WestchesterParents

Mayor Sam’s Sister City reports some good news on the LAX front:

Plenty of good tidings are given to LA/Ontario Airport, which is poised to grow thanks to increased hostility towards growth at LAX. The San Bernardino Associated Governments and SCAG recently announced it would fund a study for a Gold Line connection to said airport. Los Angeles World Airports executive director Gina Marie Lindsay outlined incentives that would make the airport more attractive to both passengers and airlines. The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin pretty much expressed the same thought.

Posted on October 31st, 2007 by westchester dad
Tags: LAX - AIRPORT
No Comments »

City leaders had a difficult time being honest with voters when they offered a proposition during the last election that characterized extending council terms to a third term as term limits. We were fooled and it passed. Is passing a new substitute tax to replace an illegal tax really a tax cut? Is it a tax reduction?

This proposition has the same problem with being honest with voters. The Daily News editorial reports:

Tell the truth
Public deserves honesty on phone tax from the mayor

Antonio Villaraigosa and his staff prepare the argument in favor of the phone-tax initiative on the February ballot, we have an important request of him: Please, Mr. Mayor, tell the truth.

So far, no one in City Hall has been honest about this tax initiative.

The city gets about $270 million a year from a 10 percent tax on phone usage, but a court is likely to soon rule the tax illegal. When the tax is struck down, Los Angeles will lose a source of revenue it has counted on as it ramped up its policies of giving away the treasury to employees and developers.

This is when the truth started getting trampled.

The biggest lie is that the situation is a “fiscal emergency.” There can’t be an emergency until the current law is actually struck down, but the false claim of a crisis allowed the politicians to put it on the Feb. 5 presidential primary ballot.

The second big lie, and one that the public is likely to be bludgeoned with over the next few months, is that this is a tax cut.

To make the tax more attractive, the mayor and his team cynically cooked up the idea of a 9 percent replacement phone tax so that the campaign could say that the new phone tax was actually a cut. But the new tax is broader than the original one, and could end up costing Angelenos more.

This is a watershed moment in Villaraigosa’s career. He has the choice to be honest about the tax and tell people how he’s going to spend the $270 million

- out of his $7 billion budget – for their benefit.
Or he can be dishonest and claim it’s a “cut,” and if he doesn’t get it, he will fire cops and firefighters and stop trimming trees, paving streets or doing anything else that provides broad public benefit.

Already City Hall is gearing up a campaign of lies and gross distortions. Villaraigosa can do better. He can admit the money will fulfill the overly generous new contracts for city workers, the free cars for city employees and politicians’ staffs, the junkets, the subsidies to luxury hotels.

Better still, he could promise to clean up City Hall, to bring salaries and benefits in line with the private sector, and free up far more than $270 million to spend for public benefit.

Please, Mr. Mayor, level with the people. Honesty really is the best policy.

The devil is in the details. Cell phone users should do their homework before they vote on this tax.

Posted on October 28th, 2007 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL
No Comments »

There has been a number of questions about the work going on along Sepulveda Blvd. so I asked for copies of the drawings to find the answers.

Most of the enhancements will really benefit us particularly the new medians that we are already seeing go up. The medians will have a combination of palm trees, pink trumpet trees, golden rain trees, grass, and decorative concrete. 

Medians should provide some traffic calming along stretch north of Manchester and provide some element of safety by separating NB and SB traffic.

There will also be full time parking on Sepulveda in the business district (south of Manchester) protected by bump outs at the intersection which will also minimize the distance pedestrians have to traverse as they cross the street.

When the work is complete there will be 3 full time NB and SB lanes from Lincoln up to the Howard Hughes Center.

Here is a summary of features.

Bump outs along Sepulveda:

• 92nd St. – SW corner (near In and Out) and E side.
• 89th St – SW, NW, NE and SE corners.
• La Tijera – none
• Manchester – none
• 84th St. – SE corner only.

Left turns access:

• No left turn SB on to 74th shown.
  If people are concerned about this they should contact the council office at councilman.rosendahl@lacity.org

Medians:

• Lots of new medians to hopefully calm traffic and create a separation between NB and SB lanes.
• No medians between 78th and 79th/80th. (Not sure why they left such a large gap here. Should be closed up a bit)
• Concrete seeded with 1 to 3″ pebbles with intervals of marathon grass, live pink trumpet trees, golden rain trees and Washington Palms

Widening:

• No widening north of Sepulveda except for a gentle tapering of the SB Sepulveda as it approaches Manchester. This is for right turns on to Manchester.
• NB on the first block in front of the Medical center up to 84th. This widening ends abruptly with a bump out.

