Jim, I absolutely agree with you. There needs to be a mechanism to help neighborhoods who get summarily dismissed or in some cases lied to by their own elected officials. Many of us believe that we had begun to address the problem when new leadership was elected. Unfortunately, many of the same traits seem to be continuing.
Traits like not being honest with your constituency. Like a council member telling the neighborhood that they supported a particular stance only to find that behind city council doors, they lobbied other council member to vote a different way. When they were sure they lobbied enough votes for a particular piece of legislation to pass, they would vote the way the neighborhood wanted and lay the blame on the rest of the council instead of being truthful about their stance on a particular issue. This has been going on in city hall for years and it still is very much alive. I know for a fact that this game is being played right now today on an issue that affects Ventura Village.
It's hard for me to understand why some neighborhoods are summarily dismissed by elected officials over and over again while they would never dare do that to other neighborhoods. I suppose voter turn-out has something to do with that. But then my neighborhood, Ventura Village, Phillips and other like ours have an overwhelming percentage of rental property. Whittier is 87%. I think VV is about the same. For whatever reason, voter turn-out in neighborhoods like ours is generally low. The recent election was a big exception to that. Maybe the elected officials think it's safer to dump on neighborhoods like mine because the political fall-out isn't as high and for many people living here, it is just a stepping stone along the way. They don't have plans to settle here for the long run so don't much care what happens here.
I wish I could understand it. I wish I could figure out why the "poverty industry" thinks it's O.K. concentrate all of the special needs housing and social services so compactly, leaving people with special needs very few choices about where they can live. I wish I could see why well-meaning church people flock to force this stuff into my neighborhood when there is none in their own. I don't understand why this industry spends little time trying to "open up" other areas. I wish I could figure out why no one outside these neighborhoods "cries foul" when they keep building more and more and more in our neighborhoods. Yet, they want to point the finger of shame at us when we make a fuss.
All I can say is help me understand.
Barb Lickness/Whittier
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed,
it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead
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