Sierra Club Endorsement Questionnaire

1. The Mayor's Role

a) Both before and after charter reform, I see the ultimate role of the Mayor as sparking the imagination of the citizens of Los Angeles. Appointments to key agencies can either reflect a behind the scenes, bureaucracy knows best attitude, or they can put in power truly creative and publicly accountable people. I will actively seek out the latter and empower them to make bold decisions based on their expertise and ability.

The current administration is totally removed from its constituency, even shutting the city council out of some important decision making processes and barring them from meetings. My candidacy seeks to throw the doors of City Hall wide open, to allow citizens unprecedented access to the decision making process.

As we usher more citizens in, we usher out the undo influence of campaign contributors and lobbyists. Returning the government to the people, and doing the greatest good for the greatest number will be the hallmarks of my administration.

We will accomplish this primarily through the use of the Internet. I am webcasting my entire campaign at www.WatchTheMayor.com, so the people can see who I speak with, who gives me money, what causes I support, etc. I also webcast discussions with the real people of Los Angeles, and ask them how they would improve the city. Instead of so called experts or bureaucrats, I speak with bus drivers, teachers, students, beat cops, homeless citizens, non-profit workers. I ask them what works in their unique corner of our city, and how we may be able to translate some of that success citywide. Once in office, the camera would continue to follow me, insuring the utmost accountability. My constituency will be able to see exactly how my time and their money is being spent.

As we increase citizen involvement, and decrease special interest and lobbyist influence, the environment will be a huge beneficiary. Neighborhood groups will be on a level playing field with big industry. Polluting factories will give way to urban gardens. Proposed tilt up warehouses will be replaced by sensible, mixed use, community-enhancing developments. We will recentralize parts of our city, encouraging citizen participation and enjoyment at all levels. Neighborhoods will decide how to protect their unique environments. Decisions will no longer be thrust upon them by bureaucracies or industries with wasteful plans and big money. As Angelenos regain control over their surrounding environment, I feel certain that they will choose to keep it as green as possible.

2. Tax/Fiscal Policy

a) As we shift to a new mindset, where real people actually take part in the decision making process, we must then empower them to actually improve their neighborhoods. This local involvement is the most effective way to focus investment on existing cities, rather than sprawl. All open space within the city must be protected, both through turning it into community parks and activity centers, and by adding tax and license incentives to redevelop areas of urban blight.

b) Ending the "fiscalization of land use" is a natural component of long term planning. Land use decisions based on sales-tax revenue generation are endemic in a shortsighted system, which puts short-term financial gain above sound use. Truly sustainable development not only makes more sense, but in the long term-20, 50, or even 100 years, it is not only more financially beneficial, it is the only option that is tenable. The savings involved in truly sustainable systems are incalculable. Mixed use, sustainable developments, as they encourage shorter trips, more green space, less pollution, and a greater quality of life, save in terms of productivity, health costs, energy and property values, to name just the financial benefits. 'The quality of life improvements are innumerable.

A city wide Sustainable City Plan, based on Whole Systems design, gets us to this goal. Land use decisions must adhere to such a plan, which would stress mixed-use developments, with ample green space. Building materials should be recycled where possible, double plumbing encouraged, solar panels installed to feed the electric grid, and developments based on a walking, rather than a driving, scale.

3. Transportation

a) I will vigorously enforce the three main tenets of the Bus Riders Union consent decree. The MTA must replace substandard buses, add more buses to existing routes, and add more routes.

b) I heartily support maintaining the MTA's alternative fuels only policy. Current diesel buses must be phased out as quickly as possible. I would expand the alternative fuels only policy citywide.

c) I support building light rail, but only as part of a twenty-year comprehensive regional plan. We must not rush into a specific East L.A. or Exposition corridor rail expansion just because the money seems to be there at present. Hasty rail construction landed us in the subway fiasco, and led to the decline in bus service needed to pay for rail construction and operation.

d) Prospective appointees for the MTA board must be committed to establishing Los Angeles as the Green Transportation capitol of America. No appointee shall have connections to the contracting industry or an interest in a potential future transit district. For the duration of the consent decree, I shall consider a Bus Riders Union member for a position, and will strive to appoint at least two Board members who actually use MTA services for at least half of their travel needs.

e) Los Angeles must encourage the research, development, and production of alternative modes of transportation. Through license and tax incentives, I will make Los Angeles the home of Green Industry, and Green Transportation in particular. Seeing our widespread geography as a catalyst rather than an obstacle, we must seek a mixed-use solution that reflects the needs and realities of a highly mobile populace. This involves seamless cooperation between bus, mini bus, smart bus, light rail, subway, heavy rail, bicycle, smart freeways and other modes of transportation that will be developed and manufactured locally. As traffic slows and gasoline prices soar, the goal of the system must be to make it easier to use and more affordable than a driving a car solo. This shall be developed as a twenty-year plan, without the usual preference for projects that benefit campaign-contributing contractors.

4. Issues and Subsidies:

a) The Ballona Wetlands, as well as all other wetlands in the city limits, must be saved or restored to the best of our ability. The Playa Vista developers should be encouraged through incentives to rehabilitate a current brownfield site, or some other already developed site. The little remaining open space of Los Angeles must be preserved.

