Budget, Finance and Fiscal Responsibility
- As Chair of the Budget and Finance committee from 1983 to 1994, Yaroslavsky balanced the City budget each year and was responsible for oversight of City finances and expenditures.
- He played a leading role in protecting the City's top bond rating at a time when other municipalities were downgraded.
Planning, Land Use and Balanced Growth
- Yaroslavsky was co-sponsor of Proposition U, the "Reasonable Limits on Commercial Building and Traffic Growth" initiative, approved by an overwhelming 69% of Los Angeles voters in November 1986, which cut commercial density by half in most of the City and protects residential neighborhoods from large-scale commercial developments.
- Yaroslavsky was principal author of the Hillside Protection Ordinance in 1992, designed to protect and preserve the City's unique hillside areas from "mansionization" and destructive development by imposing height limits and open-space requirements.
- Yaroslavsky has been deeply involved in all aspects of planning and land use in and around Westwood Village. He authored a package of measures aimed at protecting the unique character of this shopping and residential district while spurring needed business revitalization and improvements in lighting, landscaping, street and sidewalk maintenance. He also negotiated the historic agreement with UCLA and the UC Board of Regents guaranteeing the City a voice in campus development decisions, despite the traditional exemption of state-owned lands from local zoning controls.
- Yaroslavsky helped lead City and County efforts to purchase the railroad right-of-way on the 2.2-mile Santa Monica Boulevard (Route 2) median between the Beverly Hills city limit and the San Diego Freeway. Now publicly owned, this vital Westside traffic corridor will be beautified and converted to optimal transportation use.
Protecting Our Environment
- Yaroslavsky was the co-sponsor of Proposition O, a successful referendum in November 1988 that overturned City ordinances permitting on-shore oil drilling by the Occidental Petroleum Corporation along the Pacific Palisades coastline, and precluding future oil-drilling within 1,000 yards of the City's coastline.
- A long-time proponent of conservation and prudent resource management, Yaroslavsky was the leading Council advocate for preservation and protection of Mono Lake. He led the fight to restructure City water rates to reward conservation and penalize waste, and pushed for needed upgrades to the City's aging sewer and wastewater-treatment system. He also led the effort to reform electrical rates, wiping out subsidies for large energy consumers and rewarding the smallest users.
- Yaroslavsky long championed the City's nationally recognized recycling program despite severe fiscal constraints.
- Yaroslavsky spearheaded enactment of the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Ordinance, designed to preserve and protect the open space and unique viewshed of the Mulholland Highway Corridor.
Strengthening Law Enforcement and Improving Public Safety
- As Chair of the Council's Budget and Finance Committee, Yaroslavsky led the fight to increase the number of sworn LAPD street officers. More than anyone else in City government, he was responsible for boosting LAPD's ranks from some 6,900 sworn officers in 1984 to more than 7,900 today.
- Yaroslavsky authored the 1989 ban on sale and possession of semi-automatic assault weapons within City limits, making Los Angeles the largest city in the nation to prohibit such military-style assault rifles as AK-47s and Uzis.
- As the City's leading champion of police reforms, Yaroslavsky was a principal supporter of Charter Amendment F, approved by voters in June 1992, implementing the LAPD reforms recommended by the Christopher Commission in the wake of the 1991 Rodney King beating.
- To protect students from traffic injuries, Yaroslavsky initiated the 1990 School Stop Sign Program, which installed 4-way stop signs at every intersection adjacent to elementary, junior and senior high schools across the City.
- Yaroslavsky authored the City-wide ban on wood-shake roofs to protect homes and lives in hillside and flatland areas from fire dangers. To reduce damage from rains and floods, he won Council approval of a revised land use plan which also rendered affected residents eligible for federally subsidized low-cost flood insurance.
Housing and Economic Development
- Yaroslavsky spearheaded the drive to assist the rebuilding efforts of Sherman Oaks and other portions of the San Fernando Valley devastated by the Northridge Earthquake of January 17, 1994, creatively utilizing the Community Redevelopment Agency to generate much-needed construction capital.
- Yaroslavsky led Council efforts to pressure the Community Redevelopment Agency to dedicate more of its resources to affordable housing and less to purely commercial projects, and wrote the ordinance subjecting the CRA to Council oversight.
- A champion of renters' rights, his initiatives include the Rent Escrow Account Program (REAP), which deposits rent checks in a holding account until slumlords bring buildings up to code. Since REAP's 1989 inception, more than 900 buildings have been involved, 80 percent of them eventually repaired. He also wrote legislation requiring landlords to pay interest on security deposits, toughening eviction requirements to better protect tenants and increase relocation assistance, and limiting rental demolition and condo conversions.
Service to Seniors
- Yaroslavsky conceived and implemented an innovative program to lease air development rights over City-owned property, such as public parking lots, in order to fund and build senior-citizen housing. Two such projects were built in the Pico-Robertson area with another under construction in Sherman Oaks. He also helped establish senior housing projects at Beth Am Manor and Martel Park.
- He helped establish the Freda Mohr Multi-Service Senior Center, a unique facility serving the health, social and advocacy needs of Fairfax-area seniors. In addition, he has created and secured funding for other senior services such as an aquatic program for those afflicted with arthritis; Home Secure, aimed at informing seniors how better to protect their homes and property; and Alternative Living for the Aging, offering an alternative to traditional board-and-care facilities.
Meeting Park and Recreation Needs
- Yaroslavsky won funding approval to purchase and annex Westwood Park, improving security and adding a new community building, basketball courts, tennis courts and soccer fields. He also won funding to purchase Reynier Park and Beverwil Park, and construct new community buildings at Poinsettia, Palms, and Rancho Park.
- He authored legislation that appropriated City general funds to expand afterschool recreation programs at elementary and junior high schools citywide, maintaining the City's funding commitment despite fiscal constraints and political opposition. It now serves nearly 300 schools and extends the Los Angeles Unified School District afterschool program by two hours a day.
Social Action and Good Government
- Yaroslavsky authored the City's landmark Freedom of Information ordinance, the first of its kind in local government and a model for similar legislation elsewhere.
- In November 1978, he sponsored and won approval for Proposition M, requiring that LAUSD School Board members be elected by district, rather than at-large, vastly improving local control of schools.
- In June 1992, as part of a broader police reform package to improve the quality of law enforcement and expand career opportunities for women, Yaroslavsky won approval for legislation to boost the contingent of female LAPD officers to parity with the overall work force (about 44 percent).
- Yaroslavsky co-sponsored the City's AIDS anti-discrimination ordinance, protecting people living with HIV/AIDS from discrimination in jobs and housing.
- Yaroslavsky wrote the 1986 anti-apartheid ordinance, which prohibited companies doing business with or operating in South Africa from contracting with the City, as well as legislation phasing out South African investments from City pension fund portfolios; after apartheid's successful abolition, he authored the legislation revoking these local sanctions.
