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From Opaque to Transparent to Opaque |
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Musings about the CRA
By Harold Katz
Dear Mr. Westwater:
I read your piece today about the Community Redevelopment Agency and the LA River and it was very sad to see what the CRA had once again become.
In 1975 I received a telephone call from Mayor Bradley and he asked me to chair a 19 member "Blue Ribbon" Citizen's Advisory Committee on the Downtown Central Business District Redevelopment Project. If nothing else I ultimately chaired a committee with the longest name I'd ever heard of.
I told the Mayor that I was the wrong man as I was opposed to the plan. He asked me why and I told him it was because of what I had read in the LA Times (I was young and naïve) and what I had heard Councilman Bernardi and Senator Robbins say about the project. He convinced me to take the position anyway, which I did.
I had the good fortune of having Ed Helfeld join the CRA as its Executive Director as I began my work with the committee. I soon became a major supporter of the plan, but I had discovered that the entire city, both private citizens and elected officials opposed the CRA. I further discovered that the opposition came from the fact that the CRA acted behind closed doors and no one knew what they were planning to do until they did it.
The first thing Mr. Helfeld and I agreed on was that the CRA had to issue a monthly or bi-monthly newsletter describing everything the CRA was working on. As if by magic the opposition of elected officials melted away and the public came around as my committee of truly wonderful citizens, at least 13 of the 19 who had an open mind, went about their business. The other six were divided in two groups, three that supported the plan good or bad and three who opposed the plan good or bad. After meeting once a week for six months, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., after interviewing around 50 people, the committee decided that there should be a downtown plan by a vote of 13 to 3, with three absent at the time of the vote.
I stuck around for three years during which time we were blessed with Ed Helfeld's leadership and total transparency of what the CRA was doing. During the course of my service I ended up with one member who decided that he hated my guts, and he was one of the 12 that voted with me for a total of 13 votes.
He later became a member of the CRA Board and ultimately its president and the CRA started its march into opaqueness. By that time I had moved on to other activities and I never went back to the CRA. So you can see, your article made me very sad that the CRA had returned to its roots of secrecy and meeting behind closed books.
I am not an expert on the LA River but it would appear to me that building heavy industry, any industry along its shore does not make any sense; the river shore line should be park like through out its length. I look forward to reading further articles on this subject.
You state that every single Downtown community and business organization with an elected board has opposed the policy. Would that include the LA Chamber and the Central City Association? If so, I can't believe the CRA can't be stopped.
Back in 1976 the LA City Council threatened to take over the CRA and declare them selves the CRA Board. I opposed the idea then, but maybe
a little scare wouldn't be a bad idea. (Harold Katz is a citizen activist and lives on the Westside.) _
CityWatch
Vol 6 Issue 36
Published: May 2, 2008
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