Around the Halls: July 21 - 23
Ed Fuentes
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — It's Monday, July 21st, and it's another busy week around the halls of city government. Whether loan agreements, event contracts and levies, this week's items seem to revolve around money.
MONDAY: It's a light day, with just two City Council committees meeting. Two items at Budget & Finance are worth noting. Item 4 concerns renewal of the Triathlon contract (CF 07-1434). The city had considered going out to an RFP on the event, but instead will be renegotiating with the existing operator. Not included in the contract: not blocking people into their Downtown buildings. Item 15 is about Convention Center fee waivers (CF 08-0589), noting that waived fees have more than doubled in the past six years. The Convention Center wants to make waiver rules stricter.
TUESDAY: Full slate, with council and committees.
Education & Neighborhoods looks at CF 08-0678, which would allow neighborhood councils to make grants to non-profits, instead of only being allowed to purchase items.
Item 5 on the Council agenda, CF 07-1973, re-authorizes the Pershing Square Community Facilities District levy set up in 1992. In this fiscal year, nearby property owners will pay $659,644 on the mid-90s redesign that everyone wants to replace. One can imagine they aren't happy about that.
At Planning & Land Use, Item 7 (CF 08-1775) would make the 1926 Garment Capitol Building at 217 E. 8th a Historic-Cultural Monument. The Cultural Heritage Commission voted 3-0 in favor. Those interested can get a full writeup via the building's application docs (PDF).
WEDNESDAY: At Housing, Community and Economic Development, Item 2 has the CRA and CAO checking in on loan status for the Downtown Women's Center's move to 434 S. San Pedro (CF 08-1556). Item 3 concerns CRA's funding agreement for Blossom Plaza (CF 08-1872-S1). The Times reported last week that CRA was lessening its involvement after the developer promised investors big profits.
Transportation committee hears a response on the city's push for a car-sharing operator to conduct a pilot program for on-street parking. This pilot was originally pushed by Flexcar, who wanted to roll out a lot of service in Hollywood. Post-merger and post Downtown pullout, Zipcar responds but is only interested in the areas around USC and UCLA.
Bartleight on July 21, 2008, at 11:03AM – #1
Just a comment about the Wed. agenda item regarding Flexcar now Zipcar. I was a happy Flexcar member until Zipcar took over and removed the cars from the Downtown area proper. USC and UCLA--great--but Downtowners who've relinquished their personal vehicles, like me, were left stranded. Shame. I know Kathryn Maese of the Downtown News feels the same because she was also a Flexcar user.