UPDATE: This post was originally written prior to the LA City Council meeting on Feburary 21. The item about expediting projects for the Olympics was continued, and will now be heard on Friday, February 28. PLEASE NOTE: This meeting will be held at Van Nuys City Hall, 14410 Sylvan St. Van Nuys. You can also call your councilmember to express your views.
***
When the politicians at LA City Hall first approved hosting the 2028 Olympics, they said LA wouldn’t need to build new sports venues or new infrastructure. A post on the LA28 web site says that “The LA28 Games are designed to fit the city as-is [….]”. The talk was that this would be a “no-build” Olympics. The post goes on to say….
As a global leader in sports, entertainment and technology, LA is built to host large-scale, sustainable, global events that benefit everyone and will be the first-ever Games to not build permanent infrastructure. [Emphasis added.]
Well, anybody who believed that obviously hadn’t spent much time around City Hall. Now the LA City Council apparently wants to build a whole lot of new stuff, and they want to be able to build temporary and permanent venues, training facilities, broadcast and media centers, transit infrastructure, and other projects that could be associated with the Olympics or the Paralympics without having to receive planning approvals, obey zoning regulations, observe height restrictions or setback requirements, or any other regulations that could delay construction. You can read the language from the motion yourself. (Council File 15-0989-S47)
This is just crazy. But tomorrow, Friday, February 21, the City Council will likely approve this motion directing City departments to prepare an ordinance to make this crazy idea a reality. If the ordinance is approved, you can bet we’ll see a barrage of new projects being justified because they’re supposedly associated with the Olympics or the Paralympics. These projects will be approved with no public engagement and no environmental review. In other words, once they’re proposed, they’re approved. And don’t be surprised if they use this to greenlight Frank McCourt’s Dodger Gondola project.
In other words, this has gone from being the “no-build” Olympics to being the “no-plan” Olympics. It was pretty clear even before this that our elected officials were in over their heads. Now it seems they’re trying to dig themselves out by eliminating planning, eliminating environmental review, and cutting the public out of the process.
If you have something you’d like to say to the City Council about this, the best thing to do would be to show up at City Hall before 10:00 am tomorrow, Friday, February 21. (You can’t call in anymore, because Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson doesn’t want you to.) If you can’t make it down there, I suggest you call your council office when they open tomorrow morning and let them know how you feel.
People enjoying the afternoon in one of LA’s parks.
In a recent post I talked about why the LA City Department of Recreation & Parks (RAP) is having such a hard time maintaining the parks in our communities. Mostly, it comes down to money. RAP doesn’t have the funds to hire enough staff or pay for upgrades, in large part because of what LA City Hall calls the “full cost recovery program”, and the City Council’s ongoing inability to create a balanced budget.
One solution to RAP’s problems would be a ballot measure, which has been done before. In 1996, voters approved Proposition K, the LA for Kids Program, which was designed to provide $25 million per year for 30 years. This money has been spent on capital improvements to parks, recreation, and community facilities. However, Prop K will expire in a few years, and this will leave RAP even more impoverished than it is now. But if we’re going to do another ballot measure, we need to do it right.
I’d like to introduce you to Ron Bitzer, who serves as a volunteer on the City Park Advisory Board in North Hollywood. Ron has been fighting for LA’s parks for years, and would like to see all Angelenos have access to clean, well-maintained areas for recreation and relaxation. In this article he offers a detailed breakdown of the challenges RAP is facing. He also talks about how we could create a funding stream to address these challenges.
UPDATE: RAP is in the process of preparing a Park Needs Assessment, and this will be discussed at a meeting of the Facility Repair & Maintenance Commission Task Force on Thursday, February 6, at 10:00 am. The meeting will be held at the Chevy Chase Recreation Center, 4165 E. Chevy Chase Drive. The Task Force will only take public comment from those who show up in person. Click on the link below for the agenda.
If you can’t make the meeting on February 6, see page 5 of the agenda for a tentative list of future meetings under the heading Public Engagement (Phase 1).
We can provide funding for LA’s parks, but the process must include real public engagement and meaningful oversight. Our parks belong to the people. Let’s make sure the people have a voice in planning for their future.
No surprise that after a major disaster like LA’s fires there are a lot of people playing the blame game. Politicians are pointing fingers, TV personalities are airing their theories and social media is abuzz with angry people who have suddenly become experts on firefighting.
