies, as to principles and the skills we showed.
I had admired his leadership skills, his willingness to be a risk-taker and work toward a bigger vision, especially on environmental issues.
When Antonio was running for Mayor, his campaign placed a strong emphasis on his desire and intention to promote a countywide transportation plan, a transit plan. The iconic subject was the Subway to the Sea.
His articulation of that is what inspired me and several others to work together, to pull together, the business-labor-environmental coalition, which led first to Measure R being placed on the ballot in 2008 and now the 30-10 program.
It is fascinating how Antonio and I have been collaborators and partners on a number of issues throughout my career and part of his career without really knowing each other.
(To be continued)
