"Invasiaon of the Granny Flats; Los Angeles weighs a plan to allow back yard dwellings and car parking on lawns." http://www.laweekly.com/2009-12-10/news/invasion-of-the-granny-flat - By Steven Leigh Morris, "L.A. Weekly," published on December 09, 2009 at 12:30pm, This is another of the examples of why the "L.A. Weekly" is the place to see the real picture of what's going on at City Hall, things that are not presented as they actually are when it comes to truthfulness of the Mayor and the City Council.
The other source for shedding light on dark conditions is the "Ron Kaye L.A." blog, where Ron Kaye wrote about this particular topic even earlier. In November, his item on the blog covered the situation with an article called, "Coming Soon to Your Neighborhood: Granny Flats, Converted Garages, Houses Turned into Tenements," By Ron Kaye on November 16, 2009 1:44 PM. http://ronkayela.com/2009/11/coming-soon-to-your-neighborho.html
The impact of the public's response to the City's direction towards "densification" of an already densely populated city was to stop this effort. In a posting on Ron Kaye's blog on Saturday, it was recognition of another step taken by the people against an arrogant "City Hall" plan that would reduce the quality of life in many parts of the city.
"The Granny Flat Gambit: Vigilance and the Struggle for Self-Governance," by Ron Kaye on December 19, 2009- 12:03 PM, http://ronkayela.com/2009/12/the-granny-flat-gambit.html . The message was very simple and direct, shown in an excerpt from that column:
Yet, there is not a complete victory as some people view it here since the state law may hasten some of the same undesired outcomes without a city law in Los Angeles to define controls that are separate and more restrictive than the State law, as some other cities have done. The Los Angeles city trend, different from the public's view, was to relax the rules to allow more housing units to be permitted, going along with the general direction of over-development that aggravates an already inadequate infrastructure, i.e., breaking water mains, traffic gridlock, heavy burdens on service from the LAPD and the LAFD, and on and on with more like these examples. So, the danger remains in this area. Unless there is a city ordinance enacted, according to the interpretation of State law by some people, that State law would provide for such additional housing to be built anyway, all to the detriment of the local public."On Friday, the City Planning Department announced in an email to angry mob of homeowners that plans were being abandoned to legalize Accessory Dwelling Unites (ADUs) -- granny flats in backyards, converted garages and houses turned into
tenements -- in every residential neighborhood except those occupied by the
hillside-dwelling rich and the open spaces of the equestrian crowd."
All that remains to be seen, but for now, it is a result that was generated by the actions of an involved public. That vigilance will continue on this front and on others to bring to city leaders the novel concept of a government that is supposed to represent the constituents, not dictate to them. Trusting the politicians to do the right thing for us is no longer a safe path to follow and probably never was. The conditions now call for more scrutiny of elected and appointed officials and their decisions if life in the city and state is to improve. We already see how well life is for the politicians with salaries and benefits in excess of any logical need, serving often to make them feel endowed with qualities of royalty. History tells us that control by royalty was what the country was trying to escape when it declared its independence a few centuries back.
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