Mad as Hell: Los Angeles City Government Could Move Investments out of Large Banks

Chase, Other Bigs Fear Losing City's Multi-billion-dollar Portfolio

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcón recently ordered the city's legislative analyst to create a points system for grading the social responsibility of financial institutions that want to handle the city’s investment portfolio.


But Councilman Alarcón didn't stop there. He also said the city should, as Arianna Huffington has said both on her online newspaper, "The Huffington Post" and on network television, "Move Your Money." The "Your" in this case means the taxpayers of the City of Angels. The move would, presumably, be from big banks such as BofA and Chase to smaller community banks and perhaps even credit unions.
Alarcón proposed that the city create a “report card” to evaluate the number of small business loans provided, evidence of working with homeowners facing foreclosure, the number and location of branches and ATMs and the use of federal TARP funds.


“During these times of the financial meltdown and the federal bailout of big banks, it is more important than ever that we ensure that our money is being invested in institutions that are investing back in our community—not those that are taking advantage of our residents and ripping off their clients,” said Alarcón, whose district is in the northern part of the San Fernando Valley.


“Creating investment criteria will help us ensure the city is investing taxpayer money responsibly and making the most out of our multi-billion dollar portfolio.”
After a hearing on the city’s investment practices, Alarcón, who is chairman of the Jobs and Business Development Committee, led a contingent of union members, staff, members of the public, and media to the downtown offices of Chase Bank. Inside the bank’s lobby, the group delivered a letter demanding the bank act more responsively to the needs of the community.

Pictured above: L.A. City Councilman Richard Alarcón (second from left) and an unnamed woman ask a bank employee at Chase Bank near City Hall to help get a letter of demands to Chase's Wall Street headquarters.

Below: A draft of the councilman's proposed report card for banks who want to handle L.A.'s investments:

Yay! Everyone's Favorite ROLA Topic: Parking in WeHo!

Typical? An electrical sign flashes a warning about construction, while taking up a precious parking stall in West Hollywood one recent weekend. At the same time, there was ample space near a driveway a few feet away that was neither parking, nor firelane. Wah-wah.

Republic of L.A. has waited two weeks for the City of West Hollywood to respond to our questions about the elimination of a few dozen parking spaces in an alley off of Melrose Avenue, and more than 100 others inside of West Hollywood park for construction and "safety reasons," and their replacement with $10 valet-only spots. The old spots were free between 6-10 p.m. Well, it turns out that Jake Stevens has gone to Washington for a new job. We wish him well.

Stevens was deputy for Councilmember Jeffrey Prang. He had been getting answers about the parking problems at West Hollywood park--an area that served as the only parking solution for many restaurant, bar, coffee house and 12-step meeting goers in the heart of the nation's most creative city--for Republic of L.A. since the issue first arised. His replacement, Mike Haibach is now looking into the issue. But, instead of making you wait any longer for the information Republic of L.A. has been promising to bring you, we've decided to keep you in the loop as we investigate. That said; here is the text of an email we sent to Haibach today. We'll let you know what the response is as soon as it comes:

Hi Mike,

It was nice speaking to you this afternoon. BTW, do you have contact information for Jake Stevens? I'd like to congratulate him on his new job.

Below are emails between Jake and I. As you can see, Jake addressed the concerns about lost parking and the dubious manner in which the changes had been executed, even offering to review the citations that may have been erroneously issued during the transition. However, he did not mention--and regrettably, I did not ask about costs--that the free (between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.) spaces had been replaced by $10 valet-only spots.

That's a big deal. I have interviewed people for an upcoming piece who have given up on going to their A.A., Crystal Meth Anonymous and other 12-step meetings because they were so frustrated by the lack of parking that has resulted from the recent changes. Of course the truly dedicated recovering alcoholics and addicts are going to get to some meeting, somewhere, some how. But, it's probably the ones for whom just being able find or not find parking may be the difference between relapsing and not relapsing.

