Fifth in a series
Re “One More Toasty Roasting of Regalado”
For a fleet moment, the arch-community activist Mark Salkin almost seemed stunningly pessimistic.
For most of the nearly three decades Mr. Salkin has lived on Culver Crest, he has been consumed by a virtually uninterrupted battle to convince West Los Angeles College to be more considerate of its thousands of neighbors.
In two days, the trustees of the Los Angeles College Community District are expected to approve an environmental impact report that will signal the start of major construction likely to escalate the permanent state of war.
The latest round of feuding has been the bitterest in years.
“The community seems to think,” said Mr. Salkin, “that the college is too big to stop.”
He is trying to flash the opposite message in all directions.
“Below traffic and possibly the lack of money, this is the biggest issue facing the city,” he said. “The college will, ultimately, expand to 25,000 people. That is 40,000 people on campus, when you count all of the non-students.
“That is 80,000 car trips a day. Outrageous.”
Question: What hasn’t the scope of this long-running battle caught on?
“I don’t know. Many issues don’t catch on. It doesn’t have enough sizzle for the community, I guess.”
Is the battle too dense, too thick with detail to attract the casual onlooker?
“This is a very complex issue, and that may be the reason.
“There is another factor. We appear — the people exposing the college expansion — are misread by the community.
“We do not oppose expansion. It is the manner of the expansion, the college’s lack of respect for the law and the agreement that the college itself entered into with us five years ago.
“They made the agreement suggestion. They dictated the terms. We negotiated them, and then they agreed to them. They do not want to live up to our agreement.
“In my mind, this is fraud.”
(To be continued)
