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The negatives and positives of a changing Los Angeles were on display Monday when the chairman of the city council’s budget and finance committee spoke to lawyers, lobbyists, union leaders and other city hall aficionados at the Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum.
City Councilman Paul Krekorian, who represents the 2nd District in the San Fernando Valley, gave a generally rosy picture of city hall at the forum, which is organized by public affairs consultant Emma Schafer, who also edits the Emma’s Memos web site.
“We’re seeing the dark days of the recession through a rear view mirror,” Krekorian said.
Better business conditions have increased city revenues, he said, and the municipal work force has been reduced by 5,000. The deficit is going down and reserve funds are going up.
What was most interesting was Kerkorian’s reaction to two serious about two issues confronting Los Angeles, the problems of traffic and immigrants making a living.
He was asked about a proposal called Mobility Plan 2035. Now being discussed at city hall, it calls for adding hundreds of miles of bus and bike-only lanes. Faced with lawsuits attacking the plan for causing even more traffic jams, council members, who already approved the plan earlier, are now talking about making revisions to forestall legal action by homeowner and business groups who complain of the loss of motor vehicle lanes. Times reporter David Zahniser wrote that council members are expected to approve a revised plan.
Krekorian called the plan “a vision for the future,” and said “the status quo doesn’t work in Los Angeles.” He didn’t say how he stood on a final plan, but noted that he was sure any solution would cause pain. “It will and always does,” he said.
Immigration was in the background when he was asked about the controversy over regulating street vendors. The issue, wrote Times reporter Emily Alpert Reyes, is “whether to legalize and regulate the bustling trade that is already widespread on many sidewalks, an idea that has heartened throngs of street vendors who make their living selling ice cream, hot dogs wrapped in bacon, and a slew of other goods.”
A large number of the vendors are immigrants and their presence downtown, around MacArthur Park, and in other areas give the streets and sidewalks a lively urban feel, and provide Angelenos a convenient place to buy an ice cream. But those who own ice cream parlors, hot dog stands and t-shirt shops say they pay taxes, rent and have insurance, costs not borne by street vendors.
Krekorian said it’s an “issue where there are different needs in different parts of the city.” He said he was concerned about the impact on bricks and mortar merchants if there are too many street vendors.
The dispute is a sign of the changing city and the needs of poor people trying to start their own businesses with little or no capital, and the desires of people like me who like a little life on the street. The bike lane controversy is another sign of change, this one of the LA where the motor vehicle may no longer be allowed to rule.
