Zuma Dogg Affordable Housing/Non-Profit Alert to ALL NCs: We Need To Put Pressure On Politicans To Stop Wasting The Money Earmarked To FIX THE PROBLEM

Why Solve City Problems When City Officials Are Making Money Off The Problem?
by Zuma Dogg

If you are able to think like this, you may have a future as Mayor, Councilmember, elected official or Gravy Train Riding Crony (How to think like a successful elected politician):

First of all, if there is no apparent problem, create one. There is no money to be spent or to be made unless you are raising and spending money. So find a problem, because where there is a problem, there is a solution. And the solution will have to involve new money. (Yea!)

But, a lot of times, there are creative solutions that don’t cost a lot of money, or no money at all. Now THAT’S a real problem for a politician. Make sure you don’t let any of THOSE solutions get out there. So remember, if you want to model a powerful elected official in the City of Los Angeles, like a mayor or councilmember, if you are able to find a problem that needs fixing, but it won’t take a lot of new money to throw at the problem; don’t waste your time. You won’t be able to generate any interest. And you won’t be able to generate any money for you and your cronies.

So once you filter out the non-profitable problems that do not require the infusion of new money, and you have selected a warm and fuzzy City problem (like kids, homeless, affordable housing, seniors, crime reduction, etc.) that you can put a good spin on – you are ready to start hiring consultants, lobbyists, cronies, friends, relatives, whoever else you can use to drive up total cost. And oh yeah, you will need plenty of contractors. (The more the better!)

And at the same time you are ready to start asking for the new money needed to fix this important new problem that needs the full attention and resources of the City. Perhaps there is some bond money available, you can raise taxes, subsidize, create new taxes, invent new fees, and solicit money from the private sector. (But it almost always comes from the public revenue sources.)

Now you have a ballgame! A win-win situation. Except for the pueblos who end up losing by paying for it. Because now that you have money being thrown at the problem, you wanna make sure they don’t stop throwing it. And one way to make sure the problem never gets solved is to siphon enough money off the top so there isn’t enough to get the job done.

Then, they come back and ask for (and get) more money to keep the gravy train rollin’ down the shady non-profit highway!

IF ZUMA DOGG WAS MAYOR, he would put together a City, County and State task force and start solving these problems immediately. One of the problems is that there is too much finger pointing, and blame-deflection instead of simply stamping out the fire and fixing the problem. ZD is of the belief all the right answers are out there in the community and inside the City, County and State departments. There is just too much bureaucracy, and too many people surfing the wave of public funds for their own financial enhancement.

IT WILL TAKE PUBLIC PRESSURE TO CUT BACK ON THIS. AND THE PEOPLE WOULD LIKE JANICE HAHN OR SOMEONE TO CALL FOR A TASK FORCE.

First of all, we need to question the inventory of some of these affordable housing construction projects. ZD hears it’s an open secret with at least one (certain) citywide construction company that the city gave a bunch of money to for redevelopment, not only about the lazy-ass, shabby work; but looting the materials purchased by the housing authority for these public work projects and they end up on other people’s private jobs.

MAY THE PEOPLE OF LOS ANGELES SUGGEST AN INVENTORY CHECK OF THESE AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROJECTS THE CITY IS GIVING MONEY TO?

The issue needs a Federal investigation because the local jurisdiction may be compromised at the City and State level.

We want to start seeing some accountability with all of this public money. Because you can’t seem to fix the traffic, schools, homeless problem, crime or anything else. That’s because inappropriately excessive amount of the money makes it into people’s pockets and the rest is wasted through bureaucracy, fraud, waste and abuse.

I KNOW THE POLITICIANS AREN’T GOING TO JUMP OFF THE GRAVY TRAIN, JUST YET. SO LET’S START ATTACKING THE FRAUD, WASTE AND ABUSE WITH THE MONEY THAT IS LEFT OVER! (That’s a good middle-ground starting point. And who knows, if you are able to improve the efficiency with the rest of the money that you don’t pilfer, maybe THAT will be enough to start seeing a noticeable improvement.)