If you’d like to hear a real scientist give fact-based information about the circumstances that led to these fires, I urge you to listen to this interview where Adam Conover talks to climate scientist Daniel Swain. Swain works at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, and aside from his climate expertise, he has a deep understanding of the tactics firefighters use when faced with conflagrations like what we saw in Altadena and Palisades.
The interview last about 90 minutes, but it’s well worth the time. Swain talks about the limited options firefighters actually have when fighting wind-driven fires on this scale. More importantly, he explains the role climate change played in creating the conditions that led to these holocausts.
As we should know by now, there are numerous areas in LA that are prone to fires. Many of these areas have burned repeatedly, because fire is a natural part of the ecology. As climate change continues to alter weather patterns, and LA continues to grow hotter and drier, we should expect more frequent and more intense fires.
The LA Department of Recreation & Parks (RAP) has been underfunded and understaffed for years. While LA politicians talk a lot about the importance of green space and open space, when it comes to actual funding, LA’s parks seem to be a very low priority. Some of the city’s parks are well-maintained, but these tend to be in more affluent areas, where residents have access to additional funding resources. Many of LA’s parks are in bad shape because RAP doesn’t have the money or the staff to give them proper care.
One of the biggest problems for RAP is that it’s one of only two LA City departments that’s subject to the “full cost recovery program”, something that City Hall imposed when it was dealing with the 2008 financial crisis. This means that RAP has to reimburse the City for the cost of the water and power it uses, in addition to the cost of employee benefits. (The only other department required to do this is the LA Public Library, and they were able to mitigate the loss of funding through a ballot measure.) This means that RAP is paying tens of millions of dollars every year to cover these costs, which is a huge chunk of its budget. To give you an idea of what a drain this is, here’s an excerpt from a memo sent by RAP General Manager Jimmy Kim regarding the Department’s 2023-24 budget….
CHALLENGES: RAP is required to continue to use $98M (28.92% of the total operating budget) to pay reimbursements to the City’s General Fund for employee benefits ($64.7M), the Department of Water and Power (DWP) for utilities ($30.4M), and the Bureau of Sanitation for refuse costs ($2.9M). These increases diminish RAP’s ability to meet and increase vital maintenance and recreational programming needs. Since the inception of these Department contributions in FY ‘08-09, approximately $969M has been diverted away from RAP’s core operations.
So if you’re wondering why the playground in your local park is looking so worn out, or why the restrooms aren’t properly maintained, or why the pool has been closed for so long, there’s a good chance it’s because RAP doesn’t have the money to take care of these things. A 2018 Parks Condition Assessment Report recommended that 20 recreation centers be replaced because they were in poor condition, needing major retrofits and renovation. The same report recommended that 12 pool and bathhouse facilities be replaced because many of them were over 60 years old and had surpassed their expected service life. But more than six years later, much of that work has still not been done because of insufficient funds.
The people of LA need clean, well-maintained parks. It’s possible to provide the funding to accomplish that, but any effort along those lines needs to be open and transparent, with strong public engagement and careful oversight. I’ll be writing a follow-up to this post where I’ll talk more about how we can make that happen.
As LA struggles to deal with the massive devastation of the recent fires (which are still not completely contained), I wanted to repost this article from The Lever, which argues that developers and real estate interests pushed back against efforts to limit development in fire prone areas. You have to sign up to read it, but it’s free, and it’s an interesting read.
It reminded me of the debate over SB 610, recently introduced in the California Legislature by State Senator Scott Wiener, which would have radically changed the approach to fire hazard rankings in California. Opponents saw it as an attempt to allow new development in areas where wildfire risk is high. The bill was not approved, but supporters have said they’ll try again.
As I said in my previous post, I believe we need careful review of new projects in areas where there’s a risk of fire. The fires that burned across LA this month resulted in lost lives, lost homes and lost businesses. We need to do everything we can to make sure a disaster like this doesn’t happen again.
Map of current fires in LA area from Cal Fire, as of January 12, 2025
If you’re looking for updates on the fires in LA, this post won’t offer anything you haven’t heard already. The LA Times, Daily News, and local news stations have been doing an excellent job reporting on the situation. I’m writing this post because I want to talk about what comes next. While the fires are still burning, and may continue to burn through next week, we do need to start talking about the future of LA. And I think the best way to start talking about the future is to begin with the past….