If the Playa Vista development cannot swayed by public opinion or legally blocked, then as much of the wetlands as possible need to be spared and maintained at the developer's expense.

b) Although seemingly justified by its increased air traffic, I don't believe that LAX should expand geographically at its present location. The increased auto and air traffic will be an environmental disaster. Other regional options for the overflow should be considered.

c) The proposed warehouse development of the Cornfields is an example of typical Los Angeles insider politics at its worst. What could potentially become a wonderful mixed use development on the banks of the Los Angeles River, including green space, a school, moderate income housing, and some retail, serving both citywide and local interests of an overcrowded Chinatown, will instead be an eyesore of a project to make money for a handful of political insiders. Some of that very money is being used as contributions in this mayoral campaign. The people of Chinatown and of this city deserve better. In my administration, they would have a voice against such an intrusive development.

d) It seems natural that public subsidies should benefit the public, but as yet another example of our disconnected government, they rarely do. In fact they often benefit developers and contractors at the expense of the public welfare. With my webcast campaign, all negotiations for public subsidies would be totally transparent. Also, since I am not taking any big donations during my campaign, I will not owe any favors to potential subsidy recipients. With the eyes of the citizens focused on new developments as never before, respect for the environment, and for the public benefit to be gained from each project will be paramount. Corruption will be rooted out by the keen focus of those same public eyes.

e) I agree that Los Angeles is seriously "under-parked." In comparison to other major cities, our percentage of public open space per citizen is woefully low. To begin to address this problem, we must save the space we have, re-green space as it becomes available, and explore mixed uses on existing sites.

The Los Angeles River State Park is a good start. We must carefully watch where the money goes, to ensure that we get a park of commensurate value to the $100 million that will be spent there. The Chinatown Yards and Taylor Yards are excellent sites to begin that park's expansion.

There is a direct correlation between the average income of a neighborhood and it's available open apace. Our low income areas have the fewest parks. Turning existing brownfields into green fields is a start toward solving this problem. Other public sites can also be reconfigured. Schools can take out asphalt and replace it with community gardens that can be shared by students and the surrounding neighborhood. All city owned properties should be open and re-greened as much as possible. With creative managers working under a new Sustainable City Plan, Los Angeles will be a greener city with more parks, playgrounds, gardens, and growers' markets springing up through energetic community involvement.

5. Pollution

a) The control of nonpoint source water pollution requires a two pronged attack. First, we must reduce the pollution at its many sources. The use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers must be discouraged, and eventually eliminated. Dumping into storm sewers must be curtailed. Illegal dumps, especially near water sources, must be identified, closed, and cleaned. These methods begin to clean some of the sources.

The second prong must attack the pollution at various points along its journey into our water system. Biofiltration projects must be set up at outlets of our storm drains, and at inlets to the Los Angeles River, as well as adjacent to our reservoirs. The use of biofiltration allows us to restore some of our precious wetlands, as we retain more water, encourage plant growth to improve air quality, and clean our water without adding even greater amounts of chemicals.

b) Our car driven culture is still at the root of our air pollution problems. As outlined in the transportation question above, Los Angeles must become the green transportation capitol. We must encourage green industries to establish headquarters and plants here. We must build a world class mass transportation system that is affordable and flexible. We must remove diesel engines from our roads as quickly as possible.

Simultaneously, we must expand our urban forest, and provide for as much oxygen producing plant life as possible. This is another benefit of biofiltration. Those sites may be used to harvest landscaping materials.

6. Other

a) My campaign emphasizes the webcast, first and foremost. I firmly believe that as I open up our governing process, the balance of power will tip, for the first time, in the public's favor. The people who must live with the effects of our current wasteful policies will be back in the decision making seats where they belong.

As we continue to ask the real people of Los Angeles to put forth their own experiences, triumphs, failures, and solutions through WatchTehMayor.com, we seek to especially improve five areas of our public life: Environment, Education, Housing/Homelessness, Police Protection/Reform, Transportation.

Although not a native, my connection to California and its environment is strong and deep. I manage Dawson's Book Shop, the oldest book shop in Los Angeles, and a longtime specialist in California History and mountaineering. It's founder, Ernest Dawson, was an original member of the Sierra Club, and named his son after John Muir. From my twelve years at the shop, two generations of the Dawson family, and the many historians and history makers for whom we have hosted salons, lectures and signings, I have learned in great detail just how California, and especially Los Angeles, landed in its current condition. I have a unique opportunity to use that foundation to chart the course out of our current problems, into a new course that begins to recall the majestic landscape that John Muir captured in his words and fought to preserve in his deeds.

b) Water will always be the most precious resource in this city. In a most difficult equation, the more the city grows, the less water we are allotted from sources such as the Owens Valley and the Colorado River. We must use all of the water to which we have access as wisely as possible. More Los Angeles River water must be held up stream. Biofiltration must be instituted to make more water potable, and some water of sufficient quality for irrigation. Double plumbing test projects should be implemented, along with other possible gray water uses. Zoning must be adjusted to allow for retention of rainwater. More native plant uses must be encouraged, while large lawns are discouraged.

A second conservation issue involves our use of energy. Electricity deregulation, coupled with an ever-expanding array of electrical uses, is straining our supply. Solar power must be encouraged, as we vastly expand the DWP's current program of using homeowners' roofs to supplement power to the grid. Again, even as prices soar, we are encouraged to use more electric and electronic gadgets, just to keep up with an ever increasing pace of life. A Sustainable City Plan would provide for buildings that need less artificial heating, cooling, and light. Such a plan would also reduce distances between work, play, school, shopping, and home, further encouraging energy conservation.

Maintaining what little open space that remains in the city of Los Angeles is the third of our most important conservation issues. Any new development must bring forth overwhelming evidence that the city would not be better served by the same development relocating and rehabilitating some other already built out area of town.

The Sustainable City Plan, if adhered to properly, would serve as a guide to keep these conservation issues both in the public view, and at the forefront of the city planning process. With the webcast in place to make sure that I adhere to the Plan, the citizens of this city will finally have the power to keep their city as clean and beautiful as it deserves to be.