PLANNING WATCH / PLAN-IT LOS ANGELES

By Dick Platkin PLATKIN ON PLANNING-According to the State of California’s  latest climate studies , LA’s recent heat waves are not the new normal. Facebook   Twitter   Google+   Share Rather, they are just a small step toward much more dangerous levels of climate change that include sea level rise, crop failures, tree die offs, intense storms, and heat waves, all leading to increased human mortality.  When these real threats are combined with other ones, also of our own making, especially proliferating homelessness and homeless encampments, it is clear that City Hall’s ho-hum, business-as-usual approach is moving in the wrong direction.  Given this combination of dire trends, we should not be surprised that miracle cures are tossed around like free samples at Costco, even when they are patently ridiculous.  The ridiculous panacea.  Shoring up the ridiculous is the claim of the real estate sector, echoed by its advocates in academia, city governm

The Old Distraction Trick: How NOT Deal with LA’s Housing Crisis DICK PLATKIN, CityWatch LA,     31 MAY 2018   PLATKIN ON PLANNING-The City Council’s latest stopgap measure to deal with the most extreme aspect of the housing crisis, rampant homelessness and the emergence of homeless encampments throughout Los Angeles, has set neighbors against each other. Twitter Google+ Shar This new approach requires each Councilmember to identify a parcel in his or her district suitable for emergency temporary housing.  More specifically, the  Mayor has authorized $20 million  to be divided among LA’s 15 Council Districts to fund temporary emergency homeless shelters on city-owned parcels. The Mayor estimates that these actions will create 1500 beds and could house up to 6000 people.  Related City Council actions will also allow the quick conversion of motels, churches, and other non-profit facilities to become makeshift shelters for the homeless.  The pushback against these

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-Finally, some potentially good news. The Los Angeles City Council has taken a long over due baby step to create a new City department, whose mission will be adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.  Considering that our new normal is a mega-drought coupled with ironic warnings or catastrophic California floods, a 12-month wild fire season,  worst case climate forecasts  coming true,  record breaking CO2 levels   – already higher than at any point in humanity’s entire history, and repeated heat waves, this should hardly be news. Yet, unlike other major cities, such as Seattle, San Diego, and Chicago, Los Angeles is amazing lackadaisical about climate change. In fact, LA’s City Hall has even moved in the opposite direction, helping to exempt real estate speculators from CEQA reviews, while City Planning endlessly dawdles in preparing a Climate Change element for its creaky General Plan.  At best, the city’s General Plan may eventually consider climate c

By DICK PLATKIN, CityWatchLA ,   29 MARCH 2018 http://www.citywatchla.com/index.php/los-angeles/15164-la-s-politicians-and-academics-shills-for-real-estate-speculators PLATKIN ON PLANNING -The urban growth machine, including its enablers in public office and academia, dish out endless cover stories to camouflage their hidden agenda of priming the pumps of real estate speculation. When one of their self-serving theories bites the dust, they quickly advance another one, knowing they can depend on the corporate media and “business-friendly” policy experts to quickly pick up the beat.  Greenwashing : The best know version of this ploy is  greenwashing , such as Exxon’s and Chevron’s public service announcements trumpeting their restoration of ponds, shorelines, and meadows.   Meanwhile, these and similar energy companies continue to extract fossil fuels, often  with immediate pollution , followed by the huge generation of the Green House Gases responsible for climate c