Call to Action: $3Billion to "fix" the streets?
Thread started by
Roadblock at 01.8.13 - 12:55 am
GATHER 8AM-8:30AM
Starbucks Los Angeles and E 1st St.
http://goo.gl/maps/XNYrq
PUBLIC COMMENT 10AM
Los Angeles City Council Meeting City Hall
The short: The measure being proposed would fund more of the same "cars first" street design that keeps Los Angeles grid locked and the streets beat up from the feet up.
As reported in Streetsblog: Last week, two of Los Angeles’ newest Council Members, Mitch Englander and Joe Buscaino, made news by announcing a campaign for a $3 billion bond to fund road repair on L.A.’s worst streets. The “Los Angeles Emergency Local Street Safety and Traffic Improvement Measure” would need a two-thirds vote of city voters in March and would create a twenty year real-estate tax that would be bonded against to fix the 31% of city roads that rate either a “D” or “F” on road conditions in the next ten years.
Sounds great right? Big problem is that this proposed measure does nothing to guarantee a change in character from the usual car-centric / cyclist pedestrian hostile configuration currently available.
This Wednesday we have a chance to change that by DEMANDING that this measure include real language that would obligate the city to implement the bike plan and dedicate a significant proportion of money to pedestrian facilities such as sidewalks and crosswalks as the streets get repaved.
JOIN the growing list of people and ORGS who will be speaking at City Council chambers.
THE PLAN:
Meet this Wednesday Morning
gather 8am-8:30am
Los Angeles and 1st street Starbucks
(anyone who cant make it want to donate for a coffee carton? Paypal donate_to@midnightridazz.com)
We go over our comments at the seating circle (like last time) so that we arent repeating each other's points and we generally work out a unified ask.
Walk over at 9:15am
Gather our speaker cards into one stack and hand it over so we can all ask in one bloc of voices during public comment.
We reach out to the bike/walk friendly city council contacts we have in between now and Wednesday and do what we can to influence this.
Attending thus far:
Don Ward
Meghan Kavanagh
Kelly Martin
Joe Borfo
Jessica Meaney
Dan Dabek
Deborah Murphy
Jim Shanman
Eric Bruins
Josef Ali
OPINION:
WE NEED AS MANY WOMEN AS POSSIBLE TO SHOW UP.
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Thank you for organizing this. I really wanted to be there. I was having breakfast with one of my city's officials to discuss how we can get some of the bicycle planning we've already done actually implemented...
alicestrong01.11.13 - 5:22 am
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Is there a completed bike plan? Is it available to the public? Curious about the progress with that...
PeterR01.11.13 - 11:27 am
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The streets that would be up for repavement under the bond are listed here:
https://sites.google.com/site/lastreetbond/streets
The bike plan is finished... Im not sure where its located though..
Roadblock responding to a
comment by PeterR
01.11.13 - 11:49 am
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Thanks for those links. That is some stuff to digest. What are people's thoughts, if any, on this bike plan?
PeterR01.12.13 - 10:29 am
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It obvious home owner don't support this because they don't want to pay more property taxes.
I have been hearing (and this is only hearsay to me, because I haven't seen the figures or documentation) that the problem with the city budget is bloated retirement or double dipping. Does anybody have any links of stories or documentation of this spending increase going into the retirement account above normal city contribution ?
For years the City and county not only in LA but all over the country have been able to support these retirements. Usually it was because these retirement accounts where probably managed and prudently invested. What happen?
That answer is somewhat obvious. Money being put into mortgage securities, (that was a loser), LIBRO (decreased interest returns) or bad investments, etc.
If it is the case that the city is losing money because of poor or negative returns of retirement funds. It is obvious that all people of this city needs to seriously look at how the retirement fund is being managed. There is law within certain jurisdictions that govern how those funds can be invested (I don't know the law regarding Los Angeles or California for that matter). I have heard many funds are mandated to buy Government Treasuries or are only allowed to invest in Wall Street Funds.
