Bits and Pieces 41

Ms. Jeanne LaCombe of the Rolling Hills Riviera HOA has been asking when the Environmental Impact Report for the Ponte Vista at San Pedro development will be published.

While I believe she was given one of those; "In ten days" stock answers, I do think it will be coming out soon and I have begun a daily watch on the City of L. A.'s Planning Department Web site, for the publication of the new EIR.

One of the links in the 'Environmental' portion of the sidebar lists "Draft EIR". I suspect that when the EIR is published, it will appear under that bullet, of the link.

It now has been about 6 years since the Western Avenue Task Force published their work which included many studies, findings, observations, and suggestions.

It is a fair representation the Task Force made when the calculations for the number of daily vehicle trips along Western Avenue, somewhere between Palos Verdes Drive North and 25th Street was established to be approximately 37,500 trips per weekday.

It is also a fair calculation that was offered that, without considerations of traffic from any new housing project at the Ponte Vista site or more students living at Marymount College's Palos Verdes North housing facility, the normal and expected increase in vehicle counts by approximately 1% per year, is a relevant number to consider.

Here is some vehicle counts approximated to be found between 2010 and 2015, along some portions of Western Avenue:

2010-39,414

2011-39,808

2012-40,206

2013-40,608

2014-41,014

2015-41,424

Please remember that those possible daily trip generation numbers do not include the expanded population at Marymount's Palos Verdes North facility nor do they include any new daily trips generated from whatever is built at Ponte Vista.

The Western Avenue Task Force's job was completed before both the first E.I.R. for Ponte Vista was studied and before the E.I.R. for The Marymount College Facilities Expansion Project (including calculations for on-campus housing) was completed.

All of this information is nothing any of you who regularly drive along Western Avenue during the morning 'rush' hours or the all-afternoon drive times really need to know, because you already knew more about the congestion that you would like to know.

Is it going to take a 'Freedom of Information Act' order to have transparency in our city's functioning and public information records?

If I had won the Lottery, I think I know who I would hire to represent me in any and all actions to garner the public transparency that has not been shown by Staff members and Management leaders on the Staff/City Manager.

I have no interest in learning the names of who makes what as far as pay and benefits go. All that must be redacted, anyway.

But I strongly feel that the residents of our city have the right to learn about what our taxes and fees are going for, all in the open and not kept secret.

The City Manager is not the boss of me and as a tax payer who pays the property taxes, fees and other costs related to the house I live in, I have a right to know how public funds are spent and managed.

I love the idea that a worker for our city decides that working instead of taking a vacation will allow that person to perhaps buy a new car or major appliance. I don't care to know what type of car or what appliance they purchase, but I think our residents need to be made aware of where their funds are going, whether they like how the funds are being spent, or not.

Since I don't receive any public funds for work I am doing or have done, my personal answer at this time is zero dollars and zero cents. I am also not eligible for Social Security and Medicare.

If our taxes go to pay contracts, fees, other taxes, pay, benefits, and any other costs that should be made public, make them public, but without the names of personnel.

I'm still processing and pondering the 'One Hour Rule' established by our City Council, several years ago. I will take and need more time to address my thoughts on that whole fiasco and why changes of some types must be made, ASAP.