LA Trying To Shift Sidewalk Repair Bill To Home & Business Owners
I’m not sure why the title of the KTLA article is Woodland Hills focused, because the proposed changes are not.
WOODLAND HILLS — The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday is considering a plan to pass on all the costs for Woodland Hills sidewalk repair to homeowners.
And according to some Woodland Hills residents, that would not only cost them as much as $5,000 but shift liability to homeowners for trip-and-fall incidents on sidewalks, likely raising homeowner insurance premiums.
Traditionally, the city would pick up the tab for repairing the walkway because the offending trees were planted by the city on a public easement.
Given the tough budget times, the City Council will consider repealing a 1974 ordinance that required the city to pay for sidewalk repairs caused by root damage from trees the city planted on its easements.
City Council Budget Chairman Bernard Parks is spearheading the new plan.
He says the city should not have been footing the bill these past few years.
Parks said the city had accepted responsibility for the repairs to curbs, driveways and sidewalks if the damage was caused by tree roots because its costs were reimbursed by the federal government. “When that money dried up, the city never changed its policy of being responsible,” Parks said. “In the last seven years, the city has spent over $100 million to repair over 500 miles of sidewalk and not made a dent in the sidewalk issue.”
Neighborhood councils and local realtors will fight the plan.
They say the transfer of responsibility for sidewalk repairs to homeowners would be unfair and could harm any real estate upswing.
Parks said the city annually pays out between $4 million and $6 million in damages for injuries caused by uneven sidewalks.
The councilman also says the cost of repairing the estimated 4,600 miles of city sidewalk could cost Los Angeles $1.2 billion – almost twice the budget deficit.
Popularity: 2%
Councilman Dennis Zine Wants You To Know LADWP Rate Increase Not His Fault
Los Angeles Councilman Dennis Zine (Council District 3) wants us to know that even though we are all about to get screwed with higher LADWP electricity rates, it’s not his fault.
He writes in an e-mail:
Zine Opposes DWP Rate Increase
Due to the high volume of calls and emails I have received regarding the proposed DWP Energy Cost Adjustment Factor (ECAF), I wanted to make my position very clear to my constituents. Today the City Council voted to direct the DWP Board of Commissioners to adopt a one-time .5 cent/kWh increase in the ECAF Cap beginning April 1st. This would translate to approximately a 4-6% increase in ratepayers’ bills. I voted “No” on this increase and I am staunchly opposed to any action that would place a greater burden on taxpayers and businesses during these trying economic times. To be very clear, I support the environmental efforts to green our City and to bring more jobs in this sector to Los Angeles; however, this proposal does nothing to reduce the City’s dependence on coal, nor could the DWP answer my questions today regarding bringing clean projects and jobs to the City. The DWP currently has numerous jobs and contracts outside our City and State which makes it even more difficult to defend the benefits of this proposal when it will not boost the local economy. I will remain steadfast against any increases presented by the DWP Board in these times of economic uncertainty.
Popularity: 4%
Exploring The Old & The New – LAFD Fire Station 84 In Woodland Hills
This article is really just an excuse to document the world around us here in Woodland Hills. Up until September of 2007, Woodland Hills was served by a very small and heavily outdated Fire Station on Canoga Avenue just south of Ventura Blvd, the remains of which are pictured above. LA DPW Engineering site information about the old Fire Station 84 at 5340 Canoga Avenue:
History
Fire Station 84 is located at 5340 Canoga Ave. The Station was constructed in 1949 and is approximately 3,230 square feet. It currently houses a Engine Company staffed by 4 firefighters, and a Paramedic Rescue staffed by 2 Paramedics. Fire Station 84’s district (eight square miles) is known for having large areas of heavy brush in close proximity to expensive homes. Warner Center high-rise buildings are also in Fire Station 84’s district. When the station was built, the area was primarily a farming community.Reason for Project
The fire station was built to house 4 firefighters and is beyond its capacity. A separate garage houses the Engine and the Rescue Ambulance parks outside on the front apron The facility can not house the resources needed to meet present and expected growth of the community. The current site is too small to accommodate expansion to a Regional Fire/Paramedic Station.Evaluation Of Current Facility
Areas of deficiencies that were noted by Bureau of Engineering survey determined problems with: space, seismic, heating and air conditioning, electrical, plumbing, building code, American Disabilities Act (ADA), fire protection systems, and lack of adequate separate gender facilities.
Additional LAFD blog info about the old facility:
Built in 1949 on Canoga Avenue just south of Ventura Boulevard, the 3,230 square-foot former fire station was truly a fire ‘house’ with an adjacent apparatus building (barn) meant to serve a then largely agricultural community surrounded by rolling hills.
The former Fire Station was designed to house no more than four male firefighters and one limited-role (now antique) fire apparatus. The addition of Firefighter/Paramedics and mixed gender crews in recent years brought the challenge of housing at least 6 men and women per shift in cramped quarters and the need to park the Paramedic Ambulance outdoors.
