The Latest from Lincoln Place
By Sheila
Bernard
On May 31 at the Los Angeles
City Council, there was good news and bad
news.
The bad news is that Bill
Rosendahl’s motion to record the conditions of the Lincoln Place tract map
lost by a vote of 5 to 8.
And now for the good news.
• The seven-minute film about
Lincoln Place, produced by Laura Silagi and David “Preacher” Ewing
with footage from Erin Grayson, music by Spike Marlin, and editing assistance by
Laura Burns, had a strong impact on the Council and provided backdrop for the
three hours of testimony and discussion of the Lincoln Place
situation.
• Bill had the support
of four of his colleagues, in spite of the fact that the City Attorney’s
office had done its best to scare the council with threats of liability for the
City and for the councilmembers personally.
• Ed Reyes, chair of the Planning and
Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee, did not vote for the motion; however, he
expressed strong interest in hearing what mechanisms did exist with which the
City could enforce the conditions.
• The Council heard testimony
from LPTA’s CEQA attorney, John Murdock, who informed the Council that
according to the appellate court, the City is bound to enforce the conditions of
the tract map whether the conditions are recorded or
not.
• The evictions at Lincoln
Place are on hold. When notified by John Murdock that LPTA would be going into
court to request an injunction against the evictions, and when told the basic
content of the lawsuit, AIMCO asked Murdock to hold off on filing suit, in
return for AIMCO not starting eviction proceedings without providing Murdock
with ten days’ notice, which is plenty of time for him to file the lawsuit
and seek an injunction.
• While
AIMCO’s reason for requesting the additional time may have had to do with
their redoubled efforts to entice tenants out of Lincoln Place by offering
low-cost apartments in other AIMCO properties as part of their “enhanced
relocation package,” and while AIMCO can possibly accommodate a few of our
most vulnerable tenants, many of the remaining tenants do not want to lose their
community or their familiar surroundings, and will stay to fight the evictions
if and when they are filed.
• The
City and the media seem to have finally awakened to the fact that the problems
we face at Lincoln Place are citywide problems which cry out for legislative and
policy solutions.
•Councilman
Rosendahl continues to support the effort to save Lincoln Place, and has said to
the LA Times that this battle is not over until it is over.
Sheila Bernard is president of the
Lincoln Place Tenants Association.
Posted: Thu - June 1, 2006 at 06:55 PM