These public-private shell game schemes are getting more and more complicated. (See Grand Ave Project where even the CRA spokesperson says, “The most complicated deal in every aspect. Bureaucratic? Yes.”) And as the depth of shadiness gets deeper and deeper; accountability and transparency gets shadier and shadier. It’s getting harder to what is happening in the darkness on the edge of town where it all goes down.

And if the mainstream media would shine a little light on this darkness, I think they would recognize a lot of familiar faces. Again, it will probably take a FEDERAL INVESTIGATION to fix this local problem, that is quickly becoming a NATIONAL problem.

ZumaTimes.com
zumadogg@gmail.com

SEE ALSO:

Antonio's Fashionable Planning Commissioner and Chris Pak's Pact
Citizen's Alert: Non-profit abuse of public money
City Controller Call To Action
How to make tons of money off non-profit housing
la times coverage of previous zuma times coverage on the city's "dumb growth" density
Recent ZD thread translated in German

NEW VIDEO: Zuma Dogg Helps Promote LA County's 2-1-1 Phone Service at Board of Supervisors Meeting

To: Neighborhood Councilmembers
Fr: Zuma Dogg
Re: LA County 2-1-1 Service
Dt: 08/23/07

I attended my first Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting this week and found out about the County's fantastic 2-1-1 phone service. It was on the agenda because they want to help market it better and help get the word out.

Although they will be spending money to promote, they also want to use free ways to promote the service within the community. I feel Neighborhood Councils are a good way to help provide some community outreach and promotion on this. First of all, be aware of the 2-1-1 service and check out the online directory. Besides health and human services for people in need, there is information on arts, culutre, parks and rec, business services. It's like having own agency behind you to cover any and every type of service you can think of. Oh yeah, it is!

So please let everyone know in your meetings and add it to your emails and if you meet people during your community outreach that may benefit by these county services, tell them, "NOW, ONE FREE CALL FOR ALL COUNTY SERVICES. NOT SURE WHO TO CALL? JUST CALL 2-1-1!" And check out the online resource link below. And check me out as I try and navigate a speech that won't get me tossed out of the seat and banned for life.

ZUMA DOGG PSA FOR LA COUNTY'S FANTASTIC 2-1-1 PHONE SERVICE


ZUMA GETS TO KNOW ZEV AND RAISED CONCERNS OVER LOBBY REFORM LOOPHOLES


ZUMA DOGG ADDRESSES LA COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON HUD VOUCHER PROBLEMS


LA County Online Directory: A valuable resource for anyone in LA!

ZumaTimes.com: A valuable resource for anyone in LA!

email: zumadogg@gmail.com

Are A Few Developers Getting the Lion's Share of FEDERAL Affordable Housing Money, Maxinming Cost Per Unit and Allowing Less Units to Be Built?

Is LA City’s affordable housing policy ONE BIG F-ING RACKET?

How you can make much bigger profits building non-profit affordable housing than the luxury for-profit stuff and how this drives up cost per unit and we therefore get way less units, then Jan Perry has to pretend like more has to be done, when all that has to be done is stop running a cahoots racket that allows a few well connected developers in the know to run a shell game scam on the City and the public.

I can hear “The Broadfather” crying to Robin and the Mayor, now: “Boo hoo hoo, Antonio and Robin. I have this great idea for a fantastic project that will save the City, but I can’t do it without subsidies and hotel tax breaks, even though we initially said it would all be privately funded at no cost to the City.” I can imagine Wendy Greuel saying, “Yeah, it will be great! You can walk across the street with your kids on a Saturday morning from Mocha or Disney Hall. Just ignore all the aggressive panhandlers, though. As long as you don’t look them in they eye, and just ignore them, they may leave you alone.” Zuma adding, “Yeah Antonio, you should build Grand Avenue Project first, then start taking the actual measures to address the problem of the skid row nation expanding throughout LA City streets.