LAFD blogged about the new facility:
Because the property beneath old Fire Station 84 was too small to support a new or revamped facility, Proposition F of November 2000 now provides an efficient and appealing long-term asset for the community.
Groundbreaking for the new station on Burbank Boulevard took place on September 9, 2004. The $16.1 million facility was first opened for public service on September 18, 2007.
Situated on approximately two acres of land, new Fire Station 84 consists of a 15,250 square foot Station House, a 6,000 square foot Apparatus Storage Facility and a 2,500 square foot Multipurpose Room. The new station was expressly designed to support Department and community needs for decades to come, and is expected to serve as an operational base for the LAFD’s popular Support Service Volunteer Program.
The energy efficient seven-bay facility features an important “drive through” feature that prevents the need to block traffic on Burbank Boulevard when rehousing vehicles.
The ability of Fire Station 84 personnel to host community functions and training events in the new station’s community room will allow Neighborhood Firefighters an even closer and more productive relationship with those they proudly serve.
The new facility was designed by Killefer Flammang Architects, as was a very similar facility in Northridge (Fire Station 87). They have great images of the facility on their website.
It’s almost amazing that with the development of Warner Center in the 80s and 90s that the old Fire Station 84 lasted as long as it did! Man, that place is indeed a relic.
Popularity: 9%
Parking Ticket Victory Is Mine!
A few weeks ago I was visiting a local shop and accidentally allowed my meter to expire. Thankfully, there was one problem with the meter – it was in a 2 hour zone but only allowed you to deposit 1 hour worth of coins, after which it would eat your money. Seems like at any given time 40 to 50 percent of the parking meters in Woodland Hills are malfunctioning one way or another.
I brought this to the attention of Los Angeles Parking Enforcement in my request for an administrative review. Surprisingly, they sided with me and suspended the ticket. Yay!
Mr. Girard - 1, LA Parking Enforcement - 0
Popularity: 1%
Speaking of Crappy Infrastructure, Trivial Storm Causes 22,000 to Be Without Powers According to LADWP
According to LAist.com:
Thousands across Los Angeles are without power today, according to the L.A. Department of Water and Power. Some 20,000 customers in the greater South Los Angeles area are affected. In portions of Studio City and North Hollywood, about 1,100 customers are without power. Outages have always been reported in East Los Angeles, Mid City, and Woodland Hills. The department has increased the amount of crews working on power restoration.
Kind of unbelievable, but okay. Feel free to comment (once your power is back on) if this affected you.
PS: Did you know you can follow the LADWP (@LADWP) on Twitter? I see no mention of this issue though, as it doesn’t look like they tweet much.
Popularity: 1%
A Concerned Reader Writes in About Nahai and LADWP Pipe Breaks
A concerned reader writes in:
Hi,
Has anybody heard of the situation at LADWP . I heard from a friend but has not confirm from news source but it says: LADWP chief Nahai resign as of September and hired a new person in charge. The new person in charge is a friend or aquaintance of Nahai. Nahai is then rehired as a consultant for 3 months but with pay equivalent to a year of his previous salary. Why do you want Nahai as a consultant when he resigned for his incompetence at handling the waterpipe situation. Also, LADWP has a monopoly in water. They can charge us whatever they want. So you can see if this is true then where our increase in fee for water and electricity is going. It is not used for fixing the aging pipes but it is wasted (like the water flowing out of burst pipes and sink holes). Typical bureaucratic bullshit!
I think most of the local pipe breaks happened before the amazing Girard was on the watch, but I think this might be a case of not noticing a problem until it’s right in your face.
While the overall pipe failure rate isn’t unusual, water officials say the number of so-called “major blowouts” in which pavement is ruptured has increased.
Water system head Jim McDaniel says there were 13 in the first 14 days of the month compared to 21 for all of last September.
Obviously, Nahai quit his post and had the city by the balls, because they had to keep paying him his $6,300 a week salary as a consultant just to avoid a total meltdown at the LADWP. But to me, it’s obvious that the infrastructure is aging and that the end of the day there is not enough money for maintenance, and all the resources go toward fixing the emergencies. This is so common with all of the infrastructure in this country.
Compounding that is that, as we all know, the SF Valley receives a disproportionate low amount of services compared to our LA brethren over the hill. I mean, don’t you ever notice that they have weekly street cleaning? They must figure that in the Valley we love dirty streets. Too bad we couldn’t push through our secession a few years back. I mean, Canoga Park still had some dirt roads until recently! Hell, they may even still have them.
Before secession could come out for a vote, the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) studied the fiscal viability of the new city and decided that the new city must mitigate any fiscal loss incurred by the rest of Los Angeles. LAFCO concluded that a new San Fernando Valley city would be financially viable, but would need to mitigate the $60.8 million that Los Angeles would lose in revenues. Secessionists took this figure as evidence that the Valley gave more money to Los Angeles than it received back in services
If anyone has relevant comments please post them on this article and I’ll do some digging and find relevant info to post.
Popularity: 1%
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