A Private Person
If the wrestler Chris Benoit, killer of three persons, reappeared this afternoon, he probably would be treated more humanely than the poor developer has by Culver City since last Dec. 5.
Mr. Champion never has allowed himself to openly show the slightest displeasure with the way Culver City residents/landowners/business owners in Culver City have treated him.
That is class, a rare and vanishing quality.
But after two stinging setbacks one in private, one in public he either is walking dead or he is hurting, achingly.
Of Proportion and Balance
Proportionality, people. That is the issue.
The lightly debated motion at the end of the community meeting that singlehandedly froze the high-powered development struck me as wildly excessive, grossly disproportionate to the problems with the redevelopment plan.
Poker-Faced Professional
I have said it on other occasions Mr. Champion comported himself brilliantly, with enviable class and savoir faire. This places him in a minority of about two or three in the room.
What a bizarre way for the Champion portion of the South Sepulveda Boulevard redevelopment to end if this is the end.
Worthy of Reverence?
On the whimsical strength of a puzzlingly vague motion that asks City Hall to produce a precise vision, called a Specific Plan, of what it thinks the 12 1/2 acres of the South Sepulveda corridor should look like, the redevelopment project was halted.
Its like putting a fifth tire on a sedan. To what end?
This motion was treated with the reverence accorded a clergyman when there was no evidence it even is a junior panacea. Why not put six tires, or 18, on a sedan?
Here is the worst part of the toxic fallout from the motion:
Entering a Chaotic Universe
By plunging the present and the future status of the South Sepulveda project into doubt, it has created chaos where none previously existed.
Lets say the staff of Sol Blumenfeld, the new Community Development Dept. Director, creates a Specific Plan, as he predicted Wednesday night, in nine to 12 months.
Whether it is deftly or merely adequately crafted, will it have an effect on the redevelopment that eventually is built?
Benefiting the Project
Unquestionably, Scott Malsin, the Chair of the Redevelopment Agency, said the other day, the Agency can revise the disputed zoning standards in time to benefit the South Sepulveda project.
But the motion leaves other troubling questions lying on the floor.
Will the City Council approve the halfhearted recommendation by the Citizens Advisory Committee when the subject is placed on the agenda, perhaps in August?
Even Number
Remember only four Council members will be voting because, as a property owner, Steve Rose has recused himself.
What happens in the event of a tie?
What happens in the event of approval? Of disapproval?
A Sobering Episode
This is not a sandbox. This is as serious as life gets peoples lives, peoples welfare, and the fragility and the preciousness of peoples reputations are at stake.
After Wednesdays community meeting, not one person in the room at El Marino could explain to me the justification for or the relationship of the motion to the project.
The customer complaints for six months have been about traffic, density and building height none of which requires a Specific Plan to implement.
Just Grazing
Therefore, we dog-eared denizens of the Peanut Gallery may speculate that the motion was imprecise because, when reaching, it was the first tool grabbed.
Use any-shaped impediment to stall or kill the project.
That appears to me to be the reasoning, even though no one would say that for the record.
It is a big deal, especially for Mr. Champion, because of his massive multiple investment of money, resources and people.
The Other Champion Setback
Didnt anyone else feel at least a Billy Barty-sized surge of compassion for Mr. Champion?
This newspaper revealed this week that he lost a Big Dollar showdown with the entrepreneur Hooman Nissani for one of the 22 parcels of land inside the South Sepulveda Boulevard redevelopment project.
Which is like your teenager smashing the family car the day before you are leaving to drive across the country.
Grab Your Hat and Coat
Who would blame the well-named Mr. Champion if he walked through the door for keeps?
None of the shortcomings charged to him were his fault.
