Editor Ari Noonan’s description of developers (“Rising in Defense of the Smeared Class: Those Poor Developers,” April 18) created a strange picture in my mind.
I imagine looking across the Council Chambers and seeing a dozen men in overalls text messaging each other on the Blackberries. I was unaware that Gucci even made bib overalls.
I do not believe developers are evil people. They are what they are. During the Bob Champion era, I described developers as that scorpion that hitches a ride across a river on the back of a turtle. Halfway across, he stings the turtle.
As they are sinking below the water, the turtle asks, Why did you do that? Now we are both going to die. The scorpion responds, Because I am a scorpion.
And why do developers want to develop projects that are out of character with the neighborhood?
They do it because they are developers.
A Job for a Sentinel
If I see a scorpion come into my campsite, I don’t squash it. I will keep an eye on it, just to make sure it doesn’t cause problems in the campsite.
I think we need to do the same with developers when they come into the city.
There was a misrepresentation in the article. It implied that rejecting the project would be bowing to a few loud voices in the community.
We are not asking the City Council to bow to the loudest voices in town. We are asking them to bow to the majority voice in town. I believe that if this project were put to a vote, it would be rejected.
When put to a vote of the people in 1990, the people said they wanted to limit building heights to 56 feet.
A Little Detail
The creators of the initiative failed to eliminate the right of the Council to grant the height exception.
The voters believed they were limiting building heights, period.
The Council and staff know this. Instead of giving the people what they want, they use a loophole. I wouldn’t be surprised to see action taken to close this loophole to future Councils.
And remember, these Councilmen have been elected by receiving 50 percent of the vote of the 20 percent of the electorate that actually vote.
Our Favorite 10 Percent
It doesn’t bother them to sit there and
make decisions, thanks to the vote of 10 percent of the electorate. They don’t consider this bowing to the loudest voices. Instead, they thank the people (actually 10 percent of the people) for putting their faith in them.
The city itself promotes two big lies about the opposition to the project. First, it was said that the proposed project is literally across the street from the Hughes Center, with its tall buildings. I live across the street from El Marino School. Saying that Entrada is literally across the street from the Hughes Center is like saying I am literally across the street from Toy ‘R Us.
The fastest of our Councilmen could not get to the Hughes Center from the Entrada site, crossing that literal street, in less than 15 minutes.
Nothing Could be Finah
What are actually across the street from Entrada are Dinah’s, a mini-mall, a parking lot and a building under construction that looks about three or four stories.
What is on either side of the Entrada site are the single story Albertson Market/ CVS building and the 110-foot Radisson Hotel (which Entrada will tower over). Describing it to sound like it is surrounded by other tall buildings, makes it more acceptable.
The second lie put forward by the City Council is that the majority of the protesters were from Los Angeles. Even if it were true, it makes no difference.
Basis for a Decision
We should be making decisions based on the goodness or badness of a project.
The city’s excuse for everything is that Los Angeles is at fault. They used it the week after the Entrada meeting while they were discussing the traffic in the Berryman/McLaughlin area.
Instead of fixing problems, it is convenient to have someone to blame. Our City Council has chosen to portray Los Angeles as the evil empire so they can be Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia coming to our rescue from Darth Rosendahl.
Unfortunately none have shown the intelligence and logic of Yoda. Thus we end up with:
May the farce be with you!
But it is not true.
My guess is that it was about half Culver City and half Los Angeles turned in speaker cards that night. I asked the City Clerk about the makeup of the speakers. He said it was difficult to tell because many did not put their address on the card.
The city will tell us that they didn’t put their addresses because they were from Los Angeles. I was asked that night by Culver City residents I know, if they had to put their addresses on the card. I also know quite a few Culver City residents were there who didn’t turn in cards.
Promoting the idea that the majority of speakers come from the evil empire makes the project more acceptable. I would like to see the new Council make the Council Chambers a Blame Los Angeles-free zone.
We need to work with Los Angeles on these problems of mutual interest.
Mr. Supple may be contacted at tomjsup@ca.rr.com
