[img]1792|right|Jim Clarke||no_popup[/img]Tonight’s 7 o’clock City Council meeting in Council Chambers figures – or was — to be the most talked-about meeting in months. But where is the coffee or whatever stimulant keeps you awake late?
For weeks, City Hall tirelessly has been priming the community for this meeting, sending out an uncommon number of announcements.
Their message: That “rent stabilization,” as City Hall euphemistically prefers to label rent control, and the availability of affordable housing are of unusual interest to the community, and they deserve exclusive attention for themselves, a meeting when these will be the only topics.
As this evening’s meeting drew closer, the message – a vote on whether to schedule a separate community meeting – gradually morphed into more esoteric interpretations.
By now, Council members have offered various interpretations of what they expect to happen to the two subjects tonight.
A Time to Yawn
The bad news for partisans is that the discussion is buried so deeply inside a lengthy agenda, it could be between 11 o’clock before the Council reaches the subject.
After a half-dozen presentations to or by community members, 20 consent calendar items, a series of public hearings and an airing of three other main event-type topics, the supposed focal point of the evening finally will be addressed.
By that time, a weary crowd likely will have surrendered to fatigue, not to mention work and school tomorrow morning.
Here is City Councilman Jim Clarke’s take:
The Chief Topic?
“My understanding is we are not necessarily even discussing rent control. All we are doing is discussing whether to have some kind of public forum to talk about it in the future. I don’t think we will be asked to take a stand on rent control.
“I am there to gather information, hear what people have to say and decide whether to have a broad community forum about rent control.”
But that is of secondary interest to Mr. Clarke. At the moment, he says, “I want to know what we are doing about working with the state Legislature to get more funding for affordable housing.
“I want to know what we are doing about our own zoning codes, whether we are doing as much as we could to encourage affordable housing.
“I am concerned about ‘McMansion-izing,’ investors buying up properties because property prices are going up,” Mr. Clarke said. “Now with Google purchasing a big piece of property over in Playa Vista, all of those employees are going to be looking for housing close by.”
Returning to the subject of buying up “relatively affordable housing in Culver City,” the Councilman worries about aggressive investors “knocking them down, McMansionizing them, and selling as investments to other people.”