IS THIS HOW “AFFORDABLE HOUSING” DEVELOPERS ARE LAUGHING THEIR ASS OFF AT THE “MARKET RATE” DEVELOPERS BECAUSE YOU CAN MAKE WAY MORE PROFIT BUILDING AFFORDABLE HOUSING; AND SINCE THE PROFIT IS BASED OFF PUBLIC MONEY THAT DEVELOPERS ARE GIVEN TO BUILD AFFORDABLE HOUSING, WE END UP WITH A MUCH HIGHER TOTAL COST PER UNIT; AND THEREFORE FAR FEWER AFFORDABLE UNITS THAN WE SHOULD BE GETTING FOR THE MONEY? (Who says ZD needs to be re-written by editors?)

CLICK HERE FOR ZUMA’S “NO MONEY DOWN” (NON-PROFIT) PROFIT WINDFALL SYSTEM

MORE ZD STORIES ON NON-PROFIT AND ONE OF IT'S BIG FISH, "GRAND AVE PROJECT":

Grand Ave: No Money Down
Grand Ave Project: Citizen's Alert
Why Grand Ave affordable housing must not be cut
Shady non-profit public fund abuse?
ZD Legislative Review of Grand Ave Project
Downtown LA Masterplan: LA Live & Grand Ave (They decided FOR you)

Up next: De Leon's AB 31 ($400 million non-profit money for parks and recreation.) This is the issue that introduced ZD to the term "sunset clause" and triggered this entire "shady" non-profit alert:

zumadogg@gmail.com

LA TIMES catches-up on Zuma Dogg's Past Year of Blogging and Comments on LA's Plan For More Denisty Around The Same Already-Over-Taxed Infrastructure

Anonymous blogger said…”But remember, the reason that the big boys like Broad, Witte/Related Cos. are looking for more funding, is because the City Council, moved by the liberal faction, is requiring them all to build the 15% affordable housing, which eats into their costs and revenues”. (August 12, 2007 2:01 AM)

Oh no…someone is very mis-informed, blaming affordable housing on the reason why the crybaby billionaires try and muscle the city into providing them more and more subsidies and tax-breaks at the expense of the general fund and general services. I think the City has had enough and Zuma Dogg hopes all Neighborhood Councils in the Valley send a message to City Hall that enough is enough and start discussing how you can tie a tourniquet around this shady wound before your whole community bleeds out. I would focus on the word “succession”.

LA Times catches-ups on ZD’s reporting:

From latimes.com: Good signs downtown, but vision still lacking
by Steve Lopez
August 12, 2007

I like much of what I see. And with all this commerce and more to come, the potential benefits to the rest of the city (from shared tax revenue) and to the whole region (from new attractions around Staples Center and on Grand Avenue) are huge.

But there's just as much potential for disaster. Pardon me for popping a few party balloons, but somebody has to.

In typical L.A. fashion, mega-developments and the redrawing of the skyline are underway with little in the way of long-term vision or planning. It's the same old let's-try-this-and-see-what-happens approach, with developers in the driver's seat.

Although public officials and the media spun last week's downtown zoning changes as a boon for desperately needed affordable housing, there is in fact no requirement that a single such unit be built -- there are merely incentives that developers may or may not choose to take advantage of.

As usual, the impact on traffic was not a consideration in any of this. Nor is anyone admitting that downtown will scare most people away until there's a commitment to build, and scatter across the region, enough supportive housing to clean up skid row once and for all.

Beth Steckler of Livable Places would like to see little nooks and alcoves of downtown turned into miniature parks. To spur creativity, her public policy nonprofit is sponsoring a Sept. 21 campaign to convert areas as small as parking spaces into mini-parks (more information is at www.Parkingdayla.com).

"The city can get caught up in big plans and forget how much can be accomplished with little things. Look at all the little tiny 5,000-square-foot parking lots. The city could be buying those up and building parks, because those are the ones that people love -- the small neighborhood park that's built on a smaller scale."

