Odds and Ends 93

Oops! I was having so much fun I almost forgot that today is Friday.

If you never have taken the opportunity to read the comments in The Daily Breeze concerning some of the articles and letters to the editor published recently concerning Ponte Vista at San Pedro, there are some items that can be found entertaining and humorous.

We are all able to read some fiction created and looks to be coming from New York. Whether it is coming from the Big Apple or not is irrelevant, but it does demonstrate that perhaps there are drinkers of Bob's Kool-Aid concoction even thousands of miles away.
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Now please don't forget about the still scheduled Harbor Area Planning Commission meeting on December 2.

You should know by now what's going on with that meeting.

First Bob and the Outreach Team were hard behind having the Area Planning Commissioners give their nod to the project.

Opposition forces called for the complete cancellation of the meeting because three of the five-member panel have ties to organizations that received funds from Bob and the Outreach Team.

Members of the Outreach Team again reminded folks that the Area Planning Commission meeting was vital and they even offered to transport folks by bus to the meeting site.

The originally scheduled meeting was cancelled and rescheduled for what both sides feel was an unbelievable reason, but hey, what isn't unbelievable with much ado about Ponte Vista?

Then the Report was released.

Since the Report was released all mention of the newly scheduled Area Planning Commission meeting has been left out from Bob and the Outreach Team.

They wanted it. We opposed it. They really wanted it. We continued our opposition. The Report was released. Now they are ignoring it.

What?

Don't worry, if the Commissioners fear there won't be folks trying to speak at the meeting, they needn't worry. We will be there, at least.
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Are you ready for meetings and real decision-making in the coming two weeks?

December 2-Harbor Area Planning Commission meeting.

December 4-Facilities Committee meeting of LAUSD meets to rubber stamp the recently
released FEIR for SRHS 15 to be built at Angel's Gate.

December 9-LAUSD Board of Education meets to most probably approve the construction
of South Region High School No. 15 on the Upper Reservation of Fort MacArthur.

In between, there should be two Neighborhood Council meetings and other meetings you may or may not want to attend.
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Bob seems to have had issues with three of his three developments I have written about on this blog. City Place Santa Ana has not sold out and the Santa Ana Planning Commission put off its vote on Bob's plans for a 31 or 32-story condominium tower right across the street from the main development.

It seems the economy killed off Bob's plans to use the right of eminent domain to condemn residents and businesses into looking for new digs while he redeveloped the downtown area of Baldwin Park.

You already know about Ponte Vista at San Pedro.

Bob also seems to be having some issues with the house he got out of a foreclosure mess less than one year ago.

Bob's name will continue to overshadow many things at Lincoln Place in Santa Monica.

Bob has even found some folks who don't feel he is their knight in shining armour, in Berkeley, California.

I guess we all have something to be thankful for at this holiday time.......we're not in Bob's predicament.
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Bob and the fans of keeping the Ponte Vista site with its current zoning forevermore received bad news when the Report came out and all of them and folks like me need to be concerned.

Now that the Planning Department has basically revealed its 'guidelines' for what could be built at Ponte Vista, and nobody is very happy about them, it means that some politicians and wannabe politicians can glam on to those guidelines and run with them.

Ms. Hahn, are you reading?

Backing the guidelines before the upcoming elections might not be the best idea, even if someone is not facing any real opposition.

I am not comfortable with the guidelines because it limits my ability to think of ways to lower the population density at the site to something I could consider living with.

Up to 1196-non age restricted units, with over 300 of them selling for below-market rates suggests that the area would become a haven for units becoming rentals and leased units and some folks buying units and renting out a room or two.

Having rentals and leased units in a project means more transitory residents, a higher density than calculated for simply owner-occupied units, more traffic than would be computed, more student turnover, and much more trouble for northwest San Pedro.

For Bob, trying to maximize his profits, which is why he is trying to develop Ponte Vista in the first place, would be very hard to easily accomplish with any number of units less than he wants at the site.

For fans (read fanatics) of keeping a zoning for a development was never really built there, has become somewhat harder to achieve since the Report was released.

The fight with Bob took about three years, untold hours of volunteer work, a whole lot of money so far, and determination you would not believe.

Now they/we are looking at having to fight City Hall and that is not as much fun as fighting against the out-of-town developer.

Mr. Dominguez, an untold number of others, and myself want some housing for seniors built. It looks like City Planners don't.

Lucie, Chuck, and a whole host of other continue their demand for keeping the site with its current zoning, no matter what. City Planners don't want that either.

Possibly hundreds of others who don't remember they swallowed the Kool-Aid and continue to try and follow Bob over the cliff seeming want as many units as Bob can get approval for. It doesn't appear that Bob and City Planners can get on the same page with the number of units and types.

The cliff-diving, Kool-Aid-drinkers never really took the time, energy, or will to truly educate themselves about the facts, so I guess I am not willing to be very sorry about that.

Even Ms. Hahn who correctly insists that something is going to be built at Ponte Vista might not be too pleased with the guidelines and I hope she is not pleased at all!
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I think we are now going to see some more years before the first concrete is poured for any foundations going in at the site.

Any delay in adding more traffic on Western Avenue cannot be a bad thing, can it?

Taking years longer to add to schools' enrollment means fewer students to teach.

It is going to be farther into the future before we find the infrastructure stretched out further.

Maybe the delays will finally allow everyone to really make some correct studies and allow the processes to be worked out without having time pressures put on people.

The identities of OUR community's 'leaders' may change and a whole new set of ideas will be allowed to emerge.

The 2012-2013 time frame around OUR community will be very interesting with issues already in the works. I think we can stand for some longer delay in having to deal with the 61.53 acres in northwest San Pedro.
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