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    News

    Potentially Powerful Political Pairing:

  • LB ECO-Link Joins With Activists To Seek Redevelopment Moratorium From LB Assemblyman Alan Lowenthal


    (October 12, 2003) -- In a new and potentially powerful political pairing, ECO-Link, a coalition of LB area environmental groups, has joined with several prominent LB activists to seek a moratorium on redevelopment from LB Assemblyman Alan Lowenthal.

    Assemblyman Lowenthal, who was LB's 2d district Councilman prior to winning election to the Assembly in late 1998, has chaired the Assembly's powerful Housing and Community Development Committee that oversees Redevelopment law since going to Sacramento.

    In an Oct. 9 letter to Lowenthal, ECO-link chair Diana Mann wrote in pertinent part:

    Redevelopment in Long Beach has contributed to the wholesale destruction of our shore and given local government an incentive to facilitate Port growth so that property tax increment can be spent outside the Tidelands. We fear the same thing could happen at our airport. Redevelopment's threats of eminent domain and upzoning have a chilling effect on private home and business owners, and those who can escape those threats only create more suburban sprawl...

    The Long Beach City Council will soon be voting on a proposal to enlarge and merge its project areas. The result can only be that grassroots participation will be limited while borrowing capacity will be increased...

    As long as Redevelopment Agencies can bail out project areas by merging and expanding, we see no incentive for local governments to ever get it right. As Chair of the Assembly's Housing and Community Development Committee responsible for Redevelopment law, we want you and our City Council to know that we oppose proposals for Long Beach Redevelopment merger, expansion and additional borrowing. We look to you to enact a moratorium on new project mergers and adoption so that local government will at last make existing Redevelopment areas help the public instead of hurt us.

    The action comes as a result of an October 9 ECO-link meeting, held at Borders Books in ELB, that examined how an expansion and merger of LB Redevelopment Project Areas (favored by City Hall staff) might negatively impact neighborhoods and the environment. The meeting was attended by several members of grassroots LB Redevelopment Project Area Committees.ECO-Link meeting, Oct. 9/03
    Photo courtesy Traci Wilson-Kleekamp

    "This may be the most important issue facing the future of our city," ECO-link chair Diana Mann said.

    LB columnist Bry Myown addressed the meeting and tells LBReport.com the letter to Assemblyman Lowenthal was read aloud and circulated...and those in attendance agreed without objection to have Ms. Mann sign the letter on their behalf. We post the full text of the letter below.

    Assemblyman Lowenthal has previously received strong environmental support. By 2004, he will be term limited after six years in the Assembly and is expected to seek the LB area state Senate seat now held by Betty Karnette. Karnette is expected to seek Lowenthal's Assembly seat. Both are Democrats.

    The ECO-Link meeting heard Lewis Lester, organizer of Citizens Against Redevelopment Merger and Expansion, explain that under state Redevelopment law cities may freeze the tax base in blighted neighborhoods and use any subsequent rise in property tax revenue to fund new development.

    This is supposed to rehabilitate low-income neighborhoods, Mr. Lester said, but charged that Long Beach has instead funded private projects far from blighted areas...and cited the ELB Los Altos mall as an example...paid for by West Side Project Area money.

    A number of members of grassroots Redevelopment Project Area Committees also attended the meeting.

    "The Long Beach Redevelopment Agency has a plan that will affect every property owner in Long Beach," Mr. Lester charged, adding that legal definitions of "blight" are so vague "all it takes is a little graffiti or deferred maintenance."

    "The expansion plan will include parts of the city that are not typically considered 'blighted,'" he predicts, "and once you're in a Redevelopment area, they can take your property against your will through eminent domain."

    "The city's new definition of 'blight' is really 'stability,' added Don May, president of CA Earth Corps and Chair of the Los Cerritos Wetland Trust. "Stable neighborhoods of voting taxpayers who expect services are an obstacle to politicians and developers," he said. "Once the city starts withholding services -- letting streets go unfixed, not hiring enough police or increasing airplane flights -- people move away," May continued. "The city saves money by not serving residents and borrows more against their property. Neighborhoods are 'blighted' overnight, and pretty soon they can build a mega-retail project or high-density housing that they think will increase their tax base."

