A Second Chance to Blow It

WANT A VOICE IN GOVERNMENT, FILE A LAWSUIT--Prior to the City’s passing Mobility Plan 2035 this summer, I began urging people to file their own lawsuits if they wanted a say in the future of transportation in Los Angeles. CityWatch published one article with this admonition on August 14, 2015, “‘Remarkable’ Slap Down at City Hall.” 

Only two lawsuits were filed. Out of over 3.8 million people, only a handful of people got organized and filed lawsuits -- Hollywoodians Encouraging Logical Planning [HELP] and Citizens Coalition Los Angeles [CCLA] combined forces to file one lawsuit and Fix The City, Inc. filed the other lawsuit.  

The City plans to rescind Mobility Plan 2035 and the first hearing in that process is a PLUM Committee meeting on Tuesday, November 10, 2015 at City Hall. Then, the City thinks is can re-adopt Mobility Plan 2035. Apparently, the City does not know what the word “rescind” means, but that’s their problem. Men of great hubris often confuse their whims with the law. 

If the City does rescind Mobility Plan 2035, people will have the opportunity to make comments about it and then, if necessary, they may file their own lawsuits within a month of the City’s adoption of a new Mobility Plan 2035. 

Whether anyone likes it or not, truly major decisions are not made in City Council -- they are made in the courts. The City is stubbornly wedded to the use of false data, to the use of wishful thinking, and to ignoring the law. As a result, major decisions like the Hollywood Community Plan and Mobility Plan 2035 end up in the courts. 

The City, for another example, refused to follow the federal Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA], and as a result, it was sued and ordered by the court to spend $1.3 billion to fix the sidewalks. The City believed it was above the law so it ignored the ADA. 

The City also refused to follow the law with the proposed Target Store in Hollywood, and now the half-finished building sits on the corner of Sunset and Western. Los Angeles has learned nothing.  Despite the disaster it caused at the Sunset Gordon project, the City persists in ignoring the law. 

The likelihood that the LA City Council will rectify the major flaws in Mobility Plan 2035 is minimal.  Thus, anyone who wants to have a say in Los Angeles’ future transportation system should get organized now in order to have standing to file a lawsuit.

 

(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

-cw

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 90

Pub: Nov 6, 2015

{module [1177]}