Additionally, I have spoken to one business owner who said business dropped by about 10 percent as soon as as the new parking regime was initiated; and it's stayed down. I have spoken to patrons of restaurants, coffee houses and bars who are also upset by the elimination of spaces they had relied upon for years. Here is a quote:


"I know ten bucks is nothing for people coming over from next door in Beverly HIlls, but there are a lot of people who live right here in WeHo, who are out of work like my boyfriend, and maybe me next week. We live east of Fairfax, and so we drive to go out for dinner at our Bossa Nova on Friday nights. It's where we met five years ago. I can't take him out for dinner and drinks and then pay ten dollars for parking. I just can't afford it."

Tim Cahill, patron at Bossa Nova on Robertson Friday, July 3 2009.



Mike, I would like to know what the city council's response is to this situation. If it's simply been an oversight and work will be done to find a solution, I'd like a timeline of how the issue will be addressed. Or, if it's going to be more complicated than than, I'd like to interview your boss. I've interviewed Jeff before, and I know the councilmember's heart is always in the right place, so I'm eager to receive a response.

Best,

Thom

Ambigous Parking Signage in WeHo Looks Like a Ticket Trap

There is an alley just north of Melrose Avenue between San Vicente Drive and Robertson Drive in West Hollywood. The alley is located behind several design showrooms and West Hollywood Park. What makes this alley special and beloved by locals (no, not that alley), is that it boasts a line of that most invaluable of Southern California's urban commodities--parking spaces.
Saturday, June 6, some friends and I drove to WeHo for an event near Robertson and Melrose. I found a single parking spot open in the Melrose-adjacent alley and parked.
But one of my passengers noticed something new. The curb had recently been painted red. There was no indication other than the brand-new, red-painted curb that anything else had changed in the alley.
Admittedly, a red curb might be enough to signal parking was no longer allowed. However, the were still dozens of signs--both signs mounted on tall poles over the alley, and smaller signs mounted on poles where there had once been meters--that indicated a four-hour time limit for parking.
Further complicating the matter was the fact that there were temporary plastic signs, many of which had fallen to the ground, that read "temporary: no parking 6/5/09." This was the 6th. The signs said "temporary no parking" for the previous day.
In addition, there were about three dozen or more cars parked in the alley without tickets.
Keep in mind, this is an area dense with restaurants, bars, a civic auditorium, a busy urban park, several community meeting facilities, and the largest design center west of the Mississippi. Needless to say, finding parking can be a nightmare.
Nevertheless, I left the parking spot and found another--four blocks south on Robertson in Beverly Hills, another city altogether--because I really don't like getting parking tickets. (I know, who does?)
It would have been a $70 ticket. I know because we saw one unfortunate driver's SUV sporting a "parking in a red zone" citation on his or her window.
Safely parked, I wanted to know if the situation was an oversight, and if informed, would the authorities do something to remedy the confusion.
I went to the Sheriff's station across the street and got a very snippy, sarcastic non-answer from a volunteer at the counter. Begrudgingly, I was given the after-hours phone number to West Hollywood Parking Enforcement. The shift supervisor on duty when I called at 6:55 p.m. listened to my description of the situation, which I delivered in much the same way via phone as I have here.
I asked if he planned to enforce the red zone on all of the drivers who had obviously been confused by the ambiguous signage, or wait to start ticketing after the incorrect signs were removed.
He said (and this is a quote): "If they're in a red zone, they will be cited."
But, I insisted, obviously there was confusion, and to penalize people who, during the Great Recession, were dining out and contributing to the local economy in other ways, and had parked in a place known to be legal for years, smacked of revenue-motivated entrapment.
I then informed him that I was no longer speaking as a concerned citizen, but now as a journalist. I asked the parking-encorcement shift supervisor if I could have his name, and if it was Parking Enforcement's intention to disregard the information I had provided about the confusing, new no-parking policy at Melrose Alley (click the play arrow at the bottom of the video image above to see what I mean about confusing signs and the red curb), and ticket everyone parked there anyway.
His answer: "I'm the shift supervisor; that's all you need to know. I'm not authorized to talk to the media." With that Mr. Supervisor hung up the phone. I called back, but my call went directly to voicemail. I left a message, but have yet to get a call back.
By my arithmetic, there were about $2500-$3000 in potential parking citations at the time I decided to move my car. If citations were being issued all night and day--all weekend in fact--the City of West Hollywood may have raked in many thousands of dollars--perhaps more than $10,000--courtesy of Parking Enforcement and their dubious citation policies.