If only the political season could be filled with the bubbling joy of campaign-launching events, strife would vanish and Assemblymember Holly Mitchell (D-Culver City), without contradiction, could stand erect in the glow of late afternoon sunshine and smilingly promise tomorrow will be superior to today.
At 5:30 yesterday, alternating between slanting sun and shadows, Ms. Mitchell formed a perfect political portrait just inside the outdoor patio entry to the smart Post and Beam restaurant on Santa Rosalia Drive in the bosom of the shopper-laden Crenshaw Plaza.
Tall, attractive, popular and astute, Ms. Mitchell was strategically posted to greet every celebrity and ordinary voter who streamed into the crammed but friendly area – County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Culver City), Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel, a mayoralty candidate, Assemblyman Steve Bradford (D-Gardena), School Board member Kathy Paspalis and City Council contender Meghan Sahli-Wells.
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Last January, after hearing from disappointed if not infuriated City Council members over Gov. Brown’s elimination of crucial Redevelopment Agencies, Ms. Mitchell promised to be in the forefront of the community rehabilitation period.
That was the first question posed to her yesterday – what has she done? She was ready.
“I have co-authored Assembly Bill 1585 with Speaker John Perez as a Redevelopment Task Force member, and we are really trying to work hard to create minor fixes to status quo,” Ms. Mitchell said.
“These minor fixes will focus on some properties that probably should be in the domain of public entities like Culver City. I am trying to redirect funding to be available to municipalities that are going to, and have committed to, low-income housing.
“The bill has just passed on the Assembly floor, and now we have to go to the Senate side.”
Ms. Mitchell promised that her bill will improve the financial status of city governments “where local leadership is committed to low-income housing. But this is not a rte-tweaking of Redevelopment. Redevelopment, as we have known it, is gone.”
Ms. Mitchell said she was disappointed in the state Supreme Court’s ruling on Dec. 28 that struck down Redevelopment Agencies with finality rather than allowing legislators to retain the second part of a two-tiered bill that supposedly would have salvaged more than a skeleton of the defunct Agencies.
“I wish we could have worked collaboratively with the League of California Cities,” who sued the governor and legislature over the Agency-killing bill that became law, Ms. Mitchell said. “We could have come up with something that worked for everybody.”
(To be continued)
