FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, MONDAY JUNE 29,
2015
FOR QUESTIONS, call or text REX
FRANKEL, president of the plaintiff, Friends of L.A. Clean Connected
Creek to Peak Parks: 310-738-0861, or email at
rexfrankel@yahoo.com
LAWSUIT FILED BY
PARKLAND ADVOCATES: L.A. COUNTY SUPERVISORS APPROVE SECRET $20
BILLION NO-NEW-PARKS TAX HIKE WHICH BREAKS LONG-STANDING PARKLAND
CREATION PROMISES AND WILL INSTEAD TURN EXISTING PARKS INTO
CONSTRUCTION ZONES FOR MANY YEARS TO COME
The Friends of L.A. Clean Connected
Creek to Peak Parks filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn L.A.'s most
powerful politicians' very quiet approval of the master plan to
“soak” the taxpayers and enrich engineering firms and concrete
pourers as part of L.A's largest public works project.
The goals of the project are good;
cleaning up the pollution and crud that flows down our rivers and
creeks with every rain storm which then lands on our public beaches.
This is being done in order to finally comply with the USA's Clean
Water Act. However, the means chosen by our politicians to accomplish
it, so far, “suck”.
Rather than give the public a choice
between the bad/very expensive and the good/less expensive way to
clean up water pollution and health code violations at our local
beaches and creek swimming holes, Los Angeles County's Board of
Supervisors on May 27th decided to endorse the bad
approach and to make it virtually impossible for concerned citizens
to protest this bad choice before their local political boards and
city councils. Already, the L.A. City public works department,
representing 40% of the land area and population of the County, has
plugged its own no new parks plan into the County plan and has done
it in a way to prevent public input and protest.
This lawsuit filed on Friday June 26th
seeks to prevent the squeezing of the public out of the
decision-making for this MASSIVE project, and to require full and
meaningful informing of the public about the costs and impacts and
alternatives to the politicians' favored plans.
What we have termed the “Creek to
Peak” plan is the clean up and conversion of concreted creeks
throughout Los Angeles County into restored park greenways with
trails and bike paths which will connect L.A.'s existing ring of
parks that surround our developed metropolis to our communities. This
greenway plan has had many names through the years, starting first
with the Olmstead Plan,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cityprojectca/sets/72157601130687757/
also the Mountains to the Sea plan and
the Emerald Necklace.
READ THE PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS,
FILED WITH THE L.A. COUNTY COURT 6/27/2015
HOW PROMISES OF MORE PARKLAND PURCHASES
WERE MADE TO THE VOTERS AND TAXPAYERS OF LOS ANGELES AS PART OF THE
CLEAN WATER ACT COMPLIANCE PLAN
WHAT A NATURAL RIVER AND CREEK
RETORATION PLAN WOULD LOOK LIKE AND HOW IT CONNECTS TOGETHER L.A.'S
EXISTING PUBLIC PARKS SYSTEM:
THE TWO COMPETING PLANS TO CLEAN UP
L.A.'S RIVERS, CREEKS AND BEACHES:
L.A. COUNTY ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
STUDY: COST COMPARISON OF NATURAL VS. INDUSTRIAL PLANS TO CLEAN UP
L.A'S WATER POLLUTION PROBLEMS ( hint: natural costs half as
much!!!):
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