DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Jim Winstead was at City Hall for today's hearing on the new LAPD Headquarters and writes that the Board of Public Works voted to approve the project's environmental docs.

This isn't a surprising move (in fact any other result would have shocked me), nor do I think it's all that important. At this point in the process City Council is the only group that has the political power to make a change. Unless they say they want a different result to occur, no other group is going to get in their way. And if a group doesn't want to go along, as Cultural Affairs didn't over a year ago, their opposition is going to be no more than ceremonial.

Stand where you will on the idea of the LAPD HQ itself, it's impossible to argue that the proposed location for the motor pool makes sense in terms of what's around it. The City's shooting itself in the foot by placing that there, and we're all going to suffer the consequences for the next fifty years or more. That's a shame.