A little history on the entire Sepulveda renovation effort can be found here at www.westchesterkids.org/sepulveda.htm

Sepulveda renovation drawings*:

• Sepulveda Business District
• Sepulveda Residential Area
• Sepulveda Landscaping

*These files require the Adobe Acrobat reader.

Posted on October 25th, 2007 by westchester dad
Tags: TRAFFIC
No Comments »

Few southern Californians are probably familiar with Atlanta, Georgia’s critical water shortage that has only been making national news in the last couple of weeks. They are down to 90 days worth of water before the taps run dry and there is no Plan B. 

Water plan sends Ga. pols scrambling
GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press Writer

ATLANTA (AP) The epic drought that’s drying up lakes and threatening Georgia’s water supply has sent state politicians scrambling in search of ways to restrict water usage.

There’s a reason why it’s taking time and energy to figure out where to cut, and critics say it’s the same reason why Georgia is facing a water crisis in the first place: Despite plenty of warnings, the state has never developed a water plan to handle just such a situation.

Years of lax zoning laws and pro-growth policy led to urban sprawl throughout much of north Georgia, and throughout the boom-time state lawmakers repeatedly failed to come up with a lasting water plan.  More..

When you do hear or read about Atlanta’s problem, it is most often attributed to a long drought but the real reason is the mismanagement by state, county and city leaders in population growth and planning for it.  Atlanta’s population grew from 2.2 million in 1980 to 5.1 million in 2006 with no attempt to verify the availability of water! 

“It’s amazing that things have come to this,” said Ray Wiedman, owner of an Atlanta landscaper business. “Everybody knew the growth was coming. We haven’t had a plan for all the people coming here?” 

Similarly, no one in the Los Angeles or California leadership seems to be taking water supply seriously.  This if different from ongoing conservation efforts.  Supply should have a direct effect on new housing development.  The most effective way to conserve water is to stop adding new connections to it.  So far, that aspect is being ignored.

According to the California Department of Finance, the southern California population is going double between now and 2050. Northern California will see the same growth.

It is safe to say that after $16.1 billion in water bonds meant to improve future water shortages, the fact that LA supplies have remained flat since 1970 and the nonstop talk about conserving water, there is very little chance that we will double our supplies or conserve our way out a problem similar to Atlanta’s.

Like Atlanta, our emphasis on adding new housing without concern to water availability will be to our peril. Every new housing unit adds three more water connections, every new resident adds another need for 56,575 gallons. 

Housing developments of less than 500 units do not require an environmental report to verify water resources. Worse, while housing developments of 500 units and more are required to undergo an environmental review for water, they’re never turned down because there is an assumption (dream?) that continued conservation, fallowing farm land, conversion of farm land to housing, recycling water, building more storage among other things will provide more supply. This is known as paper water. The bottom line is that we do not verify supply with demand.

It’s time for our city leaders to acknowledge that we can’t build our way or conserve our way out of our own water supply problem.

I wonder what Atlanta’s property values will be when the water stops flowing from their taps, toilets and showers?

Posted on October 21st, 2007 by westchester dad
Tags: WATER
1 Comment »

There’s an interesting story in the LA Times on some unused Quimby money. In fact, lots of it. $77 million. This is money that supposed to go for outdoor improvements such as parks.

Apparently our district (CD11) has $12 million available to it and I can think of one piece of property that begs for acquisition. The PacBell property on Manchester Blvd at about the 5800 block. This would be a great little pocket park if it were acquired by the city. Another location would be Toes Beach.

Councilman Dennis Zine of CD3 says he is aware of the money but that it must be spent within 2 miles of the development. That would put it just within the radius of the Playa Vista development which I would hazard a quess contributed a lot to the $12 million. (Update – Quimby fees are paid by projects that don’t otherwise provide parks within their projects (they are in-lieu fees).  Projects like stand-alone office buildings in the middle of Westwood, or individual condos up.  Since Playa Vista has parks so there are no Quimby fees paid there. Playa Vista does however pay millions in developer fees to the LAUSD of which to date there has been no return on investment to our community. We can blame that on the LAUSD but that’s another story.)

Ref: Few parks, but L.A. is sitting on pile of green
Few parks, but L.A. is sitting on pile of green

The city has $77 million in unspent developers fees for grassy venues. Report angers builders.