[I like that idea Beth! ZD said..."Create zones and let the good times roll. Like we build affordable housing, how about affordable retail space? More Farmers market style areas, and rows of narrowly divided retail slots like in the wholesale area, or along the venice boardwalk. Take some parking lot space that these owners are holding until they can develop, and put some flea markets there." (8/9/07)]

Bill Witte, the Related Cos. chief who's in charge of that project, told me he plans to lobby the state for enough additional funding, on top of the budgeted $50 million in local funds, so there's a chance to build one of the great public spaces of the world.

I bet he's going to lobby for additional state funding. I can think of no finer project that needs more public money than these billionaire boys club projects. We should pour even more money into THIS specific project, instead of having it go to another area of the city that doesn't already have $50 million in local funds. Is building "one of the great public spaces of the world” really one of the problems plaguing the city that needs this much public money thrown at it. I mean, you're talking about "space". Do we really need billionaire quality luxury "space", when we can't deal with all the problems surrounding this tranquil five start luxury "space".

From latimes:com Why the rush to Manhattanize L.A.?
There seems to be little public debate about the dramatic remaking of Los Angeles into a left-coast New York.
By Joel Kotkin
August 12, 2007
[Always a good sign when you see JK in LAT!]

And there's billionaire Phil Anschutz's plan to create a Times Square for Los Angeles near Staples Center, as well as billionaire Eli Broad's aim to duplicate New York's 5th Avenue along Grand Avenue.

Today, small developers, who often had local supporters, are out, and citywide and
national players are in. Prime examples are New York-based Related Cos. (Grand Avenue), Anschutz Entertainment Group (L.A. Live), JMB Realty (condo towers in Century City), Astani Enterprises (downtown condos), J.H. Snyder Co. (NoHo Commons), as well as the shopping-mall giant Westfield, which has proposed building in the west Valley what would be one of the largest malls in Southern California.

These companies, along with other developers, have become substantial contributors to the campaigns and causes of local politicians. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's campaign to control the L.A. Unified School District, for instance, was a recent beneficiary. Because it was an issue campaign (rather than a political race), there were no limits on contributions, and many big developers with projects pending or already underway in the city were generous in their giving.

For example, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) gave $125,000 to the mayor's Committee for Government Excellence and Accountability, set up to lobby for a bill that would have given him significant control over L.A. Unified, and to Partnership for Better Schools, which spearheaded Villaraigosa's successful drive to win a majority on the school board. Other contributors to the two committees included developer J.H. Snyder Co. ($100,000); AP Properties, a JMB Realty affiliate ($100,000); Astani Enterprises ($100,000) and Westfield ($100,000).

For instance, not only did council members vote 12 to 0 on last week's zoning overhaul, but earlier this year, the vote to lease public land and grant about $66 million in tax breaks over 20 years to the developer of the Grand Avenue project was 13 to 0 by the City Council and 4 to 1 by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. And in 2005, AEG received $270 million in financial help from the city for L.A. Live. The vote: 14 to 0.

LA TIMES article on Some say larger, denser projects will help ease L.A.'s housing crunch. Others say they will burden an already taxed infrastructure and displace the poor.

(If my blogging, TV 35 comments and radio calls (over the past year) on this issue came out now, after this article -- everyone would be accusing me of a simply copying them. That's cool though, it appears as though they have seen the dark cloud of doom City Hall is casting over the city, and it appears they have now seen the light. (Hope it lasts!)

LA TIMES article on New ordinance will allow denser, larger residential buildings. Some worry that affordable-housing incentives won't work.