The City of LA was built on real estate speculation. To some degree, this is true of most cities, but it’s especially true of Los Angeles. Writers have commented on the fact that this area lacks a number of the things that are generally the basis for large scale development, most fundamentally a reliable source of water. Nor did the City of LA initially have a port, and only gained one by annexing San Pedro in 1909. That area is only tenuously connected to the rest of the city by a narrow, 20-mile corridor that’s basically just a rail line.
LA did have oil. Drilling began in the 19th century, and in the early 20th century large sections of the city, including Downtown, were covered with oil wells. But real estate investors saw huge amounts of money to be made by residential and commercial development, and gradually most oil wells were either shut down or hidden. (The majority of wells that are still visible are located in the southern part of LA, and the low-income communities that are impacted don’t have the political clout to shut them down.) The real estate investors promoted Los Angeles aggressively, putting ads in newspapers nationwide, essentially selling the climate. LA had lots of sun and little rain. People came, but the investors knew that to sustain new development they’d need to bring more water to the area. The LA Aqueduct was completed in 1913, after business interests used dishonest means to buy up the rights to the Owens Valley’s water resources. As the city continued to grow, LA snagged more water from the Colorado River with the construction of Hoover Dam during the Depression. Then came the construction of the California State Water Project, which extended from the 50s through the 70s. The bottom line is, the City of LA is only able to support a population of almost four million people because it imports about 90% of its water from areas that are hundreds of miles away.
I’m talking about the way LA was built because I think it’s important to understand the city’s history in talking about the fires that have devastated LA’s communities. Real estate investors built LA because there were fortunes to be made. In the first past of the 20th century, the only efforts at planning were driven by investors looking for profit. In the second half of the 20th century, there was more of an effort to plan for growth, but efforts at responsible planning were often overridden by the same investors looking for more profits. In the 21st century, there’s a lot of talk about planning at City Hall, but really most of it boils down to upzoning large swaths of the city to promote more growth. Planning in the City of LA is still largely driven by investors and their lobbyists. If you don’t believe me, please read up on the recent convictions of former Councilmember Jose Huizar, former Deputy Mayor Ray Chan and others who were caught up in a massive scandal involving bribery, fraud and racketeering. And if you think those convicted were the only ones involved, it’s important to remember that projects backed by Huizar were almost without exception unanimously approved by the LA City Council.
Image from Cal Fire Update, January 11, 2025
The point here is that development in LA is not driven by responsible planning. Development in LA is driven by money. If you want to know why projects were approved and are still being approved in fire-prone areas, follow the money. While there have been individuals who chose to build their own homes in areas where fire risk is high, most of the residential development in these areas is the result of the creation of suburban subdivisions. Even when citizens expressed concern about fire risks in these areas, they were almost always ignored by the politicians, who had often received campaign contributions from the developers. The Porter Ranch area has been repeatedly threatened by fires, but that didn’t stop the City of LA from approving The Vineyards at Porter Ranch, a recent multi-phase mixed-use project that includes apartments, a hotel and a large retail component. The project location has been designated by the LA Fire Department as a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone (VHFHSZ). Another example is LA City Planning Director Vince Bertoni’s approval of the initiation of a General Plan Amendment (GPA) to make way for the Bulgari Hotel, a massive luxury hotel project that was to be located in another VHFHSZ in the Santa Monica Mountains. The request for the GPA was submitted by developer representative Stacey Brenner, whose husband served as a deputy to former Councilmember Paul Koretz. The project was in Koretz’ district. The Bulgari Hotel was only stopped because area residents put intense pressure on Koretz’ successor, Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who promised to stop the project during her campaign for the office.
Many of the areas that have been burned in the current spate of fires have burned repeatedly before. In the last few decades there have been multiple fires in Brentwood, Bel Air and the Hollywood Hills. Other communities like Baldwin Hills, Sunland-Tujunga and Chatsworth have all been hit by devastating fires. But, with rare exceptions, the City of LA continues to approve new development in fire prone areas.
