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February 2008
Super Tuesday in Los Angeles
California Voters Gear Up for
Super Tuesday Presidential Primary
As the primary fields narrow, for the first time in a generation California voters will play a key role in selecting their respective parties’ nominees for president. To learn more about the Tuesday, February 5 presidential primary election, visit http://lavote.net. Visit the California Secretary of State online for full information on statewide ballot measures. Also see our sidebar (below left) for some election day tips.
Arts & Culture
Broad Contemporary Art Museum
Set for Grand Opening at LACMA
Pictured here (L to R), Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Andrew Gordon, Chairman of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Board of Trustees, and LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director Michael Govan tour the construction site for “Urban Light,” a striking new outdoor installation by artist Chris Burden linking the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM), a new gallery building, to the existing LACMA campus of galleries to the east. BCAM is set for a grand opening weekend February 16-18, 2008. To learn more about the Museum’s new Master Plan, visit Transforming LACMA Overview. For more information on BCAM events and exhibitions, visit the BCAM opening page at the LACMA website.
Protecting Public Lands
Supervisor Thanks Senator Feinstein
Supervisor Yaroslavsky presents Senator Dianne Feinstein with a scrapbook of historic photos, illustrations and postcards of the West LA VA site, where this picture was taken, in gratitude for her recently-enacted legislation protecting the nearly 400 acres of that site from commercial development and preserving it for the benefit of veterans. Feinstein’s legislation, which passed the House thanks to the strong support of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who represents the area, was included in an omnibus appropriations bill signed into law by President Bush in December. (1/16/08)
Homelessness
Board Greenlights “Project 50” Pilot
to Assist Long-Term Homeless
On January 8, 2008, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s “Project 50” pilot got a huge boost when the Board of Supervisors approved a contract with Skid Row Housing Trust to provide supportive housing for downtown Skid Row’s 50 most vulnerable homeless single adult residents. The innovative program, patterned after a successful effort in New York’s Times Square, employs a comprehensive survey of the street homeless, a systematic assessment of their vulnerability, and provision of supportive housing that includes both permanent residency and intensive social services addressing health and mental health needs, substance abuse treatment and counseling. For more details, see supporting documents Skid Row Housing Trust agreement and implementation and cost plan, and additional analysis by the County’s Chief Executive Office.
Click on above image and watch the Supervisor speak at the January 8th Board meeting on Project 50. This will take you to www.youtube.com.
In the Environment
Rocketdyne Field Lab Site to Be Cleaned Up
Under State Jurisdiction
Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky praised a decision by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to retain state jurisdiction and oversight over long-overdue efforts to clean up the contaminated Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a former rocket-engine testing and nuclear research facility located near Chatsworth just across the Ventura County line. In an action that pleased local environmentalists and neighboring residents of the site, Schwarzenegger and state officials determined that at this point, seeking federal Superfund status for the area would slow down and weaken the clean-up effort.
In December, the Environmental Protection Agency recommended adding the former Rocketdyne facility to the National Priorities List of sites to qualify for federal cleanup under the Superfund program. Schwarzenegger decided instead to ask the EPA for a six-month delay before making its final decision, both to further study the issue and strengthen Sacramento’s hand in negotiations with the site’s current owner Boeing Corp. over terms for a cleanup that would ultimately turn over the decontaminated 2,850-acre site to the state for open-space parkland.
Board Moves to Curb Plastic Shopping Bag Waste
On January 22, 2008, the Board of Supervisors took final action to approve a new “Single Use Bag Reduction and Recycling Program” aimed at substantially reducing plastic shopping bag waste from the County’s unincorporated areas, which include 10% of the County’s population of 10 million. Proponents hoped that the County’s 88 cities would follow suit and institute comparable measures to curb or eliminate plastic bag waste in the remaining 90% of the County’s populated area. For more details on the various proposals developed and discussed during the year-long effort, see this plastic bag waste report.
Transportation
Yaroslavsky Tackles Transportation at
“Move LA” Transit Summit
Pictured here with Yaroslavsky, from the left, are Dr. Manuel Pastor, USC; John Fasana, Metro Board member; Richard Katz, Metro Board member; and Parke Skelton, political consultant.
On Thursday, January 10, 2008 Supervisor Yaroslavsky delivered a blunt and candid assessment of the region’s transit challenges as a featured participant on the concluding panel convened as part of the "Move LA" all-day public transit conference held in downtown Los Angeles. Yaroslavsky’s remarks touched on various transit projects underway such as the Expo Line light rail through Culver City to Santa Monica and the Eastside Gold Line light-rail, as well as other suggested projects including the Wilshire subway extension.
In the Community
Sherman Oaks Homeowner Association
Welcomes Yaroslavsky
On January 16, 2008, speaking to members of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, Supervisor Yaroslavsky criticized looming overdevelopment threatened by measures like SB 1818, a state law that offers apartment and condo project developers greater density and taller buildings in return for minimal set asides for affordable housing units.
“Land use is one of the most important and critical issues to the areas of Los Angeles,” Yaroslavsky told the audience. “The land use regulations we have are designed not only to protect you against a towering building and traffic. It’s also to ensure that your home doesn’t lose value because someone else decided to gain value at your expense,” he added, warning that what were once considered “settled land use issues” are now under attack through law and policy changes. For a full account of Yaroslavsky’s presentation, read more in this Sun Community Newspaper article.
Yaroslavsky Joins Santa Monica Symphony
in Salute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Supervisor Yaroslavsky takes a bow with Santa Monica Symphony conductor Allen Gross after narrating a matinee performance of Schwantner’s “New Morning for the World - Daybreak of Freedom,” a musical setting for the stirring words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The occasion, on Sunday, January 20, 2008, marked the Symphony’s 2nd Annual Commemorative Concert to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday, and the 25th anniversary of the composition’s first full symphonic performance. Forty-five years after they were first uttered, and 40 years after his tragic assassination, Dr. King’s words still resonate with us today:
“I have a dream. The dream is one of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where persons will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few: a dream of a land where persons do not argue that the color of one’s skin determines the content of one’s character; the dream of a place where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where everyone will respect the dignity and worth of all human personality, and men will dare to live together as brothers…”
Commission Appointments
(+ denotes reappointment):
1/29 - Robert A. Ringler+, Los Angeles County Highway Safety Commission
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