If you’ve been following the story of the Venice Beach BID at all you will know that the first hearing that the City held on this matter was shown to be invalid via some sharp lawyering by superhero public interest attorney Shayla Myers and that subsequently the City had to call a complete do-over of the process. Well, the time for the do-over hearing is rapidly approaching. It will be held at City Hall on Tuesday, November 8, at 10 a.m. If you can fit it in I hope you can show up and voice your opposition.
And your opposition is being heard by the City. For instance, City Clerk Holly Wolcott was recently quoted in the Argonaut to the effect that
… the drama surrounding the Venice Beach BID is unprecedented. “Since I’ve been in office, we’ve never seen the level of turnout we had for the BID nor had a BID ordinance repealed for these reasons,” she said.
Whether or not we’re ultimately successful in preventing this BID1 is less important than to show the City that they can no longer expect that their BID-building shenanigans will unfold unopposed in the quiet of their formerly smoke-filled back rooms. It’s important to show them that what Wolcott thinks is an anomaly may well be the new normal.
Finally, as they have been doing all along, the fine folks at Venice Community Housing are leaders in the anti-BID movement, and they’ve produced and/or distributed some useful information, to which you can find links after the break.
- Editable letter to Mike Bonin opposing the BID — it’s not too late to personalize this and send it to Mike Bonin.
- Printable anti-BID flyers — Print and distribute to friends, neighbors, homies, and landsmen. Or, you know, join the 20th century and email it to them or do whatever it is people do with the Facebook.
- A powerful letter from the Okulicks to their fellow property owners asking them to vote no on the BID — this is last, but emphatically not least; yay Marlene and John!
- I am really not cynical in general, but studying local L.A. politics has at least made me sympathetic to the cynics’ point of view. Thus I’m expecting that the BID will be approved, so I also recommend thinking about what to do afterwards.