By Steve Hymon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 20, 2007

In a city widely acknowledged to be woefully short of parks, Los Angeles has about $77.5 million in fees it has collected from developers for outdoor improvements but has yet to spend, a city report says.

The report, issued by city parks chief Jon Kirk Mukri, contains noteworthy passages despite its bureaucratic prose:

“While . . . fee collections have grown rapidly, the necessary Department staff and infrastructure for the proper accounting, tracking, and distribution of these funds have never been acquired,” wrote Mukri.

Nor, he added, does the city have a comprehensive plan for matching the money with the needs around the city.

The parks issue came to a head recently, with some downtown developers expressing anger over the city’s proposed elimination of a fee discount. The so-called Quimby fees, named for the 1975 law that created them, range from about $3,000 to $10,000 per new residential unit.

Developers who have been wanting to know how the city accounts for and spends those fees are particularly peeved by Mukri’s acknowledgment that his department doesn’t have the answers.

“In a city that cries poverty every 20 minutes, it’s amazing there’s that kind of money waiting to be spent on the thing that people want the most,” said Tom Gilmore, who has been developing apartments and lofts downtown for the last decade.

“I’m not complaining about paying the fees, I’m just saying, ‘Show me some results,’ ” he added. “I want to see green space — and not just the green space outside City Hall.”

Posted on October 20th, 2007 by westchester dad
Tags: GENERAL, MANAGING GROWTH
No Comments »

One of the more serious ongoing problems with the web today is the lack of age verification when minors create accounts on Social web sites such as Facebook, MySpace, instant messaging, addictive MMORPG’s or adult accounts. Accounts that require the users to be 16 years or older. 

An article recently appeared in the Financial Times that addressed this problem although it had not proposed any solutions.

Many parents would like to keep their children from visiting or participating in these online activities but the age verification is simply another game that young people readily understand and is all to easily played to gain access.  It’s the birth date game. 

Given the proliferation of debit and credit cards today, the answer to verification could be through the use of these instruments.

Most children under 18 do not have debit or credit cards available to them but their parents do. If these sites required a credit card to create an account this would significantly drop the number of account where kids just faked the birth year to create an account.

Using a debit or credit card shouldn’t necessarily involve a financial transaction especially if there was a chance that kids eventually became MasterCard, Visa, AMEX or Discover card holders when they reach adulthood.  Perhaps a youth card with no financial transaction capability could be developed. If a charge was necessary,  it could be a minimal charge of 0 to 10 cents.

Federal law could require that any web site doing business in the US that required registration and had more than 1oo user accounts would require a debit, credit or youth card to register.

At the very least a parent would be involved in the decision making process.

Posted on October 16th, 2007 by westchester dad
Tags: RAISING CHILDREN
No Comments »

2007 is turning out to be a watershed year in demonstrating to us just how shallow campaign promises are. 

6 voter approved bond measures going back to 1996 and costing us $16.6 BILLION had promised to resolve future water shortages. However, this year we are finding ourselves in one of the most serious shortages since 1987.

Here is a list of those state water measures that were approved and the claims and promises they made to us to gain voter approval:

1996 – Voters approved Proposition 204, the “Safe Clean Reliable Water Supply Act,” a $995 million bond that promised to “increase water supplies.” “…drinking water is something most of us take for granted,” proponents wrote in the ballot pamphlet that year. “But the truth is, unless we act now, California’s residents, businesses and farms face a future of chronic water shortages and potentially unsafe supplies.”

2000 – Voters approved Proposition 12, the “Safe Neighborhood Parks, Clean Water, Clean Air and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2000” borrowed $2.1 billion based on proponent’s assurances that “This measure is vital because it protects the lands that give us clean water.”

2000 – Voters also passed Proposition 13, the “Safe Drinking Water, Clean Water, Watershed Protection and Flood Protection Bond Act,” for an additional $1.97 billion of bonds after proponents warned them (in language almost identical to the arguments for Prop. 204) that “We can’t take our drinking water for granted. Water officials predict major shortages and say existing programs won’t fix the problem.”

2002 – Voters approved Proposition 40, the “California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks and Coastal Protection Act of 2002” that borrowed $2.6 billion. Proponents promised (in words exactly the same as the empty promise they made in Proposition 12): “This measure is vital because it protects the lands that give us clean water.”

2003 – Voters authorized $3.44 billion of water bonds by passing Prop. 50, “The Water Security, Clean Drinking Water, Coastal and Beach Protection Act of 2002.” Supporters promised: “California’s population is expected to nearly double in the next forty years. Proposition 50 funds state and local water system improvements needed to keep up with population growth by providing new water supplies and supporting water conservation programs.”

