STAKEHOLDER TOOLKIT

Meeting:        Mar Vista Community Council Board Meeting

Date:                Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Time:                6:30PM

Zoom Link:        https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84666609891

Agenda:        https://www.marvista.org/assets/documents/2/meeting63cdc68282ced.pdf

Call to Action:

  1. Show up to oppose Traci Park, whose anti-Black, anti-tenant, anti-safety and anti-poor rhetoric and track record are harmful to Mar Vista stakeholders, CD11 residents, and all Angelenos.
  2. Provide public comment on agenda items below.

Agenda Items & Timing

  • Item 3 / Community memorials
  • Item 4.1 / ~6:45pm: Traci Park presenting before public comment
  • Item 5 / ~7:00pm: Public comment for items not on the agenda
  • Item 11.2 / Demolition of Grand View art studios, replacement with public storage
  • Item 11.3 / Criminalizing poverty at Venice and Globe
  • Item 11.4 / Anti-free speech civility pledge
  • Item 11.6 / Attempt to kill Venice Blvd Mobility Project
  • Item 11.8 / Continue virtual meetings

(1) SHOW UP TO OPPOSE TRACI PARK

  • Traci Park is anti-Black
  • Traci defended the use of the n-word by a white city manager against his Black employee, stating that it did not constitute harassment or discrimination
  • Traci ran for office on a pro-cop, anti-BLM and anti-Black platform
  • Traci was one of the last elected officials to release a statement about LAPD’s killing of Keenan Anderson (a 31-year old Black school teacher). And rather than condemning Keenan’s murder, she blamed the victim, citing his mental illness.
  • Traci supports the racist and offensive thin blue line flag, which was featured prominently at her campaign events. Does she support Chief Moore’s decision to ban the public display of the flag by LAPD?
  • Traci called the police when members of BLM-LA tried to speak with her about LAPD’s murder of Keenan Anderson at City Hall
  • Traci Park is anti-public safety
  • Traci ran on a pro-cop and pro-criminalization agenda that makes us all less safe.
  • Traci is in the pocket of LAPPL and answers to them, not the people. She received $458,000 from the Police Foundation (LAPPL), a group of wealthy, majority white individuals who work with LAPD to secure funding quickly. LAPPL is headed by  fascist and neo-Nazi Jamie McBride.
  • Traci was appointed to the “Public Safety” Committee along with three other recipients of LAPPL funding (Rodriguez, Lee, McCosker). LAPPL spent a total of $965,000 to elect this pro-cop majority on the Committee.
  • Yesterday, Traci joined the pro-cop majority to rubber-stamp LAPPL’s donation of a $277K “quadruped unmanned ground vehicle”or Robot Surveillance Dog for Metro’s SWAT. Click here for the robot dog toolkit from Stop LAPD Spying and click here for an article on this topic.
  • Traci Park is anti-tenant
  • Traci is deep in the pocket of the corporate landlord lobby that wants to block affordable housing, reduce building safety regulations, gentrify our neighborhoods and strip away tenants’ rights.
  • During the 2022 election, Park accepted more than $1,000,000 from the corporate landlord lobby and powerful real estate interests, including Douglas Emmett, Kilroy Realty and the California Apartment Association.    
  • As highlighted in multiple news reports (here and here and here), Park received more than $300,000 from Douglas Emmett, a real estate investment trust that fought to avoid basic building and fire safety codes. Two fires have broken out at a Douglas Emmett apartment complex where the company refused to install sprinklers, killing a 19-year-old man and injuring 13 people, including a 3-month-old baby. Eight floors in the building remain vacant.
  • Another $400,000 donation from Kilroy Realty, one of the leading funders of the recall against Democrat (and democratically-elected) Governor Gavin Newsom.
  • The California Apartment Association donated $265,000. According to a special investigation from the Housing is a Human Right Campaign, the CAA has spent millions in lobbying against renter protections (here).
  • Traci voted against a motion to tie the end of the eviction moratorium to the passage of tenant protections. She was then reluctant to pass tenant protections, saying the process was too rushed. The only reason council had to rush to pass tenant protections was because of votes like hers ending the moratorium.
  • Traci Park is anti-poor
  • Traci opposes the only strategy proven to solve homelessness: providing permanent housing. The actual cost of homelessness in Los Angeles exceeds $21 billion, but Traci says permanent housing is too costly.
  • Traci Park opposes shelter and transitional housing. She got her start in politics by blocking shelter for people experiencing homelessness in Venice. City officials planned to convert the Ramada Inn by her $2 million house to transitional housing with services provided by People Assisting the Homeless (“PATH”) as part of the City’s Project Roomkey program. She spearheaded a failed effort to block the conversion.
  • Traci vehemently opposes the “A Bridge Home” in Venice, which provides shelter to unhoused adults and transitional-age youth.
  • At a Mar Vista Community Council forum during the 2022 election, Traci could not name a single housing project she supported for people experiencing homelessness.
  • Traci embraced right-wing plans to warehouse unhoused neighbors in tent cities outside of Venice (Caruso’s plan).
  • In her first week in office, Traci introduced a motion challenging one of the only 100% affordable housing projects on the Westside, located at the Disability Community Resource Center in Mar Vista.
  • In her first weeks in office, Traci introduced a motion to criminalize poverty in 9 zones in CD11 under LAMC 41.18–a law that is not only cruel, but also ineffective and a waste of taxpayer money. The zones include the Venice boardwalk and beach.

(2) SPEAK ON AGENDA ITEMS

  • Item 11.2 / SUPPORT Motion opposing demolition of Grand View art studios, replacement with public storage
  • Item 11.3 / OPPOSE Motion to request 41.18 enforcement at Venice & Globe
  • Item 11.5 / Revised code of conduct and new “civility pledge”
  • The civility pledge is intended to censor speech that certain Board members don’t agree with because of its political content and to silence and constrain Board members’ behavior and freedom of speech outside the MVCC context, which is prohibited.
  • The civility pledge is inherently vague and subject to abuse.
  • Those in favor of the new civility pledge (including one of its authors) have a history of abuse toward other directors, stakeholders, elected officials and members of the public (with no repercussions):
  • During a board meeting during the 2019-2021 term, a sitting Board member (Martin Rubin, who is proposing the civility pledge) physically assaulted a Black LGBTQIA Board member.
  • During a committee meeting, Board member (former Chair Kathryn Wheeler) prevented a committee member from using her phone, preventing her from accessing her insulin pump app.
  • During multiple meetings, Board member (former Chair Kathryn Wheeler) bullied and excluded a fellow Board member.
  • During multiple meetings, Board member (Andrew Marton) censors stakeholders and responds directly to stakeholders to criticize and refute their statements (not permitted)
  • During a committee meeting, Board member (former Chair Kathryn Wheeler) harassed a committee member and then blocked her from getting up from her chair to leave the meeting.
  • Following a Board meeting, a former Board member followed a fellow Board member home at night to find out where she lived.
  • During multiple Board meetings, multiple Board members deadnamed a fellow Board member over and over again despite warnings and reminders, and forced said Board member to include their deadname on the MVCC website.
  • MVCC directors have a long history of abusive language and behavior toward former CM Mike Bonin and other elected officials
  • Item 11.6 / OPPOSE Attempt to kill Venice Blvd Mobility Project
  • Makes support for project contingent on LADOT performance of endless modeling studies
  • Item 11.8 / SUPPORT Continue virtual meetings