Heritage of Pain
The drama went as scripted. Danny Bakewell, Sr., kept his cool and didn't go on the hyper offensive again. Steve Madison mostly avoided speaking. The Bakewell Co. took the prize. Enormous political pressure was exerted. City staff looked bad; did a poor job explaining what happened.
Noon to 2 a.m. was enough for me -- and I still have to review the 90 minutes missed when I drove back to Lake Avenue to write the story, which I hope to have an addendum to posted online by noon(ish.)
In short: Union Station worked the political abacus and backed out, leaving the council with one developer with which to move forward.
An important aspect of due diligence may have been overlooked in this process. Did anyone do a comparison on past project to look at which developers had done the best job of sustaining affordability within their projects? It's not just about building the project; it's also important to consider ongoing management, maintenance, and amenities that are supportive of low income persons. Based on my experience in other community, Southern California Community Housing (one of the rejected developers) has such a track record
Todd,
I didn't watch the meeting and didn't know the outcome until I looked here for your update.
Marvin Gross tried to work the politics, too, and it got ugly for everyone, including the mayor who was "outed" in your story yesterday as apparently trying to get staff to rework their recommendation behind closed doors.
The thing to remember is that it's only an agreement to negotiate with Bakewell. The City Council and staff should have set firm parameters regarding the contribution being solely the land, required the developer to post a bond for completion, required a definite start date and a definite completion date, with benchmarks in between to measure progress. A design and construction standard should also be part of any deal coming to the Council from any developer on a project of this size.
Either the developer will go along and agree or not. If not, then the next proposer should be approached with the same requirements...
Dude, you don't return phone calls anymore? WTF? :D
I called you back yesterday afternoon and left a message on your work phone.
It gets curiouser and curiouser.
Looks like the talker guy is lobbying you Todd!
My bad. That will teach me to check my voicemail.
The curbed folks dug the lede. Quite a bit of commentary over there.
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2007/05/questions_about.php