They Are Only Warming up
This is only the opening volley in what may be a drawn-out argument over numbers, pitting directly affected residents against the rest of the community. The study session is billed as purely exploratory. No binding decisions will be made by the City Council, which has had trouble finding consensus lately anyway.
Why hotly argued 9900 Culver is off-calendar for another week or two is, perhaps, the story of the day.
Following uncommonly acerbic exchanges between and among seriously quibbling Council members at the last meeting, on July 23, the three sides the developers and City Hall, in league with the City Council promptly set to work to design a more modest project.
In the most meaningful word of all, they are driving toward downsizing.
At the Vortex
Sparked by a disputably presented compromise idea forwarded at the last meeting by Councilman Scott Malsin, Community Development Director Sol Blumenfeld and the developer camp are closing in on a consensus that is supposed to have the birds chirping once again on both sides of the divide. A key component of their closely guarded mission is to mollify inflamed neighbors of the project and other protesting residents.
As they say in Hollywood, the developer-proposed 5-story, 21-condo, ground-floor retail mixed use project is undergoing a substantial makeover even as you read these words.
The developer Joseph Miller, whose girlfriend accepted his marriage proposal 3 weeks ago, is one half of the Uptown Lofts LLC team on Washington Boulevard. He said this morning it was too early to talk specifics.
“We are moving toward a solution everybody can be proud of,” he promised. “No one wants to bring it back prematurely.”
Lingering Feelings
But then a hush fell over the singing birds.
Going into the second and most recent meeting in which the extremely hesitant City Council was to vote up or down on the project, Mr. Miller said his side diligently labored to shrink the dimensions to please an aroused public and a Council that was divided and lurching with uncertainty. On July 23, however, the Council never did debate the newly condensed outer limits. “I was disappointed,” Mr. Miller said. “All of our hard work was brushed aside.”
The distracted City Council was too busy and too upset to concentrate on anything but hotly evaluating the merits of two controversial tactics that were brilliant or less-than, depending on how one feels about 9900 Culver and its current outer limits.
How the Disarray Began
Following a loud round of protesting by a cross-section of well-organized residents, Mayor Alan Corlin called a timeout. He said he needed to huddle, off-stage, with Mr. Malsin and City Manager Jerry Fulwood. When the public meeting resumed, Mr. Malsin immediately proposed postponing a vote for the second meeting in a row in order to pursue a compromise remedy that he said the state’s Brown Act prohibited him from revealing.
That put a torch to tempers on the Council.
Over the next 40 minutes, the five of them argued over everything but the substantive adjustments that the principals in the redevelopment, Judit Meda Fekete and Mr. Miller, had authorized. While the partisan crowd in Council Chambers applauded and enthusiastically cheered Mr. Malsin’s gesture, the members of the Council not only approached but sprinted toward the periphery of civility. The mayor, at a point, declared one member out of order. One of the verbal pugilists needed fully 7 days to restore his peace of mind.
Peace Now
Peace seems to have belatedly arrived at City Hall, if only b ecause the passage of time has healed wounds and wounded feelings.
The contrast in moods between then and now is stunning. Whenever the City Council does get around to voting on 9900 Culver, the background noise may yet be supplied by chirping birdies.
