One of these candidates will win Venice’s first election for L.A.
City Council in five years! - Angela J. Reddock
1.What
would you do, if anything, to change the neighborhood council
system?
I
believe the Neighborhood Council system is an excellent addition to our
City’s governing process. I am particularly impressed with the
Neighborhood Councils of the 11th District and the level of commitment and
passion the members of the Councils have to their neighbors and to the City as a
whole.
In
their ideal sense, Neighborhood Council’s should be a body which seek to
represent the ideas, issues and concerns of the residents and neighborhoods
which they represent. The Neighborhood Council’s should link the residents
of a particular neighborhood to City Hall and should be a conduit to assist the
Council representative in connecting directly to the constituents in his or her
district. I believe the City’s Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
(DONE) have a responsibility to facilitate this process and to be a support to
the Council’s as they seek to establish their own
identities.
If
I could make any changes to the Neighborhood Council System, they would be as
follows: (1) increased training for all Neighborhood Councils and their members
on City government and the process; (2) the creation of a common set of basic
by-laws and procedures by which all Neighborhood Council’s operate; (3)
more effective communication between the Neighborhood Councils and DONE.
2.
Do you support community control of development? If so, would you make any
exceptions?
I
support greater involvement and input from neighborhoods and communities in
development projects. As a City Councilperson, one of the first things I would
do is convene a “Summit on Development in the 11th District”. The
primary goal of this Summit would be to bring together the residents,
neighborhood leaders, business and other stakeholders, along with
representatives from my office and the City’s planning and transportation
departments, to discuss development goals in the District. Through this Summit,
we would discuss the need to revamp the City’s general and specific plans
in certain neighborhoods such as Venice and discuss what types of development
projects are needed in the 11th District. I applaud the work of such groups as
the Venice Community Coalition and believe this group, along with others is a
model for how we involve residents in determining the development needs of our
neighborhoods and
communities.
3.
Section 8 housing is being cut back and tenants share of the rent is being
raised from 30 to 40 percent. What would you do, if elected, to address this
problem?
Section
8 housing is very important to maintaining diverse housing opportunities within
our District, particularly for seniors, the disabled and women and families that
are in transition. Hence, I believe it is very important that we maintain our
Section 8 housing programs and try identifying places within our City’s
housing budget where we can continue to subsidize Section 8 housing rents at 70%
as opposed to the proposed 60%. As a member of the City Council, I would work
with federal legislators to lobby for funds to ensure the City of Los Angeles
receives its full and fair share of housing dollars so we can prevent any
further rent increases to Section 8 participants. I am particularly concerned
about increased costs to seniors and the disabled who generally are on fixed
incomes and cannot afford increased rental costs.
4.
How would you promote low-income housing throughout the city, including
Venice?
Our
City needs to increase its development of affordable and workforce housing. It
is unfortunate that much of the housing being built today makes it impossible
for those who work in our City to live here. As a member of the City Council, I
would develop a plan to attract more developers who are willing to build more
affordable and moderately priced housing. I also would fight to have a greater
portion of our City’s 100 million dollar housing trust fund designated for
affordable and moderately priced housing.
5.
Many Housing and Urban Development (HUD) buildings are being privatized and
residents evicted. What would you do about
this?
It
is unfortunate that housing intended for the public is now being privatized and
that private entities are not willing to maintain the initial governmental
intent. As a member of the City Council, I would work with our federal
legislators and our City’s housing department to find money within our
federal and local budgets to maintain ownership of government housing
properties. In the alternative, I would propose a plan to our City housing
department which would seek private owners who are willing to maintain the
public nature and intent of our City’s publicly-owned
properties.
6.
Venice's largest low-income housing complex, Lincoln Place, is being depopulated
and may be demolished. Would you support the tenants' efforts to save it?
How?
I
definitely support the efforts to save Lincoln Place and have before now. I
submitted a letter to the State ‘s Office of Historical Preservation and
to the office of the current Councilwoman expressing my support for designating
Lincoln Place as a historical site. I also have attended meetings regarding the
preservation of Lincoln Place and am in communication with the leaders
attempting to save this project. As a Councilwoman, I would continue in my
efforts to have Lincoln Place designated as a historical site and would work
with State Legislators to accomplish this goal. I also would seek to have a
letter of support issued from the entire Los Angeles City Council and the
Mayor’s office.
7.
What is your position on the future of LAX and Santa Monica
Airport?
I
am against LAX expansion but for LAX modernization. Being the second largest
City nationally, we must ensure our airport is fully secure and accommodates the
needs of the residents of the City of Los Angeles. I believe we can do this for
a lot less than the 11 billion dollar plan proposed and can do it for
approximately 3 to 4 billion dollars. I also believe we need to expand the Green
Line into LAX and ensure we allocate mitigation funds for increased traffic and
pollution to surrounding neighborhoods such as Westchester. We also need to
place greater focus on regional airport solutions and looking at the possibility
of expanding Palmdale and other smaller airports to accommodate the needs of our
region.
As
to the Santa Monica Airport, we need to advocate to have the Santa Monica
Airport Agreement revisited and include plans to mitigate the increased air
pollution in the surrounding
neighborhoods.
8.
Do you support rail transit on the westside, such as, extension of the Green
Line and building of the Exposition Line? How would you support bringing cheap,
safe, efficient mass rapid transit to more riders in Venice and other westside
locations?
I
definitely support the extension of rail transit to the Westside, including
extension of the Green Line and the building of the Exposition Line. One of the
solutions to decreasing congestion on our streets is encouraging people to get
out of their cars and to use mass transit. However, as a City, we need to put
the infrastructure and transportation alternatives in place to provide
incentives for people to use public transportation. Hence, I support integrating
and expanding our current rail system to ensure they fully connect with one
another and any new systems are built along major transit corridors. I also
support the expansion of our City’s express bus lanes, the use of express
buses and the expansion of our City’s bike lanes and paths. To fund such
projects, I will work with the MTA to lobby for funds at the State and federal
levels for increased funding of transportation projects.
9.
If residents of Venice submit a petition for reestablishing cityhood, what would
be your
position?
I
could not support such a petition. Venice is an important and unique community
in our City. It would be a great loss to lose a neighborhood which provides so
much pride to our City. It would be my hope to work with the Venice community to
address its many frustrations and to try working together to resolve its
problems.
10. How would you solve homelessness
without punitive action against the
homeless?
The
homelessness situation in our City is at a critical stage. To address this
problem, we first need to identify increased funding to ensure the maintenance
of our City’s emergency shelters and transitional housing programs. We
also need to advocate for more funding for support programs to treat individuals
with mental illness and addiction problems.
11. Do you support or oppose rent
control? Do you support or oppose vacancy
decontrol?
I
support rent control. With rising housing prices in our City, it is very
important that we maintain the rents at a reasonable rate so the people of our
City can continue to live and work here.
12. Do you support or oppose further
expansion of Playa
Vista?
I
was against the approval of Playa Vista Phase II without further study of the
environmental and traffic impacts of Playa Vista Phase I. Although Phase II has
been approved by the current City Council, as a new member of the Council, I
will fight to ensure that Playa Vista delivers on the Community Benefits Package
and will fight to ensure increased funding for the increased traffic and
environmental impacts that will result from the continued development of the
project.
Posted: Tue - February 1, 2005 at 05:39 PM