    "They want to sell us on this complicated scheme by saying it will improve neighborhoods," said Ms. Myown, who lives in the transitional area Redevelopment could soon cross, "but they've refused every simple thing that would have improved us without costing a cent. They wouldn't make stronger historic laws, create Mills Act districts or use Federal funds earmarked for first-time homeowners when we were at the bottom of the market. Now that we've done what Redevelopment is supposed to do -- bring in private investment, employ local labor and rehabilitate housing stock -- they want us to hang a 'For Sale' sign that says "BLIGHTED" in our front yards.

    If the city puts new areas stretching to Redondo Ave. into Redevelopment, Ms. Myown forecast that "blight will break through the firewall and race across Stearns to the eastside. They'll be back in a year or two with an even bigger expansion plan."

    All three speakers said the issues surrounding Redevelopment merger and expansion are of particular concern for social and environmental activists. Mr. Lester and Ms. Myown said Redevelopment has taken more than half the city but left half the population in poverty. May charged that deliberate destruction of public beach was the original model for Long Beach Redevelopment and expressed outrage that the city is targeting wetlands for its expansion plan.

    ECO-Link members agreed to lobby City Council and send the letter seeking a redevelopment moratorium to Lowenthal, copied to the Mayor and members of the LB City Council.

    "As long as Redevelopment Agencies can bail out project areas by merging and expanding," the letter says. "we see no incentive for local governments to ever get it right."

    [Letter text follows]

    Eco-Link
    An Environmental Information Coalition
    P. O. Box 30165
    Long Beach, CA 90853

    October 9, 2003

    The Hon. Alan Lowenthal, Member, 54th A.D.
    Long Beach Office
    115 Pine Avenue, Suite 430
    Long Beach CA 90802

    Dear Alan:

    We are writing to express our concern about proposals to merge, expand and keep borrowing for Long Beach Redevelopment project areas.

    As you know, more than half of Long Beach is already in Redevelopment, yet instead of realizing an improvement, official documents describe the ever-widening spread of blight and census data show poverty is rapidly worsening. We think it's time to recognize that Redevelopment isn't working for us and look for new alternatives.

    Redevelopment in Long Beach has contributed to the wholesale destruction of our shore and given local government an incentive to facilitate Port growth so that property tax increment can be spent outside the Tidelands, We fear the same thing could happen at our airport. Redevelopment's threats of eminent domain and upzoning have a chilling effect on private home and business owners, and those who can escape those threats only create more suburban sprawl. At a time when government faces larger-than-ever deficits, it makes no sense for California to divert billions, and Long Beach millions, of property tax revenue. It's even crazier that Redevelopment often subsidizes out-of-state concerns that put our mom-and-pops out of business and remove capital from the local economy. When our schools and hospitals are strapped for funds, we can't afford to subsidize employers that typically pay such low wages that the public has to pay for their employees' food stamps and healthcare.

    When will it stop? Apparently, never. The Long Beach City Council will soon be voting on a proposal to enlarge and merge its project areas. The result can only be that grassroots participation will be limited while borrowing capacity will be increased.

    In 1999, UCLA's "Banking on Blight" described some of the failures of Long Beach's Redevelopment practices. Since then, State Controller Kathleen Connell's State Municipal Advisory Team, the Wilson/Hertzberg and Speaker Villaraigosa's Commissions on State and Local Government and the Public Policy Institute have all recommended sweeping Redevelopment Reforms.

    As long as Redevelopment Agencies can bail out project areas by merging and expanding, we see no incentive for local governments to ever get it right. As Chair of the Assembly's Housing and Community Development Committee responsible for Redevelopment law, we want you and our City Council to know that we oppose proposals for Long Beach Redevelopment merger, expansion and additional borrowing. We look to you to enact a moratorium on new project mergers and adoption so that local government will at last make existing Redevelopment areas help the public instead of hurt us.

    Sincerely,

    Diana Mann
    Chair

    cc: The Hon. Beverly O'Neill
    Members of the City Council


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