As fires continue to rage across Los Angeles County, talk of rebuilding has already begun. I wish our elected officials would take some time to think about this. We need to have a tough conversation about rebuilding. I understand that thousands of people have lost their homes, and their dearest wish would be to rebuild and return to their communities. If individuals have the resources to do this, and if they understand the risks, they should be able to make that choice. But with the death toll from the current fires at 16, and damages worth billions of dollars, our elected officials should think long and hard about pushing for large scale development in fire prone areas. In most of these areas, the question is not whether they’ll burn again but when they’ll burn again. The LA area has always been prone to fires. As climate change continues to make the region drier and warmer, the risks will only increase. And while our firefighters can work miracles when conditions are favorable, we’re now seeing a brutal demonstration of how hard it is to control wind-driven fires.
It remains to be seen how strong the push for rebuilding will be once the fires stop. No doubt the real estate investors are already weighing their options. Some may want to bet on rebuilding. Others may think the risk is too great and decide to put their money elsewhere. But California Governor Gavin Newsom has already announced the suspension of laws that would require environmental review for rebuilding in fire prone areas. This is just crazy. After this disaster we should be insisting on stronger environmental review. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires an assessment of whether new development will result in wildfire risks. It also requires cities to ask whether fire departments can provide adequate protection and whether the site can be safely evacuated in an emergency. Instead of brushing these issues aside, we should be insisting on careful scrutiny.
CEQA also requires review of a project’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), because of the growing threat of climate change. Most Environmental Impact Reports I’ve read make no meaningful effort to accurately assess a project’s GHG impacts. Instead, the preparers rely on the State’s CalEEMod platform, which allows them to input whatever numbers they want, thereby pretty much guaranteeing that no project will ever appear to cause significant GHG impacts. In reviewing the EIRs, LA City Planning generally accepts whatever the developers claim without question. While the City of LA and the State of California claim to be fighting climate change, in reality both of them usually support new development regardless of what the GHG impacts are.
Again, I totally understand that many of those who lost homes in the fire are anxious to rebuild. If I were in their situation, I’d probably feel the same way. But LA has been repeatedly hit by deadly and devastating fires. As much as we may want to hear inspiring words about rebuilding, we need to ask: Do we want to be reliving this tragedy over and over again?
Let’s think carefully before we start to build again. And let’s demand that our elected officials do the same.
Proposed conceptual plan for Headworks Site Development Project.
When I first started this blog over a decade ago, one of the first things I posted about was the construction of the Headworks Water Complex on the LA River just north of Griffith Park. (I also posted a follow-up in 2028.) The project consisted primarily of two underground reservoirs that were built in response to Federal laws that prohibited storing drinking water in open reservoirs, but the LA Department of Water & Power (LADWP) is now moving forward with other components, including a water quality laboratory, a direct potable reuse demonstration facility, and a public park.
View of Headworks site from Forest Lawn Drive, looking north toward Burbank.
The first reservoir was completed in 2015, and the second in 2022. The public park was part of the original proposal, and I’d been wondering for years if it was ever going to happen, but in 2024 LADWP released an environmental study which includes the park proposal. It looks like it’s moving forward.
Another view of Headworks site from Forest Lawn Drive.
In addition to providing new recreational space, the proposed Headworks Restoration Park would provide facilities to educate the pubic about local ecosystems and water use. The centerpiece would be the gardens constructed on top of the West Reservoir. Currently the plan for the gardens includes a series of ramps, landings, and walkways along with groves of trees and bike paths. The image at the top of this post gives a general idea of what it would look like.
Top of reservoir protruding through landscape at Headworks site.
Right now LADWP is projecting that the park would be completed in 2028. Let’s hope it happens, but it’s important to remember that infrastructure projects have a way of dragging out longer than expected.
It seems like the City of LA is ready to hand a liquor permit to anybody who asks for one. It used to be City Planning would just approve liquor permits for bars, restaurants and clubs. Recently they took the unusual step of granting a permit to serve alcohol in an apartment building. But now they’re going even farther. It looks like they’re ready to allow a church to serve a full line of alcohol in their new banquet facility. On top of that, the church will offer live entertainment, and they can keep the party going until 2:00 am.
Holy Trinity Armenian Church, located at 11960 Victory Blvd. in North Hollywood, has filed an application to expand their campus, adding a few new buildings. One of the new structures will be a 14,000 sq. ft. accessory use building with a sports gym/banquet hall on the second floor. The banquet hall will provide for the sale of a full-line of alcohol for on-site consumption, with live entertainment and dancing during events associated with the church.
