Related Cos. causing problems in L.A., too
If you’ve been following voiceofsandiego.org‘s excellent reporting on CCDC’s controversial (now on hold and might not happen) 7th and Market project, then you’re familiar with Related Companies. Seems the developer’s causing some problems in L.A., too, as reported by the L.A. Weekly. Related Cos is behind a project called Luxe Grand Avenue, a $3.1 billion mixed-use development to be built on city-owned land with the help of a $158 million subsidy. Not only have there been a lot of delays, but the money doesn’t seem to be going to the right things:
In a bizarre recent move, $30 million from a housing fund created by California voters to help house the poor and battered women was diverted to help cover the price of the 16-acre “Civic Park” that’s recently emerged as little more than a square with a few trees and is clearly designed for commercial uses.
“In a bizarre recent move, $30 million from a housing fund created by California voters to help house the poor and battered women was diverted to help cover the price of the 16-acre “Civic Park” that’s recently emerged as little more than a square with a few trees and is clearly designed for commercial uses.”
WHOA. “Bizarre” is a rather kind sugar coating of the better decribed “theft from the downtrodden to enrich pigs”. It’s not surprising, when our “democratic republic” is such a self serving mess. We tolerate enormous amounts of graft and corruption in all levels of government, and only seem able to condemn and convict those who weren’t real pros at it. (see Duke Cunningham, he was Ops officer in VF-154 when I was in VF-21 on the same ship. The most stand up officer I ever met)
Every ballot measure we vote on is obscured with layers of ways for the insiders to rape and pillage, and I’m sure that park’s exploitation of that fund, as criminal as it seems to myself and everyone with a conscience, was all by the book.