[ACT] Altadena Lincoln Crossing 6 pm news tonight!

Tue Jun 2 10:56:41 PDT 2009

Bill Johnson apparently doesn't know much about economics and revenue
streams based on his comments about Mr. Thomson's and Ms. Kuhn's businesses.
It is kind of hard to have a revenue stream when there isn't adequate access
to their businesses - let alone the sewage issue keeping people away.  There
was also the business of lost revenue because the facility wasn't ready for
opening on the date contracted for.  It is not clear to me what useful
utility Mr. Johnson provides the taxpayer.  Although Broadous' comments were
wrong about the fine print in the contracts with the developer and such,
those comments do inadvertently show the culpability of the county for not
providing the mentorship and acumen that was to be afforded to the minority
owned small businesses.  As far as the DDA is concerned, it should have been
hung in a bathroom stall at the CDC for personal hygiene purposes because it
apparently had no other useful purpose.  My favorite part was the Surety
bond requirement which was blatantly ignored.  In any case, Mr. Johnson
could not provide me with evidence of it when I inquired.  If an insurance
company won't bond the developer I would think that would serve as a red
flag that maybe there is trouble there.  The CDC is either monumentally
inept or in collusion with the rest of the pachyderm excrement that visited
themselves upon our community.  After such a stunning history of
difficulties in the developer business it is to me one of the great
mysteries of the universe as to what wisdom (or lack of) led the CDC to
allow Dorn-Platz to do the development.

I would like to suggest that anyone contemplating civil action in this
county ask for a change of venue because there is no access here to fair and
honest services in the courts.  This should be addressed from the get go
since the judges are receiving bonuses from the county and the record shows
that the county and friends of the county generally win litigation brought
against them.

Does Broadous actually live day-to-day at the house in Altadena that she
claims to live in?  I asked for an Audit of her Form 700 but the county
didn't (wouldn't?) do it - or at least didn't get back to me on it.  I
wonder if it is the same address that she put in the law enforcement report
regarding the physical application of her frustration on another member of
the PAC.  It looks like the DA let her go for $300.00.

Isn't Shackleford special?  

Brian

  _____  

From: SSL [mailto:steve_lamb57 at sbcglobal.net] 
Sent: Monday, June 01, 2009 8:53 PM
To: Gino Sund; sandra thomas; George lewis; Justin Chapman; Walter O.;
Dennis Bridwell; ken balder; billy nwoye; Susan Goldman;
alice.wessen at altadenatowncouncil.org;
tecumseh.schackelford at altadenatowncouncil.org; ruth at ruthneilanedwards.com;
Allan Wasserman; Kenneth Johnson; bobby thompson; Gene Campbell; Keith
Gibbs; Tim Kelly; Sarah Fuller; Lorie Judson; Michele Zack
Cc: Gaurav Malhotra; cynthia tilleman;
HighviewNeighborWatch at yahoogroups.com; Monica Hubbard;
altadenaheritage at yahoogroups.com; ACT; Lori Paul; Altadena Womens Network;
Patrick Reagan; Steve Bass; Altadena Chamber of Commerce; Ray Carlisle;
Randall Jones; helga bessiestaco; Greg McPhee; Brian Franklin; DFA; joe
brown; Joe hopkins
Subject: Re: Altadena Lincoln Crossing 6 pm news tonight!

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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