As the Financial Crisis Deepens, Los Angeles Throws its General Plan Overboard
AS THE FINANCIAL CRISIS DEEPENS, LOS ANGELES THROWS ITS GENERAL PLAN OVERBOARD Toward a Just Metropolis: From Crises to Opportunities Annual conference of the Planners Network Berkeley, California, Saturday, June 19, 2010 By Richard Platkin Tierra Concepts, Inc. 6400 W. 5th Street, L.A., CA 90048 rhplatkin@yahoo.com, 213-308-6354 Questions, comments, and corrections welcomed. The Los Angeles Times (March 1 and March 14, 2010), Southern California’s rapidly shrinking, former newspaper of record, repeatedly complains that Los Angeles’s elected officials, primarily Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the 15 members of the Los Angeles City Council, do not have a plan to guide them in their massive, highly selective cutbacks in municipal services, layoffs of public employees, and increases in the fees they charge the public for city services. It is too bad that the editorial staff of the LA Times has not bothered to read its own newspaper. If they had, they would know that LA’s elected offici