[ACT] Altadena Lincoln Crossing 6 pm news tonight!

[SSL]

Michele-

This project has become both a tragedy and a comedy. It has been managed by Dorn Platz,their local altar boys, the County CDC, to divide rather than unite the community, to destroy rather than build up the local minority business community, and to crumble hope rather than to build it.

Tha Altadena Town Council has been as a group, except for your personal recent efforts dedicated to the failure mode of this project. The ATC has made clear that whatever it may stand for, the betterment of this community is not it.

When Eric Lloyd Wright designed this project it was far ahead of the curve Architecturally and socially. We as a community could have been on the front edge. Instead we have a frankenstien project that is crumbling before it is finished and yet has huge captive costs to it that make it non viable for any owner or local business leasee.

While there is a lot of spilled milk here, the question is where do we go from here?

First we should give credit and dishonor where it is due. the people who have attempted to silence those who have been riught all along somehow are still deemed "credible" while those who have seen clearly are "cranks". If the community is to get anything positive out of this mess going forward, that relationship needs to flip.

Secondly, but most importantly, we need to get rid of all the developers. the County and community need to do what we should have done with erics plans in teh first place, created our own development corporation and hired a contractor to build it. Hvae the community own it, as the CDC does with Marina Del Rey, and lease it at reasonable rates to local businesses. We need a really excellent Architect to figure out how to make the eyesore we have work with something better in the next phases. I'd suggest Eric himself again, Bart Prince, Thom Mayne, and the team I forget their names who just did Monrovias new library, all excellent and original thinkers who can make something even of this mess. 

If this is going to remain a opprotunity for looting, it should just be shut down as a project because it is doing the community no good.

How tragic that almost every place in California can put together a better redevelopment than Altadena. We had so much in our favor, but for the irrepressable ego lust of four or five people in town, the greed of a developer and the indifference of the CDC, this could have been not just an architectural model for the country, but a social, psychological and even spiritual one. It also could have been a model that said it is possible to better a community from within rather than by the brutal process of gentrification. We failed so far, and did so miserably.

Is there a way forward?

SSL

 



--- On Mon, 6/1/09, Michele Zack <michelez at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

From: Michele Zack <michelez at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Altadena Lincoln Crossing 6 pm news tonight!
To: "Gino Sund" <esund at charter.net>, "sandra thomas" <sanethomas at mycingular.blackberry.net>, "George lewis" <V668510 at yahoo.com>, "Justin Chapman" <aaronsindahouse at hotmail.com>, "Walter O." <johnotrin at earthlink.net>, "Dennis Bridwell" <dbridwell95 at yahoo.com>, "Steve Lamb" <steve_lamb57 at sbcglobal.net>, "ken balder" <kbalder at coldwellbanker.com>, "SSL Lamb" <steve_lamb57 at sbcglobal.net>, "billy nwoye" <billy.nowye at altadnenatowncouncil.ore>, "Susan Goldman" <susan.goldman at altadenatowncouncil.org>, alice.wessen at altadenatowncouncil.org, tecumseh.schackelford at altadenatowncouncil.org, ruth at ruthneilanedwards.com, "Allan Wasserman" <allanwasserman at yahoo.com>, "Kenneth Johnson" <KJohnson at ci.burbank.ca.us>, "bobby thompson" <bjrsosinc at charter.net>, "Gene Campbell" <gene.campbell at altadenatowncouncil.org>, "Keith Gibbs" <keith.gibbs at altadenatowncouncil.org>, "Tim Kelly" <takelly at sbcglobal.net>, "Sarah Fuller" <sandyland243 at yahoo.com>, "Lorie Judson" <ljudson397 at aol.com>
Cc: "Gaurav Malhotra" <GMalhotra at LHMP.com>, "cynthia tilleman" <ctilleman at coldwellbanker.com>, HighviewNeighborWatch at yahoogroups.com, "Monica Hubbard" <mhubbard at caltech.edu>, altadenaheritage at yahoogroups.com, "ACT" <ACT at fourpalms.org>, "Lori Paul" <gaboon at sbcglobal.net>, "Altadena Womens Network" <altadenawomensnetwork at gmail.com>, "Patrick Reagan" <patricksavesworld at altadenawantsacoop.com>, "Steve Bass" <stevebass at earthlink.net>, "Altadena Chamber of Commerce" <altadenachamber at yahoo.com>, "Ray Carlisle" <raycarlisle1 at cs.com>, "Randall Jones" <mrkeyzz at sbcglobal.net>
Date: Monday, June 1, 2009, 1:56 PM

I know this is not the favorite issue of many, but I just confirmed with Crown City News (channel 56 in Pasadena, I think it is 5 if you have Charter in Altadena) that they will run a 25-minute special report tonight at 6 pm on Altadena Lincoln Crossing. This represents the FIRST attempt ever at in depth coverage to this local issue of great import. I don't know what the reporter/producer Ann Lee will come up with, I do know she has been spending more than a couple weeks interviewing and digging, and that she seemed very professional and capable when she interviewed me. (she used to cover Chicago politics, so I guess she can handle Altadena)
She also had the good timing to bring her camera to the last PAC meeting, which was the first in which some very interesting stuff came was said in public. Ray Carlilse announced his wish to divorce from Dorn Platz, and was pretty candid about why. The letter you saw/posted covered much of this, but to have someone say it out loud in a public meeting, believe me — it was historic after so much waffling, misinformation, and stonewalling about the causes of delay.
Please pass this info to any of your networks. The more people know what's going on, the more intelligent questions they will ask.. . And the sooner we can break this log jam and more forward again.
Michele
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