2006 – voters approved Prop 84 that for a $5.4 billion bond. The “Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act Of 2006. Supporters promised: “Prop. 84 will increase the reliability of California’s water supply.”

It’s difficult to blame LADWP, MWD or the State Water Project that these goals have not been met. The real fault lies with state, county and city leaders that continue to allow unchecked urban growth that keeps moving the goal posts down field. 

To simply accept that the population is going to increase and you need to provide more housing is a profoundly bad piece of public policy. Especially to those who live here today.   I’ll elaborate on what that means to us in a future article.

Posted on October 13th, 2007 by westchester dad
Tags: WATER
2 Comments »

Rather than showing students who are most likely to drop out what relevant career options they could have by providing a technical/industrial arts curriculum to keep them in school, instead the LAUSD turns to… MySpace.com.

LAUSD describes the new $10 million program – “My Future, My Decision” – is a broad effort that includes spots on 105.9 FM, a text-messaging campaign and interaction through popular social networking Web sites MySpace and Facebook.

Imagine what 10 LAUSD high schools could do with $1 million each or 20 schools with $500,000 each could do if they spent the money on technical arts programs such as robotics, solid modeling, electronics, architecture and fashion design instead.

Posted on October 9th, 2007 by westchester dad
Tags: OUR SCHOOLS
No Comments »

The city of Los Angeles launched two new web sites today to survey and document historic properties.

At the Office of Historic Resources web site you can explore profiles, maps and photos of Los Angeles’ 22 Historic Preservation Overlay Zones (HPOZs), a summary of Los Angeles’ historic designation process, and links to useful information on historic preservation and preservation incentives.

The second web site, SurveyLA  is described as Los Angeles’ first-ever comprehensive program to identify significant historic resources throughout our city. The survey marks a coming-of-age for Los Angeles’ historic preservation movement, and will serve as a centerpiece for the City’s first truly comprehensive preservation program.

Check them out!

Posted on October 9th, 2007 by westchester dad
Tags: WPDR HISTORY
No Comments »

Saw this article today in the Daily Breeze. The interesting thing was the remark on the size of the proposed Lomita high school in contrast to some recent estimates that Westchester High School was losing students.

At the September neighborhood council education committee meeting, Westchester High School was reported to be down to 1300 regular school students and 300 magnet school students for a total of 1600.

The proposed Lomita high school in the following article is going to have about 800 students.

The article quotes a Lomita councilman Barry Waite who said, “An 810-seat school sitting on about one-fourth of Lomita Park – plus 4 adjacent acres – would accommodate the city’s approximately 800 high-school-age residents”

Westchester losing students? That’s fine by me. A school large enough to accomodate our communities high school age residents, whether that was 800 or 1000 students would be a great thing.

We wouldn’t need the bungalows anymore or permit students simply to keep the current level of school staff employed. The excess staff could go to the new Lomita school  or any of the other new schools being built around LA. We would be getting kids off of buses and away from long commutes leaving them with more time to prepare for school in the morning and homework or activities after school. It would also help solve some of our traffic problems.

San Pedro high school campus is tabled; Lomita becomes a possibility

By Paul Clinton – Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Unified School District has quietly shelved a plan for a public high school in San Pedro, a move that staves off a nasty legal fight with an influential developer.

Rather – if funds become available – the district could build an academy-style school in Lomita, which has emerged as the leading option among several other locations.
The San Pedro property along Western Avenue has failed to gain the support of board member Richard Vladovic, who represents the San Pedro-to-Watts area.
“You never know with some bureaucrats,” Vladovic said. “They’re going to have to peel me off the road if they do it. It’s not the right thing.”

Instead of seizing 6 acres slated for Bisno’s sprawling Ponte Vista housing project on Western Avenue, the district could accept comparable acreage in the northeastern area of Lomita Park for the school.

Lomita City Councilman Barry Waite, with the blessing of his colleagues, offered the land to the district’s facilities division this summer.

Lomita hasn’t had a public high school since the early 1960s, when the LAUSD moved Narbonne High from a school site now used as Fleming Middle School to Harbor City.

An 810-seat school sitting on about one-fourth of Lomita Park – plus 4 adjacent acres – would accommodate the city’s approximately 800 high-school-age residents, Waite said.

Posted on October 6th, 2007 by westchester dad
Tags: WESTCHESTER HS
No Comments »