There is many entrepreneurs that could bring enterprises into the city that would create wealth for it the whole city and the retirement funds and of course provide the sacred "J" word. If the retirement fund could and did invest locally. That could be a win for everybody.
It is important that we provide the retirements that the city negotiated with its employees while also providing first class service to this city. The budget is too large not be able to provide all of this. I don't think we have a financial problem, I would tend to think we have political problem.
The city leaders have not gotten our money straight we need to do this instead of increasing taxes an already overtaxed populace.
any links to anything I said to help us all start digging into this issue?
sexy01.12.13 - 3:40 pm
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shit man... if any of us here could solve the budget issues or even figure out where we'd be mayor.
Roadblock responding to a
comment by sexy
01.12.13 - 5:35 pm
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The mayor is mayor because he was given money by donors to appoint other people to city commissions so that the commissioners will spend money on what the donor is selling.
First in order to solve any puzzle you have to look at the pieces.
I know most people are smart enough that if they looked at the budget they could work it out. It seems that there is too many people that want a certain thing or only have their own interest in mind. If we as a city looked at this holistically we could solve it.
Most people when they realize they need something and realize it isn't within their budget they will look deeply at what they are spending on in the budget and see if they can cut cost or eliminate something they don't need. Sometimes that person realize that they where spending too much on a certain item they really didn't need. Or they could get a similar good or service for a lower cost.
sexy responding to a
comment by Roadblock
01.12.13 - 6:44 pm
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Here is a links that we can look at.
This is the Financial Reports from the city controllers office
specifically this the City of Los Angele's CAFR (comprensive annual financial report) for 2011 this was completed in Feb of 2012. A new one should be coming out soon.
CAFR tell whole story of a wealth of an entity, not just the operation budget. What asset and investments that it holds and what the worth of those assets and investments are.
Walter Burien of cafr1 have been talking about this saying that our governments are flushed with wealth that they can be and are self sufficient. Yet they bring out the operational budget and hide the CAFR so people don't realize how much money is actually available. I don't know how true this is?. I have been trying to read the LA City CAFR to see if this is true? You can search Walter Burien or CAFR on youtube to get a understanding of what he is saying.
sexy01.12.13 - 6:59 pm
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think is... one man's "waste" is another man's job.... it's painful to cut spending politically and economically...
Roadblock responding to a
comment by sexy
01.12.13 - 8:10 pm
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so read through that mr. Mayor and tell us what needs to be done. I'd like to get your honest opinion... where should the cuts come from?
Roadblock responding to a
comment by sexy
01.12.13 - 8:12 pm
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Jobs are suppose to provide a service. If they are not providing a service then they should be cut out. But that not what I'm talking about. We do need leaders that are not scared of the unions and a public that can see clearly if it is beneficial to cut or freeze salaries so that services are meant..
You have changed the subject to jobs. I have originally referring to the retirement funds and asking if there is any proof to the rumor that the city is having to contribute extra money to the retirement fund to meet its obligations, in lieu of providing services?
If that is the case maybe we should look closer at why the retirement fund cannot meet it obligations without a injection from the city budget.
I would have to do the math, but there seems to be from looking at the salary of many employees, mainly police that making over 80k per year. Could all those over that salary take a 5% cut, could those making over 100k take a 7% cut, those over 140k take a 10% cut? I don't know. I know those cuts wouldn't hurt them as much as it would to somebody making less then 50k per year and it would be better for the employee then having to lessen the retirement benefits. Like I said I don't know if that is what is needed? If it is, it would serve a starting point for the Mayor and the Council to all cut their salaries. They could afford it.
I'm not the Mayor. You asked for a call of action to make sure a bike plan get implemented with a request for voters to vote in more debt. My response is instead of saying I want more money is to encourage people to look at why we don't have the money to maintain the streets properly when people are being taxed so much as it is. Specifically to look at the retirement fund and to provide any link on the subject.
Before you start saying how it is in other country and how they tax, the answer is YES. http://midnightridazz.com/forums.php?topicId=174&pgnum=1
sexy01.12.13 - 8:30 pm
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