SEE ZD'S ARTICLE ON HOW DEVELOPERS MAY BE MAKING MORE MUCH MORE PROFIT ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING (non-profit) THAN THE MARKET-RATE (for-profit) UNITS. IT'S ALL WITH PUBLIC MONEY. AND MAYBE THIS IS WHY WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH AFFORDABLE HOUSING CAUSING A NEW WAVE OF HOMELESSNESS TO TAKE TO THE DOWNTOWN STREETS THESE PROJECTS ARE CREATING.
CLICK HERE FOR ZUMA’S “NO MONEY DOWN” (NON-PROFIT) PROFIT WINDFALL SYSTEM

zumadogg@gmail.com
More at Zuma Times blog

Re: Mayor Blasts Sacramento Over Infrastructure Money

The city of Los Angeles now has a plan that we have already started, to build much more housing and amenities in the city so we can stay competitive in the global economy. And yes, although many of the people immigrating to Southern California these days are people from Mexico, who are helping us in this effort (at the lower income level); we actually ARE living in a global economy, and over the next thirty years, many of the people who will be investing in the city and buying the high-end condos you see being constructed all around town, will be from Asia, China and other international regions.

All of this means we will have the diversity we need to help the City of Los Angeles in it's effort to become the world class city it must continue to be. And these days, in the international marketplace we now compete in, we have a lot of work to do in order to be able to meet these demands.

And like so many Los Angelinos have been noting; and as the newspapers have been reporting this week, all of this density is being created without the proper infrasructure to accomodate the added demand.

And with all the added public attention with articles in LA Weekly, LA Times, Daily News; we are hearing the senitment echoed on the AM radio talk shows and neighborhood meetings throughout the City. Although we are aware of this problem, too; and work on getting as much public transportation added and infrastructure built as quickly as possible, with all this added public outcry now weighing in, I not only wanted Sacramento to know that the City, State and even Country (since 40% of U.S. goods come through our region) will be stuck with a major crisis if we don't do more to focus this effort and do everything we can, right now.

But I wanted the people of Los Angeles to know that I know this is a front-burner issue, I hear you, and I want Sacramento to know that it is time for all government officials at the City, State and National level to all come together in a collaborative effort to get the job done, that needs to get done, to allow the City of Los Angeles to become the international hub, with the liveable communities that the rest of the world is demanding from us, and the global economy now requires us to be.

zumadogg@gmail.com
ZumaTimes.com

Illegal Vending Allowed To Spread Throughout Los Angeles Under Villaraigosa: A threat to safety and economy other U.S. Mayors wouldn't allow

Illegal Vending: A safety and economic threat Villaraigosa is allowing in a U.S. marketplace.
Now that street vendors are popping up in greater numbers and in new areas throughout the Streets of Los Angeles; what impact will this have on the Los Angeles business, safety and health?

If you take a look around the City, you may notice a new wave of underground economy taking to the streets of Los Angeles: Street vending. It’s a lot of fun…like the world’s biggest flea market, each and every day, right there with no frills, no overhead and no safety or accountability.

All at a time when business owners are hit with skyrocketing operating expenses, in a recession-teetering economy, where restaurant and retail owners have to compete with the mega-centers on one end, and business owners in Los Angeles must also compete with anyone in the world who wants to come to America and set up shop, anywhere on the sidewalk, and sell anything you want, like food or illegally pirated and bootlegged merchandise flown in from overseas by terrorists or whoever decides they want to make beau coup dollars illegally while, undermining the U.S. economy.

And these business owners not only face higher operating expenses on the job, among the new illegal flank attack on the tax revenue generating business, products and services that drive this city and its economy; but when they get home they have to pay their bulky item fee, solid waste fee, trash collection fee, higher gas taxes, and all the other homeowner related increases and innovations of “personal wealth reduction management” that the City, County and State politicians are so good at.

Under Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the city has seen a widespread increase in the number of vendors on the streets and where you are seeing them. In Chinatown, I asked the grocery market owner if the person with the fruit stand in front of his door was part of his store? (It looked like an outdoor display that stores set-up to try to entice customers.)

The store owner shook his head and said, “No”. It’s just something you have to live with I guess. Since the illegal fruit vendor was all set up and cutting off business at the pass.

East L.A., Downtown, South L.A.: On Crenshaw Blvd it looks like a giant flea market, right there on the street, selling any type of bootleg/pirated merchandise, while undercutting the stores they are set up in front of.

