Public Trust, Public Servants and Plummer Park

When candidates run for a public office, they are servants of the public. In countries where oligarchs and despots rule, this is not the case.

It shouldn't be the case in West Hollywood, where 34,000 residents are represented by five people (even the SCOTUS has nine). Four of these folks can't seem to give up the seats they hold, and we play pass the Mayor's seat like school kids playing musical chairs.

I find it embarrassing. I further find it incredible that some of these councilpersons have been in "office" for the age of the city. But this blog is not about term limits.

The City Council seems like a club, and it may take one to seat new members with new ideas and less power. The erosion of public trust for these council people has been eating away at good ideas, common sense, and public opinion for some time.

The recent revelations (although the Council swears "we have known through notifications for years") is on the formerly very skanky East Side - also known as "the Russian area" or the "Prostitution Abatement Zone." I have lived here for 22 years. I know this is a true statement.

Plummer Park is a lovely, quiet, small, public green space at Vista and Fuller, fronting Santa Monica on the south and Fountain on the north. It is filled with old growth heritage trees, WPA buildings and amenities for kids, teens and adults.  

For $41 million dollars, the geniuses at City Hall and the whining architects they have chosen are planning to disable the park for at least two years (The Big Dig in Boston took over 13). Trees will be felled, buildings will be razed, and some of the ugliest architecture I have seen recently will replace buildings in existence. There will be no Pritzker Prize for these edifices.  

The driving (literally) force in this plan is a vast underground parking garage with 170 spaces to run beneath the park from the Santa Monica side all the way to the Fountain side. I have not yet heard a good reason for this, or who will benefit or who will even own it, only that (huge grins) the city will acquire 69 new spaces.

Parking spaces are not exactly diamond mines. The WPA buildings will be demolished, the pre-school will be razed, and the facade of Fiesta Hall is to be some sort of space-age upgrade. This will allow for more "green space."

It will reduce shade (and thus cleaner air); it will cause increased carbon emissions, create a pre-school that resembles a big slice of cheese, and children will not play in the park - they will play on the roof of the cheese right across from the parking garage vents.  

Fiesta Hall has some fantasy belief it is going to become a "world class performance space." Lincoln Center and the Disney fit those descriptions - Fiesta Hall doesn't. Its hideous facade is just that - hideous and has no relation to the Spanish architecture of the hall itself.

Plummer Park sits in a very tightly knit and tightly built residential area. The disruption to the quiet enjoyment of the resident's homes will disappear. And this is just the nuts and bolts.

No project of this size and cost makes any sense - any way you look at it. Furthermore, projects of this size and cost are subject to the general economy and rarely come in on time or under budget - even when the Almighty is the project manager.  

It must benefit someone. I have not yet figured out who and how, but none of it makes any sense. I question the bond issue, the motives and the behavior of the city. I do not trust a word they have said thus far on this subject, and all the information I have is from public papers and their own contradictory sops.  

In terms of trust - that is off the table. So too should be this odious project. They say they have already spent $3 million on it. Trust me, they should cut their losses and restore the park to its former glory and find another place to put a garage.

Your comments and observations are welcomed.