The report prepared for the City Planning Commission recommends approval of the project. They’re claiming it will have no significant impacts on the surrounding neighborhood. This is interesting, because the church is immediately adjacent to a residential neighborhood. It’s hard to believe that a banquet hall serving a full line of alcohol and offering live entertainment, with events lasting until 2:00 am, will have no significant impacts on the folks who live a few hundred feet away. Noise is the first thing that comes to mind, but it also seems likely that people who have been consuming alcohol will be driving down residential streets in the small hours.
If you’d like to submit comments on this project, you can send them to Stephanie Escobar at LA City Planning.
stephanie.escobar@lacity.org
You should include the project address and case numbers in the subject line.
Residents of Lincoln Heights are up in arms over the plan to build a 56,700 square foot e-commerce distribution center at the intersection of Pasadena Ave. and Avenue 35. Not only is the project in close proximity to houses and apartments, it’s less than 300 feet away from Hillside Elementary. The community is understandably upset about the potential for a huge increase in truck traffic and diesel emissions.
Hillside Elementary School
At this point, though, the community is uncertain how to stop it. Xebec, the real estate firm behind the distribution center, believes that the project complies with existing zoning and doesn’t need discretionary approvals from LA City Planning. They’ve already applied for permits from LA Building & Safety. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who represents Lincoln Heights, has come out against the project, and she’s proposed changes to the plan that governs the area. Unfortunately, those changes won’t be approved until December, and Xebec wants to have the permits finalized before then.
New residential building under construction right next door to 3505 Pasadena
I have to admit, I have trouble understanding the zoning for 3505 Pasadena. According to ZIMAS, the General Plan Land Use designation for this parcel is Hybrid Industrial. The Hybrid Industrial designation was created by LA City Planning to allow residential uses in industrial zones. As a matter of fact, right next door to 3505 Pasadena there’s a massive new residential complex under construction that contains over 460 units. If the Hybrid Industrial designation was created to spur new housing developments in industrial areas where appropriate, the Xebec project seems to violate the whole intention of this initiative. And when those new units go on the market, how many prospective tenants are going to sign a lease when they realize they’ll be living next door to an e-commerce distribution center?
General Plan Land Use designation for 3505 Pasadena is Hybrid Industrial
But whatever the zoning is, this project should be stopped. Just ask yourself if you’d like to have diesel trucks going in and out of a distribution center right across from your home. Or better yet, ask yourself if you think elementary school kids should be breathing the toxic diesel exhaust from these trucks.
The LA City Council rep for the area is already looking for a way to stop this, but it might help to send a note to some people at the State level. If you feel like speaking up, here are the e-mail addresses for the two people who represent Lincoln Heights in Sacramento, State Senator Maria Elena Durazo and Assemblymember Miguel Santiago. I’m also including a staff member at the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Program.
senator.durazo@sen.ca.gov
assemblymember.santiago@assembly.ca.gov
leticia.syslo@calepa.ca.gov
Here’s a suggested subject line.
Kids Shouldn’t Be Breathing Diesel Exhaust: Stop the Distribution Center at 3505 Pasadena
If you see problems with this project, let the folks in Sacramento know. The people of Lincoln Heights would appreciate it.
Hollywood got a new mural earlier this month. A striking image of P-22, the mountain lion that made its home in Griffith Park, now gazes out on the boulevard. P-22 captured the public’s attention by migrating from the western Santa Monica Mountains to Griffith Park, which involved crossing both the 405 and the 101 Freeways. Angelenos mourned the mountain lion’s death in December 2022.
I knew there had been a number of tributes to P-22, but I didn’t realize how many murals he was featured in. There are at least six. Three were painted by muralist Jonathan Martinez. Multi-disciplinary street artist Corie Mattie has also painted three, of which the one on Hollywood Blvd. is the most recent.
It’s great that people remember P-22, but it would be even better if people started thinking about ways to keep these beautiful animals alive. One of the reasons P-22 caught the public’s attention was that he managed to cross two freeways without getting hit. Many mountain lions die from vehicle collisions every year. A 2024 study from the UC Davis Road Ecology Center reports that 613 mountain lions were killed on roads between 2016 and 2023, inclusive. That averages out to about 76 per year.
The P-22 mural is located at 6411 Hollywood Blvd., just a few doors west of Cahuenga.
The Horizon and the Skyline 