And we all know about the Venice Beach vending struggle between the beach vendors and the City of Los Angeles who has banned some first amendment protect items and is being worked out in Federal Court as we speak.

However, the vending mentioned in this article is not that kind of vending. At Venice, the vendors paid a fee, were issued licenses and the area is zones for beach side vending in the painted spaces.

However, I started to notice the previous lower economic area “illegal vending” dispersing to areas I was not used to seeing. For example Venice Beach boardwalk itself. Now I’ve seen a lot of different and unique things sold on the boardwalk.

But one thing that is certainly not allowed to be sold is food. So after fighting for the right to put first amendment items back on the beach, like the tshirts, incense and jewelry people were prevented from selling by police, and after others received tickets and jail time for vending items only to be told by a Federal judge that the City was wrong in the first place, imagine how I felt when I see people cutting up fruit and selling it on the boardwalk?

EXCUSE ME? WHERE’S THE ENFORCEMENT? Can’t sell incense or a t shirt, but FOOD is O.K., right there on the sandy beach boardwalk?

Homie don’t play that. Hey Villaraigosa: Get those f*cking fruit vendors off the beach! What the hell is wrong with you? You arrest people for selling an incense or zuma dogg tshirt, but you will allow anyone to sell food, which opens up some health and safety issues, since I didn’t see the health code rating or any permits on the dirty beach where she was cutting up fruit over the garbage can.

But what triggered this article and outrage over Villaraigosa’s hypocrisy that prevented me and my friends from selling on Venice Beach, after the city sold us permits, while letting every illegal immigrant do whatever they want, wherever they want anywhere across the city occurred today: As I walked through the same parking lot I’ve walked through every morning, in the Venice area, I noticed one of those food trucks you are used to seeing on Hollywood movie shoots. You know, the roach coaches.

As I get closer, although there are people in the lot, it didn’t really look like a movie set, just a roach coach parked in the middle of the parking lot with a bunch of people waiting for the food. There was a cashier with a little table set up in the parking lot.

So I ask the cashier, “Is this private, or for anyone?” She replied, “For Anyone, what would you like?”

Well although I was hungry, I kinda lost my appetite, because I was stressed out over a few things. What if someone has an accident while working on the food truck, or one of the customers has an accident? As the property owner, I wouldn’t be too happy if there was an accident involving people running a food service operation in my parking lot. It is a parking lot, what if a car hits someone while they are patronizing the “establishment”. (Well, it’s not exactly an establishment, though. It’s not established. It just pulls up for the money, then pulls away afterward.)

That’s why we don’t operate businesses in parking lots. It’s a safety hazard. The flies on the plate sitting on the table in front of the cashier were free of charge.
And what effect is this going to have on the economy. The donut shop, convenience fooed market, Chinese fast food restaurant, burger shop, even gas station snack food sales will all take a hit as a result of the underground economy that will undermine any serious attempt to revitalize the City.

HEY ANTONIO: Are you anything BUT a hypocrite? I see no evidence of anything else. But let me tell you this, my friend. You are mayor in a city that is located in the United States of America. And it appears, if you look around the city, you need to be reminded of that.

Now ZD is a passionate pragmatist, so let me say, if you are talking about having a food truck show up at a construction site, where you have a bunch of workers, a little too far from the nearest food outlet, who need fast service during lunch hours and doesn’t have time to walk back and forth, well, I’m o.k. with that!

But not right on the sidewalk in front of the doors and parking lots of the retail outlets the city is taxing and fee hiking in the face of increased competition not only from the mega-stores, but now from anyone who feels like doing whatever they want, wherever they want. Unless it’s on Venice Beach. Then you will be ticketed and sent to jail.

HEW ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA…CLEAN UP THE F*CKING ILLEGAL VENDING THAT IS UNDERMINING THE ACTUAL U.S. ECONOMY AND START ACTING LIKE A U.S. MAYOR.

Even though it won’t be for much longer!

Zuma Dogg News Blog

A Message From Concern Lincoln Heights Stakeholder

YOU KNOW WHAT...I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THIS BEYOND THIS POST (AND I DID SPEAK WITH SOMEONE ON THE PHONE WHO TOLD THE SAME STORY, WHO THIS COULD BE FROM...BUT I FIGURE, ANYTHING ARTICULATED SO WELL DESERVES A PUBLIC VETTING ON THE NC BLOG!

From Mayor Sam's Blog Comment Section:

What the blogger writing about Alicia Corona and Teresa Durate is trying to inform you about is that your tax money has been given to Alicia and Teresa to the tune of $1.5 Million Dollars to Purchase the former Rose Eye Clinic located in Lincoln Heights.

This is just one more example of the type of irresponsible and negligent development that occurs in communities such as Lincoln Heights.

These ladies are sweatshop owners that do not live in the area and have been able to convince the local city councilman Ed Reyes to support their venture. It is unfortunate because under the guise of bringing so called needed jobs to the community they have been given a variance by the city for a liquor license and gambling establishment to be built on this site which is directly across from Gates Elementary School, Lincoln High School and in back of it Little Flower pre-school and kindergarten. The gambling part consists of over 140 video arcade machines that will be fully operational during regular school hours. Fears are that the a local group claiming to be descendents of the local Native Americans will attempt to declare the site as a federally protected reservation because of the hieroglyphics rumored to be in a dynamited cave on a hill behind the project and thereby utilizing the approval of the gambling variance as a precedent to establishing a full blown casino adjacent to these schools.

The community has been fighting back, but it has been unable since the unethical involvement from USC's Institute of Genetic Medicine’s through Lyn Crandel and David Galaviz in carrying out a coup to take over the Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council. Incidentally it seems that David Galaviz is even more unethical then first thought. Information has it that he is married to M. Teresa Villegas, a Mayor Villar’s appointee to the Environmental Affairs Commission. (Villegas served as an Executive Fellow for the California Air Resources Board with funding from the Hewlett Foundation. She developed recommendations for improvements to the State’s Environmental Justice Program, all of which were approved by the Air Resources Board. Ms. Villegas previously served as Legislative Director for the Trust for Public Land in Sacramento. She is currently a public policy consultant for local governments and the Trust for Public Land. She also serves as a Board Member for the Planning and Conservation League, a statewide environmental advocacy group. Board of Directors of the Land Trust Alliance)

It has been 2 years since the Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council has had an election. Why would David Galaviz, for that matter anybody in City Government, want to have elections when they have conflict of interest influence on the Neighborhood Councils.

Getting back to Alicia's and Teresa project, remember the $1.5 million grant was just to purchase the property. On top of this they will also receive an estimated amount of an additional $5 million dollars of your taxes for building and tax credits for next five years to hire so-called marginalized workforce. This is just another farce by the politicians to give away your hard earned money.

Other projects that are occurring in Lincoln Heights is the building of 37 Low Income Units on a former EPA site on Sichel Street, under the 1805 Sichel LLC, headed by none other that City Housing Panelist John Huskey of Meta Housing. In this case the entire project is being funded 50% tax payer money and 50% from Wells Fargo. What a sweet deal. Can you ever imagine that someone in the Barrio could get this kind of funding, forget it you would have to be very well connected and you and your employees have to be generous donors to the illustrious sell out Latino Politicians?

More recently it was made known that a certain group of developers are planning to develop one of the largest parcels of open space in the City. Approximately 30 acres on a hill behind Lincoln High Schools Athletic Field, owned by Mee Yin Corp will have a gated community of 387 - million dollar homes. 15 acres will be for the housing and 15 acres of property will be donated to the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy. You say this is okay, think again. All land set aside for open space should be given to the City for Park Land that way it should never ever be used for anything but parks. But the game currently being played now is for non-profits such as the Conservancy to get the Land and then after a period of time they will also get rid of some of this Land for Development. The game is called Land Banking through the use of non-profits.

back to mayor sam